My sister has the cutest little pets. She owns 2 dumbo rats- Ferris and Cameron, and a rabbit named Cinna (Hunger Games - LOVE!). They are so adorable and friendly. The other day Ariana and I got them out for a little playing and I grabbed my camera and snagged a couple shots of them.
Isn't this picture of Ferris the rat and Cinna the rabbit snuggling so cute! They clearly love each other.
Cameron was so curious about what I was doing, I love this one of him.
Ariana adores them and loves petting them and giving them treats.
Here's how the story goes in case you don't remember. For Letter S week Ariana and I found 2 LARGE snails in the woods by our house and made them a terrarium and kept them as pets for a while. It was great fun and we learned about them and she loved watching and holding them.
Before our trip to the states we let the snails go back where we found them. Oh, did I forget to mention that while we had them we saw them mating? Well, we did and we researched how long it takes before the snails lay the eggs and we thought we were safe. Guess again.
There had been a 24 hour period where we thought one of the snails had escaped but it turned out that she had just been hiding/laying eggs somewhere in the terrarium. Thanks mama.
Our house sat empty for a few weeks while Ariana and I were in Florida and Rich was in Washington for training and then visiting us in Florida. I say empty but baby snails were silently taking over the terrarium and waiting for our return.
When Ariana and I returned home a month later I saw a speck on the wall of the terrarium and went to investigate. Is that a tiny shell? Wait, is that another. Oh-my-GOD-there-are-babies-in-there.
So far, I've counted 37.
THIRTY SEVEN BABY SNAILS!
How do you care for baby snails?
It's actually easy. We mist their terrarium a few times a day and give them cut up vegetables to eat.
We thought their favorite was zuchinni until we discovered them devouring some cucumber one night.
They sleep most of the day - like most babies - and don't really get active until night.
Aww he's got a little bit of zucchini on his mouth!
Here is one of the babies on a quarter to show the size. And that's Ariana's little 2 year old finger.
Teeny tiny.
As a reminder here is a photo of the mama snail - over 3 inches long!
So, what's our plan?
Well so far some of them have doubled in size - piggies. We've enjoyed having the babies in our house. What can I say, we're animal lovers, even if they are slimy. We're going to slowly release them back into the woods a few at a time where hopefully they will live out their lives in the brush by the little creek and grow big like their parents. We've debated keeping 1 because snails are hermaphrodites and keeping 2 would mean more babies in our future and we're not ready for that yet!
A cat came wondering into our backyard one day. He was called over (you know a cat with curiosity and all) by the laughter and giggles of our 2 year old.
I'm just assuming he's a boy. He looks like a boy to me. "He" might very well be a lovely lady.
Awww look how "he's" scrunching his little face into the fence between our neighbors yard and ours?! I think he must belong to them. Three out of the four times we've seen him, he's come from their yard.
Ariana loved it when the second time we saw him, he came up to our glass door. She watched him for a few seconds, and then proceeded to try to open the door and let him in!
I kind of have a thing for stray animals, especially cats. All three of my cats were strays. One (Ely) even jumped in our window when we were living in England. I hope we don't have repeat of that here in Germany. I think Ariana got my animal loving gene. I get the feeling we'll be rescuing lots of creatures during her childhood!
"He's" cute, but it wasn't so cute when he was out howling at another cat at 2 am FOR AN HOUR the other night. Yea, not so cute anymore.
Just wanted to point out that our cat Ely is a TOTAL bed hog!
Also, a little random story because I know everyone loves those :)
I was grocery shopping the other day when the lady at the checkout was admiring and talking to Ariana. She asked me if Ariana was my daughter and how old she was. She seemed kinda shocked when I told her she was 21 months old. Then she asked me how old I was. When I told her 26, she seemed totally shocked! She said she would have guessed 19 or 20. Wow.
Oh and I totally decided to get a scratch off lottery ticket the other day while getting gas (something I never do!) and I won $65, whohooo!!!
I am beyond heartbroken to say that Tucker, my cat of 12 years, past away while I was visiting family in Georgia.
I've been so overwhelmed with sadness in his absence that I haven't been able to write about him, and even now I'm tearing up while I type...
Tucker had a very special place in my life and in my heart. He was much more than just a cat.
This is Tucker's story...
In 1998, when I was 13, my parents got divorced. Shortly after our family went through a horrible tragedy. My Mom got me and my Sister kittens from the Humane Society. Tucker was my kitten and Mikey was Sarah's. They were brothers and barely old enough to survive on their own. Tucker was the runt of the litter. When we took him home he was so little he couldn't even drink water out of a bowl yet. I had to feed him from a straw.
(please note that my Mom owned a bridal shop, therefore we got all the old dresses that never sold. Also this is a picture of a picture so sorry for the bad quality. Tucker is on the right, Mikey on the left.)
In talking to my sister since loosing Tucker she put it very plainly "they were like therapy", and it's so true. I didn't think about it at the time but having Tucker and Mikey helped us deal with all that was going on in our lives. I don't know if my Mom knew that too, maybe she did and maybe that's why were were allowed to have pets when before we had only had a family pet. Tucker was my first pet that was all mine to take care of. He was smaller than my beanie babies (I collected those at the time).
I named him Tucker after the movie Tuck Everlasting (based on the novel). I was obsessed with this movie about the Tuck family who were immortal after drinking water from a magic spring. Hence the name Tucker. Parkay (yes, I give my pets middle names) was from that fake butter spray. Remember, I was only 13 at the time, so don't judge too harshly.
Tucker loved catnip and snuggles. He would go crazy over catnip! He was the stoner for sure! He always wanted to snuggle with us on the couch. He had little raisinet toes I called them, cause they looked like little raisinets. He didn't ever meow right, it always sounded more like "meep". It sounded a lot like the Beaker off Muppet Babies, but cuter!
(This picture was taken my senior year in high school, either 2001 or 2002.)
Tucker was always there for me, through the good and the bad. He never judged me and was always there for a good snuggle. When we moved to England we opted to leave him with my mom because we knew the long overseas flight would be a lot for him to handle. We went got stationed stateside again we drove down to Georgia to pick them up. It was nice to have him back in my day to day life again.
When we had Ariana he was the sweetest cat you could have wanted. He would let her do anything to him and he would just take it and keep coming around her anyways. She was always trying to give him hugs or kisses and I think he loved it! She learned to call him and he would actually come, that made her face light up!
He was there when she was just learning to walk.
She learned to give kisses by giving them to Tucker.
Tucker was definitely more than a pet, but was a member of our family. He was the quietest one of the group. After putting Ariana to bed at night and dealing with feeding everyone and having the dogs constantly in my face. Tucker was the last one that got loved on. He was always snuggling with me on the couch at the end of the day. I miss those moments.
I have lots more pictures of Tucker but it's so emotionally draining for me to have to sort through all my old pictures to find them that I can't do any more tonight. These will have to do for this post.
He was our Rum Tum Tucky and we miss him dearly!
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Rainbow Bridge 