Never One The Same

From my husband's little log cabin, 9,500 feet up in the Colorado Rockies, we watched a most unusual sunset unfold to the west.

The clouds seemed to have fire within them.

 I wanted to paint it. 

Once it had set, all was serene, quiet. A wash of silky transparent peach and melon color swept the sky, the mountains turning black in contrast. 

Meow

Picture of the day: While out looking for houses one day I was greeted by this pretty kitty. I took a picture, thinking you might enjoy seeing her as much as I did. The photo speaks to her beauty, softness, curiosity and charm far better than my words could.

Curious Cow

Have you ever noticed that cows are very interested in you when you walk near them or stop your car close to their fence, perhaps rolling down your window to get a look? (notice the guys in the back too?)

As I write that, I realize that not everyone has had the occasion to be around cows or would care about a cow enough to visit... 

Thanks to the miracle of photography and blogspot, I can deliver the experience to you today (especially if you click on the photo to enlarge), lol.  The thing I can't quite duplicate is how unexpectedly LARGE they are.

It's an Amazing World

I recently finished my docent training at the zoo, a process of several Saturdays spread out over about 9 months. The very first thing I studied was the aquarium, and much to my delight, we got a behind the scenes tour, so we could know how everything operates. It really was like going behind Oz's curtain. There are a million things I could tell you about but since I'm still glazed over from the holidays, I will pick a simple one.

We were making the rounds of tanks -- from sharks to sea turtles to nautilus when I stumbled upon this sight on a shelf at the very end of the aquarium hall.


There, suspended in this clear lucite circle, were delicate, transparent jellyfish. It's so hard to believe these ghostly whisps are living beings with organs, instincts, the ability to collect food and reproduce. Yet they have no bones, heart, brain or eyes. While they may use their tentacles (with little stingers) to find food, they must also use them in lieu of sight, to inuit whatever they run into. But what do they do with no brain to process the information? I don't know enough about this but it seems they default to nerve impulses.

Some jelly fish are swimmers, propelling themselves by a pumping motion they make with their whole bodies; others, like these, float with the currents. I learned that the tank is round because the jelly fish are too fragile to interact with corners. And this orb turned slowly to provide a current of sorts, for them to keep in motion. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was mesmerizing to watch, and so relaxing.

They only live for about 3-6 months. Despite all this, these flimsy beings have great resilience as they've been around for more than 650 million years (which means they've got the dinosaurs beat) and though many species aren't dangerous, their stingers have killed human beings. Impressive, huh?

Lest We Forget

It's so easy to get lost in all our little to-do's in daily life and forget just how much is out there. Once in a while something reminds us...



Can you see the two white dots to the lower right of the moon? This was a pretty darn good picture my little digital took of the two nights when you could see both Jupiter and Venus shining brightly in the sky.

Did any of you see it too? Take pictures of it?

And now the Winter Solstice has come and gone, and the cycles of the moon will take us closer and closer to spring.

On the Topic of Spots

Here's a little clip of the 14 month old cheetah brothers, who were particularly active the other morning. It was quite chilly in Houston and I think it perked them up.  Normally, I catch them napping more often than not, but not this time. 

Can you tell they are the fastest cat by the little sprint the brother makes at the end?  That's nothing. They get up to speeds of 65mph.  But while that may enable them to catch their prey, they often are so pooped after such exertion that often they have no energy left to fight off hyena or other meal thieves!

Since we were looking at the differences in spots on the previous post, I thought I'd upload this so you can see that the Cheetah's spots are just solid black. These guys still have adolescent fur sticking up. I think their keeper told me they will not be so bushy looking but will develop sleeker coats as they mature.

Beautiful faces, eh?

You CAN Tell a Cat by It's Spots!

You might look at this gorgeous guy, see his spots and think "leopard", but indeed, this is a jaguar.

So how can you tell the difference?  While both are from Africa, the leopard is from the plains and the jaguar is native to the South. The jaguar has shorter, thicker legs than a leopard, but for me it's all in the spots. Jags have a kind of rosette pattern to their spots, which you can see clearly on the photo above (it's a little cloudy as I was shooting through thick pelxi-glass). There are black "petals" around a tan colored spot and inside also are black spots, like the center of a flower. If you look below, you'll see that leopards fur just has black circles with varying colors of tan fur filling the center. Both are striking, aren't they?

Photo credit for leopard print above by jeniflower from virtualtourist.com

This little-of-the-big cat below is an Ocelot. At just about twice as large of a domestic house cat it's easy to forget you can't just cuddle her. She's wild as can be and can still give you a good swat or bite. But she has leopard-like spots. Notice that they are elongated along her trunk though, and a leopards' would not be.


This handsome fellow here is indeed a leopard, but not the kind we were thinking about. he's a clouded leopard, and they are gorgeous. You can see from it's wide, diffused, cloud-shaped spots where they got the name.

Purrrrdy kitty.

Apparently He Went to the School of Silly Walks

Get a lot of pelicans at the wildlife rehab center as in Texas, there are many possibilities for oil spills. Just got an education Saturday about the process of going down to the gulf to set up a rescue facility, and the process of cleaning every animal that gets coated, if possible, and how to release them slowly back into the wild if they survive.

I never knew they had such goofy personalities.  This guy has been staying with us for quite awhile, since hurricane Ike I think, and I caught the tiniest snippet of his "Good Morning" antics for you to get a chuckle.

Give a Hoot

I went by the Wildlife Rehab and Education Center today and found this little group of guys. Three baby barn owls! (double click on the pic to see them close up)

I'd never seen a live owl before a year ago, and suddenly I am seeing them everywhere... like when I was in Hawaii to elope and we got caught in a forest fire ... I saw my first ever owl flying out of the grey smoke. He sailed right past my head and vanished into the ash behind me before I could really register what it was. It was eerie.  I felt I'd been visited by a spirit totem.

I saw the next one in a suburban tree when I visited a friend an hour north of Houston, such a paradox to my first experience, which is what's so cool about it.  Several times after that, I've seen this gorgeous bird on the grounds of the zoo when his Keeper decides to take him out for visitors to see one up close....

Maybe it's like that unexplainable thing that happens when something enters your consciousness, you suddenly have a heightened awareness of it. After 2 years of visiting the park almost daily without incident, I saw a very small one flying through the treetops one day last spring. I even managed to get a picture... Because it was so small, I couldn't identify it for sure until I got home, downloaded the picture and blew it up. Having gone my entire life never seeing anything other than the plastic owls on buildings or in gardens or maybe on a picture postcard, I think it's pretty amazing that I should see so many all of the sudden. 

Now, at the Rehab Center, I am adding to my collection of sightings  -- there is the the teeny weeny screech owl I posted a movie of a week or so ago (CLICK HERE), and this astonishing barn owl below, which is what the trio of babies at the top of the page will grow up to look like. I know they are quite common but I had never seen one with like this before. I mean, look at that face!  

They're fascinating birds, so beautiful and mysterious.  Have you ever had an owl encounter? 

Nine to Five

This morning I headed past the Meerkats as I always do, as their habitat is right on the path to where volunteers sign in at the zoo. They were all standing in a sliver of sun, warming their bellies, as they do in the AM... all but the designated sentry who dutifully sat high up on a chilly rock peak, looking out for the group.

By the time I left, it was getting cold again, as the sun was going down. I took this picture which I will put up as big as blogger allows. It looks to me like this Meerkat has another curled into him or her, and his/her arms are holding them that way. With tails in the wrong places and haunches looking extra wide, I couldn't tell if there were 2 other Meerkats, one on each side or this one somehow got fat after a Thanksgiving meal of crickets... There are no babies right now, which, if curled up to this one might be about this size... I could not figure it out until I double clicked the picture once posted here, and it blew up enough for me to get it. Perhaps you will double click and tell me what you see.

Something New

Call me a Yankee or a sheltered city dweller but I admit, I've lived my whole life and never ever seen possum. We had raccoons in our garage when I was growing up in the midwest but I've never had a run in with the possum, which is quite a common critter in many parts of the country. For the sake of making fun of myself, I'd only ever heard of a possum because Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies made soup from them!

But when I went to help with wildlife rehab after the hurricane, suddenly they were in my world. And last week, I learned to clean their cages. That was.... interesting.

Possum aren't ugly but they aren't cute either. They're definitely stinky little buggers. I thought it was their poop but I've read the musk glands behind their ears are to blame. They burrow underneath the newspapers, so to clean I often was waking them up, and none of us like that.

There is a short baton of sorts that you have to keep in one hand to keep them back while you quickly remove their food and water dishes and grab up the soiled newspaper. Now, the baton is just a stick that you hold at an angle so it's a bit of a barrier between you in case they should strike. Most of them just sit in the back corner of the cage with their wide mouths open (a shot I didn't get); while this might be their "I'll scare you" gesture, it looks more like a toothy, goofy grin! Once thick layers of fresh newspaper is installed we can quickly return their water and food, close the door and their nap can be resumed.

At the rehab center, we endeavor to save the lives of sick or injured creatures and when they're ready, release them safely back into the wild. But I often wonder if the things we need to do seem more like alien abduction to them. A big face peers in, a giant hand comes to lift them up, and make funny noises at them in a language that is not even close to their own. I do my best to move slowly. I keep fairly quite (or coo in a way I hope communicates calm and peace). I remember that I'm doing these things for their own good and just hope it's not too stressful.

But then there are the guys who like human interaction. While you don't want to imprint them to humans, so they can stay wild and survive once released, each animal really does have a personality, and some just like people. Of the dozen or so we have, this one is very curious about you and has no problem with you cleaning his cage. Here he is, stepping forward to say hello.

Above is a baby possum, which I cropped so he'd look big enough to see on blogger. They're vulnerable little runts at this age, aren't they? When they grow to be about 9 inches from their nose to their bum (not to the end of their tail) they are big enough to be released.

Not all are in the center due to injury or illness. In fact, most possum are from people who find them in their yard and bring them in simply because they don't want them there. Guess when Granny found them out by her ce-ment pond she decided to keep 'em -- in her soup pot!

The wildlife rehab center never turns an animal away, but cares for it until they can return it to nature -- usually via the land of private, licensed rehabbers who volunteer to take animals in that predicament, so they can live long lives in their natural habitat. You have to appreciate that these folks do it with little or no pay, and get supplies to keep going through donations (if not entirely out of their own pocket). This is why it's so fantastic to support the people and places that do this work. It really is an labor of love.

Not So Secret Santa

I had some Adventures with animals yesterday at a Renisance Festival we went to out in the forest.  I took some pictures and a little video and will get to posting it, but all weekend I have been on a roll on my other blog, Looky Here, putting up post after post of gift ideas, since I used to be a professional gift buyer for my clients. I have listed some of my all time favorite, please alls,  and am putting up a few posts for different age groups of a sampling of some things that are brand new to the market.  And I will keep putting up posts of things-- from high end ideas to stocking stuffers -- in the next few days as there is plenty of time to order online and not do Rush fees, get things engraved if need be, etc...

Please stop by there now by CLICKING HERE and for the next several days if you're interested, and leave me a comment if you're so inclined.  There are many posts from the last several days, so please scroll down to see them all. Maybe there is one that will be right for you. And if you are stumped for someone, please write me in the comments and I will reply in the comments with ideas for you!

Thanks!  More animal adventures will be up here very shortly!