It's that time of year ..............................................

the junior sociopaths are out in force - went for a walk, found a little solid black, long-haired kitten {about 10 weeks old) with an unexploded M-80 duct taped to her tail - picked her up { she started purring immediately - brought her in, the spousal unit cut off the tape & M-80 - put her at the automatic dry food feeder - she climbed inside - I'm trying to type this, but she's wandering around, 'talking', demanding snuggling & 'mush' ............................. she may belong to neighbors - I'm waiting for an adult from the household to verify - if not, I'll take her to the shelter tomorrow ........................ please, please, PLEASE - if you have black cats you care about/for, take them inside until AFTER Halloween - she might have gotten away with losing a part of her tail, but there have been instances over the years where the psychos insert their munitions into the various available orifices - you can imagine the damage .................................

Ohboyohboyohboy!!

I have a 10 gallon freshwater fish tank that I canNOT maintain clear water in .................... the Spousal Unit is taking a day off this weekend, so we're headed to "the fish store" so he can get the kind of filtration system that will be effective ......................... "the fish store" we're going to, I had gone in a couple of years ago ....................... they had some seahorses ........................... YEP, I'm gonna be looking into getting a 2 to 5 gallon tank, black sand, the necessary salination stuff, some miniature hermit crabs, some red shrimp, MAYBE some eelgrass, some brine shrimp eggs & some rotifers ................... then set it up, get everything "as it should be" {salinity/specific gravity/temp} .............................. THEN get a couple of breed-able pairs of these guys:





They're Dwarf Seahorses - the smallest known seahorses - but {figure THIS out?!?}, per the experts, they're the easiest to care for ............................

"Hippocampus zosterae is one of the smallest of the many different seahorse species, ranging in size between 2 to 2.5 cm. The maximum reported size was a male of 5.0 cm (Jordan and Gilbert, 1882). This species of seahorse can be distinguished from other western Atlantic seahorse species by the presence of 10 to 13 dorsal and pectoral fin rays (Daswon and Vari, 1982). Also, dwarf seahorses possess 9 to 10 trunk rings, a high knob-like coronet that lacks spines or projections, knob-like spines on the body, a short snout that is one-third the length of the head, and skin covered in tiny warts (Lourie et al., 2004). Hippocampus zosterae also has a dorsal fin with a submarginal band (Dawson and Vari, 1982). Dwarf seahorses are found in colors of beige, yellow, green, and black, and may have white speckles or dark spots (Lourie et al., 2004). ()"
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Early HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my progeny ...............................

th' Stinker was supposed to have been born yesterday {4 October}, feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which was GREAT, with our love for animals ......................... not MY daughter, nooooooooooooo - SHE has to be born on the feast of St. Bruno - patron saint of the possessed {as in, "The Exorcist"?} ........................ you think I didn't get her innocent little tuchis baptized posthaste? ;-)

Happy Birthday, my Angel ..............................