When the screaming stopped

As well as making me both sad and angry, the death of Nutty the leopard gecko (see last post) also left us with a problem.  We were book for a child's birthday party two days ago, and the little boy had specifically requested a leopard gecko.

We do have another leopard gecko called Albus, but he's more commonly known as Screamer, or referred to as "that little monster", which indicates the problem.

If I open his vivarium he screams, curls his tail over his back like a scorpion, and throws himself into my face! This has been going on for a year .....

So on Friday night I decided I had to give him one final chance.

I put on some kevlar gloves (he may be only 10cm long, but I'm not taking any risks), opened his vivarium, and put my hand in.  Albus screamed. I was not going to let him win quite that easily, so kept my hand in the vivarium. After five minutes or so he stopped screaming, so I waited a little longer and removed my hand on my own terms.

Twenty minutes later I tried again. No screaming, but he hid in a corner.

Several tries later, I was actually able to pick him up! Still wearing Kevlar gloves, but I actually held him!

So on Saturday morning, early on, I opened his vivarium and found him sitting on top of his coconut. I looked at him; he looked at me. Neither of us screamed ....
Two hours later, with no gloves in sight, he was sitting on my hand to meet a very happy nine-year-old and his friends!

I think we've managed to tame each other.