I'm happy to announce it's Rusty's second birthday! I truly love the little guy, and we've been through a lot over the course of two years.
Although caring for him can be hard sometimes, we always get through it. As a teen, I've been able to cure him of edema (sadly an exotic vet wasn't available anywhere near us) and care for him well overall, which I'm glad I'm able to do. It's crazy I can just search him up and he'll pop up; he may very well be the most famous salamander on Reddit (search up "Rusty from r/salamanders" if you want to try for yourself. He's able to recognize me as an individual through scent and possibly through features, which is insane for his small brain capacity. He's getting a tank upgrade soon, and I'm looking forward to spending the next 20+ years with him.

Loved seeing huge swaths of these guys slither onto every forested trail come dark. Included last is the ginormous spring salamander, the 'trex' of its biota which is more than happy to scarf down any unfortunate jordani that stumbles onto its path

I was flipping rocks in a small stream and found this beautiful Adult Northern Spring Salamander that was around 6 inches long! I put the rock back exactly how I found it and the Spring Salamander went right back underneath the rock! (Ithaca NY)

Not a great picture but the few individuals that I found slipped back into their hidey holes quickly and I didn’t want to harass them. If you’re unfamiliar with this species, they occur only on a single side of one mountain in GA.