They say that having a pet is really good for you. Pets bring down your blood pressure and love you to death even on bad hair days when you feel fat. They make you look outside yourself, which is handy when you’re stressed out and think that nothing is more important than all the craziness going on in your YOUR LIFE.

And I’ve experienced that, mostly with cats, but since Gabby died a year or so back we’ve been pet-free and we missed her like crazy. But once we got over that we’ve been feeling pretty happy that now there’s no dirty litter box or cat hair on everything we own.

We weren’t looking for a new pet and never in a million years would we have gone looking for an Australian Bearded Dragon, but one kind of wandered into our life.

This bearded dragon was a little neglected by his previous owner who’s on the football team in high school and never home. So after some discussion, Jim (yes, Morrison) and his tank, plug-in fake rock, log, stick, sand, food/water bowls and lights - he doesn’t travel light! - came to live with us.

We put his tank in a spot where he can look out windows in two directions and see the sun rise. Jim gets greeted every morning with screamy hello’s by my two-year old son who slaps the sides of the tank with his peanut butter hands.

We’ve been getting to know him. We discovered that Jim grooves on kale and grated carrots. His skin looks like stone but when you touch him his skin isn’t thick, you can feel his delicate bits underneath. He has little spikes running up the side of his body, but they’re not sharp, they’re rubbery. We’re learning to read more from his body language and eye movements. He’s not a real interactive guy but when I showed him the plastic alligator I got in a fishbowl-size drink once in Buckhead he got visibly upset .

Last night I put Jim on my lap while we watched Bleak House . I rubbed the smooth dry skin between his eyes and they slowly closed. I kept smoothing my fingers down his back as I talked to him. He relaxed into my lap soaking up the warmth of my body heat. His body sags and squishes out at the sides like a water balloon that’s half full. I’m sure I saw him sigh, the little pouches in his neck slowly filling and emptying of air.