Update on Tycho
Thanks to everyone who has been sending their best wishes for Tycho's recovery. A few people have asked about his current status.
He's still hanging in there. He hasn't changed much since Thursday; while not looking like he's at death's door, he's definitely not himself. He's alert but not very interested in eating. Since Wednesday, he's managed a few bits of kale and about a half dozen meal worms. He's drunk a little water as well. LL has been giving him medicine, too. He doesn't much like this, since he's used to having his way. He mainly wants to bask under his heat lamp and watch TV from inside his cage. He hasn't been expressing any desire to come out, which is very unusual for him. He'll normally spend no more than a couple of hours a day in his cage and the rest of the time he demands free run of our apartment. He's still very low on energy and while his breathing has improved, he's still breathing in a more labored manor than usual. For the most part, he just wants to be left alone.
So while it doesn't look like he's going to die tomorrow, it does seem to me that Tycho is in his last days. How long that will be I can't say, but he's old and his number is coming up relatively soon. We're doing our best to make Tycho's twilight days/weeks/maybe couple of months comfortable, and in the end that's all that I think can be done. He's had a good, and long, life. As lizard lives go, I'd imagine Tycho's had one of the best. He's even passed on his genes, having fathered a couple of clutches. His has been a life of largely free-range existence, all the food he could ever have wanted, and satin blankets. I dare say this lizard has had a better time of it than most of the people on this planet.
LL and I have talked about what we're going to do when Tycho does pass on. It looks like we're going to get a parakeet. While we're not dog-and-cat people due to allergies and the constraints of apartment living, we both like having an animal or two around. I've owned parakeets before and find them very agreeable and one (and probably a second one some time after the first becomes socialized to us) will make good company for LL when she's working from home.
Thanks again to those who have been keeping Tycho in their thoughts these past few days. He's always been fond of we humans and I'm sure he'd appreciate the concern and good wishes if I could somehow explain the concepts to him. Rest assured that as his condition changes for better or worse, I'll pass along developments here.
Tycho and a Friend — June 26, 2005
