I'm back home again, so I can share the amusing way that Vrtra is sitting while waiting for his lamps to come on this morning. The beardies' ideas of comfort always amuse me.
Not feeling 100% yet, so I might be slow to get around to responding and/or tipping posts and comments. The good news is that Doctor Infarction was wrong and there were exactly 0 blood clots in that kidney; it's "just" an infection. As long as nothing else of concern pops up I get to take my antibiotics at home where I can actually rest. 😁
It's #TongueOutTuesday and I'm digging into my camera roll for this pic of Cookie from last week. I was hoping to capture something new, but I'm currently sitting in the ER waiting to be admitted for a *kidney infarction,* of all things. Looks like what went through our household last month might not have been so non-Covidy after all, despite what the tests said. 😭
My IV keeps yelling at me when I try to use my phone so I probably won't do more than pop on here or there for a bit.
I stopped by Goodwill the other day to see if they had more of the 16 ounce casserole dishes I use for the beardies. They didn't, but what I found was even better: a crème brûlée ramekin that's the perfect size for Cookie to sit in! He seems very happy to not have to deal with the awkward protruding lip that his last dish had anymore.
Vrtra is very satisfied with himself this morning. He had a strawberry for breakfast and now he's ascended to the top of his rock for his daily dose of looking down on us foolish bipeds. He might even resume his villainous plans to take over the world later... after he's warmed up a bit. 😅
Can I just take a moment to gush about how freaking PRETTY Vrtra's real coloration is? He just shed a good portion of the old skin on his back, and now that the nasty nicotine staining is gone he's all lovely creams and tans and oranges. The contrast is especially apparent with the coloring where his head meets his neck, since his head still isn't quite ready to shed yet.
Ed: I see you're getting into a bug bin. Are those for me?
Now is a great time to accumulate more BCH... so where I have I been spending my time if not here?
Playing Final Fantasy XIV. 😳
I started a new character to go along with a story I'm writing... on a preferred server, which means that he has a passive buff called The Road to 80 that massively increases the experience earned until the character's job reaches level 80. The buff will last at least 90 days from character creation, or longer if the world retains preferred status past that.
Granted, I can't level any of my jobs up that far because I'm on the free trial version and that limits me to level 60... but my starting job is at 53 and my next highest secondary is 46, and I'm still not even halfway through the main story quests available on the trial.
The game even has a group pose mode that you can use to take pictures of your character. The attached screenshot is one I took last night. Now I finally have something to replace the boring default wallpaper on my laptop with. 😁
Vrtra: I'm perfectly happy here and nothing you can tempt me with will change my mind.
Also Vrtra: Banana?! Gimme!!!
Today was the day! The furniture was moved, the carpet was cleaned, and we were all set to begin building the new rack!
And then we got the box opened, and began inspecting the pieces before assembly... and one of the end pieces has a broken weld that compromises the integrity of the entire thing, so we couldnt even start. Argh!
The day wasn't a total wash, though. While I was prepping Cheeto's old enclosure for storage I happened to look down off the edge of the patio and there was a snake sitting right there! This is a western ground snake, Sonora semiannulata. They're tiny little things; this one was maybe 13 inches long and about as thick as my pinky. They're great to have around because they eat invertebrates like scorpions and spiders. 🙂
Lizards are so WEIRD sometimes.
Cheeto, Ed, and Waffle live downstairs in the living room, so they've borne witness to all of the preparation I've done to get ready for the new rack. Well... Ed and Waffle have, mostly. Cheeto spends his day sleeping under a rock unless bugs are involved.
Yesterday I broke out both the vacuum and the carpet cleaner. "Normal" pets like cats and dogs tend to run and hide from loud appliances like that. Waffle spent the whole time scrabbling at his doors to get closer, Ed hopped from log to rock to hide and back trying to watch everything I was doing, and even Cheeto came out and stood on his log hide to survey what was going on.
They're such nosy little buggers!
We keep the bug bins in the same room as the downstairs lizards. They're actually on the same metal shelf that currently holds Ed's enclosure, and all three of the lizards who live there know what it means when a bin gets pulled out.
The problem is that they're not currently on the same feeding schedule. Cheeto and Ed had their bugs yesterday, but Waffle got his this morning... and Cheeto, who lives above Waffle, is feeling a bit put out by the lack of bugs in *his* dish. 😅
Sometimes I really have to admire the positions our critters eat their dinner in. Noodle happened to be on top of her coconut hide when I fed her tonight, and instead of coming down she just took her meal and ate it right there. At least this time she didn't mistake my finger for a tasty morsel... although she was definitely checking out both my hands and phone while I took this picture. 😆
It's been a hectic few days for us here. We picked up the big rack from the store on Thursday, and preparations are underway to get it set up in the next few days. Today's big task is moving some smaller pieces of furniture in the room and cleaning the carpets... and feeding Cookie, because he's been very conscientious about making sure we're aware his dish is empty. 😂
No new owl pics this morning, but this is the view from Walmart. It's verging on apocalyptic in town today with the way the plume from the Crooks Fire settled overnight, complete with falling ash. One of my kids is staying home from school because of the smoke. It would be both of them but the other is off on an overnight camping trip about an hour away where they shouldn't be affected by it.
I hope things clear up a bit before tomorrow's outdoor talent show.
Two of the three owlets were branching when I walked by their tree this morning, so it looks like my estimate of their age was probably pretty close. I'll be surprised if any of the three are still there in a week!
The Divine Beast's menu currently consists of mice.
We buy them frozen and when it's time to feed her we thaw one overnight in the fridge, then warm it up in hot water when it's time for her to eat.
She's getting big enough that we're starting to think about moving up to rats, but ball pythons are notoriously picky eaters at times and we were wondering if switching would present a problem...
Ha. The little stinker latched onto my finger instead of the mouse tonight. No hesitation, just munch. I get the feeling she's going to be just fine with whatever we give her. 🤣
(My finger is completely fine, by the way. Barely more than a paper cut when all is said and done. I've had worse from Vrtra when he missed his banana.)
A benefit of owning reptiles that I don't really think about very often is that they don't suffer much when their owners are sick.
My whole family was down with a nasty non-covid bug this week. I was the last of us to get it, and the last two days were pretty rough, but none of our scaly critters have even noticed. The beardies still got their salad in the morning, although I just bought a bag of chopped greens instead of cutting them myself, and the geckos and Ed weren't due for more bugs until today. And even though I thawed a meal for the snake yesterday and forgot to feed it to her last night when my fever spiked, it was a couple days early and she'll be perfectly happy when I give it to her later today.
The bunny, on the other hand, is mad at me and thumping every time I walk into the room because she didn't get more pellets last night. Never mind that her hay rack is so full it's overflowing and she's definitely not starving--she'd rather have the good stuff. 🙄😂
The Divine Beast has emerged at last! From the looks of things, she's enjoying exploring her new setup. So far I've seen her go back and forth across the length of it a few times and into and out of the cool hide, which she's rarely used thus far. I'd call that a win!
The post I made earlier showed the very beginning stages of getting Noodle's enclosure put back together. Here are a few more pictures showing what it looks like when it's (mostly) done. I still need to add more substrate to the warm side but that will need to wait until I get another piece of sandstone to put under the cave on that side.
Noodle is an exceptionally nosy snake at times.
She's hanging out in her coconut today, which made it the perfect opportunity for me to deep clean her enclosure without having to disturb her too much. When I started, the coconut's opening was facing the wall. By the time I'd removed the first couple of artificial plants, she'd turned it around and started to poke her head out.
What really caught her attention, though, was when I moved the bottom layer of coconut fiber aside to put down a piece of sandstone. She watched VERY intently as I put her cool hide back in on top of it and started adding more coco fiber to make the substrate layer deeper, poking her head out and craning her neck to get a better view. I imagine she would have ended up completely out of the coconut had I continued working instead of pausing to clean and sanitize the plants and her water dish. 🤣
It's a little early for #TongueOutTuesday where I am, but I can't resist posting this pic of Cheeto now. He shed this morning and as soon as he saw that I had my phone out for pictures he had to climb up his cave to see what I was doing and if I happened to have any delicious bugs for him.
A couple of today's owl family portraits. The parents look like they're glaring at me, but those looks were actually for a couple of cars that went by just before I snapped those shots. They were completely unconcerned with my presence there. 😊
"Mom, help!" said the kid... and this was the sight that greeted me when I rounded the corner. She found this yearling fence lizard by the garage door, and when she tried to catch it it ran right up her sleeve!
At least this time it chose the outside of the sleeve...extracting them from inside is always an adventure! 🤣
We counted THREE fluffy puffy owlets in the nest when we walked by the tree this evening. Even better, we got to see both parents hanging out in the trees across the street from their nest. It's been at least a couple of years since we've seen them both at the same time so that was a nice treat.
The owlets are probably around 3-4 weeks old at this point; they've developed enough that Mama doesn't have to constantly brood them, but they don't seem to be quite old enough to be venturing up above the nest yet.
It's #ThrowbackThursday for a few more hours where I am. What better time to share this great horned owl photo from April 15, 2021?
Those of you who also post on myLot might have seen this one already; I made several posts about Mama Owl and her owlets over there last year, and this was one of the photos I uploaded. The parents return to this tree to nest every year, and over the course of nearly a decade we've watched them send around two dozen owlets off into the world.
We weren't sure that they would come back this year. During one of the storms this fall a large branch fell into the part of the tree where they nest, and aside from that this would be the fourth year in a row that they had a clutch. They don't breed every year, and we thought this year might be one they skip.
We still drive by the tree on occasion, though, and we *thought* we might have gotten a glimpse of Mama Owl sitting on her eggs a couple weeks ago. It was just the top of her head, and she blends in *very* well with the color of the trunk so we weren't completely sure... but this morning we went by again and there she was, sitting just above where the nest should be. And this afternoon the kids and I went by again, and while Mama wasn't anywhere to be seen there was a fluffy puffy white owlet peering out of the nest at us and Papa Owl--who we almost never see--was keeping watch in one of the higher branches of the tree.
I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow with my "real" camera. 😁
Another day, another delay. 🤣
The truck came in. The rack should have--it was on the manifest and pick list and everything!--but it did not. Was it left behind at the distribution center? Did it get missed when they were unloading at the store and continue on to the next destination 4-5 hours away? Who knows!
I might find out more details tomorrow but the order is probably going to auto cancel on Friday regardless since it wasn't received by the local store. Kind of hoping they'll just reroute it back here and we can just buy it in store instead of having to reorder it and maybe deal with another round of 'Where's the Rack?' 😆
I'm going to miss being able to glance over and observe Vrtra's antics when we finally move him downstairs.
My next post was going to be about how the last couple of days have been cold and it's affecting Vrtra in the mornings... and then he walked across his enclosure and I looked over to find that he'd given himself a carrot stick hat. 😂
The new rack wasn't ready for pickup on Friday. At first the pickup date changed to this Thursday, but now the status just shows "we're working to get it to you in the next few days." It looks like it's being transferred from the distribution center to the store instead of being sent by FedEx, though, so *hopefully* it'll show up on the next truck they receive this week.
That's worked out well, though--I had more time to rearrange things to accommodate the new rack when it arrives. 🙂
Below is a photo of Cheeto from this morning. I love the amount of detail I was able to capture in his eyes and in the scales on his face and arm. Just ten years ago I would have called you crazy if you told me that I'd be able to take photos like this with a phone camera. 😅
Ed and I don't agree on the purpose of his water dish.
I say it's obviously a WATER dish. HE thinks it's the perfect place to sit and bask, and refuses to get out of it when he sees me approach with the water bottle.
Sometimes I think he just wants me to pour it over him so he can play in it. 🤷♀️
When Waffle met Vrtra, it didn't go as I thought it would.
Vrtra is a much larger dragon than Waffle--about four inches longer, and almost 100 grams heavier. He's also constantly engaging in dominant behaviors like head bobbing, which Waffle doesn't do more than occasionally.
So imagine my surprise when I took Waffle upstairs to weigh him and he got a glimpse of Vrtra on my dresser, then did everything he possibly could to get out of my hands and at that interloper who thinks Waffle's territory is HIS. And Vrtra, instead of trying to engage, just hunkered down and turned his back.
I guess that solves the great rack debate for us. We were wondering if it would be better to put the two racks in an 'L' shape in a corner or have them next to each other on one wall. If one of the beardies can't even stand the sight of the other it'll have to be the latter!
@yukimori
