There are few rules at my house, but one of the strictest rules has always been this: "There shall be no pet reptiles. So saith Laura." The corollary to this rule states that "Should ever there be a pet reptile, then Laura is so out of here." (In earlier times, these rules were modified to include the word "pet", as our home began to fill with Mediterranean Geckos sometime during the nineties and barely a day goes by that I don't find a tiny, starving Gecko in the bathroom or the laundry room that must be repatriated to the great outdoors, where it may, and usually does, wander back into the house through one of the weep holes designed for this very purpose.)

At one time or another, all of the males in this household have longed for a pet lizard.  Both boys, in particular, have requested to keep reptiles as pets. I have, over the years either purchased or caught some of the native lizards in the area and placed them in the yard. Most often this has been the Anole lizards, which can vary their color between green and brown, and which will sometimes interact with humans, even in their wild state, by showing their pouch in a display of territoriality, or perhaps cross-species friendship. But I had to engage and otherwise frolic with my lizards only on the perimeter of our encampment, as Laura never budged from, this, one of her two strictest rules.

Then, one day I received a call from her. Seems like our younger son, the one prepping for law school, had given his apartment an early notice of his pending departure. They had made an inspection--you know, damage control--and discovered the unauthorized lizard, and immediately declared his pet reptilia non grata. Laura was calling to ask me if it would be okay for Big Trav to keep his his lizard at our house for awhile (at least until it could be sneaked under the radar at his new place). I quickly looked out the window for other signs of the apocalypse, couldn't see any, and quickly agreed. A lizard? My wife was asking me if it's all right to take in a lizard?? Now that, friends and favorites, is some great Judo.

This is how I first came to know Bentley, the Australian Hooded Dragon lizard.