CHRIST!
Today all of my nightmares hit me at once! I was on my way home. I cashed a BIG paycheck, turned in my MA license plates, talked on the phone to my friend who is going to build nice cages with me on Monday to upgrade my pets, was ready to get some Taco Hell when I received a call from my mom.
"There is a fire in the house and it's in your animal room".
Jaw drop.
I'm driving as fast as I legally can while I try to get my mom on the phone to find out what is going on. The phone keeps cutting on my mom and all I can find out is the entire room/basement is up in smoke and the firefighters can't assess how bad the fire is???
I arrive home and the firefighters escort me into my animal room. My new savannah monitor I got two nights ago was in the 55 gallon aquarium that was given to me. My friend, the previous owner, never had a lid for the cage. "Icky's" caging was temporary and, in fact, after Taco Hell I was going to head to the pet store to buy him a lid so there wouldn't be a fire hazard. I was too late.
"Icky" somehow knocked the clamp lamp and the dome fell onto the aspen shavings starting a fire. Fortunately, the fire was restricted to inside the dome of the lamp and my mom was home in time to call 911.
After examination, all my pets are o.k. except "Icky" has the very, very tip of his tail burned. The Fire inspector actually complimented me on my wiring/light use and I explained to them how I was on my way to the pet store to get the lid to prevent just what happened. They laughed about, said they saw worse and one guy asked about my baby alligator.
See, in NH you cannot have an alligator as a pet; only as an exhibitor. I literally had the permit request forms in my car ready to mail out after I hit the pet store today. I explained that I had took in the gator yesterday from someone and I was going to bring the gator into work tomorrow. The cop laughed and kindly told me to get rid of it by tomorrow... and, that was that.
I'm SO happy that none of my pets were hurt... but, my big worry is this:
* In order to get my NH State permit to have an alligator, you have to FIRST get the permit and then the alligator next. Also, the officer will submit my permit request to the town I reside in and see if the town has any problem(s) with my request. So, I'm really nervous if there will be a problem related to either a.) the fire or b.) the cop warning me to get rid of the gator
Just to be safe, I will have to bring my gator to work and house him there. I will have to lie to my boss and say the gator was given to me from a friend and that until I get my permit I will house him at work but will want him back. I just flat out hate lieing...
o.k. Let's LAUGH!
after a day like today, it's nice to stop and see I'm not as gay as this
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good luck with the alligator permit issues. i'm looking into getting a squirrel permit soon.
wait. do you have to have a permit for that?