Rory

Let's put our webbed hands together and welcome Rory to the 5th grade neighborhood!  We won't know whether Rory is a she or a he gecko for six months, so we'll just refer to her/him as Rory.  This newest addition to our zoo (and I think we're safely finished with that) came as the result of a PetSmart grant I wrote.  The habitat specified in the grant had been recalled. so it took longer than anticipated to work out the details.  Rory is quite labor intensive--different lights for night and day, temperature and humidity-controlled environment, 4 crickets a day SPRINKLED with calcium powder--to say NOTHING of a detachable tail if Rory gets peeved!  Rory is only weeks old but should grow to about 10 inches AND can look forward to the addition of mealy worms to the diet soon.  Four crickets a day translates to about 44 cents a day, so you do the math!!!!!  Once spring hits we can probably scare up our own crickets, but until then we're taking donations and looking for shuttling volunteers.  We can even send the cricket hotel with you. We're also going to have to furnish Rory's habitat with some fake plants, rocks, and  branches or whatever for climbing/shading purposes.  Today we stuck a piece of dryer vent coil in that we'd had for our hedgehog Rosie, and we found Rory stretched out in its shade basking for all the world like a beach bum!!  Incidentally Rory edged out Cupid, Geico, Gary, Jibbly, Aaron, Captain Jack, and Sonic in the naming contest today.  I'm too much of a Gilmore Girls fan to object, but as gecko names go, Rory seems unique.  Hedgehog/gecko compatibility still remains a topic for research.  Stay tuned!  Don't touch that dial!