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March 21, 2016 

Officially, The WORST day of my life. My Leopard Gecko, SunnyDay, passed away. Let me tell you a story about him.

SunnyDay, when I first met him he was 6 years old. My ex boyfriend owned him, at the time, I was uneducated, I had to idea the extent of his abuse until later in my reptile experience. Sunny was my first, in case you didn't understand. Nicholas, my ex, Had him in a 10 gallon tank. Normal right? Ok no wrong. He was in DIRT, 3 inches of DIRT. No heat WHATSOEVER, A kitty water dish, filled to the brim with water, dead crickets and green algae. His tank also had bugs I've never seen before, Spiders and tons of Spider egg sacs. Leopard Geckos are insectivores, There was old, rotten potatoes, at least 20 live crickets, trying to eat SunnyDay Not to mention no calcium or vitamins. At the time, I had no idea what they needed. A few months after we broke up, his mom offered SunnyDay to me, She saw what I was going through in life, Self-Harm, Struggling with Self-Love, and literally deteriorating my own body. I asked my mother if I could have him (still not knowing what they needed), He came with all his "supplies". It took 30 minutes to convince her because I told her if I didn't take him he could get into the wrong hands because she was just going to give him away to someone else. That NIGHT , I did my research, Literally all of it, except diseases. That's when I understood the extent. When I got him home the next day, We had him still in the tank he came with. We wanted to get him situated first, let him settle to get used to his new environment. The day after I got him, We went to PetSmart (i know bad choice don't bitch) We got him a new 10g tank, Repti-Carpet, Calcium, Crickets and Superworms, 2 hides, heat lamps, heat bulbs, and a heat pad and his favorite thing, his fake plastic cactus. As soon as he got into his new tank, he started climbing on everything, Especially the cactus. He since then, had this "Signature Smile" that everyone calls it. He was always smiling, all the time, literally. Those first few weeks I had him, We hung out all the time. We listened to Pink Floyd, He begged to come out, so he could hang out in my hair, which I allowed. I hand fed him, I taught him tricks. He knew his name, he would come when called, he knew when I said "get off my face" that he had to get off my face, he knew how to stay, and "give love" which means to give a kiss or 'lick' on command. It was pretty neat. After that we were literally mom and son. We spent lots of time together, even when he got mad sometimes. through out that year, I stopped screwing up myself, his bond made me stronger, happier, livelier. We took lots of pictures, hung out outside during the summer when it was 85-90 degrees out, watched TV together. He had his own Facebook album dedicated to him. We upgraded his tank to an approximate 180 gallon tank. He had 3 hideaways, his cactus, his calcium, his proper heat, and now paper towels at the bottom. He lived in it 2 out of the 3 years I had him in it. Eventually he started to get sick, His one eye globe, the right side, ruptured and got infected, as soon as I noticed (the day it happened) We took him to the vet, $56.00 Later, he was on antibiotics, and he got better. We saved his eye, he could see out of it, it just wasn't the same size as his left. 3 months pass and I notice he isnt eating, because it was the middle of winter, I assumed he was in hibernation. He always looked to constantly be sleeping. I took him out to check on him and he now had his left eye ruptured. Took him straight to the vet, they told me he had an eye infection, an ear infection, and a hemipenes infection. The day I saw it I took him in. They said I caught it early and he would be alright. They gave him an antibiotic shot every 3 days. His health started to decline, On Sunday March 20, 2016 we were at the vet all day. They couldn't find out what was wrong with him, He now had a random wound on his left side on his neck next to his arm. We don't know how it got there, no clue, and It wouldn't heal no matter what, neither did his hemipenes or any of his infections. So, we took xrays, not impacted, obviously, he was on paper towels. Not MBD his bone density was amazing. SunnyDay went from 100 grams, to 95 grams, to 85 grams, to 65 grams. We decided to give it one last shot, 1 oral antibiotic, 1 oral calcium, and Reptaid. Because he was always dehydrated as well, they told me to give him 4-5 soaks a day. I did that. He also licked and water drops on my fingers, which was great. Monday, March 21, 2016 During one of his soaks, he SCREAMED really loud, like it sounded like a girl screaming murder, and threw up clear flem. I thought It was scary, I told my mom and she said to "let the antibiotics get through" "it's good that the flem is coming out" I thought Ya know, it would get better too. So , I gave him another soak 2 hours later, and he was alright. I put him back in his tank and I got him out just before bed, my dad, my boyfriend (Ben) and I are sitting there, on my bed. My dad was talking to my Boyfriend about something, I don't remember what, sports maybe. they watched me give his antibiotic, his calcium, and then one drip of water so he wouldn't dehydrate to much during the night. I held him and told him how much I loved him. He started to Squirm, not a normal squirm, like, a violent squirm. He screamed again, my Dad and Ben both looked at him. I'm holding him, I started to cry, because I just knew. I just knew this was it. I was holding him, he kept flipping around, having a seizure, I had to keep fliping over, because he kept going on his back. Lizards cannot breath when they're on there back, so I kept flipping him upright. My dad tried to calm me down. I was crying, screaming "NO" "NOOOOO" "BOY" and we tried to give him CPR, we gave his chest compressions, Blew into his mouth. SunnyDay was dead, He went into Rigor in my hand, I didn't want to let go. I was broken, crying. I just lost my best friend, my Son, my boy, my Sunny Day... These passed 2 months have been so rough for me, when he was sick I was very stressed on top of that I was working, trying to earn extra cash because all my cash went to vet bills, my 830.00 Dollar tax return went to supplies for him and his vet bills. I'm still currently broke, His cremation wiped me dry, 107.00 dollars. It's not about that though, It's about that I lost my best damn friend. SunnyDay went for cremation March 22, 2016. I got him back 2 days ago. His ashes now sit on a beautiful shelf, With flowers, and 2 white un-scented pillar candles next to him. All of his stuff (except for his tank) Are in a box with his name and a picture of him and I on it with hearts. I got a memorial tattoo of him on my left forearm. He will NEVER be forgotten, he is my baby. Those 3 years where the best years of my life, he really helped me. I tried to help him but I couldn't. It bothers me that he had 10 seizures in my hand. He deserved to die peacefully, after everything he went through life could at least given him that. Although, life did give him the loved he deserved, and the smile he wore up until his death, he died with a smile on his face, as if to say "thank you for everything." His message to me was "Just keep smiling." Sorry about this everyone, I just really needed to get this off my chest and explain  what has been happening in my life. I will post pictures of everything explained in this Journal to an album called "My SunnyDay". Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, it means a lot. 

Goodbye,
Tanian
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Kalakiii's avatar
this is beautiful