Burnt out at last

[lizblackdog]

well, I'm not diabetic. Doctor says it could be a urinary infection (wouldn't I be able to tell?) or possibly thyroid problems. Blood test appointment and antibiotics in case it's the infection thing.

have felt like shit on a stick all day, and the bus ride out there in the heat was ghastly enough before the 498328474 eleven year old schoolkiddies piled in.

...although I have my doubts about them actually being schoolchildren. I think they may actually have been baboons executing a cunning plan to escape from captivity using purloined school uniforms and bus passes. Hard to tell. There were no tails showing but the shrieking, swinging up and down the bus and flinging each other's property about (no poo, but there was a shoe and s football) was a bit of a giveaway.

got home and played with dogs. Cassie is refusing to eat the rabbit I defrosted today. She sometimes does this with the mince; sometimes you get a pack with a lot of fatty bits in it and she doesn't like that. I bought her some fresh herrings while I was out. Let's see if she likes those.

am now going to take my headache and lie down. ugh.

Edited to add: Cassie fell on the raw herring and tore into it like Homer Simpson on a pizza. YAY!

Comments

[kyra-neko-rei.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Screaming kids + heat. Ugh.

Yay raw herrings! Cassie is my kind of woman (if she weren't, you know, a cat). *throws trout to Cassie, just for the hell of it*

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

She's eating like a princess, bless her. Chicken drumsticks and herrings and little fuzzy day-old chicks and raw rabbit and lamb and beef.

I really want to get her some frozen mice but they're like a pound apiece - still, I may spring for two or three this week.

[ohdeve.livejournal.com]

If my cats don't like the Meow Mix or whatever the hell it is we feed them, they can go out, get jobs, and buy their own damned food. You're a very generous pet owner...I don't see how you do it. I can barely afford fresh meat for myself.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

It's partly because I get off on seeing them enjoy themselves - and it's so easy to make an animal happy! Endlessly rewarding.

The other reason is pride. It gives me such pleasure to have everyone who meets them exclaim over their shiny coats and their teeth and their bright eyes and their bounciness. It's worth it.

There's also the poo issue. You would not BELIEVE how much easier and less nasty it is to clean up after them on this diet. Tiny firm poo with almost no smell from all of them, because they're not swallowing a whole load of nasty crap their bodies can't use.

Oh, and there's the whole "I have no life" thing too, but I won't get into that...

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

There was a story in the news here a few days ago about some guy who bought a couple of live rats for his snake & then couldn't bring himself to feed them to it, so the rats started breeding. His house was overrun when Animal Services showed up. So frozen are much better.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

I read about that, either in stupidpetowners or in dot_pet_snark. Stupid bugger.

occasionally you have snakes that will go on hunger strike if they don't get live prey, but that's not common and even then it's often possible to get them to change their minds. It boggles my mind that anyone would buy or feed live unless they absolutely had to. Quite apart from any possible cruelty issue, why would anyone put themselves through that much inconvenience?

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

I saved a yellow rat snake from being killed by some ignorant twit a few years back. Was walking around campus at school and some beefy boy was walking his girl along when this juvenile snake slithered out...she screamed & he started STOMPING on the poor thing. I ran over & knocked him on his ass & picked the poor thing up. This was after my snake Joshua had been stolen while I still had all the snake stuff, so I figured I'd keep her & feed her for a couple of weeks till I was sure she was ok & then let her go. She was young & smally, so I had to feed her live pinkies. That was tough. I put them on my finger tip & she'd come up & snarf them. The first & last sound the poor little things made, before their eyes even opened, was a squeal as they were devoured. Luckily she recovered pretty quickly & I released her & all was well, and I was glad I helped, but the feeding was still tough.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Well, a wild snake that's destined to go back to the wild is a pretty good justification for live feeding. I'm pretty sure that expecting hand-fed dead fresh rodents wouldn't be much of a wild snake survival skill...

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Don't know how much you know about rat snakes, but they tend to either climb or burrow in the wild. Joshua, my long term pet snake who was stolen, burrowed. He had a HUGE tank full of soft natural bedding, and we live-fed him (he was a wild snake I took in for rehab & kept, long story). We'd drop a mouse in the tank and then...well, have you ever seen "Tremors"? Looked kind of like that :-)

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Not that much - I know they're non-venomous elaphids, and aren't they yellow with racing stripes? Or is that something else?

I'm not really a reptile person. I did have a boa constrictor when I was a kid because my father wanted one, and I had a Burmese python for a while in my late teens because I came into some money and bought her more or less on impulse. I didn't neglect her or anything, but I never really felt enthusiastic about her. I ended up selling her cheaply to a friend who liked her far more than I did and I left reptiles alone after that.

They're beautiful and interesting animals but I find them very dull as companions. I'd rather share my home with animals you can have a real relationship with rather than just observing and feeding them.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

There's more than 1 type. Mine had markings like this:

Joshua was a GREAT pet, as snakes go. He was strongly attached to me (he'd bite other people), would happily go out under my coat & dart his head out of my sleeve to scare the piss out of folks, would curl up under my shirt & sleep with me without having to be in tank...he was a lot of fun. We had a lot of interaction, he spent as much time out as he did in the tank.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

drat...I posted a long reply & it died?
I think maybe the pic was too big & it broke. SOME yellow rat snakes look like what you describe, but not the ones native to Fl. The ones here look like this: http://www.stetson.edu/~pmay/woodruff/corn.jpg
I was commenting that Joshua spent as much time out of his tank as in, was strongly bonded to me (would bite others), went out in public under my clothes & would dart his head out to frighten people, liked to sleep with me curled up under my clothes, etc etc. He was a great pet with plenty of interaction. 'bout 5 1/2 feet long, couple of inches around, and sweet as can be.
I miss him.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

ooops, double reply...LJ gave me an error message the first time & said it didn't post.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

isn't that a corn snake?

I'm sure they can tell the difference between you and another person but you can't say the relationship is like the one you can have with a cat or a dog, can you?

I like snakes. They're beautiful and lovely to handle. I'm just not going to have any of my own again.

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Corn snakes & rate snakes are the same critters/species. That species is refered to as "yellow rat snakes" (and sold that way) here even tho their markings are more traditionally corn snake. It's a regional thing.
And I am CRITTER MAN. All animals love me.
They speak to me!
Meeeee alone!