I am not a herpetologist but as a child I did love catching the creatures studied by them. I was into field herping.

I liked to call what I did Field herping. Field herping is getting out and seeing these creatures in their natural habitat. Since all I did was go out and catch frogs, lizards, toads and salamanders i probably wasn’t really a field herper either.

My interest in these tiny dinosaurs never passed but my willingness to pick up whatever I came across did. I didn’t actually owned any reptiles or amphibians when I was young.

I was an adult when I decided to purchase the tortoise. The tortoise was followed shortly by a leopard gecko which was followed by several geckos, a rosy boa, bearded dragons, a pacman frog and most recently a Euromastyx.

I didn’t expect to purchase any scaled animals for my children. I grew up with dogs. My kids wanted dogs. My wife wanted a dog. Everybody in my household wanted a dog. The day I was going to pick up a dog I saw a crazy dog fight right in front of my house. It was nuts and one of the dogs was bloody and dead when it was all done. It scared my kids a lot. It scared me enough to reconsider whether or not I wanted a dog around my tiny children.

It was the next day that Shellton the tortoise became a member of the family. Getting his habitat set up was a family project and it was actually a lot of fun.

The tortoise hasn’t hurt anyone although he does seem grumpy once in a while which can be very frightening. I’m still not anti-dog but the damage a dog could cause has kept me from bringing one home. The Shellton acquisition has lead household full of herp enthusiasts.

I’d like think we are done adding herps to the family but every time we see read about someone locally needing to part ways with their pet we are compelled to bring it home to our house. I’m okay with that.

Gus Stephano is always looking for cool creatures to add to his collection. He’s not an expert but he is a fan. He will find his next pet at Reptiles and Supplies. This Reptile Finder site makes it much easier to find what you’re looking for on Craigslist.