Leezard is truly a wonderful little girl. She was living in a local "no kill" animal shelter that didn't know how to care for her properly and contacted me.
She's missing all the nails on one foot due to a person who worked at the shelter clipping them improperly, back to the skin. He has since been fired. She was living in the red eared sliders habitat and her food was turtle pellets, when I got her, she had no idea what the salad I was giving her was or what to do with it. After pulling her dewlap down and pushing little bits of fruit into her mouth, then demonstrating (yep, I took big bites of the salads, licked my lips and imitated a feeding iguana!) how to dig into her food, she got the hint! That process took 3 days but was well worth it. Leezard is now the first one to dig into her food in the mornings and normally, needs another plate in the afternoon!
She was very thin when I picked her up two weeks ago (its now Nov 7th), but is putting on weight nicely now.
Bath time was a bit traumatic for her, I'm not sure if she'd ever taken a bath before, but since all of ours get daily baths, this was something she had to get used to. This is also the time I do any nail trimmings that need to be done. Leezard held very still, her eyes dialating in fear as I trimmed her remaining claws. I felt horrible, not once did she threaten me or open her mouth, she just held still, accepting her fate and the pain that may come with it. By the time we were done I was in tears and could only hug her and kiss her sweet little face, hoping that she would come to trust me and get past her horrible experience of her last toenail trimming.
She will take food from my hands now, always so careful not to get my fingers and she even climbs down from her "perch" to seek out attention and affection. This is truly a wonderful little girl and I'm so glad to have her here!
