happy to have herps

I came home from work today frustrated about my job and my life. I am a little embarrassed to report how much my reptile and amphibian pets improved my mood.

I have two great dogs. They greet me with enthusiasm after an absence of ten hours. But they are almost too much like me. They read my moods and respond to them. They know how to get what they want (food) from me.

Tonight we will snuggle in my bed and I will pet them and talk to them.

The herps really don't care about me. This is remarkably soothing.

I have been worried about the frog for six months. He has refused to eat more than once every six to eight weeks. I know that he is an old frog. I am at least his third human and I adopted him four years ago. So I have worried about frog palliative care and frog euthanasia Then a month ago, he started eating. Now he is up to two goldfish (and the occasional earthworm) each week. Tonight I cleaned an enormous poop from his cage and told him how pleased I was.

My brothers used to tease me about being easily entertained.

The king snake had eaten a mouse on Saturday. She was only a week past a shed and was so soft to touch and brilliant to look at that it made my day. She has bitten me twice,so I was pleased when she curled around my neck peacefully as I cleaned her cage.

On careful inspection, the corn snake didn't need anything. I turned on everybody's basking lights for the evening and thought about how grateful I was to be living all these creatures.

don't rush the snake

After ten years with corn snakes, I have been enjoying my king snake (another rescue from the pound). She seemed, if anything, more tolerant of me than even the sweet tempered corns. She is an alert, active snake, often looking at me with interest from her cage, and settling against my body when I pick her up.

I did notice when I fed her that she has a ferocious prey strike. Unlike the corn snake, who will gently take the rat from my palm.

I was in a hurry tonight. I'm leaving for Portland in the morning and I haven't packed yet. The king's cage had to be cleaned and it was one more chore to be fitted into a busy evening. I moved too quickly and grabbed her, and felt those tiny needles in my palm. I told her I was sorry and we rocked in front of the fireplace for a while until we both calmed down.

My brother-in-law often asks about the "secret of life". He tells a long story about one of his brothers who, in response to this question, answered "When you are offered a booth or a table always take the table". Or maybe it was the other way 'round. (This reminds me of Jackie Mason's routines about the Jews and the Gentiles in the restaurant).

The last time he asked me I told him "Never run from the bear".

Now I think "Don't rush the snake" is almost as good as a motto.

relax - mouse is dead

My new snake is, like my Sunshine corn snake, a stray. Adopted from the pound. This probably happens only in Alaska, since we have no snakes living here. Its just like Alaskans to rescue any snake they find and deliver it to the animal shelter.

She's a california king, not quite full grown, plump and mild mannered. I don't need another snake, but she is so lovely and so easy to handle I couldn't resist.

I have spent much of the weekend in various pet stores buying snake equipment of various kinds. And observing other pet freaks. I had a long talk with a man buying tropical fish. He said he hand-fed his fish and they would come to rest in his hand. He was bursting with excitement over the new fish in his plastic bag,

It seems odd, compared to the relationships we have with our dogs, How could I be so attached to my reptiles? They react to me, but I don't think they know me. But they are lovely and silent. I look forward to seeing them every morning and after work every day. I look forward to feeding them and cleaning cages each weekend. Apparently humans are wired to love fish, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates (when we are not eating them),

My frog is singing, a loud, plangent sound. I love him too.

Frog

I love my reptile and amphibian friends because they don't bully me like the mammals and birds in my life.

My snake is easy to read. I feed her when she looks around for food, and leave her alone when her eyes are hooded and she is ready to shed.

The frog is harder. From time to time he estivates. Estivate means he hangs out in his hide box, buried in moss, for weeks. He sheds during this process, pulling his skin into his mouth with his little forelegs. But I can't tell when he is going to do this. Or when he is done.

Unlike my mild-mannered corn snake, the frog is an irritable character who bites whenever he can.

But of course, I am nuts about him anyway,

goodbye Mango and Kiwi

I have finally found a new home for my lovebirds. They are delightful fellows and I feel terrible now that they are gone. I developed severe asthma about a year after I got them - probably not a coincidence. And since I've been too tired to keep up with housework (a room with birds requires daily vacuuming) things have been worst.

And Mango is a plucker. I have similar problems - I am always tearing at my eczema. The vet says Mango's problem is behavioral and the dermatologist tells me mine isn't. He says I scratch uncontrollably because the itching is so intense. anyway, I identify with Mango and I always felt worse when I looked at him.

They are going to a lovely young couple who have experience with birds and run an assisted livng home. They will get more attention and maybe I will feel less inadequate.

another medical office

My corn snake, Sunshine, lounges in the forget-me-nots in the shady part of the garden.

On to see the radiation oncologist today. Everyone I met there was intelligent, warm, and funny - so I have to complain about the waiting room and the decor. A metal column in the middle of the room, with a gas fireplace (welcome even on a July day in Alaska) in one corner and a big aquarium above it. This gave me a odd sensation of swimming fish soup. Alluring jigsaw puzzles laid out on generous tables near comfortable chairs. I love jigsaws, but I immediately begain to worry about how much time I was going to spend in this room. The usual basket of hand knit hats. (I will keep my hair but I will knit hats for the basket.) Assorted water and teas and juices and old magazines. I looked at a thick glossy international travel magazine, wondering if I was ever going to travel again.

They made me watch a long boring video about radiation therapy with Elliot Gould. This was done in a private, cozy little closet where I fantasized about "Capricorn One", one of my favorite 70's paronia movies. Starring Elliot Gould. I turned it off and rewound it a little early.

I showed my breasts to four more people. I have done this so often that my first impulse, when people ask how I am, is to lift my shirt and show them.

More potential good news. I may be a candidate for partial breast radiation, which takes five days instead of six weeks. On Friday I will be CAT scanned to see if the cavity is deep enough and my thyroid, lungs, and other breast are far enough away to do this.