Reptile Awareness Day

October 21st and it’s Reptile Awareness Day. Currently there are 435 animals listed for adoption on petfinder.com. That, of course, is a mere fraction of the pets who are discarded. Unwanted snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs and amphibians, perhaps more than any other pets, are dumped in the wild or  ignored and left to die rather than being re-homed. So as you enjoy some of my favorite reptile photos below, remember these creatures are as deserving of caring and responsible ownership as any other animal.

Gecko

Baby alligator

Red Ear Slider

S. African egg eater

Tiny Frog

Tree python by Jenny Rollo

Tortoise

Iguana

“SALAMANDER, n. Originally a reptile inhabiting fire; later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have an account having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised it with a bucket of holy water.” ~ Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914)