Benita is back, iphone not - still ready to bloom where planted

I remember when my kids were sick and then all of a sudden they would bounce back and be well again. It came after love and care sometime (and medicine) and sometime it just happened anyway. With Benita it was definitely the former. For a week I brought her home and fed her chicken broth baby food with a syringe as detailed in the previous post.

And then one day on a Tuesday, she perked her head up and did that little upward eye turn. Benita was back and my heart was glad for me and for the class. The day she first ate crickets on her own after me having force feed them to her for a week along with mealworms was a good day. First it was four or five and then more.

I took her to Franklin, TN for our family Christmas and one day she had 17 meal worms and another day 12 crickets. And did I mention she poops or should I say defecates regularly also. Welcome back, Benita.

To mix the bad with the good, I realized on the last day of school before Christmas that someone got an early Christmas from my coat pocket that was hanging on Mr. Bones to keep him warm. It was during break where at least 10 or so kids come in each day to let Mojo get his exercise in his ball, to give Benita some love and to hold the Sister III, the new corn snake. I had promised one of my students and one of my science club members who is not a student that I would let them feed the snake. I sent a student after them and they came in and I showed the procedure of warming the frozen mouse and moving Sister to the feeding cage, they took on the task enthusiastically and did very well and were amazed at how she ate. Just to prove me wrong after I said she always brings the head in first, she took the tail in first. As my biology teacher in college used to say, animals and plants do not read the textbooks. Indeed. It was while I was giving kids another oportunity they would not otherwise have someone yanked my iphone.

Oh well life goes on and I would really rather have my iphone and the other experiences but if I must choose I guess I will live with teaching where cameras and iphones and even my thumbdrive from my computer easily disappear. Maybe those who don't take will receive new understandings and become lifelong learners. Maybe it is so good to be a teacher with a greenhouse and animals and some kids who want to learn that I will just put my other stuff on the line each day along with my best efforts.


One more story that keeps me going. Last year I found this beautiful plant with purple leaves in a weed patch and transplanted it to the flower bed in the front of our apartment. When we moved to a house also provided by a generous Holmes Community College I transplanted what I now learned was a shamrock into a pot. It did not fare too well in our new house along with the schefelera. I moved both to the greenhouse. The schefelera thrived immediately, The shamrock died back to nothing. I kept it in the greenhouse anyway and watered it occasionally. To my great surprise it has come back with glorious pink flowers and green stamens. Life is good. I call it the resurrection plant. Maybe some kind of resurrection of new growth will happen in some of my students and other plants and animals like with Benita and that too will give me joy.

Caring for all of life as a way of life

I remember as a boy and as a young man in school how I had a growing admiration for Albert Sweitzer. At first it was just cool that he was a doctor helping others in some remote areas in Africa but as I grew in understanding and years I began to appreciate his reverence for all of life idea.

This past week I have been reminded of that again. After watching Benita, our bearded dragon, not eat for almost a week I finally called the vet. They said bring her in. So on a Monday afternoon I put Benita in a cardboard box with her favorite rock so she would feel at home. I thought I was going to drop her off and leave her like I had Sister Isaac II and let them take care of her. I was a very concerned that we might loose yet another animal and wondered how the students would take to yet another loss in the classroom. When I got to the vet I found out I was going to see the vet, Dr. Vaughan. I have waited with my own kids in waiting rooms and with some of my athletes over the years, but I have never been in the waiting room at the vet.

The receptionist came in at one point and said my name must be Job - since I was so patiently waiting. An hour and a half later I got led to a room just like at a people doctor and the chart was placed in the slot at the door. Benita slept through most of the experience. When Dr. Vaughan came in she was gentle and kind and examined Benita and saw immediately the problem. She was bloated and not able to pass the crickets she had eaten consequently she thought she was full and did not eat. She told me she would have to give her an enema to clean her out - imagine a bearded dragon enema! About fifteen minutes later when she brought her back she was limp as a rag and I wondered if she would make it. Dr. Vaughan showed how I would have to feed her with a syringe and how to draw up 2 cc of chicken baby food and the a few mm of warm water and mix and then inject it behind Benita's tongue. I took her home with me and fed her before bed and have done that now three times a day since last Tuesday and this is Sunday.

She has taught me a lot about patience and about how different reptiles are than we. When I called Dr. Vaughn on Tuesday after I thought we were going to loose Benita, she said if it took her a week not to eat and get weak and would take at least two to bring her around. She told me to get her some pediolyte and mix it half and half with water and that might help perk her up. I was off to Piggly Wiggly in Goodman to get Pediolyte for my baby on Tuesday night - of all things. You see I would do most anything not to have to reach into her cage and find her lifeless for that is just what I did not Tuesday and she looked all the world like she had stopped breathing and the student's kept asking if she was alive. I got one girl out of another class(she is not in my class this year but was last year and has really bonded to Benita) to help me feed her so we would get the experience and did the same with other students who are in my class.







She has come around a bit and now after force feeding a few intermittent crickets with the baby food and pediolyte. Today she has been weaned from the baby food and had three meal worms and three crickets - you have not lived until you force feed - gently mind you - a cricket and a meal worm to a bearded dragon.

On another note our new snake, a corn snake, ate on schedule last Friday. The kids were gathered around the cage in rapt attention as she slowly sniffed out the thawed pinkie and then circled it and then figured how to put the head in first and then eat.

Now we also have a first tomato ripening in the greenhouse and students are researching and planting plants of their choice. It is so satisfying to see their interest and care for the plants and for Benita and Sister III and the fish and on. I hope they are learning to care for all of life as a way of life - I sure am.