Mad Manatee Mentors 2013: CLOSED (exc/ Pop Tart bribes) (Page 194)

The office is an absolute ghost town today.  There are NO lawyers here, other than the managing partner, and I'm hoping that once they realize NO ONE is here they might let us leave early... probably not, but I'm going to keep hoping (and until 5pm I shall avoid doing as much work as possible) 

I just noticed that if I post about 47,000 more times, I might catch Yanti.

A guy has to have goals.

I just noticed that if I post about 47,000 more times, I might catch Yanti.

A guy has to have goals.

I just noticed that if I post about 47,000 more times, I might catch Yanti.

A guy has to have goals.

Garter snake?  You've sparked an identify venomous vs non-venomous lesson for my son....very useful for living in the AZ desert.   Of course it ended with, "When can I catch a garter snake or a gopher snake?" ..."When you're fast enough." lol

Yay, I can finally officially post pics of these guys:

Our new Red River Hoglets! one week old...

 Our new baby Red Panda (who is NOT impressed...)

The hoglets were a bit earlier than expected, but we knew they would show up. Red River Hogs are native to central Africa, they do typical pig things, have a tendency to rip arms off of people given half the chance, and will do just about anything for Cheerios. (no, I am not kidding about any of that.)

The Red Panda-let (Pandlet? Pandittle???) is 26 days old, we had to remove him from his momma cause her milk was not sustaining or increasing his weight, so we (well, supervisors and vet staff, anyway) are hand-rearing him and feeding him now. Red Pandas are very rare, and there are two subspecies, the greater and lesser red pandas---the lesser are less dark red and a bit less fluffy (and smaller); we have the lesser. They are notoriously hard to keep alive in their first 30 days, as the parents aren't always the best --either not attentive enough, or WAY to protective (I'll spare the gory details, but it is NOT pretty.) Hopefully this guy will do okay. He's our first Panda baby in 8 years. 

I pulled a "dummy move" last night. Daughter has been having trouble sleeping in her own bed after storms this week. Now door is open and night light on, but she still came in last night about 1:30. She snuggled in between us. Then my son came in at 3 (issues sleeping this week, too), but after checking both sides of the bed, there was "No (whimper, whimper) room, mom."  So I sent him back to his own bed with the promise that I would put Mak back in hers and then come lay with him. Then they both wanted water. OK, mommy will get water. I got them water, right after misjudging and sliding down last steps, wrenching my shoulder (I was being "safe" and holding rail), giving my bad knee a good pop and twisting my right ankle. I just stayed on the floor for a minute to make sure nothing had shooting pain. Nope. All worked well enough to get water. And, of course, NONE of this slipping and sliding disturbed anyone else. LOL

Had plans to run today, but right foot is sore.  How much should I just HTFU?

On a happy note, I got a sitter for 6am Sunday so DH and I can go for a long ride BEFORE it reaches 110*. It'll be my first real hill climbing!  Wheeee!!!!

I pulled a "dummy move" last night. Daughter has been having trouble sleeping in her own bed after storms this week. Now door is open and night light on, but she still came in last night about 1:30. She snuggled in between us. Then my son came in at 3 (issues sleeping this week, too), but after checking both sides of the bed, there was "No (whimper, whimper) room, mom."  So I sent him back to his own bed with the promise that I would put Mak back in hers and then come lay with him. Then they both wanted water. OK, mommy will get water. I got them water, right after misjudging and sliding down last steps, wrenching my shoulder (I was being "safe" and holding rail), giving my bad knee a good pop and twisting my right ankle. I just stayed on the floor for a minute to make sure nothing had shooting pain. Nope. All worked well enough to get water. And, of course, NONE of this slipping and sliding disturbed anyone else. LOL

Had plans to run today, but right foot is sore.  How much should I just HTFU?

On a happy note, I got a sitter for 6am Sunday so DH and I can go for a long ride BEFORE it reaches 110*. It'll be my first real hill climbing!  Wheeee!!!!

Midnight shenanigans in the dark always result in injury.

Yes, garter snake. Those are rather harmless. Fyi, if your son is capable of forming a sentence like that, then he's probably fast enough to catch one. He'd just need to figure out how without getting bit. I never tried, just observed. From being around poisonous ones, generally it's best to assume it is unless you know for sure it's not.

Still amazed with how much shows up out the front door. That picture is literally one step outside. Lots of things have shown up too. Had a toad as big as my fist. Usually spiders seem attracted for some reason. Mostly unimpressive ones, except for this garden spider. Body is almost as big as my thumb and the web was several feet across with that pattern on it. Much too impressive to get rid of, and it was just enough out of the way not to be an issue.

I pulled a "dummy move" last night. Daughter has been having trouble sleeping in her own bed after storms this week. Now door is open and night light on, but she still came in last night about 1:30. She snuggled in between us. Then my son came in at 3 (issues sleeping this week, too), but after checking both sides of the bed, there was "No (whimper, whimper) room, mom."  So I sent him back to his own bed with the promise that I would put Mak back in hers and then come lay with him. Then they both wanted water. OK, mommy will get water. I got them water, right after misjudging and sliding down last steps, wrenching my shoulder (I was being "safe" and holding rail), giving my bad knee a good pop and twisting my right ankle. I just stayed on the floor for a minute to make sure nothing had shooting pain. Nope. All worked well enough to get water. And, of course, NONE of this slipping and sliding disturbed anyone else. LOL

Had plans to run today, but right foot is sore.  How much should I just HTFU?

On a happy note, I got a sitter for 6am Sunday so DH and I can go for a long ride BEFORE it reaches 110*. It'll be my first real hill climbing!  Wheeee!!!!

Oooh, ouchie!!  Glad nothing was too seriously hurt.  Good luck on your ride Sunday, try to stay cool!

Have you had enough people tell you that you have one of the coolest jobs ever today, because you're about to hear it one more time:  You are the chit.  That is so faching awesome!  Lesser Red Panda?  WTF? That is C-R-A-Z-Y awesome. 

How long does it take the hoglets to be big enough to be arm rippers?  Are the moms crazy protective?

The hoglets bit a keeper on their very first morning, but it didn't do much damage. They had to be caught and moved as the momma had given birth in the bongo barn--where the two bongos were "enjoying each other's company"... They found one in the barn and another out on exhibit, so they got mom over to the nest box and locked her in, and then were able to go grab the kids.

This is a bongo:

   Thats a baby bongo--check out the ears!