Monday, April 02, 2007




Shorts & Sweets

Having a cool neighbor with a load of reptiles and other bizarre critters is intriguing.
Having that neighbor, David Brummel, living right next door is even better; he can entertain us for hours just a skip and skitter away.
The latest entertainment for the kids: Jah, a four foot long, one-year-old crocodile monitor lizard who can grow up to ten feet long!
As cute as this guy (the lizard I mean) can be, David doesn’t recommend children get these dudes for pets because of their long claws, sharp teeth and their aggressiveness! Plus, they get large…really large. About 2/3 of their length is tail.

"I've wanted one of these for more than half my life," my neighbor told me, "but it takes such a big commitment and its such a big responsibility, it was a big decision to get one."
(Don’t forget that, David. He better not escape. We live right next door.)
Since he was a child, David has collected and cared for an abundance of critters, especially reptiles. Not counting his two black Labradors, he also has ten other reptiles, including a sail fin dragon, green basilisks and day geckos. He even owns a tarantula.
How does that grab you? Hopefully, the monitor lizard doesn’t. Actually, they are relatively safe as long as you get them as youngsters, keep their claws clipped and tame them.
“The key is to get them when they are babies so you can train them,” David explained as Jah scrambled across his head and then dropped down to the ground where he roamed about on his leather leash. “I only recommend that advanced hobbyists get these. If you don’t know what you are doing, they can be dangerous.
“They have long teeth (sharp) enough to cause nerve damage.”
The largest such monitor to exist is owned privately and is 11 feet one inches long, David told me. But the top weight he's ever heard of is 60 pounds. On that leap, I say: OK, neighbor, keep that sucker indoors – will ya!

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