Ooooo...you so nasty!

We have our very own Spiderus living on the front porch. You can only know who Spiderus is if you have little kids who watch Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. I couldn't find a picture of the cartoon Spiderus.

Looks like Mary's spider.

My mini-marsh, like every thing else, is bone dry. And cracked open. And sad. But at least some butterflies are enjoying the massive patch of goldenrod growing there.

I had a very nice, long belly-laugh tonight.
Some background: We have not had good luck with pet snails in the girls' fishtanks. Geoff went to the pet store a few weeks ago and bought some cheap little snails, and we decided that if we couldn't keep these guys alive, we would give up on the snails.
Wellllllll...
While putting the girls to bed tonight, I noticed some spots on the inside of Lorelei's fishtank. Oh, man, now what? ! A weird type of algae or creeping water fungus?
Nope. Baby snails. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Geoff bought a pregnant snail.



This is a macro shot of one. Some are no more than minuscule dots, and the largest ones are about half the size of a BB.



Such tiny perfection. I counted 56 such tiny perfections in Lorelei's tank. And that's not counting the two egg sacks hiding behind the filter.
I laughed some more.



Henry the Betta was interested in the little flashing light on my camera.
See the two babies? They are cute.
I laughed a little bit more.

Then we put Isabelle to bed, and as I was feeding Cuter, her Betta, I noticed some spots on the inside of the tank. Yep. That snail had babies, too. I laughed again. I was so tickled...every other snail we have added to the tanks has died within a few days. And now, we have a few hundred immaculately conceived snails. I have some research to do...how does a snail give birth 2 weeks after being removed from the company of other snails? Do they keep the "stuff" inside themselves until they are ready to lay eggs? Eewww.
I have to see if these snails are a native species, because if they aren't releasable, say in the fountain/bird bath, I have to dispose of them. Eewww.

Speaking of long-awaited births....the Cincinnati Zoo's female Indian Rhino Nikki, is due to give birth the week of Christmas this year.
Nikki’s pregnancy is not only the first successful artificially inseminated pregnancy in the endangered Indian rhino, but also the first pregnancy produced in any rhino species using frozen-thawed sperm. Sperm was collected from a male Indian rhino named Himal, living at The Wilds in southeastern Ohio, near Bill and Julie's neck of the woods..
Not to diminish the huge news of this scientific breakthrough, but I had to ask myself:
How do you collect sperm from a male rhino?
Smirking Hooper knows:

"That's a no-brainer. You give him a few back copies of National Geographic and he knocks on the door when he's done."

Operation *Super - Duper Hooper*

Hi. My name is Hooper.
My Mom couldn't keep me, so her best friend took me in. And while my new family would love to keep me, they are wondering if anyone could fall in love with me.

I have very pretty blue eyes...

...I guess that's because I have some Malamute and/or Husky in me. We don't know much about me and my history except for this: A friend of my Mom's saw me over her fence, in the neighbor's yard, with no food, water or shelter, and I don't even know how old I am. It was Winter, and I was not being taken care of. The two of them snuck in during the night and dog-napped me, but I didn't mind. Finally I was fed, warm and loved.

I have a big booty...

...but I am still a gorgeous dog, if I do say so myself.

Since I am a "Northern" dog, I have a lot of hair, so brushing me is a must.
I don't like my nails being trimmed, but I love baths. In fact, the first thing I did when I got here was to jump into the kiddie pool. And since I was bred for work, like pulling sleds, I need my daily exercise.


I enjoy hanging out with kids. My old family had a BOY that I loved. I miss him.
But the little people who live here really love me and I think they are sweet.

I am very, very gentle and calm...

...even though I am bigger than most kids I meet.

I am so calm, I heard my new Mom ask my old Mom if she gave me Qualludes, whatever they are. But even though I am a very relaxed dog, I can still play with the best of 'em.

I get along with other dogs, like my new buddy Nellie...


...and I think cats are neat, too. I've only met one of the cats in this house, because scary things happened to the others, with a dog that used to live here. I hear that he didn't like cats at all.

So, do you like me?

This dove is such a fantastic pet. I let him out for about an hour a day, while I am down here, and the cats are not.
He flies around from place to place, cooing and making the funniest "ha-ha-ha-ha" call. He also bows a lot as he coos, making it more likely that he is a he. Julie called him a "Eurasian Collared Dove" and I have seen the names "Turtle Dove", "Barbary Dove" and "Laughing Dove".
Well, whatever he is, I love him.
And she suggested the name "Euro"....
Hmmm...

Today he read up on some of his roommates.

And he was interested in what I was working on.
(My blog, of course)
He's just so tame...he flew over and landing on my shoulder today, and I felt honored.
What a cutie. I am working on getting his tail feathers back into shape. His perches weren't in the best arrangement, so his tail has been knocked around for years.

I put my hummingbird feeder out too early again. I do this every year, but it's even harder to predict when they will show up this year. I just hope that the hummingbirds know what they are doing and migrated late this time.
I noticed white fluffy stuff in the sugar water, so I went out and brought it in to change it.
It was like wading through a prairie out in the back yard...and the irony is that even though we got our mower fixed, it has been raining for the past few days, and I have only had the opportunity to mow the front yard. The grass in back is as high as my knees in some areas. Wow. Next thing we will have is snakes in the house. Eek.

I love this picture...but I also worry when I see birds bathing in the low point of our driveway. We are careful to keep oil and gasoline off the blacktop, but just by driving our cars on it creates a layer of gunk.
Baby wrenlet update: All of them are fine. When I peek in, I see five gaping mouths and they seem quite vigorous. The parents have been cleaning me out of mealworms the past few days. They are medium worms, and even if they are too big to feed to the babies right now, it's helping Mom and Dad Wren by filling their cute little bellies.

The birds in my life

On a trip to the dog park today (which was such a waste...I hate it when there are only one or two dogs there. I want Dog-O-Rama!) I got a picture of this female red-winged blackbird. It's funny, but I don't remember ever seeing one. Before I was a birder, I guess I assumed that the males and females looked alike.

Drumroll....
Our baby Carolina wrens have arrived.
Yes, it's a bad picture...but they choose a nesting box that really isn't functional: No doors, no way to open it and see down into it. All I did to it was drill a few holes in the bottom for drainage.
Fuzzy, cute little wrenlets!



And now, an introduction.
A new family member...
My sister-in-law, Anne, called today and asked if I would take one of her animals. She is having some back trouble and finding it hard to care for some of her critters. So I agreed to take one.
Her ring-necked dove.


She isn't sure if this is the male or female. She had both at one time, and they were very successful at breeding. Then one of them died, and she just isn't sure which one this is.
Hey Science Chimp! Have any ideas on how to sex a ring-necked dove? My Internet searches aren't coming up with anything. My luck is that ring-necked doves aren't sexually dimorphic.
We also need to rename this bird.
I've never seen such a sweet, calm bird in my life. He/she perches on our hands, likes to be stroked and kissed, and makes the most beautiful, eerie cooing you could imagine.

Geoff didn't even care. My brother and his family have always helped us when we needed it.

Lorelei kept saying "Ow! Ow!" while the dove was perched on her hand. She has been leery of getting hurt ever since one of Kevin and Rachel's rats bit her.

But Isabelle is in love.
She's never held a bird before. Our parakeets are not interested in any human interaction. Anyone want a pair of parakeets?
I just loved watching Isabelle hold and pet and kiss this dove. She was so proud of herself.
So, a new critter in Critterville.