dragon slayer!

In a small, shingled 100-year-old farmhouse near Fowler, Calif., there lives a two-headed bearded dragon lizard.

Zak-n-Wheezie celebrated their first birthday this month, making them possibly the longest-living two-headed bearded dragon lizard on record, and landing owners Barbara and Frank Witte in a "Ripley's Believe it or Not!" cartoon.

When Zak-n-Wheezie were younger, the Wittes laid low to make sure no one searching for an oddity would find their one-in-a-million (actually, statistically speaking, two-in-a-million) pet.

"There were numerous circus-sideshow people looking for me," Barbara Witte says. "But I'm not looking to get them in the sideshow world."

Frank's brother did some research and told the Wittes not to sell Zak-n-Wheezie for anything less than a million dollars — that there were people out there who would pay that much to eat the Wittes' pet.

"There are people who will pay large amounts to eat a two-headed critter. They think it will give them eternal life," says Frank Witte, shaking his head.

The couple say that dragon lizards are cuddly and affectionate and that each has a distinct personality — including the separate heads of Zak-n-Wheezie.

"They are two lizards with one body, not one lizard with two heads," says Frank.

source: http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-petsdragon.artjul12,0,1872309.story?page=1