"Hit by a Truck Kitty" - She was lying on the floor in front of the fan.  She looked as hot as I felt.  Even though it looks like it, she is not pregnant, just fat!

Then I got this:

Attitude from a hot kitty!  I'm half tempted to shave her, so she isn't so hot and she won't shed so fast!  However, when I mention shaving her, she gives me a dirty look. 

The neighborhood we used to live in wasn't a bad area, however, it was starting to get it's share of problems.  At the time, my children were toddies.  My second (and current) husband and Shoji, the Akita, were constantly trying to establish their territory.  It didn't matter what my hubby touched, Shoji would go over to it and pee.  The one that got us laughing so hard was when hubby was holding my toddie son, put him down so he could clean the bbq grill, turned around and Shoji had peed on my son.  I guess the dog wanted him to know that my son belonged to Shoji!

I was never worried about my kids playing in the yard when Shoji was on patrol.   One day I was walking him around the neighborhood.  A group of kids were hanging out at a car in the street.  One of them looked and yelled, "Is that an Akita?"  I told them yes it was.  I have never seen a group of kids move so fast to the other side of a car before.  Must have had a run in with an Akita before.

Unfortunately, we had to put him down.   As Shoji aged, he started to lose sight in one eye.  A doberman had jumped our fence and was trying to attack one of the smaller dogs we had.  Shoji came to the rescue and they fought.  Unfortunately, the doberman got Shoji's blind side and ripped half his face.  The doberman wasn't in any better shape, hubby opened the gate and the doberman limped home to it's house.   It was hard to say bye to such a good protector in the condition he was in.  I am just glad I was able to leave work to say goodbye to him, before hubby had to take him to the vet. 

It is a good thing we change the clocks Saturday night.  That gives us Sunday to completely screw up the time.  I changed the clocks on Sunday and hubby changed them again and then we had to change them back and since most of our clocks are 30-45 minutes ahead anyway, we had a hard time figuring out which clock needed to be fixed.  LOL ... If you look at the clocks in our house, none of them are on the same minutes.  It's pretty bad when we have to fool ourselves on the time, so we can make sure we get where we have to be on time!

We are pretty excited to see our oldest daughter and her family.  We can't wait to see the grandbabies!  We leave town on Friday and won't be back until Tuesday.  Yippee!!! 

The dog and I just got back from walking.  It's dark outside, so we walked around the office complex up the street.  It is well lit and the fire station is just next door.  So I feel safer.  Walking around the complex is like walking around a football field, LOL, well at least when you are walking it.  It probably is much less than that.  However, dog and I went around it 3 times before calling it quits!

Now I'm ready for pain meds and bed!  What happened to my nice limber back I used to have many many years ago?  Dang age and gravity!

Well, I hope you all have a great week.  Talk at ya'll later.

I have started to feed a little, taking it slow in the beginning as I don´t want them to die or returigate from overfeeding.

Hoping to breed:

Vipera a. ammodytes "Morph": Zokadelic

Vipera a. ammodytes, Yellow

Vipera renardi

Timon lepidus

Hyla arborea

Here's a recent one of my dog Barney. He's part lab and part something very friendly with an underbite. He's six.

I got him when he was a puppy from the local animal shelter. I actually knew him when he was with his mom at one of my friends' home. She was fostering the mother dog while she had pups, but of course ended up adopting the mom.

Barney's a sweetheart with a deadly tail. Watch out for that tail!

After reading Kay's post and some of the comments, I decided that being mindful for me starts with daily meditation. I used to to do it, but I haven't in a while. Well, not until last night. Inspired by Kay's blog, I decided to sit for 20 minutes. Turns out I only lasted 15, but they were all great and oh so very mindful.

My cat Ferron came over to rub against me after a minute or two and then settled for her own mediation a few feet away from me. Ten minutes later or so my cat Candler (the younger and friendlier of the two -- are orange cats always the friendliest?) came calling. After rubbing his head against my hands and knees, he decided to nestle against my crossed legs.

After the 15 minutes of officially mindful vipassana meditation, I sat another five minutes and mindfully petted Candler.

So maybe I did meet my orignial meditation goal of 20 minutes.

To all of you that have been wieving and reading my blog this year..

Here is a picture that I have been working for hours in Photoshop with..  Not..  ;)

It feels that way now, but I know that when all the terrariums have been cleaned and "furnitured" again, I will be fed up by just going and looking in the "jars" that is without inhabitants..

 Night, night all my small friends, I see you again a "quarter to spring"..

這真是太神奇了...

那天我回家，打開房門一看，
發現床上的小兔子怎麼好像怪怪的，
原來，不知道哪個壞心的人把小兔子推到旁邊，
結果它就呈現和床沿90度懸空狀...

可能這張照片沒有拍的很好，
不過它真的是懸空的！

讓我嚇了一大跳 呵

Well, I was putting down our sweet angel for a nap.  I rocked her on a pillow so when she fell asleep, all I had to do was put the pillow down and she wouldn't be disturbed.

After she woke, we were playing in the front room.  I realized I hadn't seen the dog, this is what I found  

         I guess he wanted me to know that he was my baby and not that sweet little thing that was asleep on the very same pillow a few minutes before.  I cannot believe he remained in that position so our daughter could take this picture. 

I really hope to be able to take new pictures this year, or even maybe catching it with a videocamera..

Started to tkae the male vipers out and some of the lizards, putting them on the garagefloor for a couple of days in a temperature of roughly +12 degrees Celcius - +15 degrees Celcius. This is to prevent the animals dying from a heatchock.

So, I will be busy this coming weekend, decorating terrariums for them. This is one of the pleasures in herptilekeeping, at least for me..

 Temperatureconverter

I have recently reconstructed the bathroom in my house, leaving a shower unused, of rather exchanged to a bathtub. Now, this shower is to be made into a hopefully suitable outdoor vivarium for these little frogs. I have never had an outdoor viv before, so this is going to be really exciting to me.

First, I have to make sure that the little buggars don´t get out of there, therefore I am planning to put a meshroof on the top. First I have to build a rim, and then put the mesh in it. The mesh have to be made of stainless steel, not only not to rust, but as a protection against birds. Crows and Magpies, mainly.

There have to be sufficient airflow in the vivarium, so the lower half of the backpiece is also going to be made out of stainless steel-mesh.

In order to make the frogs in the right "matingmood", there have to be water running from a mouthpiece of a shower for a couple of days. A pump that transtorts the water around, from the little "pond" in the bottom of the shower to the mouthpiece and around again.

I sure hope that my nextdoor neighbours can stand the noise from the calling males, they have good voices and can reach up to 90 decibel..

Hopefully I will find some good plants to put in as well..

It began with two animals with (for the location) a normal coloration and pattern, a female and a male. They mated, and a whole pile of babies came out in June 2001. All looking as their parents, except for....... Zok. He was totally different in both coloration and pattern. A lot darker and with a broader zigzag-band.

 I have fed him and seeing him grow over the years. Getting more beautiful by every skin he shed.

Last year I thought that he was old enough to be a father, so I put him with the female that I wanted him to mate with toghether with the gray male (i.e he´s dad..) in a terrarium. And sat down to wait..

It took about 20-30 minutes, and the males started to wrestle (middle movieclip..) eachother as the are supposed to do. After letting them fight for an hour or so, I took out the gray male, as he was no supposed to be the "champ" this time. Zok then started to look around for the female. I left them to their business. Later on that evening, I looked into the terrarium and they was attatched to each other.

After a week or so I separated Zok from the female, so that I had two females in one terrarium and two males in another. As time went, the yellow female started to grow, she was definetley gravid! Yayy!! In july 2006, 13 small vipers came out. Here´s a link to some birthpictures and pictures of all the small.. Piclink

This year I will try to breed Zok with he´s mother, to see how the whole color/pattern thing acts then. I am trying to find out how it works with the genes..

Vipera ammodytes

Timon lepidus

Hyla arborea

All files are pdf:s..

I´ll tell you.

Vipera ammodytes ammodytes, Nose-horned Viper
Vipera orlovi, Orlov´s viper
Gloydius halys caraganus, Russian pit viper
Elaphe quatuorlineata muenteri, Cycladian fourlined snake
Zamenis situla, Leopardsnake
Hyla arborea, European green treefrog
Timon lepidus, Occellated lizard
Podarcis situla cettii, Italian wall lizard
Podarcis milensis, Milos wall lizard
Podarcis pityusensis kameriana, Ibiza wall lizard