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This is pretty much a log of all the rescue efforts that I've done (to which I have pictures and records for).
Miss Sheena - Giant Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
Age: currently approx. 9-10 yrs old
Miss Sheena was surrendered to an exotic store back in TX. The story on her: the roomate who owned Sheena left
and didn't return. Sheena was now dumped on the roomate that stayed and although she took her to several vets to see
if she could be helped with her deformaties, she was told that the MBD that she suffered apparently at a young age was never
taken care of and that's why she would be forever deformed (we later found out that although she had MBD, her deformed hips
and tail are from Scoliosis which is genetic).
I arrived at the store for one of many trips I made there, the day after she arrived. She was completely brown
in color from stress, her nose was rubbed raw from rubbing constantly on the tiny cage she was brought in (a 2ft x 2ft x 18"
model) and obviously in need of help. I took her out and found what a sweetheart she was...she even followed people
around the store. :) I took her home and began helping her regain her health. It took 2 weeks to get her
to eat at all, and it took over 4 months to get her to eat once a day and go to the bathroom once a week. Now, she eats
once a day (she demands to having her breakfast salad mixture hand fed by my boyfriend whenever she gets the chance...she's
so spoiled) and has access to food 24/7 with her RepCal pelleted Iguana diet, goes to the bathroom daily and her personality
and color have simply blossomed. :)
We are very proud of this lovely lady's progress!! :)
Although her hips are tilted, her tail is like a crinkle french fry and she needs help when she falls on her back (unless
there is carpet, then she can take care of herself. ;)...Sheena is a very strong, independent and spoiled young lady.
We have no idea what her age is, but given that the roomate said they only had her a "few years", and by her physical
attributes/size/appearance, I'd be guessing to say Sheena was around 3 or 4 yrs old when we took her in.
She is potty trained to go in a tub of about 2" of water and then we rinse her and give another short 2" of bath water for
in case she needs to go more (it's happened. lol)
She basically spends all day on her pillows basking under her UVB lighting and heat lamp, then leans over once she's warm
to get her food and water as needed and stays on her pillows all day until we get home. Then I scoop her up (or she'll come
looking for you if you don't do it in a timely manner) and give her an evening bath, then return her to her pillows. We'll
go outside in good weather and although again she cannot run, she loves to try and climb trees (only about 2-3' worth). :)
She's a sweetheart, affectionate and intelligent. You'd think with her deformaties she'd be more challenging to take care
of, but she loves her schedule as is and it works for us having a potty trained, sweet, brave iguana. :)
Sheena was adopted out in October of 2007 to a loving couple in Massachusetts where she lived with two other iguanas that
were also adopted critters and had the time of her life until she passed away early 2008. Tests of all sorts were done by
her new loving parents and the lab results yielded that nothing was out of the ordinary so the vet said it was probably just
her time. She had stopped eating and just happily went to sleep one day.
She was adored by many and loved by two couples...me and Vic and Jeff and Sharon who adopted her. She will be missed but
we are all happy she lived another 7 years after I initially took her in as a full blown adult. What a trooper! ;)
(See Pictures Below)
These little ragamuffins were born two days after I acquired a female rescued rabbit. She was a dutch mix (predominately
dutch though) and was beaten by her previous owner. 7 were born, 6 white w/red eyes, 1 black w/white stripe on forhead.
The father was a New Zealand White also became a rescue). All babies were successfully adopted out, as well as their
mother and father, all to separate but equally loving homes! That took a lot of work but it was so well worth it! :)
In the first picture you can see the black runt (there was also one white runt) and the largest of the litter with her.
Although I didn't want babies because of the massive overpopulation problems with rabbits, they were an absolute joy to care
for. :)
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Hank is a male lutino cockatiel. He is a rescue from a local mom and pop store. He was constantly
handled with large garden gloves and as such, is terrified of hands and being grabbed. He will step up but only after
being cornered and throwing his head around a bit at you. He is a wonderful singer, doing the wolf whistle and a whistle
that sounds like he's saying "sweetheart."
Hank was adopted out to my grandparents two years ago. He was then readopted out to a loving family with two children (grandparents
loved him but sadly, as their health worsened we lost my grandfather in 2004 and now my grandmother August of 2005.
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Pearl is a female whiteface/pied cockatiel. She was a rescue from Petco. They were selling
her as "fully weaned" when she was so small still that she barely knew how to walk, her entire breast plate could be felt
and she was very petite. Now she is fatter, lovely, walks (and runs) fantastically as if she was born in the wild. :)
She is and always has been the sweetest of sweethearts. Pearl was also adopted by my grandparents and then readopted out
for the same reason as Hank. She went to a different home but there were other birds in the house for her to sing with while
having her own condo of a cage. :D
Dusty - Congo African Grey Parrot
Dusty was rescued by a friend of mine from a line feeder/breeder. He was offered no affection, no stimulation,
just sat in a cage and fed. My friend bought him off the breeder to save him and in turn, she "sold" him to me for a
much cheaper price than the breeder asked for. She is known for doing this and Dusty can't thank her enough for saving
him from that aweful place.
He has been living with my family in Texas since adopted and still resides happily there (he couldn't move with me and
Victor as he is in love with my dad and became quite angry when we tried to move even just a city over in Texas. He is an
incessant talker, singer and jokester. He is always coming up with new phrases, words and whistled tunes for us on a
daily basis. :) He is a permanent resident and an excellent animal to join my herd even though he resides in TX
with my family. He is a character deluxe and every time I visit home he displays how hammy he truly is. He loves and adores
every family member (especially my father. They love to dance together. LOL!) and loves his channel 13 as well as old black
and white movies with my folks. Dusty is the only african grey for us! He is a miracle and full of love. :)
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2003: Ginger - Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
Approximately 10 years of age (as per the previous owners), 4ft total body length and about a foot just in body length.
The sweetest personality (just like Miss Sheena) although she is very depressed still about losing her previous guardians.
I was called at work to see if I would take her in. The family had her for 6 years and said due to opening a tanning
salon and already having 2 dogs and 2 cats, they could no longer afford the time to her that they wanted. I agreed to
take her in. Ginger is a sweet, sweet lady and deserves to go to a loving, respectful home that will care for her for
the rest of her life. She is (from our assessment), either partially or majorly suffering from blindness. She
is a senior citizen but very beautiful, very strong and just needs someone who can either be home half the day or the entire
day with her.
Ginger was recently adopted by a very loving and sweet woman. Unfortunately, Ginger apparently has suffered from
an unknown condition as was not indicated to me upon taking her in. As is with all rescues, this is a risk-filled field
unfortunately. We are never positive of their past history of health, behavior, likes/dislikes, diet, etc. Therefore
it is nearly impossible for anyone to expect we'd know everything about a rescued animal. We usually know only what
we've been told and what we learn from the animal as it is staying with us.
Ginger is living proof of this. Upon being shipped to her new home, she apparently got stressed which then let
whatever previous unknown condition arise. I was informed that she could not move her back legs. This certainly
shocked and alarmed me as even right up to the day of her shipping time, she was sprinting across my floor like a little alligator
and just generally making a mess of everything in her path by toppling it all over.
I feel so bad for the woman adopting Ginger and even worse for Ginger since I was not informed of anything about her.
The family that had her before was so anxious to get rid of her, I didn't even get diet info.
Ginger is a hard lesson to learn in dealing with rescues. Since this, I will NOT ship rescues anymore period unless
the adopter is either another experienced rescuer or someone that realizes the tremendous risk in doing so. Shipping
is too big of a risk for these animals that have quite literally been through hell and back.
Ready for this? Now here's the REAL scoop behind the above story:
As of today, March 24, 2006 I have found out that Debbie Mawson (the woman who adopted Ginger) is no more than a liar
and a criminal. I encourage everyone to visit the Fauna website so you can see I am unfortunately not the only person she
has scammed.
Direct Link to the Thread on Debbie Mawson
Apparently Ms. Mawson likes to come off as a friendly, open and nice person who only wants to adopt your iguana into her loving
home where they will live out their lives in peace. Sounds good, doesn't it? It's what we as rescuers all look for. But
to find out that all this time, since 2003, I thought poor Ginger had not only an unfortunate physical state, but that later
Debbie reported that she passed on suddenly.....to find out that in all likelyhood she did the same as with everyone else,
adopting their iguanas for free or not paying adoption fees and refusing to answer emails thereafter, only to resell our beloved
iguanas elsewhere. How is that supposed to make anyone feel?
I was so upset to find all this out. I only wish I had found out sooner.
I will post more details and get my scanner hooked back up so I can post the pictures that Debbie sent me. She sent pics
taken with an instant camera to illustrate the "non-usage" of Ginger's hind legs (which as you'll see, appear to
be working fine in the house, on the couch, in the yard, etc).
I'm hopeful that other rescuers reading this will be wary and not have anything to do with Debbie Mawson. Please be careful
and many hugs.
Amanda
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