Saturday, July 13, 2013

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture

It is with a little sadness that I announce the passing of Nina, everybody's favorite brown anole.

Nina. 2009? - 2013. (Photo from 8 Dec 2010.)

I say "a little" sadness, as opposed to great sadness, or unbearable sadness, because it's not like I have a ton of happy memories of running through flower-filled meadows with her or anything. (Though we did have that one moment in the bathtub.) You only get so much affection from an anole, and I don't think she ever got comfortable with seeing me, so our emotional connection was always a little fraught.

Also it wasn't like I didn't see this coming, a long time ago. In the wild, allegedly, Anolis sagrei has a lifespan of about 1.5 years, and Nina was at least 4.3 years old when she died. I mean, her death is still a change and everything, but it's hard to see it as being particularly tragic if she was like 200 years old in anole years. Hopefully the time she spent here was better (if, perhaps, a bit less free) than she would have gotten had she stayed in Florida with Felipe. It was certainly better than it would have been had she stayed in the ex-job's greenhouse and been poisoned to death by pesticides, or if she'd escaped the greenhouse and then froze to death seven months later.

Probably not going to get a replacement. (See above re: you only get so much affection.) I mean, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with keeping another anole, but it wasn't like I had a burning desire to have one when I got Nina; she just kind of happened. So if the ex-job calls me up and asks me if I want another one, sure, but that's not something that's likely to happen.


10 comments:

Ginny Burton said...

I'll miss her. She was a lovely lizard.

Paul said...

Alas, will miss the old gal.

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

I'll miss hearing about her. She was cute.

Nic said...

Rest in peace. She was cute indeed.

Emily said...

Oh, no! Well, she lived a long and eventful life.

Lauren said...

I'm really sorry to hear that about Nina. :(

CelticRose said...

:( R.I.P. Nina.

Loona said...

Regardless of the not too tight bonding I'm sure Nina had a good life with you, having lived this long for an anole. I'll miss her - we'll miss her! :(

Diana said...

Sorry for your loss. I, too, had a pet who showed up on a load of plants from Florida (Mac, a Cuban Tree Frog). After his passing my thought was "oh, well, less work to do." I was surprised how much I missed him. Despite not interacting much (or moving much) he did have a distinct personality.

I will also miss hearing about (and seeing photos of) Nina. She had a good life for an anole.

Unknown said...

This is.. really sad, actually. I somehow missed this post and been looking through Saturday posts for the past year, wondering what the heck happened to Nina. ;_;