Sally - Part I

Everybody needs a pet. Lots of people want dogs. Others want cats. Not me... I wanted a chameleon. A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni really showed the amazing things that chameleons were capable of... They could have stripes and polka dots and they could visit the zoo! I really couldn’t understand why anyone would want anything other than a chameleon.

Once I had decided that I wanted a chameleon, it’s all I ever asked my parents for. At first, I think they were just glad that I was not asking for a kitten - our 12 pound cockapoo mutt wouldn’t go for it - but eventually, I think they got tired of coming up with reasons against it.

My mom could see that I was really trying to prove my level of responsibility since I was waking up at 4:30 to make her and my dad coffee, helping Becky with anything that she might need, and not asking for anything else, even on our Saturday trips to the mall.

One day (it must have been the 16th since it turned out to be a lucky day!). we were at the mall. I asked for a chameleon, and my mom responded with, “How about a tarantula instead?”
“Okay!” I exclaimed without hesitation, and I immediately headed toward the pet store.
The look of surprise on my mom’s face was still there as we looked at the different types. Red, brown, black, the size of a small small child’s dimply little hand, and the size of a rat with wings.
“Gross,” I thought. “Who wants a spider as a pet?” but I didn’t care! It was my very own pet!
Millie was much more interesting than I had imagined! At first, the only one brave enough to hold her was my mom, but after a few days, I decided to let my very own pet crawl on my hand too. By the end of the summer, my brothers, Becky, and I were outside catching little millers to feed Millie and change up the monotony of pet-store-bought-crickets.
At the end of July, it was time for our family vacation! Adam, my parents’ best friends’ son, was going to take care of Greg and Dan’s paper route as well as my very own pet. This was before the time of cell phones, and even before pagers, so we didn’t know about Millie’s “escapades” until we returned.
She had spun a web all over the bottom of her cage, and then flipped on her back. As she flipped, so did Adam and Cheryl (his mom). They called the vet, and seeing as tarantulas were not a common pet to visit the vet, she advised them to use gloves and very gently flip her back over. Even after doing that, Millie didn’t seem right. She wasn’t climbing up the side of her cage. She wasn’t eating her delicious crickets. She wasn’t even interested in the delicacy of millers.
“Do tarantulas emotionally attach to their owners?” Adam and Cheryl asked when Millie flipped to her back again. When they showed up at our house the next morning and found a second Millie in her cage, it was almost more than they could take!
But, no. The answer to their question was no. Millie was not missing my mom and me... she was molting! Spiders shed, and seeing as tarantulas are large spiders, they shed large skins that look like more tarantulas.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to get a chameleon?