Sad news

Today was a heart breaking day for us as we had to give Beegee back to the rescue society we got her from. We had an incident that happened last night that we could not ignore. She lashed out at Shortcake and bit her face. She didn't break the skin, but left a nasty knot on her head and a bruise on her eyebrow not to mention emotional scars that will take some time to heal.

I need to tell you that we are full believers in giving animals their personal space and recognizing that they are not rational creatures, but rather are driven by instinct and habit. We have taught our children not to approach sleeping dogs or bother them while they eat. This attack was completely unprovoked. We were saying prayers. Shortcake was sitting next to Beegee calmly and when everyone got up to say goodnight, Shortcake reached over to pet Beegee who then turned and snapped. At her face. And then she did it again. Even as Shortcake screamed and scrambled away, the dog snapped again. Not viciously, not savagely, but disturbing enough that we can't have her in our house. We can't trust her around the children.

We are truly devastated. Everyone had come to love her so much and enjoy her presence in our lives. The rescue center has offered us another dog that has been around children a lot, but emotions are a little too raw around here to agree to that.

Some people might be more willing to give the dog another chance, but in my mind, this wasn't just one strike, it was a big strike. A growl is a warning to back away. There was no growl. Snapping at a hand tells you to stop. Snapping at a face is different. She had yelped and snapped at my hand earlier in the week when I was leading her into another room but I thought it was because her collar tag had poked her neck. Now I see that it was some kind of trigger probably due to an experience in her life as a track dog.

We wish her well and have been assured that she will be placed in a family without small children. Shortcake still loves animals including dogs and knows that she did nothing to provoke that response. Her plans for a puppy themed birthday are still underway and I am on a hunt to find the biggest stuffed dog I can with a sparkly purple bow on top.

Oreo Cows

This is especially for all of my Scottish friends out there!

These Belted Galloways live nearby and we love looking for them whenever we are out and about. These little rural pockets are one of the things I love about our area. We count the horses at the horse farm on the way to swim lessons and look for the herd of miniature donkeys on our way to the craft store. We used to have a zebra down the road from us and if you look in the right places you can find some bison being guarded by a camel!

Honoring St. Francis

Shortcake has already decided that St. Francis will be her Confirmation patron when the time comes so he has already been adopted as one of our family patrons. His feast day is today so we decided to make some animal treats (and some people treats).

We thought it would be fun to use the set of animal cookie cutters (mine is similar to this set) to make some animal crackers for our furry friends. While we do not have one to call our own yet, we have some neighbors who will appreciate them!

You can find the recipe for the Chicken Biscuits over at Catholic Cuisine. And if anyone out there has a sweet new kitty to spoil, we highly recommend the Tuna Tidbits. Miss Polly's cats give them 24 paws up!

Word to the wise: the people treats smell considerably better while baking!

Coloring page reminder: St. Francis of Assisi

Our dog (for a day)

Isn't he cute?

He really is a sweetheart. We considered adopting him. We even had the application approved and the home visit completed. He came to spend a few hours with us yesterday and the girls had fun chasing him around the back yard and petting him and being on the slobbery end of his sweet kisses. The boys...well...

My oldest obsessed worried about whether or not he was being eaten alive by fleas and my youngest spent the entire time locked in my room after we pried him off of Husband's head. He was terrified of this sweet dog and in the 3 hours that he was here, he never became even the tiniest bit more comfortable.

So, our adventures in finding a pet are put on hold for now. I know that given a few more days or weeks BigBoy might have grown comfortable enough to be in the same room with Wyatt but we couldn't take that chance. Eventually, Husband would have to go to work and I would have to take over as the human tree. We consoled the girls by reminding them that a new baby would be just as slobbery and smell much nicer. (That is NOT an announcement, just a desire!)

In the meantime, if anyone is looking for a cute, cuddly, fun, loving black and brown cocker spaniel, I can tell you where to find one!

Thanks Dawn!

(click to enlarge)Without your observation, I wouldn't have recognized this guy.

Texas Wild

Yesterday started off great with coffee at the bookstore, kept merrily rolling along with a trip to drop off some food for a new mama (I hope they could take their eyes off their beautiful little one long enough to eat it!) and ended with a perfect trip to the zoo with Husband and a perfectly frightful storm that made me think it was September in Sarasota. (It was my fault really. I made a pasta salad that is notoriously known as Storm Salad in our house since I only seem to make it in the spring and it is usually served with a side of wind sheers, rain and sometimes hail.)

The children really enjoyed showing Husband all of their favorite animals at the zoo. First stop was Meerkat Mound, with a swing by the African Savannah, a stroll past the sharks in the Great Barrier Reef and a quick saunter through the snake house. The majority of our time was spent in their favorite area.We stopped by on our first trip of the year hoping to see some wildflowers. There are so many we haven't had a chance to get up close and personal with! We see them as we drive here and there, but it isn't the same as getting to explore them with our senses. I think we might have to resort to poaching some soon. Don't worry! It isn't illegal. While a DPS officer might issue you a citation for impeding traffic, they would sooner give you a ticket for selling Limburger cheese on Sunday than for picking wildflowers. Anyway, there were no wildflowers to be found, but plenty of other beauties to behold. Bald eagles, bobcats, jaguars, mountain lions, coyotes (in between the jaguar and mountain lions acting very skittish...hmmmm... wonder why?), roadrunners and of course hornets, bats, bees and rattlesnakes.

Poor Husband! I know he loves me and he loves our life, but if we could move somewhere else without my mother hunting him down, he would in a heart beat. He has lived all over the continental U.S. so he speaks with a good amount of certitude when he says: Never have I lived somewhere with so many dangerous creatures everywhere you turn. You step outside and there are things trying to either eat you or kill you!

Sorry sweetie!

We visited Sea World last November, so the Gulf Coast area was of particular interest to my kiddos. You can touch a sea anemone (thank goodness for spell check), a sting ray (or just get splashed by one) and a sleepy slipper lobster.

Of course, we had to go see the Texas Wild Weather Show, again. It is super fun for everyone except BigBoy who doesn't like all of the loud thunder and flickering lights. The rain and golf ball-sized hail (plastic ones) was a little intense the first time the big kids saw it, but now they think it's a hoot! When the show is over there is a very nice (read: air conditioned) area that shows how good land management is our responsibility which fits right along with teaching our kids that we try to be good stewards of the earth.

However, this display was the cause of some amusement for Husband and a little embarrassment for me.
The yellow wrench has the word "contraception" on it. The first time we saw it I was furious! The Fort Worth Zoo isn't like other zoos where they try to make you feel guilty for sucking up all of the air and depriving the animals of homes with your very presence. Why have they changed now? What are they trying to say? How dare they suggest a thing like this in a place mostly enjoyed by children! I called Husband to tell him of my frustration and anger.

In his oh-so-calm, cool voice, with just the slightest hint of a chuckle (never condescension) he says: I think they're talking about... for the animals.

You know..."Neuter is Cuter!", Bob Barker and all that?

Tee, hee, hee! Silly me!

It's a zoo around here!

With our spring weather in full swing, we have been enjoying the zoo passes that my in-laws so generously gave us for Christmas. We thought we should enjoy them now before the weather turns sweltering and neither us nor the animals have any desire to be outdoors. The timing perfectly coincided with the discovery of this alphabet book and many others like it.

I really like these books! They work well for little kids and big kids. Each page has a stanza of a poem about the subject but then it also offers more in depth information in the side bars. Do books have side bars? Oh well. When I read it to BigBoy, we just read the poem but the big kids continued exploring the subject on their own.

The publisher's website also offers teacher's guides. Each one had lots of fun little printables that my kids are really gonna enjoy! OK, the girls will enjoy them, the boy might if he actually puts the book down and comes up for air.

So......

What do you do when you go to the zoo?
Watch all the animals...
Move like the animals...
Sign all the animals, too.
I do! I do!

So do we! We also took plenty of pictures. These are some of our favorites:

Meerkat - Bigboy's favorite
He actually has a stuffed meerkat that has been sharing Super Rrrr-bert's cape and flying time. Thanks AuntE!

It was Hug An Australian Day when we went so we made sure to stop by the Outback.

Komodo Dragon

Some kind of humongous gecko! Didn't catch the name. Was distracted by the enormous rattlesnake behind me.

This is a Harris Hawk that was going to do a demonstration but had to go inside because of some bullying grackles. Yeah... they weren't playing nice so he took his trainer and went home!

Self explanatory.

In the pond in front of the giraffes. Koi, I think, if koi can get this big.
You know what this is! Of course we broke out into song.

Turtle Rock is the perfect place
It's the perfect place to be.
Turtle Rock is not too hot
And it's not too cool for me!

Sure, we got some looks, but we had fun!

We are going to be spending a lot more time at the zoo now that I have an almost three year old who can skip his nap occasionally. It also helps that we stumbled upon the secret to saving my sanity when we showed up just to get our passes printed. No, don't ask me if we can go see the animals. It is going to be packed with school kids!

Uhhh... whoops.

If you arrive after lunch, all of the big yellow buses are leaving!!!! The place was not empty, but not so crowded you have to fear for your children's safety.

The kids all had a great time, and since no one wanted to see the Arachnitopia exhibit (spiders and scorpions), Mommy had a great time too! I bribed them with ice cream cones (the first of the season) and the promise to return next week to get them to leave peacefully. But we will be back. I'll call it a "unit study" if I have to!

* * * * * * * * *

(realizing his chocolate ice cream dripped on his shirt)
BigBoy: Oh no! I have shirt on my chocolate!

Bird watching *update*

We have been in a bird watching mood. The giant, silver maple that sits right outside the double window in our learning room has afforded us plenty of opportunity.

We have started our very first nature journal. (Bear with me, please, this is new for us!) Our first entry was the American Robin. Yesterday, we had the pleasure of seeing what we believe to be Carolina Wrens and (thanks to the helpful identification from Dawn and Jennifer) a bunch of Cedar Waxwings. They were amazing! The wrens flitted from the fence to the ground, but unfortunately the Cedar Waxwings stayed in the highest branches so we could only get up close and personal via digital zoom.

Until I can get to the book store and/or library to scope out a good field guide we are using the Internet, Texas Parks and Wildlife resources and the generosity of forced mentors online friends to identify what we see. We are also using this coloring book for our journal while trying to include information on what the bird eats and a bit about their nests. I am sure it is very crude compared to what the more experienced families create, but this is our first pancake, so to speak.

It was also very cloudy when they came to call. The pictures don't show their lovely coloring very well. The children agreed they looked like they were wearing black masks . Husband and The Professor called them "Ninja Birds"!

Thankfully they left before our watchman took his post on the tower. We wouldn't have wanted a confrontation!This guy has been showing up just about every day to sit right there and peek at the world going by. He looks out into the front yard at about the same spot in the fence that has a "window" we installed as a look out post for our dog. The dog is no longer with us so it seems that this guy has taken his place. Oh...not to worry! Our beloved pet has only passed from these owners to the next--- literally! He is being pampered and spoiled in his old age by a nice young man who loves dogs very much and had even re-arranged his work schedule to be better able to go for walks and romp in the park. It was heartbreaking to give him up, but old dogs don't always get along with young children and we wanted him to enjoy his remaining years. (He had actually started refusing to come inside, because of the noise and fuss the children made, and you just can't leave a dog outside all day in the kind of heat we endure during the summer.)

*Updated March 14* My apologies for the haziness but all of our windows have screens!
This cute little Carolina Wren was posing for a photo shoot right outside my laundry room window. He twittered and tweeted this morning while I folded towels. I felt just like Cinderella!

Giving us his best tough guy face!

For Dawn...

...and anyone else who needs a warm hug.

From A Bird by Emily Dickinson
A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

Catching a few rays

Apparently our fence is a great place to hang out.

The American Robin is a familiar sight pulling up worms on suburban lawns. Although it's at home breeding in deep, mature forests, the robin is the most widespread thrush in North American thanks to a tolerance for human-modified habitats. From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Funny story with this one. She (?) was by the window in the school room. Once we identified her as a robin we started listening to a Robin's call and this gal acted like she could hear us. She started hopping around and looking. Then she hopped closer to the window! The kids are asking me if she was responding to the call. I didn't think so, but then .....

...two other ones landed on the fence next to and in the tree above the first one.

The kids call these "the stinky trees".
The buds have bloomed and we are holding our noses.

But this is by far the cutest specimen we have seen in our backyard. He (obviously male, look at the handsome molting pattern courtesy of the nice lady with the clippers who gave him 2 lollipops to make up for all the torture she inflicted) is called a BigBoy and he is a familiar sight running around on our suburban lawn. Although he is at home blowing bubbles in dry, un-landscaped backyards, the BigBoy can be the most impatient creature in North America with zero tolerance for sibling-modified habitats.