9 SASSAFRAS

CHAPTER 9 SASSAFRAS? I woke up early and reached out to give Sassafras his morning snuggle. His usual spot by my feet was cold and empty. I sat up and looked around my room. No Sassafras. "Sassafras?" I hollered. "Sassafras?" Still nothing. He was always here when I woke up. Where could he be? He had to be around here somewhere. Maybe he went out to the barn? I quickly threw

on a jacket and a hat. It sure was cold out. I opened the barn door and called out, "Sassafras? Are you in here?" Instead of running to greet me, I heard him meow from Marshmallow's pen. I peeked at them. "Sassafras! You scared me. What are you doing in here? Were you missing Marshmallow, sweet boy?" I held out my hand, expecting Sassafras to come over for his morning cuddles. But he wouldn't budge from the dragon's side. I got closer and put a hand down to pet both Sassafras and Marshmallow. As soon as my hand touched Marshmallow's back, I jumped. He was like a block of ice! Why was he so cold? And he wasn't moving. Oh no! Something was really wrong.

And then it hit me. Our little dragon was a reptile. How could I have forgotten that reptiles can't make their own heat? I jumped to my feet in search of a heater. Thankfully, the third cabinet I looked in had one. I let out a big sigh of relief. I plugged it in and set it in the pen facing the dragon.

I should have remembered this! Only a few months ago, my friend Sophie went on vacation. She had just gotten the sweetest little baby lizard as a pet. I was over-the-moon excited to watch him while she was gone. When she brought him over, this big lamp thing was resting on top of his terrarium. Sophie told me it was his heat lamp, and she made me pinky promise to be really careful about always leaving it on. I thought that was weird, so I asked her why. "He needs something to make him warm all the time. He's cold-blooded, so he can't do it himself," she told me. "If you don't plug in the lamp, he can get really sick — or die!" After Sophie left, I asked my mom to tell me

more about what being cold-blooded meant. "Reptiles are cold-blooded," Mom told me. "Mammals like Sassafras and us keep warm using energy from the food we eat. We can even keep ourselves the same temperature by sweating when we are too hot and shivering when we are too cold. We are warm-blooded animals. "But reptiles like Sophie's lizard can't use food energy to keep themselves warm," she continued. "Reptiles can't shiver to warm themselves up either. They are cold-blooded animals. In the mornings, you can often spot cold-blooded animals warming their bodies with heat from the sun. Once they're warm enough, they slither, crawl, or hop away! At night and in the winter, they find caves or burrows or other animals to huddle up with to keep warm. It's important to keep pet reptiles at a safe temperature using something like a heat lamp."

Good thing Mom had a little heater out here in the barn! Now that the pen was nice and warm, the baby dragon started moving a bit. He picked up his head. Phew. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Marshmallow took a few more steps, then stumbled and fell to the ground. He didn't get up. I fixed the temperature. I fed him the night before. What could be going on?