Colorado

 Author's Note: This piece is for my writing circle group. We wrote about the 3 facts and a fiction, and I picked the fact about how I have a pet salamander.

  I was bored out of my mind as I sat in my packed van. My Dad was driving, staring off towards the traffic while my mother read a book that seemed to entertain her. My sister was in a deep sleep, occasionally mumbling random words that made no sense. She was probably sleep-talking. So that left me, stuck solving word searches and playing cards by myself. We were about 30 minutes from our destination. This had been a long and tiresome, 24 hour drive.

 I decided to look out the window to pass the time. I became mesmerized by the pitter-patter of the rain drops. It was consistent: never taking a break as it fell down. It almost seemed like the background music to a lullaby. As I day-dreamed, I fell into a calm sleep. Before I knew it, we had arrived, and I became very excited! We had finally made it to Colorado!

 I jumped out of the van faster than anyone imagined me capable of. I sprinted towards my brother and his girlfriend with my family slightly behind. We had this long group hug and there was silence for only a moment. But then, we all rambled on about the drive and how their experience has been down there before we arrived. It was all small-talk until my brother brought up this one story about something him and his girlfriend had found in the pool that they life-guarded for. They began explaining how one they were life-guarding, this guy said he thought he saw something unusual in the water. Some brave souls decided to take a closer look. They braced themselves for the worst, but it ended up being a small, harmless salamander! A tiger salamander to be exact. Nathan and Shannon decided to take the little fellow in. They rambled on about how they finally were allowed to keep it. Shannon had told us that the guy who originally found it named him Walter. The guy didn't want to keep it and wasn't able to take him home, so Shannon and Nathan took over. They didn't change his name because they felt the name suited him perfectly well.

They ended up showing us the salamander, and fed it moths. It was very vicious when it came to food. Although, it didn't hurt when he bit you because he doesn't have any teeth.

Nathan and Shannon wanted to take him home, but they couldn't because they were leaders at the camp in Colorado. So we ended up taking Walter home and put him in a fish aquarium. Now he has a brand new reptile aquarium and everything. We now feed him dry crickets and occasionally the wild moth if there's one around. He sometimes even eats pinky mice which we feed him on special occasions. He isn't very active during the day, his usual day is just burrowing in the soil. Other than that, he's a great pet and eats when he's fed!