After a few weeks of feeding them meal-worms and watching them do just about nothing, the smartest smoking mustache I knew (a.k.a. dad, but as a child all I could associate with him were his moustache, glasses and his brand of cigarettes – Winstons so from here on out he will be referred to as the smartest smoking moustache I knew) told us that we could tie a shoe lace around their necks and walk them like dogs. Most likely he got this idea from something he had seen during Vietnam and way before there was anything called PETA.
Keith and I tried this with little success. If Mike or Ike tried to run they just hung themselves. There was no training taking place for these little creatures. I remember their little hearts beating rapidly from fear whenever we had them out of their tank. In hindsight it is pretty clear as to why this response occurred.
Here is a little info on this type of chameleon…
A Carolina anole will turn brown when cold or distressed. Keith’s was almost always brown and it was cold in our house for it was winter and our room was especially cold in the winter time. Having a shoe lace tied around one’s neck by an eight year old who is trying to train you to walk on command could cause a bit of stress in one’s life as well. The trouble is there were too many possibilities as to what caused Ike to pass away, but he did and no autopsy was ever performed.
