A Tribute to Wakka, Part Two

The following is Part Two of a tribute to my bearded dragon, Wakka, who passed away December 4, 2021. This series will include favorite memories and stories of my life with my companion for five years.

Last time, I told you the story of my first day with Wakka and other details pertaining to the early times of raising a bearded dragon. I will admit continuity will be a little jumbled in the telling, but important details are inserted at times to explain what raising a beardie is like for people unfamiliar with raising a beardie.

Wakka turned out to be quite playful. He often exercised, running around the tank and interacting with his decorations. Decorations are VERY important when raising a beardie. They need things to climb on and hide under. If you read Part One, you will know what decorations I gave him, but I will describe them in slightly more detail. I had bought him a hideous thing the register at PetSmart identified as the “Tree Demon.” This had a rough surface, good for helping a beardie’s body as they do have parts that need to be scratched for their bodily health. The Tree Demon also had shelter underneath it for him to crawl and hide under. Wakka had a large tail however, so hiding under the Tree Demon did not make him invisible. He also had a plastic interpretation of a triceratops skull, and a plastic cactus which he had somewhat of a… fixation on (keeping this post G-Rated, so you don’t need to know anything more). And he had his food and water dish. In his tank, he saw a reflection of himself and did not realize it was him, instead thinking another beardie wanted to eat his bugs, and he sometimes decided his water dish was a bathtub. In the last part, I told you my friend Chris had set me up with Bearded Dragon communities on Facebook. We beardie owners are VERY proud of our dragons and LOVE to share pictures of their antics. Wakka had an activity known as “glass surfing.” He would walk around and drag with pancake belly across the glass of his tank. (I say “pancake” as that is what their bodies look like when they lay flat of the floor). And for those of you who don’t know why the species is called a “bearded” dragon, it is because they have scales under their chin which, at times they will inflate, and resemble the shape of a beard. He also had unusual positions that he would assume for hours that did not possibly look like they would be comfortable. And he had a sleeping position of sprawling against the glass with his front feet up. My family came to meet him one day. I have an amazing Uncle Frank and cousins Gina and Kate. I was Wakka’s “Dada,” a single father (and he was my son in every way imaginable except for coming out of my body). My cousins Gina and Kate are so close to me that I consider them more as sisters than cousins, so they were Wakka’s Aunt Gina, Aunt Kate, and Great-Uncle Frank. Wakka loved his Aunt Gina, they played together for ten minutes straight. Wakka was a sweet little creature who not only WAS loved, but COULD love in return. He also knew a few words. Sure they have very little brain because of their size, but beardies can learn some words and associate what they mean. He knew his name, Wakka. If I was in my room on the phone talking about him, he got the “I know you’re talking about me” look (and sometimes gave stank eye, but that didn’t always involve anything other than him looking at you). He also knew me as “Dada” and my caretaker, my mother as “Gammy.” We also had “Cartoon Sundays,” while my mom was at work. My regular readers, who have read previous posts such as my prose and graphic novel reviews, know I am a HUGE Marvel fan. When we got Disney+, he was in heaven. He loved Spider-Man and always liked watching all of his animated series’ (I think personally he liked the villain the Lizard and thought he was just misunderstood, but I could never truly know what he was thinking because HE COULDN’T TALK! In fact, beardies have no vocal chords, so the only noise they can make is a hiss, but Wakka never hissed at anyone.) And that was a word he learned: “Cartoons.” If you said the words “cartoon” or “cartoons,” he knew EXACTLY what they were and got very excited. In his tank, he had the optimal viewing position. (He rarely left his tank except for cleanup time or contact, which he never seemed to mind, showing no real interest in leaving it. My house is small but cluttered and he could very easily get lost and would never be found again, so staying in his tank was a requirement. One time I actually left his tank open and unattended for over ten minutes and he never moved from his position, so obviously he liked staying in his tank). As soon as cartoons started, he got in the optimal viewing position and stayed in it until my mom came home and cartoons went off (for me, yesterday was Sunday and watching cartoons just didn’t feel right or the same, but in his honor I watched “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” as show he never watched, and that was the only cartoon I felt like watching. He passed away sometime during a Friday night or Saturday morning, not sure when exactly). However, I think his favorite word was “bugs,” but I think a lot of beardies will agree with that. I said last time I fed him freeze-dried bugs as breeding live bugs just seemed pointless (I only wanted to raise a beardie, after all, not any other pets, especially live bugs, which I absolutely hate and I would freak out if I ever opened a box of live bugs), but that never seemed to bother him, he did “happy nom nom” either way. He also knew the word “nama” (short for banana, his favorite fruit). I honestly don’t know on average how many words a beardie can truly learn or exactly how many and which ones Wakka knew, but his little brain could do associations of those words and their meanings.

We’re going to stop here for now as there are a LOT more Wakka memories to share, so please, keep coming back for more stories of my five years with Wakka! And if you are looking for a pet, totally consider a bearded dragon! They are great, loving companions, relatively easy to raise, and lots of fun to share time with! Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!