Snakes, Spiders And All Kinds Of Animals

This morning, I fed two short-tailed opossums, a Sugar Glider, Two Southern Flying Squirrels, an Iguana, 2 box turtles, a Guinea Pig named Reggie, 2 ferrets, a European Collared Dove and a Cusimanse Mongoose named Mister. Yesterday, I fed two Patagonian Cavies, two raccoon (one of them is albino), 2 outdoor Cusimanse Mongooses,  2 Capybara , 2 White tailed deer, 2 Ring-Tailed Lemurs, a  Virginia Opossum, a Moluccan Cockatoo, a Blue and Gold Macaw and the Cuisimanse Mongoose named Mister. I also fed our cats and my daughter's snake, an Okeetee Corn Snake named Precious.

I used to feed Leo, the Boa Constrictor a live rat every two weeks. I would go to Plano Pets and pick up a rat. Then I would put Leo in his feeding crate with the rat and Leo would have lunch. Fortunately, now Leo eats defrosted frozen rats. When my daughter and I volunteered, we fed and looked after the live room animals, which included non-venomous snakes, large geckos, a Blue-tongued skink,  box turtles, a couple of tanks of fish, tarantulas, Madagascar hissing cockroaches and a real cool looking salamander.

A lot of people would say "Eww" when I told them that I looked after snakes and tarantulas. I think snakes and tarantulas are cool. You have to show them proper respect, like you do all wildlife, but they are really interesting creatures. One of the snakes I looked after was a Rough Green Snake. They look just like a vine. They can't harm you, they don't have teeth, they eat crickets. They can, however, musk you. That's where they spray you with a foul smelling liquid if they feel threatened or if you want to clean the snake's cage and it doesn't want it's cage cleaned. It's their method of self-defense.

I love working with animals of all different kinds. We have a "Mystery Spider" at the museum that would probably send some people to the top of chairs shrieking, but I think it's really cool. I'd love to learn more about it. A couple of guys were afraid to go in this one room in the museum because they said there was a tarantula on the counter, but it was just the shed of a tarantula and would not harm a fly. I reassured them that it was not a live tarantula.

My daughter had the job of packing up a bug exhibit last year. It was a little extra money for her. She's done the live room a lot and knows what she's doing. She packed up tarantulas, including a bird-eating tarantula, which is about the size of a dinner plate, scorpions (emperor scorpions which can't harm people), various cockroaches, a huge Katydid and lots of crabs. She did a real good job. She got a Halloween Crab and took wonderful care of it. His name was George. She loves crabs, lobsters and most crustaceans. She's no girly-girl and I like that. She loves snakes, lizards and all animals. She's not real crazy about cockroaches but they aren't high on any popularity list.

I don't fit in with a lot of people because most people don't like snakes, spiders, lizards and unusual insects. When I'm not with my family or museum friends, I have to be careful what I talk about, people get grossed out about defrosted dead mice being fed to snakes. They get antsy at the thought of feeding live crickets, mealworms and earthworms to various animals. Maybe I should just discuss politics.

Cars, buses, transportation..

Yesterday and today I took my son to practice parallel parking. He needs to get his driver's license. We've been putting it off for way too long. To me, the hardest part about getting the license is the parallel parking. I parallel parked once to get my license and never did it again. I've always found a place where to park in a regular parking space and I don't mind walking. Some states don't even require parallel parking anymore, but unfortunately, the state of Texas requires it. After that, you get the proper paperwork, make an appointment for your driver's test, wait in line 5 or 6 long miserable hours, take the test, get your temporary license and then, in about a month, you get your regular license in the mail. In Ohio, you could get your license right away on the day you apply for it, but unfortunately, the state of Texas doesn't have that kind of technology yet.

There needs to be better public transportation around here. In Columbus, Ohio, we had buses. It wasn't always the most pleasant experience, especially when it was summer, the bus's air-conditioning wasn't working and the person who chose to sit next to you hadn't bathed in a while, or wore way too much perfume.  It also wasn't fun when there was standing room only and the women all stood, hanging onto straps while the men all sat and read their newspapers. Still, people who were handicapped had a way to get around. People who didn't have their driver's license had a way to get around and people who just plain didn't want to park in the downtown area had a way to get around. Fort Worth has buses and so does Dallas. Dallas also has the DART train which Stacy likes to take to get to anime conventions. McKinney does not have public transportation and neither does Arlington.

My brother, who lives with us, is mentally retarded. He is unable to drive a car. I have a friend who has a problem with her eyes and cannot drive. There are a lot of people that for various reasons cannot drive a car. These people need public transportation. To me, it seems backwards and barbaric not to have public transportation. This isn't exactly Deadwood or Dodge City.

There is something in McKinney called the C-Cart that handicapped people and senior citizens can take. They used to have two stops in our area and they took both stops away due to lack of money. I see C-Carts every now and then, plugging their way through the streets of McKinney, but I think they only go around the downtown area, which does us and others in our area no good. People like my brother and my friend are stranded.

There are signs around McKinney that said that Money Magazine voted McKinney, Texas to be the 5th best place to live in the country. I'm sure those who voted for that had their own cars and could drive anywhere they wanted to. I think that anyone who would need public transportation would not give McKinney such a high rating. (Also, if they spent a sweltering summer anywhere in Texas like last summer, they wouldn't rate it very high at all.) I think if McKinney really does want to be the 5th best place to live, they need to get a bus system. Now there's the problem of funding.  People around here have plenty of money, I see them tooling around in their Mercedes, Hummers, BMW's and Jaguars. I think that they just don't want to pay taxes for bus service because they won't need or use buses, obviously don't know anyone who does and don't care. 

Maybe McKinney still thinks of themselves as a small town. If they do, they're not in touch with reality. Urban sprawl has engulfed the area and is spreading outwards to areas like Anna and Farmersville. New housing developments are sprouting like weeds, making less of the beautiful fields, prairies and wooded areas, fracturing wildlife habitats and creating more and more traffic. Buses would help alleviate some of that traffic

My brother used to love to take the C-Cart to the store and on errands. It gave him a sense of independence. It gave him a chance to get out and get around town. That was taken away from him. It was taken away from anybody who cannot drive or afford a car. How would you like to lose your independence? It really upset my brother. They didn't even bother to announce that they were shutting down the route. My brother waited outside in the heat for a bus for a long time. The bus never came. He tried the next day, the bus never came. He went home and called C-Cart and they told him they don't run that route any longer. Surprise.

This area needs to grow up and get in touch with reality. We need public transportation. We need a good marketing plan to sell it to the people who are opposed to it. Everyone deserves a way to get around, everyone deserves to have a little independence. Hopefully, someday, when we have reached beyond the galaxy and discovered wonders beyond the far reaches of outer space, maybe, just maybe, they'll get public transportation around here.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! It's a day full of red hearts, heart-shaped boxes of candy, chocolate-dipped strawberries, cookies covered in pink and red icing and lots of beautiful flowers. My husband gave me a beautiful dozen roses and two boxes of sugar-free candy.

Steve and Stacy had a hard time finding sugar-free candy. You'd think with all of the diabetics in the world that there would be an abundance of sugar-free products out there for those of us who are sugar-challenged. I really appreciate them going to the trouble to find me some.

Last night, Stacy and Kristin made bacon roses. They turned out really good. It wasn't easy. They had to cook the bacon in the microwave all curled up with a toothpick and then attach them to stems that used to hold plastic flowers. It was hard to get them to stay and the roses wanted to lean to one side. They did a real good job.

Yesterday, Stacy made a squid cake. It's a regular cake in the shape of a squid. She used candy from a candy necklace for the suckers. It had nothing to do with Valentine's Day, she just wanted to make a squid cake. It turned out really nice.

Hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day.

Snow Day

 It was supposed to snow last night. We did have flurries. That was nice. I'm glad we at least got flurries. I was starting to worry that we wouldn't get any snow this year. I love snow. It looks so pretty when it sticks to all of the trees. It's really beautiful at the Heard when it snows. Last year, it snowed a lot. I got some pictures at the Heard of the snow.

It was really pretty. In Texas, the snow doesn't stay very long. It's rare for the snow to stay much longer than a day or two and I always feel sad when it melts because it might be a very long time before I see snow again. In Ohio, snow would stay around several days sometimes. It would melt and then re-freeze and make the roads really slippery. It would also get dirty and in places, turn into brown or black slush and that would also re-freeze. Still, I would be sad when it melted and especially sad if it rained and the rain melted the snow. Now that I'm in Texas and we've been having the worst drought in history, I'm always glad to see rain.

One year, it snowed about 5 inches on Valentine's Day. We had no idea that it was going to snow and I was getting disgusted with Texas because it never snowed, at least in this part of Texas. In the middle of the night, my husband told me to look outside and it was a winter wonderland. Big fluffy flakes of snow that looked like goose down feathers were floating from the sky and the world looked like a cake that had just been frosted with snow.

A lot of people think snow is miserable because it's cold. I agree, it's cold, but I still think it's pretty. I especially like it when I don't have to drive in it. I also like it when there are no rolling black-outs like there was last year. It's fun to build a snowman or snow dog. Once, Stacy built a snow Dalek (from Dr. Who). It's fun to have snowball fights. Once when it snowed, Stacy and her friend, Kristin walked around and made big shapes in the snow.

I remember when the kids were little when we lived in Arlington. We didn't get much snow one year and the kids had to collect snow with their wagon from several neighbor's yards in order to get enough snow to build a snowman. The kids would play outside and then would come in to warm up by the fireplace and get some cocoa and then go right back outside to play in the snow some more. There was a hill in the neighborhood that was great for tobogganing. We didn't have a sled, so we improvised by using the lid of a turtle-shaped sand box. It worked pretty well.

One year, the kids built a snowman before school because the snow was going to melt that day. They gave it a carrot nose. When I got back from taking the kids to school, the snow had already started melting and the carrot had fallen from the face to a place on the snowman that was a little embarrassing. I removed it quickly and hoped that none of the neighbors saw it.

The kids had a lot of fun in the snow. I had a lot of fun in the snow. I hope we get some snow this year, but we might not. I was thankful to get the flurries.

Angry Birds and Valentines

Well, it was another day of putting food and various goods into bags for people to cart home. One lady was so impatient that she just threw the rest of the stuff she had bought into the cart after I had bagged most of her purchases. I have no idea what her problem was, I was putting her stuff into bags as quickly as possible without ruining anything. I think she had a bug up her backside that had nothing to do with us. Maybe she couldn't get beyond a certain level in 'Angry Birds' and those pigs just sat there grunting. Sometimes you only get 3 of the yellow birds and one of the green boomerang birds or the red dude that doesn't do anything except fly through the air and if those pigs are in an underground concrete bunker, it just isn't easy.

It's getting closer to Valentine's Day. There's a big white tent out in the Kroger parking lot for people who just want to pick up a quick bouquet without walking into the store. The only problem is that today, it was a little cold out there. People who had been working outside in the tent came in with rosy cheeks, looking like they'd been out on the frozen tundra. I don't know how much business they were doing out there in that tent today. It wasn't that busy in the store today, maybe people were staying home and playing 'Angry Birds.' It can be pretty hard to get those green pigs and they just sit there and grunt and chuckle, "hehehehh..."

It's starting to snow outside! Snow is rare in Texas. This cold weather we're having is unusual. Weather other than searing heat is unusual in Texas. I wish it would snow a little on my day off. If it did sleet or snow tomorrow, Jeff and I would still have to go in and take care of the outside animals. We also take care of a few animals who are inside as well. In the exhibit hall, there are two birds, a Moluccan Cockatoo names 'Crystal' and a Blue and Gold Macaw named 'Sweetie.' They're not angry birds, although Crystal gets angry sometimes if you don't pay enough attention to him. Neither he nor Sweetie have any inclination to want to fling themselves at a bunch of green pig heads under piles of wood, glass and concrete.

Angry Birds is quite popular, there is a holiday edition and a Rio edition of it. Here's an idea, how about a Kroger edition, where pigs have stolen the eggs out of the dairy department and are hunkered down in the meat department. The birds can wear little blue Kroger shirts and fling themselves via the slingshot at the pigs as customers walk through with their carts. I've been bagging too much.

There could be a game called 'Angry Customers' where customers would fling groceries at cashiers and baggers who are hiding under wood, glass and concrete structures next to cash registers.  If the customers didn't get them all, the cashiers and baggers could go, "Hehehehehe..." Yeah, I've definitely been bagging too much.

There are all kinds of possibilities for this game. Here, the birds are flinging themselves at Tippi Hedren and they've gone back in time!

You could also have a Valentine's Day edition of Angry Birds.

Then you pull back the slingshot, loaded with the assigned bird, you let loose and by some lucky happenstance, the whole mess of lumber and concrete falls in on those darn pigs and you wait for the birds to yell, "Woohoo!"

Ahh, but lo and behold, there's still a lone, solitary pig under the bunker going "heheheheh..."

Dugongs Getting Carts Full of Valentine Candy

The title sounds goofier than this blog actually is.

It was cold today. I had to get carts a lot. Pushing carts around in a parking lot when it's 27 degrees outside is not a lot of fun. Then I saw somebody's little girls who didn't have on coats, one was dressed in a tank top with slacks  and the other had long sleeves but was wearing flip-flops. It was 27 freaking degrees out there! What goes on in the heads of those parents!?

 I put a lot of groceries in to plastic bags and some into paper bags. I hate paper bags, they may be more 'green' but they are a pain in the butt when you are trying to package groceries quickly and properly. Then there are some people who want to do their own bagging while I am also bagging their food. They get real creative about what they put together, air fresheners in with regular food, stuff like that. There was one lady last week who insisted it was perfectly alright to put raw meat, including raw chicken into her re-usable bags because she washes them out. Unless she uses bleach, that will not eliminate the bacteria. Everybody wants to be a bagger!

People are gearing up for Valentine's Day. They wanted to sell things out of the big tent they have set up, but it was too cold. It is real pretty with all of the flowers. There are also loads of balloons and stuffed animals and a big wall of candy. They were selling big strawberries dipped in chocolate. 

My daughter and her friend went to a reptile convention in Arlington. Her friend got a cute little hog nose snake. They had a good time and saw all kinds of snakes and lizards. 

The tire pressure sign is on in the white Honda because it is cold and that does a number on the tire pressure. At least I don't have a flat. We have a house, not a flat (British humor).

My husband got Kentucky Fried Chicken tonight and I really appreciated that.

Tonight, Snuffy was being real sweet. My husband was holding him and I was petting Snuffy and he let us. It was a nice moment. I wish I could have spent more time petting Snuffy, he's a sweet cat.

Tomorrow, I will go to work and put more food into plastic bags for people. Tippi is on the table again. I have tried to come up with something more fun and goofy, but my brain isn't cooperating.

The Dugong song is running through my head again. Dugong, Dugong, it's the cow of the sea, also known as the manatee... It doesn't have wings, cause that would be silly, It doesn't live in a tree, that would also be silly...

Maybe I'll do what my daughter has suggested, write a blog about interesting light bulbs.

Animal Adoption

There was an article this morning in the Allen, Frisco, McKinney insert in the Dallas Morning News about a little dog named 'Squirt' and how this family had adopted him. It's called "Saved from kill shelter, Squirt finds happiness" by Kathryn Horner. This is one of the few uplifting stories that the paper has had to offer.  Squirt had been abused and neglected and this family worked hard at rehabilitating him. This little dog is positively adorable and I can't understand how anyone could have possibly even thought of being mean to him.They learned that by adopting another dog, this dog would help Squirt to socialize and it worked. The dog, named 'Minnie' has helped Squirt tremendously. The article said, "Squirt has grown this past year from distrusting and timid to a curious, tail wagging confident dog." It's a good story with a happy ending, I just wish that Squirt hadn't been abused in the first place.

I remember when we first got Kandy, our golden retriever/corgi mix from a rescue organization who was adopting through Petsmart, when we brought her home, my husband tried to pet her and Kandy backed off because she thought he was going to hit her." He was shocked and hurt. He would never do such a horrible thing. Over time, Kandy learned that he was a nice person and loved to spend time with him. She would wait by the door in anticipation of him coming home from work. When he would walk though the door, Kandy would greet him lovingly with her tail wagging like mad. Kandy was a beautiful, loving, intelligent dog and we loved her. She was a rescue dog.

All of our animals have been rescued in one way or another. Mocha, Snuffy and Sprinkles came from the SPCA. Tippi and her kittens were living on the street after Tippi's former owner had moved away and left her. Peppermint and her siblings were abandoned at a construction site in Arlington and we got her through a pet store that was trying to find them homes. We had to have Patches put to sleep because she was 18 and dying (she had also been a rescue cat that neighbors had left outside to fend for her own) and we wanted to get a kitten. Kittens aren't easy to find in January. We looked at the shelter and at other pet stores. I called around to area pet stores to see if anyone had any kittens. This one pet store used *69 to call us back to tell us they had just gotten in a litter of kittens. We had first met Peppermint's brother, but he was real skittish. When they brought Peppermint out, she looked at all of the cat toys they had on display and it was like a little kid seeing piles of toys in a toy store. She had this look of wonder and curiosity in her eyes and had no fear whatsoever. She was also a beautiful Russian Blue mix. We fell in love with her immediately. Peppermint and I bonded and became the best of friends.

We had a cat named 'Slinky' who was living off the streets. He had been abandoned and would hunt rats in the storm sewers and help himself to people's barbecues when they weren't looking. One night, when there was supposed to be an ice storm, Jeff took  him in because he was afraid that Slinky would die out in the cold. After the ice storm came through and the ice melted, we took him to the vet for shots and a health check-up. She said that he was FIV positive, would only live about 3 years and that we should have him put to sleep immediately. We decided not to do that. We kept him and he was the sweetest, most loving cat that we'd ever had. He lived longer than 3 years, he lived 8 years before the FIV took its' toll on him. He got to be a huge cat and was really happy. He would lay on the bed and purr when it was cold and rainy outside because he was so happy that he was not out in it.

Adopting or rescuing an animal is the best thing someone can do. I don't understand why people pay large sums of money for exotic animals that they later find out they are not able to properly take care of. There's a lady who had to have a face transplant because her pet chimpanzee tore her face off. If she had gone to a shelter and adopted a puppy or kitten, she would still have her original face. As I mentioned yesterday, some guy had his drywall torn up by a pet raccoon, he would have been better off adopting a dog or cat from a shelter. So many people don't realize how hard it is to take care of a wild animal and don't understand that a wild animal will act on instinct and bite them if the animal feels threatened.

There's a book about Christian, the lion.There's a famous reunion video on You Tube where these guys go to Africa for a happy reunion with Christian. These guys who bought him at Harrods in the 1970's knew that this lion was going to get huge and they did the right thing for him; They were lucky to have George Adamson (husband of Joy Adamson, author of  'Born Free') to help Christian to adjust to life in the wild land of Africa.

Also, when adopting a cat or dog from a shelter, you are saving a life. Cats and dogs are easy to take care of (depending on the dog, some are easier than others). Also, people should spay and neuter their pets. It's hard enough to find homes for puppies and kittens that are already out there.