Our good friends, The Do-ers, made us a great proposition: they get to fly off to Ohio to visit family for a week, and we get to play zookeepers for a week! It really is a sweet deal--for us. (I've not met their relatives, so I can't vouch for how they fared in this bargain, but they did ask us, repeatedly, if we wanted some free plane tickets to the Midwest...)
We have Medli, the amazing seven-year-old goldfish. Boy, she is a handful!
Two fire bellied toads named Mr. Toad and Toady, of course! It is fun to watch them hunt and catch live crickets.
One night I heard this faint repetitive bellow, like children yelling. I was in the living room and Big Daddy was at the desk playing Spider Solitaire on the computer. He said that he heard the noise, too. I was a bit miffed that he said there was no reason to go check it out. But, kids could be in trouble! And outdoor night checks are man's work if there is a man home to do it! And unless there becomes a World Series of Spider Solitaire that you can make us some mega-dough on, go check on that noise! "But it's coming from in here!" he persists. What? "It's the toads!" Woah. That's freaky.
And with the toads, we are also responsible for feeding their food! Yes, crickets need love, too. They love the night life, they got to boogie. They crowd into their black "rave cave" and only come out for the occasional green jello shooter. They party like it's 1999.
Zeb and Lucky are the zebra finches. They are quite chatty little nest-builders. Their "mirp-mirp" sound is adorable. They have been enjoying having their cage outdoors during the day under the shade of the big tree out back.
Earlier this month we had a turtle playdate. This was a key test to see if we were eligible for the zoo-lending program. If we failed here, we would be forced to visit the Do-ers home twice a day to care for the animals in their natural environment. It was pretty tense. Mrs. Do-er has REALLY high standards for ALL of her kids. I mopped my brow as we anxiously awaited her evaluation....Yes, Dribble, the turtle, would be allowed to spend the week in our pond!
He and Kooper became fast friends. Dribble was hand-raised since he was the size of a fifty-cent piece. We were hoping that he would get Kooper to come out of her shell, so to speak. As nature might predict, they have each kind of rubbed off on each other, Kooper becoming a little less timid in the presence of humans, Dribble a bit rebellious and boorish. This may be their last playdate. Mrs. D. won't tolerate ill-mannered turtles. At one point I couldn't locate Kooper in the pond and was almost ready to panic. Then Dribble repositioned himself, and I found her. Underneath. Well, if her ill-mannered turtle makes my ill-mannered turtle lay a bunch of ill-mannered eggs, she better know that I don't tolerate deadbeat turtle dads!
And finally, there's Link, the yellow lab. He is a very well-mannered sweetheart. But he's been given the nickname, "The Golden Spazz".
He reminds me of so much of Baci. He has a similar whistling yawn, gruff woof-woof at the doorbell, playfulness with balls and stuffed animals, sweet eyes squeezed shut when he sleeps. And so great with the kids and the house. He even brought in the newspaper, which was a total surprise. It's nice to have a big dog in the house for the week. He was getting a big sloppy drink of water and J-girl said, "Awww! We haven't had that sound in our house in a long time!" True. Junior has been gone for four months already. But the best part about having Link for the week is moments like this:
Truly, nothing beats the feeling of a big ol' dog head resting across your stomach. It is so comforting after a hard days work.
Our friends will be back in a couple of days. We will enjoy our full house till then, but it sure will feel empty when everybody has to go back home.
Do you want them all back?
:)
What sweet pics of our zoo. Thanks for all your wonderful devotion to our pets. The Toads got quite large...we thinks we weren't feeding them enough...oops...
Posted by: Alisa | July 27, 2008 at 08:07 PM