Puk

The setup, execution, and cleanup of Matt's and my weekend at camp Hadley (backdated pictures and vignettes coming) atrophied my computer muscles over the past six days, but I'm back now and hope to get into a better blipfoto rhythm... on the off-chance that anyone will read it before I head to Cape Town...

So, this is Puk, my bearded dragon, who's named after a dragon in Baltic folklore who delivered gifts to the household he was protecting. I bought him about 18 months ago when I was still in NC - only a few days out of the shell, the size of a Tootsie roll - and now he weighs 15 ounces (half of his potential adult weight).

Despite the fact that he's a testy little beast, I've grown quite attached to my Puk dragon, and I thought I'd pay him some blog-homage for working so tirelessly over the past few days to shed his most recent skin. Being desert animals, these Beardies actually eat the skin right off of their own backs to conserve protein, leaving not a scrap behind...unlike those profligate snakes. While I worked on the computer next to his tank this afternoon, he spent two hours flaunting his new suit - which, as you can see, is of the finest kind - so, everyone, meet my male-model dragon!