Sam U'Ren: How many pets do you have?
Jon Merrill: I have two currently, a dog and a lizard.
SU: A lizard?
JM:Yeah! A bearded dragon.
SU:That's pretty cool. How did you decide on a bearded dragon?
JM:When we were living in Las Vegas, we used to get the little wild geckos in the backyard and we caught one one day. We put him in a cage but he obviously wasn't thriving in that environment so we let him go but then we got the idea of getting one as a pet and we went to the reptile store and got one as a baby. And when we got him as a baby, her name is RuPaul, because we didn't know her gender so we said that she's genderfluid and she goes by she or he.
SU: That's pretty cool!
JM:It's pretty sweet, yeah!
SU:So how old are both of your pets then?
JM:RuPaul will be three this summer and Canelo will be five.
SU:Where did you get Canelo?
JM:In Las Vegas, we rescued him from a shelter.
SU:You already spoke about RuPaul, but how did you decide on the name Canelo?
JM:We wanted something Vegas themed and we were thinking fighters and stuff. My wife's Mexican and we were fans of Canelo the fighter. And Canelo means cinnamon in Spanish and he's kind of a brownish, cinnamon looking color so it worked out.
SU: What's the best thing about having pets while playing in the NHL?
JM: I think it's just like, with dogs especially, no matter what, you win the game, you lose the game, you come home and you open the door and the dog has the same reaction every time which is nice.
SU: During the season, how often do you get to see them?
JM: In a normal season, every day when we're home, but unfortunately this year my family's in Colorado so not as often as I'd like.
SU:Do you have any favorite moments or memories with either of them?
JM:You know what, there's one story that sticks out but it's with our previous dog, our husky. We were living in California at the time in the off season and we went to the beach the day before Father's Day and we were laying out, and had just one kid at the time, and the dog was laying beside me and I wasn't paying attention but she was eating sand the whole day. That night, she woke up and got sick all over the whole house. It was supposed to be my first Father's Day and I had to rush the dog to the emergency room. The sand got packed in her intestines so she couldn't pass anything through so her body was freaking out, but yeah it was a bummer on the day. That's more of a crazy story I guess. But really just spending time with them, playing fetch in the backyard, just to see them around the kids is really nice. Animals were a big part of my life as a kid and just something that I wanted to share with my children as well.
SU: That was my next question actually, did you have pets growing up?
JM: Yeah we had dogs always. It was always so fun to just interact with them.
SU: If you could describe RuPaul and Canelo in one word, what would it be?
JM:Loyal. I think animals, especially dogs, they just have that unconditional love when you provide them with food and shelter and the love, they give it back to you unconditionally so I would say loyalty for sure.
