Walking into a classroom, one of the first things you may notice is a pet enclosure at the back of the room. Whether it be a terrarium, tank, or cage, just know that you’ll make great memories with whoever lives inside. Class pets come in all shapes and sizes. Most class pets are animals that are easy to take care of, like insects, fish, reptiles, and rodents. Although a more common practice in earlier years of education, Arcata High has many class pets that reside in the science wing.
Rex is a bearded dragon and Shannon Kresge’s class pet. Rex doesn’t mind being messed with. He is very social and loves to roam around, hitting the glass on his terrarium whenever he gets the “zoomies”. Whether in the school halls or at home, he also loves to sunbathe along with Kresge’s cat, Gracie. Kresge takes Rex home at the end of the day. Because of this, Gracie and Rex share a special bond. Kresge shares that some of the best memories that she has of Rex are him running around with Gracie at home.
Every day, Rex eats a variety of organic collard greens. A couple of times a week, he gets crickets for protein. After Kresge’s previous bearded dragon had passed away, Rex was adopted from Eureka’s pet shop, Fin-N-Feather. Rex was very small at the time Kresge got him, and the students in that classroom were able to watch him grow to a significant size over the 2022-23 school year.
Bearded dragons are born in litters of 30-50 eggs, but Rex doesn’t have known siblings or relatives. At a young age, bearded dragons are solitary and fight often, especially if they’re male. As a result, if a pet store holds bearded dragons with their brothers and sisters, some will have toes or parts of their tails missing. Rex has a broken thumb, but it’s unclear if it’s a result of fights between his relatives. If there’s one negative trait about Rex, it would be his poops. Rex tends to do his business on the classroom floor, which fills the room with an intensely foul odor, according to Kresge, her students, and her teacher’s assistant, Rory Pitts.
Rory has taken care of Rex over Christmas break last year. Rex also needs a caretaker this Summer from June 21st to August 1st. Email Shannon Kresge at [email protected] if you’re interested! Rory learned many things about Rex over those two weeks. “Rex is very fun. He’s a little goofball, but he can be annoying sometimes. It’s fun to hang out with him, but it’s not fun when you have to feed him roaches,” Rory said. “The worst part of having him in my room is his poops. It’s annoying to clean up, especially when he does it on the floor.” Whenever Rex is allowed to run around on the floor, sometimes he will get the “zoomies” and try to run away into the hallway. Rex also has a “mountain” inside Kresge’s room, which isn’t meant for him, but he loves climbing it anyway. Whenever Rex disappears, you can usually find him at his mountain or curled up in a random spot.
