dragon_moon | Entries tagged with animals

Just had to share some exciting news - the elk herd is back!! Saw them briefly the other night - Tuesday, I think. Then again last night they were in one of the neighboring pastures. Mom and I went back with the camcorder to see if we could get some video (her camera has amazing zoom!).

It's pretty darn cool seeing them at all, but the zoom was amazing!! There were two gorgeous bull elk and a few more less spectacular ones. ;D There were a lot of cows and some youngsters. So neat!!! It's such a treat getting to see the elk when they're around, and we've been missing seeing them lately.

Current Mood: excited

It's been a week of raccoons! I saw a momma and two adorable babies on the drive to work earlier this week, and then this morning I saw two raccoons right by where I park at work. Too cute! Though, I imagine the neighbors right around here don't think so. *G* It was too dark to even attempt a camera-phone pic, but the raccoon started to run off, then decided I wasn't out to kill it, and climbed up the little chain link fence and just messed around for a bit.

Fantastic news, btw! Our home was delivered yesterday!!! It still requires being put together and on blocks, and then we can start reassembling the floor and such, and working on the final permits before we can actually move in. but at least it is finally ON our property! *happy dancing*

Happy Friday!

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: damien rice~volcano

Laylah is incredibly clingy when we get home. She's currently stretched out on my shins, which does make them quite warm. However, she's getting heavy enough that it hurts if I'm not careful to keep them straight! I got her a 'play cavern scratcher' the other day, and she loves it. Pretty sure that she's cut down on scratching on the couch, which is a good thing.

The cattle that my grandpa has are incredibly fond of garden scraps. They started out enjoying the brocolli and lettuce, and have progressed to loving corn cobs and even tomatoes. lol. They followed me out to the blackberries this afternoon, though they weren't impressed with the single berries I'd toss them. LOL. It is rather an odd feeling to turn around and see six cattle bounding down the hill at you, especially with their fat little bellies bouncing around. Whenever I finally get a chance to develop my photos, I'll share pics of some of them. :o)

When we were in portland the other day we noticed that the pretzel shop (which made excellent cinnamon & sugar pretzels) also had pretzel hot dogs. I'd already ordered and wanted to try those next time we go up north. Anyway, I went to the mall after work today to see if I could find a jacket for work that fit better, and discovered that our pretzel shop also makes pretzel dogs. This looked possibly even better than up in portland, because the pretzel dough was super soft and it was absolutely delicious. Mmmm, mmm. Lunch was really good today! Plan on making blackberry crepe-type-pancakes tonight or tomorrow if I can find my bisquick dough. I cannot WAIT until the house moves in and everything is in one place!

Speaking of the house, we are scheduled to have the house taken apart on thurs and moved on friday - but then yesterday mom found out that the county said it's not legal yet. WTF?! So mom's speaking with R, whose business partner supposedly took care of that over a month ago. We're hoping it's just a glitch with the county because it needs to be moved this week or next at the latest. It's starting to rain more often and it will be difficult to get it moved any later than that. *sigh* Moving really sucks sometimes.

Current Music: l&o

We had an absolutely wonderful time at the Oregon Zoo. Michael had a couple of meltdowns, but considering we were there for three and a half hours he actually did very, very well. I think his favorite part was the train tracks, but hey. lol. Heather and I had a great time and enjoyed seeing the Zoo again. It's been a number of years since we've been (it was called the Portland Zoo back then, and OMSI was across the street!).

Anyway, I'm too tired to go into much detail right now. We saw lots of neat animal exhibits - the Pacific section had a gorgeous cougar (who was fascinated with the sheep and goats over at the petting zoo) and a huge bald eagle. That part of the zoo had a lot of kids activities as well, so Michael got to play with this neat set where you poured water over the mountains and hills and saw how water runs down into the valleys and back to the rivers and oceans. Cool. The beavers were sleeping in their dens, but the otter was swimming around happily. The sheep that they have in their petting zoo are Shetland Sheep - it's amazing how many color variations they come in! They had a few black and colored sheep, but the poster on the wall showed that they can come in like 50 different variations. Pretty neat! And they were sweet. One came over and let me pet her for a while.

We had a lovely time seeing all the sites. I'll wait til the pictures come back to go into more detail. My brain is fried! The leopard was stunning. Lots of cool birds! Lorikeets are neat.

On the way home we stopped at Denny's for dinner - it's the first non-fast-food restaurant we've tried Michael at in ages. It actually worked out great - he even ate the BUN and scrambled eggs!! Wow. He tried new things! YAY! Their new fusion drinks are delicious - Sprite and various fruit flavors. Mmm, mmm. I bought a Sprite tonight and mixed it with my cranberry-raspberry juice - it's not bad at all. Not quite as good as the multiple flavors they offer, but still something different to do with juice. ^___^

Current Mood: giddy
Current Music: filter

On the way home today, I saw a grey squirrel running across the road. That was okay - there were no cars very close to him. But then he starts bounding up the hillside, and the killdeer starts swooping after him! lol. He must have run up near the nest. Everyone was happy after that. :D

I think I must have missed some CSI episodes, because I don't remember the previous one featuring Ms Heather. Watched last night's today at lunch, and just couldn't place some of the events that they flashed back to in it. I was saddened by the cab storyline - sucks to be gullible sometimes.

Anyhoo, guess it's time to go back to work. At least it's Friday. YAY!

Current Mood: happy

Had a good time watching Michael yesterday for the most part - we had a great time at Abby's Pizza and he actually ate most of the toppings and even contemplated actually eating some of the crust. That is a huge step for him!! lol. Had a few not so great moments while trying to take him for a walk - the big one being him wanted to take these kids baseballs while they were swinging. Oh well, he didn't take them but we had to leave because he wouldn't leave them alone. But when we got back home he had a 30 minute crying fit because his momma wasn't home and I wouldn't take him to his Nonny's house. He's still at the point where he won't listen when he's upset - even though he seemed to listen while I explained that his momma was out to dinner and when she got back we'd all go to his grandma's place and give presents and eat cake and his Nonny would be there, immediately after that he'd start up again. But he finally was able to calm down and get past it, and from there we had a great night. After absolute AGES everyone arrived home. lol.

We watched one of the Planet Earth episodes - wow, is that great photography or what?! Amazing. The one we watched was the Shallow Seas one - I had no idea that the humpback whales momma had to go for 5-8 months without eating any food so her calf could survive in the warm seas like that!! Crazy. The pygmy seahorses were adorable, especially the little head butting thing they had going on. Felt bad for the seals, even if that was an absolutely incredible great white shark shot.

This morning also went well. Stayed at her place a little longer so I could finally watch the premier episode of this year's Dancing with the Stars. That was fun!! I loved Joey F's routine, and enjoyed Clyde Drexler's and..err, the Cheers guy. How in the world could he not be at ALL nervous?! lol. And I also loved Apolo Ohno's routine - especially considering that he's actively competing at the same time. Insanity. I've missed a few episodes, but from the link in this article I can see how has been eliminated and it wasn't any of my favorites so it's bearable. Going to have to start watching it again, though, as Heather's mom said that she thinks Apolo is the best dancer this time around. (And on a completely fangirl note - he has the BEST smile! Incredibly charming and brilliantly white. Yay!!!)

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: the killers~somebody told me

Just ignore this entry if you want. I prefer the "cloud" look to the tags, but I hate it that you can't actually read half of them. So I'm going to list all the not-as-loved tags and one itty bitty bit of randomness to go with them here. :D

( A through F )

Current Mood: cheerful

I hate being disorganized - I was going through the rest of the books that I picked up from the used book store when I was petsitting in November, and found a check from my grandmother in there for one of the oils I bought for her. *sigh* I'm thinking it's nearing the limit of what banks like to cash, so I may have to ask her to re-write it, or at least update the date and initial it. I don't know. Scatterbained.

It's amazing how the simple things can please you so much - the managers all went to the Kodak seminar last month to learn more about our office software. After five or so years, we FINALLY know how to add text to the "remarks/comments" section of the electronic claims! WHOOOHOOOO! We don't have to drop it to paper anymore just to say "2nd mailing" or whatever minor stuff it is they need to know. *happy dancing* Also, I'm feeling way more comfortable with posting payments - I'm balancing the first time through more consistently and it's not going at a turtle's pace anymore. Yay! I'm also grateful that despite feeling a little grumpy with people in general and very tired by the end of the day, it actually was a good day and I managed to whittle out quite a few of the problem things that have been hanging around. Happy February. :o)

I felt bad at lunch - when I got home I noticed that there was a big black dog over at the neighbor's across the street. I was watching him while my lunch was heating up, and he wandered from the one house to the one next to it - didn't exactly look like he belonged, you know? Plus I've not seen him before. Anyway, I grabbed a dog biscuit and went out to see if I could get him close enough to see if he had any tags - he looked nervous and a bit scared, but he did come over. Unfortunately he just had on a rabies tag. There were some workmen over by the house where I first saw the dog so I tried to get him to go with me to see if they were his people - they said no, and the dog at that point took off trotting down our street. :( I suppose I should have called animal control at that point, but I didn't because it'd be sad if he really was a neighborhood dog and they were just around the corner. In talking with my housemate after lunch, I've decided the next time that I will call animal control (for safety reasons) or even the vet down the road. Possibly they could have tracked the rabies tag and found the owner. But as nervous as the dog was I don't think I could have gotten him to the vet's. *sigh* We're thinking positive and that he just went down the street to home. He looked well taken care of so it's likely. :\

My housemate also said that probably her vet could scan Nate's microchip. That's cool. I'll have to see if they can do that, or even if Nate's vet could do that next time I take him in. He had a microchip put in when I adopted him from the shelter, but with all the wrestling he and Rocky did that first year the tag with it's number on it was destroyed. So I can't update our address, as I'm sure it's got the rental's address on it. Unless I put on my grandparent's address, but I just can't remember. Anyway, I want to get it updated, since it's silly to actually have a microchip in your dog and have it possibly not HELP. So, yeah. Plus, I think I need to update Nate's dog tag. Last time I checked it was starting to get beat up. (Uhm, not that he wears his collar in the house...so I guess we'd best continue making sure the doors are well locked, eh?)

Current Mood: ditzy
Current Music: metallica~king nothing

Well, it was quite a weekend! Met up with Heather and Michael for some quick Target and Walmart shopping, and random other stuff. Then went out to the ranch to meet up with Mom and my sister for our weekend trip. Gave Papa a really cool photo book on the NFL called "Warriors" - lots of interesting shots and stuff.

We had considered going up to Woodburn for the outlet mall there, but ended up heading to Lincoln City for their outlet mall. OMG, huge! There are 65 fabulous stores there. So much fun! I went a little crazy, but had a great time doing so anyway. *G* Got a really adorable stuffed black lamb at Pendleton, a couple calendars (naruto for me and a doberman one for heather), and an awesome dragon figure by McFarlane Toys. I've not found the link for my dragon yet, but these are totally cool. aha! This is my dragon, though he's actually a darker maroonish purple rather than lavendar. ;D There are photo links on the right side for multiple views. O.o A flying one! It's due out in Feburary. Sweet! Err, anyway. Back to the weekend. lol. They had a really neat glass shop there (pyromania, I believe?) that had lots of different colored globes, and had a really neat dragon base. If I don't find anything else I really want to spend my year-end bonus on that's special, I may go back and get that. They had a shop in Newport, too, I believe. We looked at a lot of the stores, but the only other one I went crazy in was Old Navy. Got some t-shirts, an awesome wolf zip up sweat shirt, the softest scarf ever and really good deals on all of them.

By this point it was well after dark, so we were happy that we'd already pretty much decided to stay in Lincoln City. We actually stayed at the Lincoln City Inn, which was very nice. The ocean was across the street, so we still had a lovely view in the morning! We had a bit of a mishap/miscommunication as to where the restaurant was located that our check in person recommended and ended up walking many, MANY blocks that were not necessary. But the meal at Pier 101 was well worth it! OMG, absolutely amazing. Mom and I both got the brie salmon special (salmon, brie cheese, crab and baby shrimp) and loved it. Mmmm, mmmm. We'll definitely be going back there any time we're in the area!

Sunday morning was *quite* windy. It was a nice drive to Newport - the road goes right next to the ocean so we got some great views! But Mom's never really cool with bridges, and Newport's bridge seems REALLY high and with the wind and all I didn't even really want to go over the bridge. So, the Newport Aquarium will have to wait for another trip - one which we'll just come at it from the other side and avoid the bridge entirely. LOL. Or at least hope it's a nicer day and just cross it once, y'know. So we decided we'd check out the Undersea Gardens instead. They had a special where you bought tickets for two of their three attractions and you went to the third for free, so we ended up seeing the Wax Works and Ripley's Believe it or Not too. We saw the dive show where the diver showed you the various types of fish and sealife (star fish, crabs, etc) so that was worth the money, but if you don't see the dive show it's really...pretty dull. It was cool to go around and watch all the fish after the dive show because you knew what to look for - the wolf eels were awesome!!! They look quite fierce so I was surprised how friendly they were with the diver - he even jiggled the eel's jowls like you might a dog. hehe! But the BEST thing about Sunday was the Sea Lions that were right outside the Undersea Gardens! TOO COOL. They had some little platforms underneath the boardwalk, and there were two sets of four sea lions that were hanging out down there, and then a bunch of them out on a rock further out in the water. So exciting!

Err, ok. Was going to find some sea lion links, but they froze up my computer. THANK YOU LJ! Autosave is a wonderful thing. But I don't want to risk it again. lol.

Work's been ok this week. Today was good. Actually was motivated and took Nate for a good walk this morning! And attended our Coding meeting this evening. Yay for me. Eh? lol. Well, I'm behind on reading everyone so will try to catch up later this week.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: incubus~wish you were here

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/dog-owners-warned-over-sugar-free-items/20061001101809990005?ncid=NWS00010000000001

Granted, we're not supposed to be giving our animals food other than dog food. However, I know I'm not the only one who on occasion does give my dog a bite here and there of table food. Or who has a marauder in the household who will sneak stuff he can reach (and even stuff you think he can't). So to be forewarned, apparently the sugar substitute Xylitol can cause liver failure in dogs. So definitely be cautious in storage containers for your sugar-free stuff, and don't share them with your doggies. :o)

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: the killers~mr brightside

Squirrels is one of those words that after you see it repeated page after page it starts to look really odd and you're convinced it's spelled wrong. LOL.

http://www.squirrels.org/history.html - Haven't found any real pictures on this one yet, but they do have cute drawings and lots of interesting info about squirrels.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060220/gallery/evolution2_zoom.jpg - they get so flat when they stretch out like that!

Fox Squirrel - Dear sweet Esquire looks just like this little guy!

http://www.cmsu.edu/naturecentral/pictures/fox_squirrel.jpg - Squirrel in feeder tray.

http://www.skydancers.com/images/beyond%20fence/critters/grey_squirrel_rail.html - Beautiful photos! They also have some red squirrels if you go back to the critter page.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/greysquirrel.html - fact page for grey squirrels.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: toadies~possum kingdom

We had no doctors scheduled to work today, so I was able to leave work an hour or so early. Yay! The bettas are happy in their sparkly clean home, I straightened up part of my room, and even got to watch a little of the Planet's Most Extreme. I didn't realize the platypus was Australian! Too cool.

Anyway, #10 was the Fennic Fox because they're the tiniest fox (smaller than a house cat) and yet they have the largest canid ears. They're adorable! The ears are dual purpose--sound for hunting, but also to help cool them off in the desert. This page has info and pictures, while there's a gorgeous photo here.

Oh, yeah. Scientist humor is pretty funny sometimes - the guys showing the pair of foxes said that they like to call their cooling mechanism "ear conditioning" - had to laugh, even though it's pretty sad at the same time. ^,,^

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: tori amos~taxi ride

Wow, what a fabulous day yesterday! My mom, sister and I went to Bandon Game Park--it ended up being about a 3.5 hour drive, but well worth it. The Game Park is a walk-through safari type park and we lucked out in that it's baby season! SO CUTE!!!

( lions, tigers and bears galore! )

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: bryan adams~?

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