I went with Snorth last weekend, and it was delightful. I love all of God’s creatures, but I especially love crested geckos. And lo, there were many a crested gecko there. I got to hold two of them! One even licked his eyeball clean! And I exploded with happiness! I also forgot to take pictures of him while I was doing this exploding, so I found some good pictures of crested geckos online that I will post here. Imagine I’m holding one of those.

In that last pic you can really appreciate their windshield-wiper feet that allow them to stick to glass like suction cups. Crested geckos are also called eyelash geckos because of the little ridge of eyelash-like scales over their eyes. They’re just the greatest.
So, The Reptile and Amphibian Show happens semi-annually at the Westchester County Center, which is a giant hall, and the hall was filled to the brim with beasties in plastic containers. As we came in, the first booth on the right had this grotesque 3-D display.

Welcome to the reptile and amphibian show! We have corpses taped to paper! Enjoy your breakfast that you’re trying to keep down right now!
But at that booth, there was a smootchie little Western Hognose Snake. Hognoses are known for being excellent pets, laid-back and friendly (as friendly as snakes get). And I got to hold this little fella. What a sweetheart.

They live for about twelve years and get to be a bit bigger then a garter snake. You can’t appreciate it in this pic, but the hognose snake is called the hognose snake because its little snoot turns up at the end like a tiny cold-blooded piggie.

I think it looks more like a shoehorn with eyes, but it’s called the hognose, and hognose-named it shall remain.
So Snorth and I pottered around commenting on the beautiful patterns on all the beasties (quick recap: they were very beautiful) and we saw a little boy chillin’ with some big ole lizards. Big. I took pictures of the lizards with the child so you can see the scale.

And I got a shot with some flicky-flicky tongue action! I think the lizards were plotting to eat the child.

And there was a man selling a variety of reptiles with his favorite on his shirt, literally hanging out.

I was so envious. I want a dragon hanging from my shirt all day. I talk to myself a lot, and I could pretend I was talking to the dragon instead, which is slightly less insane-looking.
This particular vendor had a pretty standard snake set-up, which I took a picture of so you could see it. And one of the snakes was shedding, I think.

See him? Lower right-hand corner? And not only were there snakes and frogs and lizards, there were also tarantulas and walking-stick bugs and giant African millipedes. They really covered the whole creepy-crawly gamut. It was wonderful, and I can’t wait to go back next time, if only to cuddle my beloved geckos.