Cold Weather Comes (And Issues Arise)

Well, the cold weather is here now (we've had a freeze for three nights in a row now) and with that comes the need for heaters (for us, and the animals) and for most of my animals, the heaters are fine, HOWEVER, for my African fat-tailed gecko, the under-tank heater that I have had for several years quit working! I don't know what is wrong with it but it is so thin (paper thin) that there is not much you can do, so I went to our local pet store to get one (they are pretty common) and they had every heater but the one I needed. They had the Exo-Terra Rain forest heaters in every size, the Exo-Terra Desert heaters (the type I needed because the rain forest ones are half the wattage of the desert ones) in the larger sizes (medium, large, and X-large) but not the smaller ones (Small and X-small) so they said they would order it for me. Well, I went back a week later and asked about it and they said that it had been back ordered and should be there by Friday the 12th. So right now, I am waiting on the heater to come in, having to heat up a reusable hot/cold pack (you microwave it) every few hours and also using a heat lamp (only when I am here because it gets REALLY hot) on my fat-tailed gecko. Smokey and Sunny have taken to sleeping with me more because of the cold weather and I must say that having a kitty (or two kitties) to cuddle with at night and keep you warm is very nice! Fiona likes the cold weather (compared to summer anyway) but still gets cold at night sometimes. My gerbils (Lewis and Clark) get cold and cuddle together at night which is really cute but I give them bedding to stay warm with. The fish tanks are for the most part doing well. The reef tank is not doing as well as I would like (the only thing that is growing and thriving is the mushroom, the polyps are surviving but not growing) because the lighting is NOT strong enough (it is only two watts of PC where as I SHOULD have between four and eight) so I have to start working on that. My leopard gecko (Seze) is doing very well and has a HUGE appetite for crickets (doesn't like meal worms though)! I am trying to keep warm because I am NOT a cold weather person... Brrrr.