I've come to the conclusion....

[Lacibeth]

Well if you add them all up, it's about 1/3 body so I'm gonna claim tattooed, but no reptiles at home at the moment.

I work with a bunch of nature nuts, so conversations tend to go more like this:

Summer camp staffer "Oh, my hissing cockroach is dead." Fellow naturalist "Oh no, what happened?" SCS "One of this kids stepped on it. So we had a memorial service and buried it in the forest." And yes, there's a little twig cross marking the site.

My mom will actually come over just so she can feed and hold the frog.

[SkeletalFrog]

This is why I prefer academia so much - everyone here works on odd animals, and sympathizes with attachment to them.

The downside is that right after they say "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that", they'll follow with "By the way, would you mind letting me dissect it / collect tissue samples / etc.?"

[artes]

People know better than to make fun of me for having any type of pet. I'm more protective of my pets than some people are of kids. However, if anybody did, once I got done bawling my eyes out, the words coming out of my mouth would not be appropriate.

[Baelari]

My mom will actually come over just so she can feed and hold the frog.

My brother pestered me until I let him hold Lump. He got peed on for his efforts (little fatty can turn himself into a water cannon!), but was happy to be able to hold the frog for a moment.

I guess I'm lucky to have more people who like frogs than think they're a creepy pet.