man, you guys are bored today, because in ten minutes ive had ten requests for this. so i will briefly tell the story of the cat-raccoon incident.
in most of the camps we stayed at, there were cats. dogs, too, but the cats were everywhere. food stores and garbage that a good-size camp needs means there’s a high chance of rats or mice, and one of the best ways to deal with that problem was a good mousing cat. so most every camp had a couple hanging around. the officers mostly turned a blind eye to them.
there was one camp we were at for a few months, and the mouser there was this huge fluffy grey lump they called Kilroy. (it was not a very original name; i think i met six camp cats called kilroy) Kilroy was a remarkably lazy cat, when he wasnt hunting, but also pretty friendly. he was also an amazingly warm personal heater for whoever he decided to grace with his presence. that being the case, he was welcome in most barracks when the weather started to go cold.
mice are active at night, though, so often he would linger in the kitchen until a couple hours after sundown, then head to the nearest barracks and scratch at the door until somebody let him in.
one chilly night in february, there was a scratching at the door of our barracks at nearly two in the morning. we were all asleep and even when it got loud enough to wake us up, none of us wanted to move. but it persisted. so eventually falsworth got out of his bunk–he was closest to the door–let Kilroy in, and got back in bed.
Kilroy ambled a few steps in, then started heading for gabe’s bunk. which was when gabe and falsworth realized that what had been let in wasnt a Kilroy.
it was a raccoon.
i dont know if gabe had some sort of raccoon related trauma in his past or if he just hates them in general, but he screamed and bolted upright in his bed. which woke the rest of us up, quite startled, and, since we were in bunks, resulted in about half of us hitting our heads on the upper bunks. dumdum, who’d insisted on sleeping top bunk, lunged awake so hard it actually tipped the whole bunkbed over, and wound up spilling him and happy sam on the floor.
all the chaos caused the raccoon to be terrified, and it started running around, looking for an exit. all of us were tangled in blankets, and most of us had no idea what was happening, and the only two who did were gabe and falsworth. gabe was screaming like he was being attacked by a six foot spider, and falsworth had started chasing the raccoon around. the rest of us were yelling, trying to figure out what was going on, and there was this angry bright-eyed thing running around, scratching and biting anyone who came near. soon enough, it cornered itself behind steves footlocker, but it kept biting at anyone who tried to grab it.
at that point we’d made enough noise to wake half the camp. peggy, who’d been staying nearby in the ops center, stormed over to see what was happening. she burst through the door like an avenging angel and found a squad of battle hardened commandoes with bedhead, wrapped in blankets, two bunks overturned, gabe still yelling, and half of us bleeding from raccoon bites.
she marched in , stole steve’s blanket, tossed it over the raccoon, bundled it up, and carried the whole thing right back out of the barracks.
when she came and found us at the medic’s after she’d let the raccoon loose in the woods, she was not impressed to discover that every single howlie had somehow gotten injured, either from the raccoon itself, by blundering into each other in the dark, or by falling out of bed.
Chapter 20: Peggy is a Boss, Dum-Dum is Not, and Kilroy is a Cat has been updated on Ao3!
(As some of you may know, raccoons are not native to Europe! (which is something I forgot when I made the reference in the last story, and had to do some quick research.) However, they are there now, as an invasive species. Part of the reason for that is that during WWII, a german fur farm was hit by a bomb, releasing raccoons into the wild. So this would have been one of the first raccoons loose in Europe. Neat!)
Do you think you guys can tell me funny stories/funny quirks about your pets? Or send me some silly pictures of them? I’m not doing well
Here’s Miku… She likes to jump out of the water for food and managed to jump up get a live fruit fly off the bottom of a leaf that stuck above the water…
Hello Miku. You are stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful
One of my loaches in their tank today. 😂
I wanted to send a photo of Noodle but I couldn’t find her! She’s so good at hiding!
So here’s a photo of an empty tank with No Visible Eels I guess….
Everyone in Infinity Wars gonna be complaining about how hard these last few years have been for them until Thor rolls up with no hair, no hammer, and one eye.
Don’t forget “my planet had to be destroyed to keep my sister from killing like the whole universe so now me and all my people are refugees. But hey, Loki’s back, that’s good news!”
Peter(raises his hand in the back): “…My homecoming date‘s dad turned out to be my arch nemesis and a building fell on me!“
Thor (smiles and gives a thumbs-up): “Good for you! (aside, to Tony)…Who is that person? Do we know him or did he just show up?”
T’Challa: My dad died, too.
Thor: I apologize for your loss, I know how it feels
Thor: (To Steve) Who is that handsome man dressed like a kitten?
Starlord: My dad turned out to be this giant, planet eating god and tried to kill me so I had to kill him.
Thor: These things happen sometimes.
Thor: (to Banner) Are we just picking up strangers with sad family stories or…?
This is now canon, you can all go home, there’s no need to see infinity war
I don’t think food is ever inappropriate, It’s usually well received, though there’s a couple of things to consider.
Food that can be shared with the whole team is best, because a vet clinic is a team really.
Bite sized or small potions is easier to eat and enjoy when the clinic is busy. I mean a cake is wonderful, but you have to cut it and get plates and somebody has to make the first move and so on. Cupcakes are better, just little handfuls you can take and consume on the go.
Food allergies and intolerance are a thing. My nurses love it when I get gifted a box of
Ferrero Rocher
because I can’t eat a single one, so more for them.
But yeah. Food is pretty good.
For peanut butter cookies that don’t contain wheat or dairy, mix 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, roll them into 1 inch balls, smush them into cookie shape, and bake at about 325 for about 15 minutes or until soft but not batter-y. Mix-ins should be added before baking, anything you want, and they take more like 20 minutes with add-ins. Good for most cookie things.
So the first thing that you should do with any new reptile is give them at least a week to acclimate to their new surroundings before handling. This helps to cut down on stress and gives them a chance to become familiar with their new surroundings first.
That being said, I’ll go ahead here.
Everyone has their own little formula for taming down their reptiles. Some ways probably work better than others, but a lot depends on the individual animal as well. Personally I like to tailor my approach to my animal, with the understanding that some lizards will have a higher or lower tolerance to handling than others. For example my crestie Atlas has a fairly low tolerance for handling. She will accept it, but only on her terms and rarely happily, so I restrict myself to about once or twice a week to limit her stress but still keep her tame enough for a vet to handle. My beardy Aries, on the other hand, will actively seek out handling because he associates it with positive experiences such as being able to explore outside the cage and special treats like super worms (it helps that he is very food motivated- Atlas is as well, but in her case the stress of handling outweighs her drive for food), so he doesn’t require as much work.
As babies however, with reptiles you are almost invariably starting from scratch. They are wild animals at birth, and require work to get them to the point where they are truly handleable. I was lucky enough with Aries that his breeder hand tamed him for me, but these were some of the things I did with my previous beardy Buddha Buddy.
Hand feeding: if you have a food motivated beardy hand feeding is a great way to build trust. Most babies are highly insect motivated, so high value treats like wax worms can go a long way towards gaining their interest. I recommend placing the insect in your palm and holding it flat against the ground of the tank where the beardy can see it, but not making any sudden moves towards it. It may take several tries to make any progress as babies will run if startled.
Gentle consistent handling: if the baby is out and about you can gently ferry it into your hand, being sure to support all of its limbs and belly for short handling sessions. Do these within the tank and low to the bottom since nervous babies are prone to jumping, and to start out just for a few minutes at a time. At first they’ll be pretty wild, but once they realize that you aren’t hurting them during this they’ll start to calm down and you can increase the length of sessions. The important thing is that you do it at least a few times a week. I also prefer to leave them alone and come back later if they are already in their hides since I prefer to leave them with a safe spot to decompress. Spending a lot of time around the enclosure is also a less stressful way to work on them when not actually handling since it lets them see you doing things and not actively harassing them. In my experience curious beardies will come out to watch, though even if they don’t come up they still are benefiting from you habituating them to your presence. It also helps if you don’t reach for them from above since above = predator in the minds of many small prey animals. It’s better to come from the sides.
Those were really all I needed for Buddha Buddy, but a lot of other people recommend putting a shirt with your scent on it in there with them. Personally I haven’t tried it myself, and I suspect that it’s probably a little more effective for animals like tegus and monitors, but I could be wrong and it certainly doesn’t hurt to try. Mainly for any don’ts I would say to not handle too aggressively or to long when you first start out, especially if you’re getting a young baby since they’re still fairly fragile and easily stressed. As they get bigger they tend to get hardier and calmer naturally, but it’s certainly possible to tame a baby.
This is by no means a complete list of the methods you can try but I hope this is helpful in giving you a starting point.
One other thing to remember: bearded dragons are not mammals, and they are not social. Reptiles don’t bond with their owners the way mammals and birds do, and they don’t have social grooming instincts that make them instinctively like contact. Some of them like scritches, but you need to be aware of their body language and respect any indicator that they want to stop. They can learn that you’re safe and have food, and some of them learn to come to you for scritches, but they aren’t an animal that forms social bonds.
Shimmering Close-Up Shots Of Peacock Feathers Reveal Amazing Detail
Waldo Nell, a Canadian software engineer and photographer, captured the feathers of a peacock magnified over 500 times. Not least are they beautiful photographs, they also reveal some of the science behind the iridescent glow of a peacock’s plumes.
From green to golden to blue and indigo, the photographs reveal the mix of colors that give peacocks their distinctive appearance. But the actual pigmentation of the feathers only plays a part in peacocks’ coloring. Much of it comes from small nanostructures on their feathers’ barbules, which give them an iridescent shimmer.
As the direction of light changes, these different facing barbules reflect the light at different angles, resulting in the feathers appearing to change color and shimmer as they move. You can also see this effect on butterfly wings, beetle shells and other birds such as hummingbirds. (Source)
All images credit: Waldo Nell
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 