Tag: Yoda

RIP Yoda

Me and Yoda together for the last time
Me and Yoda together for the last time

Sadly, after having Yoda for just over 20 years, he was put to sleep on 01/05/2017.

He lost a lot of weight and muscle over a few weeks and on returning home we found him on the bottom of his viv not being able to walk on his left leg.

While at the vets we found a golf ball size tumour in his lower abdomen.

I hope Yoda enjoyed his life with us as much as we enjoyed him being in ours.

He has been through and seen a lot with us – numerous other pets – cats, dogs, salamanders, rabbits, guinee pigs, snake, giant millipedes and fish.
Yoda has also seen us get married, move house and have 2 children, not to mention moving house 3 times himself.

His website, YodaCam, had over 350,000 camera views and was online for over 13 years.

I am so gutted to have lost a family member, nothing will be able to replace him. It will not be the same not seeing him looking at me as I walk down the stairs every morning, seeing him asleep on his shelf when I go to bed or having him look at me as I bring him his bowl of veg.

Rest in peace big lad, you will be missed.

yodacam is 10 years old

10 years ago today I launched Yodacam.

Starting off as a bit of a laugh, I added an IP camera in with Yoda, so I could see him from work and see what he was up to. I then decided to add another camera as he was always in the wrong place.

After a drunken discussion with a friend, I went and bought yodacam.co.uk and published him to the world!

After a few years of monitoring for availability I purchased yodacam.com for him.

Yoda has since moved house with us, and gained a new home, which is now on the back of our house in our conservatory, built around a window so that we can see him as we go up and down the stairs. I added a third IP camera in with him as there was more space and more to see.
The 3 original IP cameras are still in with him, I am somewhat amazed that they are still going given the amount of heat they have to endure.

Yoda is now around 18 years old, we got him in February 1997 when he was a few months old, hopefully he will be online for a good few years to come.

Zoo Experience

Today I went to Colchester Zoo to do my Zoo Experience Day that I got for my 40th birthday.

I opted for the experience that had Elephants, Birds of Prey and Reptiles.
Last time I was up close with Elephants was in Sri Lanka when I was on honeymoon, we both got to feed a small elephant calf and watch them have their lunchtime bath in the river.

I had to pick reptiles as I have one myself, thought it would be great to see other reptiles and where they live. If I`m honest I wasn`t too bothered about the Birds of Prey – but I have to say they were probably the best part of the day!

The Elephants
They were great, huge beasts of an animal, I got to feed one up close and watch them coming in at the end of the day to be locked up for the night. The metal work on the cages is unbelievable, but then when you have something that big you can`t have it made of chicken wire!

The Birds Of Prey
These were unbelievable and as I said by far the best of the day purely because of the surprise that I got. I wasn`t expecting them to be like they were.
I got to hold, with the help of a very thick glove, small owls up to a very large and menacing looking Eagle which weighed an absolute ton.

Reptiles
I was looking forward to seeing these – I got to see –
Rhinoceros Iguanas – I loved these, they were great, they move like you wouldn`t believe especially when going after a flying locust. They came charging up to us when we went in their enclosure, they for that close that I managed to give one a stroke 🙂
Green Iguanas – they were not quite as big as my boy Yoda but it was still great to see some, in a huge enclosure.
Giant Millipedes – not strictly reptiles but they were in the same room as them. We used to have 3 giant millipedes so was nice to handle one of them again.
Snakes – I was holding one just as my boy looked through the windows at me, he so badly wanted to come in and hold them with me.
Komodo Dragons – these were the last reptiles that I got to see. We went right into the enclosure at the back, where we could see them. I was only a few feet away from one of them, they are phenomenal creatures.

I would love to do that again.

Rex – the new pet

Today we went to get H his birthday present from one of his Granddad’s.

He asked him if he could have a snake, and granddad was only too willing to get him one. Unfortunately granddad could not be with us when we went to get it, and needless to say he wasn’t there either to pay!

So, we had a look at a few snakes and settled for a nice quiet corn snake that H was able to pick up and hold with no real issues, I didn’t see the point getting one that he couldn’t hold or one that was too big, as it might be a bit daunting for his to start with.

We picked a nice stylish vivarium for her and a few things to go in it along with some fluffs for her to eat. All that set me back just over ÂŁ180!! Some contrast to when we got Yoda all those years back as a rescue case from the RSPCA man that we knew.

We get her home and set everything up in H`s bedroom, laying down the law about what he can and can’t do. He decided to call her Rex, after Commander Rex out of Start Wars! I guess we need to get her sexed as soon and she is old enough to make she we have the right name for her – but then I guess once we have called her something we can’t go back on it.

I can see that Rex is going to be interesting, the wife won’t go anywhere near her or help us with her, so I guess it’s me and H doing it all.