From the other side - Sam's blog
Post date: Jun 1, 2017 11:11:23 AM
My name's Sam and I'm a bearded dragon. Well, actually, I'm across between a bearded dragon and a Rankin's dragon, but it's easier to tell people that I'm a beardie.
Some portraits of me taken by Peter Hearson and Czech Conroy of Bromley Camera Club
I don't know much about my early life, but I do remember I belonged to a teenage boy who decided I wasn't very interesting so he gave me to his friend. That boy really loved me and looked after me very well for a whole year - and his mother never knew I was in the house! When he was going away to university he had to tell his mother about me because he couldn't take me with him, and his mother said I couldn't stay with her, so that's when Reptile Events came to pick me up and take me to my new home.
Helping out at shows - guarding the collection bucket, and making sure the paper weight doesn't blow away
By the time I arrived at Reptile Events I was about two and half years old. I settled in very quickly, and am well fed - I eat locusts, meal worms, wax worms (as a treat), strawberries and raspberries, melon, dandelion flowers, and rocket (which is my favourite, and Jane thinks it's funny to tell people that she has a rocket-powered dragon), and when I'm wandering around the house I have been known to eat the occasional spider.
I'm happy to go out to events to meet people, although I usually get a bit tired after about three and a half hours, so Jane makes sure I don't get over-handled. As you can see - I get to meet some fun people!
Meeting Jester Dragonfly and her pet dragon at Morden Hall Park
My new dragon friend may be glossier than me and have wings, but I can hold on by myself and don't need to be carried!
In the library with my friend Cobalt the blue tongued skink and some sand lizards
That sounds like something from Cluedo! We met some children in the school library, and after we'd finished I checked out some of their books.
At Steampunk Convivials (photograph with Jane is by Jeanette Macklin)
We attend steampunk events two or three times a year. The photo on the left is of when I met Diggory Isambard Adrian Mole - who is Very Important.
With a young dragon named Panda
Panda is the daughter of one of our volunteer handlers, and she has a great sense of style!
My new hobbies
Hot air ballooning and Dragon boat racing!
And finally with Bruce, my predecessor at Reptile Events, who retired to Sussex but came back to see us at the Blindley Heath Country Show - I'm the yellower dragon with the clear hexagon pattern down my spine.