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Could Have Been the Worst Day Ever!
Wake up smiling after a long night of 4th of July celebrations. Rolled outta bed and took a nice long warm shower. Kicked the girlfriend out, fed my animals, and ate breakfast watching my animals eat. No work today. What a perfect day so far.
Ace, my big ambilobe boy, was begging to be let out of his cage as usual. He crawls onto my hand and we make our way downstairs and outside to the backyard to his favorite free-range tree. He eagerly climbs onto his tree and I go back inside to quickly change into my swimming trunks. I get a phone call from the boss and listen to his nonsense for a few minutes before hanging up.
I run downstairs and outside to check on Ace. HE'S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!
I tell myself not to panic and search the entire backyard in-by-inch. I looked up and down all of the tree trunks in my backyard, around the toolshed, in all of the shrubbery and random backyard furniture.... NOTHING. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled around the majority of the backyard trying to think like a chameleon. NOTHING. My neighbors two young kids probably thought I was insane or something I looked like such a maniac crawling around my entire backyard like a lizard. I definitely heard them giggle as I crawled by.
After an hour or so of searching I went back inside the house in panic mode. I thought I was going to lose my first chameleon and it was all my fault. I remember my friend questioning me on trusting my cham to not run away when I leave it outside on the free-range. He told me I was too trusting of my cham and that he is an animal and will run away when given the opportunity. I remember laughing it off and telling him I had everything under control. I felt like such a fool.
I nearly gave up all hope. I went back outside and searched again for another half hour. NOTHING. I thought he was a goner. I thought I was never going to see him again. I logged online to the cham forums searching for ways to find missing chams. I couldn't find anything and ended up looking at pictures of Ace from when he was a baby. I remember feeling very sad. I told myself one last time I wasn't going to give up my search. He couldn't have made it that far.
I looked around the garden and shrubbery one last time. NOTHING. Checked the fences and entire front yard. NOTHING. I never felt so angry at myself in my entire life. I sat down on the sun lounger angrily and looked up at the tree to my left. My eyes scanned the tree trunk from bottom to top.
I saw red and green, and my heart nearly stopped. The little monster had climbed pretty high up there.
I ran to the toolshed and pulled out the ladder. I quickly laid the ladder out onto the tree and started climbing up. I regret not having making sure the ladder was steady because it was wobbling the entire time I was on it. I remember looking down when I got to the top and almost crapping my pants. One wrong move and this ladder would go crashing down and I kept having images of my neck being broken flash through my head. I looked up and I could see Ace peering down at me with that smug little smile.
I reached out and told him to crawl onto my hand like he would understand me and listen to me somehow. I put my hand out to him... he grabs one finger AND STARTS TO CLIMB UP THE TREE USING IT AS LEVERAGE! I remember flipping out and yelling at him. "YOU LITTLE **** GET BACK DOWN HERE! STOP CLIMBING UP GOD ******! Looking back on it now I probably looked so stupid yelling at a lizard while about to fall off a ladder. I decided to take the initiative and snapped the branch he was climbing up. Good thing he has a strong grip or he could have easily been flung off the branch after I snapped it.
Climbing down the ladder was twice as scary as climbing up it. The trees in my backyard are very old and are over 50 feet tall. If he had kept climbing, I don't know if I could have spotted him or gotten him down by myself.
I kissed Ace on the head and put him back in his cage inside and thanked my lucky stars. I could have paid the price for my stupidity and carelessness today but I did not.
Never let your guard down with your pets boys and girls... it's always better to be safe than sorry. I sure as hell learned my lesson today and hope no one here has to go through what I did.
View from top of the ladder. Ace had gotten to near the top of this pic, I had to stand on the last step of the ladder with my arm stretched upwards to barely grab the branch he was on.
Here is farther shot. To the left is my neighbor's regulation basketball hoop to see the approximate height.
The branch he was on that I snapped off. Definitely keeping this as a reminder. Not making the same mistake twice!
Sorry to bore you guys with the long story lol. I really love my cham a lot.
Wake up smiling after a long night of 4th of July celebrations. Rolled outta bed and took a nice long warm shower. Kicked the girlfriend out, fed my animals, and ate breakfast watching my animals eat. No work today. What a perfect day so far.
Ace, my big ambilobe boy, was begging to be let out of his cage as usual. He crawls onto my hand and we make our way downstairs and outside to the backyard to his favorite free-range tree. He eagerly climbs onto his tree and I go back inside to quickly change into my swimming trunks. I get a phone call from the boss and listen to his nonsense for a few minutes before hanging up.
I run downstairs and outside to check on Ace. HE'S NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!
I tell myself not to panic and search the entire backyard in-by-inch. I looked up and down all of the tree trunks in my backyard, around the toolshed, in all of the shrubbery and random backyard furniture.... NOTHING. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled around the majority of the backyard trying to think like a chameleon. NOTHING. My neighbors two young kids probably thought I was insane or something I looked like such a maniac crawling around my entire backyard like a lizard. I definitely heard them giggle as I crawled by.
After an hour or so of searching I went back inside the house in panic mode. I thought I was going to lose my first chameleon and it was all my fault. I remember my friend questioning me on trusting my cham to not run away when I leave it outside on the free-range. He told me I was too trusting of my cham and that he is an animal and will run away when given the opportunity. I remember laughing it off and telling him I had everything under control. I felt like such a fool.
I nearly gave up all hope. I went back outside and searched again for another half hour. NOTHING. I thought he was a goner. I thought I was never going to see him again. I logged online to the cham forums searching for ways to find missing chams. I couldn't find anything and ended up looking at pictures of Ace from when he was a baby. I remember feeling very sad. I told myself one last time I wasn't going to give up my search. He couldn't have made it that far.
I looked around the garden and shrubbery one last time. NOTHING. Checked the fences and entire front yard. NOTHING. I never felt so angry at myself in my entire life. I sat down on the sun lounger angrily and looked up at the tree to my left. My eyes scanned the tree trunk from bottom to top.
I saw red and green, and my heart nearly stopped. The little monster had climbed pretty high up there.
I ran to the toolshed and pulled out the ladder. I quickly laid the ladder out onto the tree and started climbing up. I regret not having making sure the ladder was steady because it was wobbling the entire time I was on it. I remember looking down when I got to the top and almost crapping my pants. One wrong move and this ladder would go crashing down and I kept having images of my neck being broken flash through my head. I looked up and I could see Ace peering down at me with that smug little smile.
I reached out and told him to crawl onto my hand like he would understand me and listen to me somehow. I put my hand out to him... he grabs one finger AND STARTS TO CLIMB UP THE TREE USING IT AS LEVERAGE! I remember flipping out and yelling at him. "YOU LITTLE **** GET BACK DOWN HERE! STOP CLIMBING UP GOD ******! Looking back on it now I probably looked so stupid yelling at a lizard while about to fall off a ladder. I decided to take the initiative and snapped the branch he was climbing up. Good thing he has a strong grip or he could have easily been flung off the branch after I snapped it.
Climbing down the ladder was twice as scary as climbing up it. The trees in my backyard are very old and are over 50 feet tall. If he had kept climbing, I don't know if I could have spotted him or gotten him down by myself.
I kissed Ace on the head and put him back in his cage inside and thanked my lucky stars. I could have paid the price for my stupidity and carelessness today but I did not.
Never let your guard down with your pets boys and girls... it's always better to be safe than sorry. I sure as hell learned my lesson today and hope no one here has to go through what I did.
View from top of the ladder. Ace had gotten to near the top of this pic, I had to stand on the last step of the ladder with my arm stretched upwards to barely grab the branch he was on.
Here is farther shot. To the left is my neighbor's regulation basketball hoop to see the approximate height.
The branch he was on that I snapped off. Definitely keeping this as a reminder. Not making the same mistake twice!
Sorry to bore you guys with the long story lol. I really love my cham a lot.
