My friend won’t let me bring my gecko to her house. Aibu?

[IndraOnTheMountain]

I’m going to visit my friend for the weekend soon with my kids.

We have to look after the school gecko for half term, so I asked if we could bring him with us. He’s very small and his tank is only shoe box sized so this seemed quite reasonable to me.

She responded in an extremely abrupt way to say that I couldn’t bring him and would need to find another arrangement. She was particularly irate about the idea I would need to bring live crickets to feed him with. I reassured her that feeding geckos crickets is totally ethical, and that they are in an escape proof container but she was resolute. Tbh I think she was drunk.

I feel really hurt that she wouldn’t allow what seems like quite a small request! If she wanted to bring her gecko to my house I would be totally okay with that. It’s very inconvenient for me too, I think that she just doesn’t value my time or friendship. I’m already having to make arrangements for my dog and chickens when we go to visit so the gecko is just a step too far.

Aibu?

[quote viques]@Greygreenblue I am surprised you allow turtles into a day care setting. They are well known for carrying, and spreading, salmonella .[/quote]
I’ve never heard of Australian freshwater turtles being associated with salmonella?? My old housemates turtle lived in a tank in our living room fairly happily enough.

Are you sure it is turtles and not tortoises?

And by living room I mean dining room 🙄.

Anyone else read the word Gecko so many times it's starting to sound like a non word

www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/pet-turtles-cute-commonly-contaminated-salmonella

Guess it depends which country this is all going on in.

www.gardenwildlifehealth.org/portfolio/salmonella-in-reptiles/

Apparently most reptiles carry Salmonella spp, including the gecko...

Are you 13?

What's "reverse" mean?

A reverse is where someone tells the story from the other perspective. Or in most cases starts off saying “oh my friend is a ridiculous unreasonable person” and everyone else then says “no you’re the unreasonable one, she’s completely in the right” and they then turn around and say “oh no of course I’m the friend” (when of course they are not at all, they just don’t want to look unreasonable)

Anybody identify the creature on the OP's sofa? Is it a chicken?
Anyway, it's clearly not a gecko.

Poor thing stuck in a tiny tank it’s whole life.

totally misses the point

Gosh, I feel quite shocked at being so far against the majority of responses.

If I'd been your friend, I'd have merely found it amusing and interesting. So much better than a class bear 😆

Safe to say having read this now that very few people here would cope with living in hot countries where "wild" geckos are encouraged to live in houses as they keep the flying insect population down. They are lovely helpful creatures, and the only time I minded sharing my house with them was when one was propelled from the air con unit at speed 😆

Sadly, I have to concede I am the tiny minority.

I needed to read this thread this morning 😂

You are so weird.

very few people here would cope with living in hot countries where "wild" geckos are encouraged to live in houses as they keep the flying insect population down

there are lots of reasons I would not want to live in a hot country - and you've just given me another one

@LonelySock

Gosh, I feel quite shocked at being so far against the majority of responses.

If I'd been your friend, I'd have merely found it amusing and interesting. So much better than a class bear 😆

Safe to say having read this now that very few people here would cope with living in hot countries where "wild" geckos are encouraged to live in houses as they keep the flying insect population down. They are lovely helpful creatures, and the only time I minded sharing my house with them was when one was propelled from the air con unit at speed 😆

Sadly, I have to concede I am the tiny minority.

That would be fine because I wouldn't be feeding it/them.

Although I was quite suprised to sit in a park and look up and above my head was a couple of iguanas (I was in Ecuador).

@lockdownmadnessdotcom

very few people here would cope with living in hot countries where "wild" geckos are encouraged to live in houses as they keep the flying insect population down

there are lots of reasons I would not want to live in a hot country - and you've just given me another one

I found them interesting creatures. The people who exterminated them had loads more issues with flies and mosquitos than we did.

My children named them all after Minions characters 😆

@LonelySock

Gosh, I feel quite shocked at being so far against the majority of responses.

If I'd been your friend, I'd have merely found it amusing and interesting. So much better than a class bear 😆

Safe to say having read this now that very few people here would cope with living in hot countries where "wild" geckos are encouraged to live in houses as they keep the flying insect population down. They are lovely helpful creatures, and the only time I minded sharing my house with them was when one was propelled from the air con unit at speed 😆

Sadly, I have to concede I am the tiny minority.

I am from a hot country with plenty of geckos and other bugs scuttling around ,but I draw the line at taking geckos to other people's houses with a packed lunch. ( the gecko's, not my own)

That would be fine because I wouldn't be feeding it/them.

To be honest, for just a weekend, they wouldn't need to be fed if they were at the start and end back in the gecko host house 🦎

I have kept crickets in the past. They're lovely to listen to.
You can bring what pets you like to my house but I might not want them to leave if they're cute.
I only have room for a pony though not a flock of sheep.

If this is real …. just tell school no. Problem solved.

Poor Gecko. Poor crickets. Why does anybody think this is a good idea to keep creatures in shoeboxes.

This is really weird.

I mean, I like geckos. I do. Despite one running up the leg of my shorts in (the former) Yugoslavia when I was 11. But you're not bringing an abused animal to my house under any circumstances.

Surely by "alive" she meant do not bring live animals with you - so no dog, no chickens and no gecko, it wasn't a dig at your dead pets

@IndraOnTheMountain

Well it’s the class gecko so I don’t have him here yet.. when I do I’ll update with a photo.

The situation has deteriorated. She’s messaged me to say “absolutely no alive animals” - it’s a bit beyond the pale to make jokes about pet death. Especially when it comes to animals we’ve been given such a big responsibility for. I’m quite shocked.
She did apologise for this comment after but I’m still quite upset about it, it seems a bit much really.

I don’t think she’s ‘joking about pet death’ - she is simply stating her boundaries - she doesn’t want you bringing any pets and/or their living foodstuffs to her house.

And the bottom line is that it IS her house, and she is under no obligation to accommodate animals, if she doesn’t want to. The fact that you’d happily welcome geckos as guests is completely irrelevant - you have every right to say what happens in your home but NO right to say what happens in hers.

It really isn’t that hard to understand this.