Sam and Vy-Lyn Wright

I'd like to introduce you to the two newest members of the Wright family: Sam, the leopard gecko and Vy-Lyn, the blue Betta.

I promised Max a reptilian reward for doing so well in school. It took me 4 weeks, but by the end of July I had talked him down from a snake to a lizard. The angels intervened one day over the summer and sent a vet to camp to talk to the kids about pet ownership. Passive geckos are much better, she said. She even bought one along for the kids to see. Well that was all she wrote. Thanks, honey. Leopard gecko it is. Sam's a juvenile. He ain't slimy. Well, not that I would really know 'cause I don't touch him. Max does that. I clean the tank, drop live crickets in there every night (I don't touch those either--have you ever heard of a cricket keeper?) He sleeps all day and walks around at night--he's like a teenager. Or an old person.

And then there's Vy-Lyn. When Marco realized Max was getting a pet, he of course wanted one too. So we left PetSmart with not one, but two pets. A leopard gecko and a Betta named...Vy-Lyn. His name is French. It means...I'm lying. Vy-Lyn's first name was Simon. Then The-do. (As in Alvin, Simon and Theodore.) Finally, Marco decided on Vy-Lyn. Not Violet, which would have been very clever. Not Violent, which would have been very scary. But Vy-Lyn. We don't know what it means or where it came from. But he's sticking to it.