I try to make an annual pilgrimage to Magic Wings in South Deerfield. Because it’s not just butterflies. There are reptiles! There are gigantic roaches! There are crazy toxic colored frogs! And, there is PORKCHOP! Oh Porkchop… I asked a year or so ago if I could buy him or take him home.
“Oh, well, he’s getting old and mean,” they told me. He didn’t even poke his face out for me to press my face up against the glass of his aquarium and make kissy faces. Porkchop is a Columbian Tegu. I have realized that I dig reptiles. They are just so cool. And if you think they don’t “feel” you should have seen Petey.
The reptiles and things other than butterflies at Magic Wings, are cast offs. Somebody gets a Komodo Dragon and then balks. Poor Petey. He was left in a cage and suffered from neglect and solitude. He received no love or touch or socialization. When I met him he scurried right up to his stuffed teddy bear and clutched it. (I have to say, this broke my heart.)
I should have offered to take Petey home instead. Instead, on that visit I was all despairing of Porkchop not coming out to see me.
Reptiles are not hard and scaley, at least not the ones I’ve touched. Oh, Delilah… she was not a bearded dragon but some other kind of dragon. Something frilly. A fringed dragon? Is that a reptile?
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- Here is my favorite photo of the Jackson’s Chameleon. 2015
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- And here he is, my baby. PORKCHOP! 2015
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- The owner of Magic Wings holds Petey to help him feel loved. 2015
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- See? Poor Petey. I should have asked to adopt him. 2015
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- He was mesmerizing to watch. 2015
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- He was so expressive… I had to photograph him through aquarium glass… just watching him move made me want to get my own Jackson’s Chameleon.
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- A tiny painted frog. 2015
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- When I photographed this Jackson’s in 2013 I didn’t know what he was.
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- I can’t remember what this was, but that was certainly not my hand!
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- Icky Poo… a glass enclosure overflowing with Hissing Roaches.
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- A very heavy looking butterfly.
