Photo byAlex Williams onUnsplash

I grew up on a farm in the countryside, so animals have always been a part of my life, but the most interesting pets I've ever had were iguanas. I was about 12 years old when we adopted an iguana named Alfred (his previous owner was moving and couldn’t take him). A while later, we adopted two more, Chester and Diablo, but Alfred was the friendliest and the one that I spent the most time with.

It was a lot of work learning how to take care of an iguana, especially in the cold Canadian winter. They need to be kept warm, which was a challenge when we had a big ice storm and lost power for several weeks. I had to keep Alfred inside my coat and sleep with him at night to keep him alive. 

I didn’t expect an iguana to be very friendly, and he certainly didn’t like our cat very much, but he was actually quite calm and enjoyed sitting on my shoulder (sometimes on my head) and watching me do my homework. He also liked to climb the curtains and hang there for a while. Sometimes we let him swim around in the bathtub, and after his bath, he always wanted to stare at himself in the mirror. 

Unfortunately, one summer Alfred managed to escape through a window. He was very warm and moving quickly, so we had no chance to catch him. He ran into our neighbour’s yard (and really scared them!), but we couldn’t find him after that. I hope he enjoyed the rest of his life in the wilderness and that he found a warm place to stay in the winter. 

I don’t think that I will ever have a pet lizard again, but at least I have good memories of my iguanas.