Oh Winry

Life has been extremely insane since last Thursday due to many, many things. However, I would like to introduce y'all to the one little creature that keeps me somewhat sane in medical school: Winry.

Before I formally introduce you to my spoiled bearded dragon, let me explain some things. I was the kid in school that LOVED all things frogs and lizards. My mom likes to joke that I used to have all of the lizards, the little green anoles, at my house trained to let me pick them up and pet them. There was a brief period of time where I even had a family of lizards living together with me before my mom made me put them back outside.

So, the moral of the story is that I absolutely loved lizards. I was fascinated with the bearded dragons and iguanas that people had as pets, and I wanted one. So, on my sixteenth birthday, my dad took me to PetSmart to pick out a baby bearded dragon. It was a glorious day, and that poor lizard was probably absolutely terrified. At first I was going to name him Macbeth, but my mother said that I couldn't name him after anything that I learned about at school. I named my new little bearded dragon Alphonse after a character in a Japanese anime that I had watched a few weeks earlier, but all of my family members called him Phonsy. Oh, how I loved Phonsy. Unfortunately I could not take him with me to college, and he died due to a disease during my senior year. I was devastated. I had planned on taking Phonsy to medical school with me. He was going to be my comfort and sunshine in pet form.

I got Winry on the day that I gave my senior research presentation on circularly-permuted hemoglobin. I had gone to that particular store a couple days earlier and was trying to decide between two little beardies. One was a leatherback variety, meaning that it had a smooth back with no spikes, and the other was a fancy, meaning that he had more orange markings. When I went to hold the two little babies, the leatherback didn't want to be held. The little orange fancy leapt onto my hand and wrapped his little arms around my finger. That was it. I wanted that little guy. I didn't buy him that day because I wanted my boyfriend to be there when I got him. So I waited.

The wait didn't last long. I kept thinking about how someone else might buy the little baby that I had fallen in love with. So as soon as my senior research presentation was over, I dragged my mom and my boyfriend to the same store to buy little Winry.

I don't know if Winry regrets jumping on my hand that day, but he is definitely spoiled now. He has his own massive aquarium with a chunky hammock and large tree branch. He is probably the reason why I eat so much broccoli and lettuce because he eats broccoli leaves, lettuce, and other vegetables. He has the run of my room when I let him out. When he is out, he either is trying to get back into his aquarium, destroy or knock something off of my desk, or go to sleep on me or some inconvenient area. He's definitely a brat somedays and knows how to pitch a fit. If you don't believe that a lizard can pitch a fit, I have many stories for you. He is a clean-freak, which is quite funny. He hates going to the restroom in his cage and has even pulled his carpet away when he went to the bathroom on the glass bottom of his aquarium. He gets a bath once a week unless he smells or has gotten filthy somehow. Sometimes he really likes to swim, but it really depends on the day. He has definitely been a companion for me since I moved to Dothan. I think he knows when I am stressed or upset and tries to calm me down. He puts up with a lot of my crap and lets me hold him whenever. I know I am biased, but he is the best lizard ever.