Are You an Animal Geek?

Carol, at May Dreams Gardens, has published several posts with questionnaires to help you determine if you might be a Gardening Geek...

Here at Sherry's Zoo and Garden, we would like to know if you might be an animal geek.....

Let's start easy.

1.Give yourself one point for every pet you have right now. Do not count fish. Do not count feral cats.

2. Go ahead and give yourself a bonus point for every pet that you have owned other than a dog, cat, or fish.


This was Scabbers, may he rest in peace.....






This is the Duck-eating ferret, Snow.











Oh, by the way, if you have ever "dumped an animal" (defined as dropping it off at someone's house/farm, that you didn't know) (L), or flushed a live fish down a toilet (J), you are definately NOT an animal geek. However, you may continue reading for entertainment purposes only.


3. Give yourself 2 points if you have ever had a wild animal come into your house through your dog door.

Bonus points if the wild animal has found your stash of pet food and helped themselves.

Stop and go no further if you actually killed the invader... you know you're not an animal geek. Again, you may continue for entertainment purposes only.

4. Give yourself a point if your spouse has ever given you an animal as anniversary present. Bonus point if it was a reptile or other non-fuzzy critter.

Subtract a point if you later found a "new home" for the "gift."

5. Give yourself a point if you use live mouse traps, and take great care to release the mice.

6. Give yourself a point if you have ever stood in line to see an Animal Planet celebrity. Bonus points for each hour that you waited.



Another bonus point if you identified the man in the picture as Jeff Corwin.

7. Give yourself a point if you have ever built a "home" for your pets.

2 Bonus point if it was brick, had it's own heating/air-conditioning, and running water.






8.Give yourself a point if you let your pets kiss you on the lips.









9. Give yourself a point if you have ever had an alligator in your house. In fact, forget the point. If you have ever had an alligator in your house, you are beyond a doubt, an animal geek.





Scoring:

0-2: Not much of an animal lover, are you?
3-5: You tolerate animals, but are not overly fond of them.
6-10: Now you're cooking.....(not the animals though)
11-20: You are definately an animal lover.
21+: You are a true animal geek. Welcome to my world.

Let's see.....here at the Zoo, we scored a 34. How did you do?

Animal Encounter Blessings

Why do these things always happen to us, to our family? Is it the genetic mutant animal gene? Is it because God knows we are open to these encounters so He "blesses" us with them? Things like this never ever would happen to the gardening sister, or the condo sister.

My kids and I were talking about memories yesterday.

Mom, do you remember that time we went to Florida and.....

Ah...yes.....


Our family was vacationing at Amelia Island, Florida one year, a few years back. We were collecting shells from the ocean just at that point where the waves roll in and crash. We had a system going. I would feel the really big shells with my feet, reach down and retrieve them, then hand them off to one of the kids who would take them to the beach where we could admire them and sort into "keep" or "put back".

I had just handed one off and was looking for the next, when my son yelled out...

Mom? "MOM!!! There's something sticking out of this one!"

Mind you, I hadn't really looked at it...I was kind of in a zone.... just me, the waves and the shells...

"Oh...it's OK. I'm sure whatever it is it's dead. Just put it with the rest."



"MOM! IT LOOKS LIKE AN OCTOPUS TENTACLE!"

"That's nice honey, now put it with the rest."

Obviously I was still in zone-mode and only half-listening...and that was so silly anyway...what were the chances of an octopus this close to shore?

"MOM! IT's CRAWLING OUT!"

OHMYGOSH! He was right! (I should have known...animal encyclopedias are his thing).

A real, live, unhappy octopus was crawling out of the shell --- the shell my son was holding in his hands.

But, don't call PETA yet, Prince Charming came to the rescue, grabbed the octopus in his bare hands (isn't he brave?) and tossed him back to sea.

We didn't even have a chance to grab the cameras. Prince Charming said the life of the octopus was more important than a scrap-booking moment. I'm sure Mr. Octopus thought so as well.

I hope he lived happily ever after.




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A2, the original photographer/srapbooking queen sent me this picture from her archives. This was the trip of the octopus. Maybe the Gardening Aunt will see how small this picture is and fix it. (hint)

The gift that keeps on giving....

Four or five years ago, a good friend of mine asked what she could get my two older children for their birthday. They share a birthday, and sometimes friends and family like to bless them with a shared gift. She suggested a gecko or anole.

Hummmm.....
now that's something that we hadn't experienced before, so being the animal lovers that we are, I said, "Sure". Nice little experience, you know. Probably live a couple of months, then die off, and we could check those animals off our list. Little did I know.

There is, of course, a long story about how the first day we got the anoles, geckos, whatever they are, of how they escaped their cage, remained hidden in our home, and we, unsure of whether or not we would ever see them again, faced with tear-stained faces, high-tailed it to our favorite friendly neighborhood pet store and bought two more what-ever-they-ares. As luck (or unluck)would have it, we discovered one night in the middle of the night that these creatures are nocturnal and love to crawl around in high places at night. We fortunately, or unfortunately, were than able to recover the original two. Now, our total was up to four. Anyway, it was a much longer, more dramatic story, but let's not meander down that road....

Instead, let's talk about what they eat.

Geckos and anoles eat crickets. These eat 2 dozen crickets a week, at a cost of about $3 per week X 52 weeks X about 4-5 years. You do the math - I'm scared. Plus, I would like to remain blissfully ignorant.

At any rate, over the years we (I guess I should clarify - I) have been waiting for these things to die off. We NEVER change their cage. They live in a terrarium type environment. We squirt water in whenever the environment looks dry, keep the plant watered, and throw crickets in every week.

Now, not only will they not die, but they had the nerve to lay eggs, which hatched (the pet store was very impressed. They said it was next to impossible to get these things to lay eggs in captivity, but for the eggs to actually hatch and the offspring live is also very unusual - just my luck).

So, I guess this is the gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving........






We had snakes once upon a time. Cute little corn snakes that my husband in particular adored. He bought me a pink snake for our anniversary once, and named it "Annie" (get it - Annie, short for Anniversary - now isn't that a romantic gift?). The "once upon a time" is because at some point the jewels in the family figured out how to open the cage, and they let the snakes out. We never did find them. I wish they would learn to take the lid off the gecko cage.

Anyone want a gecko or two? Or three? Or four?........

Waiting.................

I was waiting this morning.....

Waiting for an idea to pop into my head to post, when i happend over to May Dreams Gardens and noted that the gardening sister is waiting also.

We vary diffently on what we are waiting for. She's not known as "the gardening aunt' for nothing.....


Here's what I'm waiting for.......


Someone to clean up these dishes.

Hey! I've been sick all weekend with a bad cold! Don't be too hard on me.

I'm also waiting for someone to clean out the rabbit cage.

If there was "smell-a-vision" on blogger you would get my point.


I'm waiting for the laundry fairy to come and do my laundry.

The laundry fairy did visit me once a while back.


If the gardening sister/aunt is reading this, she needs to turn her head. She would be mortified......

I really, REALLY need someone to put these pots away for the winter. After all, it is January. They've waited a long time.


I'm waiting for someone to empty the catboxes. This is one of 6 that we have. It really smells.



I'm waiting for dear daughter to wake up.....
Do you think she can breathe under all those blankets?

And dear sons.......

So they can complete these LONG lists that are waiting for them.

The wait is over...it's back to reality.