Just a note to let you know that I'm OK.
Just haven't posted in a while. (Then I upgraded Firefox and lost my blinkety blankety password too. Humph.)
Hannukah and Christmas are done. (Yay!) We actually had a guest over for Christmas--very unusual for us, but made it much less morose for me. The kids are out of school until Jan 7 or 8.
Best Holiday news? My son, bless him, worked really really really hard on his behavior and earned a reward that he picked for himself: A Corn Snake.
So far the snake is a little freaked out--we covered his terrarium with computer paper so my son wouldn't get right up next to the glass and peeeeeer in on him. But we've handled him a few times since he came home on Saturday, and he's very friendly once he calms down.
He's a Miami phase corn snake which means that his saddles will mature to a burgundy color and his background will be either tan or tan with silver. Because of the silver, ours is named "Cloudy Sky." I'll try for a picture in the next few weeks after he's calmed down some. Cloudy Sky's probably about 15 inches long and not quite the diameter of my little finger. Here's a picture of an adult Miami Phase from South Mountain Reptiles:
Pretty, huh?
I've been spending hours and hours on the various herp boards looking at pictures. My favorite "morph" of these guys is a really dark charcoal though. Great, a new time waster.
7 comments:
1. I'm glad you popped in.
2. I think your a nut!! Snakes give me the heebeejeebees and now I know I'm going to have my scary snake dream when I get one and it turns into hundreds and hundreds and *dead faint*
CindyS
I think you and I are in the minority when it comes to not being freaked out by snakes :) That baby sure is prettier than the ugly old garter snakes I used to play with when I was a kind.
When I get pics of Cloudy Sky, I'll be sure to post 'em. But gee whiz, that's not going to be easy. Fast little guy when he's had enough handling. (Kinda like a garter snake, now that I think about it.)
I've always liked snakes. Lizards, not so much. But I never wanted to feed snakes. However, pet stores now sell frozen whole mice. (I can totally deal with already been dead rodents.) Just never wanted to drop a wriggling cute little mouse into a cage so I could watch a pet eat it. Blegh.
Anyway, son loves his snake, Eldest daughter loved her tree frogs, and now Youngest Daughter is hankering for a hamster. Dear Butcher isn't coming out of this one ahead. He'd really like to stick with just the one dog, thank you very much.
Tell the youngest to investigate gerbils instead. They're communal and raise their young together. Lots of fun. Lots of young. (Which could translate to lots to feed to the cold blooded friends . . . hmmm.) Seriously, we tried a hamster and I for one promptly decided I hated them when she took a big bite out of my finger. Very territorial animals.
Gerbils on the other hand never gave us a bit of trouble. Other than keeping them in cages. Not that they really chewed out of the cages or anything like that, just that we were constantly adding to their cages. They're the ones that the pet stores have all those tunnel things on display for because they live in underground colonies in the desert. And they are fun to watch as they make a food cache here, a play area there, a sleeping area in another place, etc, etc. All while managing babies and each other. Busy, busy, busy.
I definitely recommend gerbils. :D
And yes, we've also had reptiles in the past. Turtles. Eastern Box. Amy raised two - a brother and a sister - from hatchlings that her uncle uncovered plowing and kept them for about five years before they just disappeared out of their pen. We never did figure out if they escaped or were "helped" along . . . :(
Thankfully no snakes, though.
Oh, and I just rememebered that when Amy was small, like around 3 or 4, she had a guinea pig and loved holding and playing with that thing. So that's a gentle option if you really want to keep it to one or two.
Oh My--I Luuuurve Gerbils. They are the very best of the pocket rodents. But, would you believe it, they are illegal in California. Mice, no prob. Hamsters, yep. Gerbils? If they get out they will destroy crops.
And I've looked into guinea pigs too--I love em, but they need quite a bit of room to be happy.
Actually, what I'd REALLY like, although I can't do it with my dog, is a house rabbit. My dog would eat the rabbit within about twenty minutes (Squeakie Toy!), but one day I'd love to get back into cats and have dove grey gerbils.
Well, bummer on the gerbil ban. But understandable considering the desert.
As to the guinea pigs and room, we got Amy hers because we were in an apartment at college at the time and couldn't have a dog or cat so I don't see them needing all that much space. No more than a large aquarium anyway in terms of cage. She used to pack hers around outside the cage in a large plastic Easter basket into which she'd toss bits and pieces of carrot, celery and lettuce. He'd sit on her lap on a towel for hours sleeping while she was "grooming" him, which usually consisted of occasionally giving him a brush during commercials of cartoons if I remember correctly. That was one spoiled guinea pig. :D
He's pretty. Looks poisonous too, which is always a plus. Your blog announcement with the matching snakey font is special too.
Hey I like snakes--just dreams about them seem kind of obvious.
Glad you're back in the blogosphere!
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