Turtle Eggs

When Kira moved to Canada one of her biggest concerns was what to do with her turtles. It was going to be very expensive to import them but being the animal lover that she is she couldn't give them to just anyone. She finally decided to ship them to us until she could arrange to bring them across the border by car. If you do it in person it isn't so expensive. I figured, "what the heck" and agreed to turtle sit for her. After all we had Sarah at home who would love them and she could be responsible for them. 


Well it has now been three years and the two turtles she sent me (did you know you could ship turtles by UPS?) are at least twice as big as they were and the two turtles are now three because one of Sarah's friends moved and gave her turtle to us. I made it clear to both Kira and Sarah that once Sarah left the house the turtles would leave as well. They were either going to join Kira in Canada, go to a friend or go back to the pet store. Sarah thought that was very unfair since we didn't make Alex get rid of his snake or Ben get rid of his tortoise but I told Sarah that if she wanted me to feed the turtle once a week and clean their cage once a year then I would keep them. As for the tortoise, he just ate grass in the back yard. I never fed him.

Earlier this week Sarah called me up at work to tell me she thought her turtles had laid some eggs. Martin was apparently a girl. I assured her that turtles don't lay eggs in captivity so she texted me this picture. It sure looks like eggs to me. When I got home I checked them out and sure enough, we're the proud owner of six new turtle eggs.


I quickly looked up "turtle eggs" on the internet and as best as I could tell, turtle eggs are not supposed to be laid in water. My guess is that the turtle climbed up on the rocks and laid the eggs and they rolled into the water. Hopefully being in the water for a day or two until Sarah noticed them didn't hurt them any. According to what I read, if we keep them nice and warm we could have babies as early as August 25th. 


So now what do I do? I swore I'd have no turtles when Sarah went to college and now I could have nine. 



Turtle soup anyone?

----------trivia----------

One out of every three new jobs in America is created in Texas. 

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Tom

When Alex was eleven or twelve years old he went with a friend to a reptile show. He asked if he could buy a pet while he was there and figuring he'd come home with a small iguana or something I told him "sure". Well he came home with a Python. Sure, it was less than a foot long at the time but Pythons grow up to be fairly big. Tom is now pushing five feet long.

Over the years Alex had a lot of fun with Tom (named for Tom Riddle in Harry Potter) but as all little boys do Alex grew up and spent less and less time with Tom. Eventually Alex left for college and with Alex at college Tom become rather neglected. I kept his water dish full and threw him a mouse every week or two but I never played with the guy. With no human contact Tom came to think that the presence of a human being meant food and he started striking at anything that remotely looked like a mouse including my thumb. I remember one time Alex came home from college and we were sitting on his bed visiting. We noticed that

Tom had escaped from his cage and was on the floor looking

very hungry. We sat there for nearly an hour both of us too scared to pick him up. I tried to point out that it was his pet but he wasn't buying it. Finally I was tired and wanted to go to bed so I caved in and managed to pick up the animal without getting bit. The problem was that Alex was now too scared to take his snake out and clean the cage. Luckily snakes only poop about once a month but poor Tom hasn't had his cage cleaned out since some time in 2008.

I finally decided that the poor guy needed some clean quarters so one day I tried to pick him up. As soon as I pulled the bowling ball off the lid of the cage (the bowling ball is required since that animal is now strong enough to lift just about anything else) Tom's nose was aiming straight at my hand. A couple of times he even struck at the glass. There was no way I was going to put my unprotected hand anywhere near that animals face.

I finally came up with the bright idea of feeding the snake and then picking him up as soon as he swallowed the mouse. That didn't work either. As soon as the mouses tail disappeared down Toms throat I went to pick him up and immediately his head swung around and he had that look on his face. Again, there was no way I was putting my hand anywhere inside that glass.

It was about this time that Kira came to visit. She gave me this long lecture about neglecting poor Tom and tried to guilt me into spending more time with him. I reminded her that it was Alex's animal and I hadn't signed up for this. She pointed out that even though it was Alex's animal, if I was going to keep it captive I still had some obligation to make it's life as pleasant as possible. I tried to point out that I didn't think Tom was much into conversation and didn't mind some solitude. She wasn't buying it and actually spent much of her time in Alex's room visiting with Tom while she was here.

Perhaps her efforts paid off. This week I finally decided on a plan "C". I would throw Tom a mouse and while the mouses hind legs were still protruding out of Tom's mouth I would reach in and pick him up. I figured that even if he did strike at me he would be unable to sink his teeth into my thumb. Oddly enough, when I arrived with the mouse I went to pick up the bowling ball and Tom flinched as if he was scared of me. I took this as a positive sign and put the mouse down and took the lid off the cage. Tom actually kept his distance from me so I swallowed hard and reached my hand in the cage. He didn't strike at me and actually seemed a little bit scared. Between Sarah and I we kept him company for over an hour. We cleaned his cage and put the mouse in the cage before we returned Tom. I've decided to ease the guilt Kira's has tried to give me and every time I buy a mouse I will take Tom out first (assuming he doesn't have that "look") and hold him for a while. I'll put the mouse in the cage while Tom is out in the hope that he no longer associates me with a mouse. I'll let you know how it goes.

Vlinder

We packed a lot of stuff into one day today so even though I will try, I won't be able to do it justice. This morning we headed down to Hillcrest to see some of the historical sights that Lisa has researched. Alycia has been a working girl all of this week and so has missed out on our fun. Today being Saturday she was able to join us. Her boyfriend Craig Love also came along. Our first stop was the San Diego Deli. This restaurant has been in business continuously for over eighty years. That is quite amazing in a time when you see restaurants come and go every few years. We had lunch there and I enjoyed a very good beef dip. From there we went to see San Diego's one and only suspension bridge. Lisa read us all the history of the bridge but I've already forgotten what it was. All I know is that when Alex and I got going we had that bridge swaying pretty good. Then, just a few blocks away was a tressel bridge. Also a foot bridge. It was over a very beautiful canyon. There was a trail heading down the canyon and I so wanted to head out and see where it went but I was out voted on that one. Instead we then headed down to the bay. We saw some old antique ships and some other ships that were modern replica's of old ships. We didn't actually tour any of them because we had tickets to take the ferry over to Coronado Island so we didn't have time. I'm not sure what the point of the ferry was because they've built a nice big modern bridge that will take you to the same place for the price of the gas to drive there but the ferry ride was enjoyable and we got some pretty good views of the downtown skyline. They had a bunch of shops at the ferry terminal on Coronado. We spent some time in a Scottish store and then enjoyed a nice cold lemonade. It was a pretty hot day and a bit muggy. It sounded like a Kira day, I think Florida got to her head. It was then back to the mainland and I did manage to convince them all to go to the top of the Hyatt hotel. The view from up there is famous and although Lisa has been many times but I haven't. It was worth the trip. Right across the street from the Hyatt is the Kansas City Barbecue. This place is famous because it is where the bar scene in the movie "Top Gun" was filmed. Sadly it burned a few months ago and many priceless memorabilia were lost. Probably not priceless, but quite notable were the many bra's that woman leave hanging from the ceiling. I imagine that those will be quicly replaced. From the Kansas City barbecue it was on to Little Italy. This part of town is also famous but we've never been there either. We had planned on eating dinner at Fillipe's but when we got there the line was huge. We decided to move on and we ate a very good meal at another place that I can't remember the name of. It was spagetti and meatballs for me. We then picked up some gelato (looked a lot like ice cream to me) and then it was on home. Everyone was pretty worn out after today. Sadly it is the last day of our "Staycation" as Lisa likes to call it.

---------------------------------------left to right; Fred (me), Sarah, Lisa, Alex, Alycia, Craig
-------------------------------------The suspension bridge in Hillcrest
-------------------------------------A tressel bridge in Hillcrest
------------------------------------------The view from the Tressel bridge
---------------------------------------Some more of the views from the Tressel bridge (Sarah)
---------------------------------------------A replica sail boat. Alex has actually steered this ship during a school field trip while it was out to sea.
---------------------------------------Our Ferry
---------------------------------A couple of Aircraft Carriers that are based in San Diego
--------------------------------------Sarah and I on the bow of the ferry
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On the Ferry headed to Coronado Island
--------------------------------------The San Diego skyline from the ferry. The tall building second from the left is the Hyatt that we went to the top of.
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It's been a long day
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The view from the top of the Hyatt. The land to the left in the picture is Coronado Island.

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The Kansas City Barbecue where the bar scene in the movie Top Gun was filmed.

--------------------------------------------The sign says it all. This is Little Italy.

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Alycia and Alex behind a fountain in Little Italy. Alycia collects globes so she thought this was a pretty cool fountain.
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We were a bit naive when we decided to get ourselves a dog. They are a lot more work than we had signed up for. You picture this well behaved animal that stays outside, poops in the same place all the time and is content with the love and attention you're willing to give them. As it turns out, they poop all over the place, they want love and attention all of the time and at 2:00 in the morning they do NOT want to be outside. They also don't want to be left at home when you go on vacation. In spite of all that we grew to love Vlinder. We did eventually get her to stay out side most of the time but we had to put her on a long chain to keep her from cruising all over town. She did love to go for runs. I remember one time we were running down our street and this little white fluffy dog (11) comes running out at us yapping away. As I said, Vlinder was a Border Collie and so she had grown to a respectable size. The woman was in her yard with the little fluffy dog so I decided not to stop and harass the animal and we kept running on past the house. Well what happened next occurred so fast it took me a second to realize what had happened. Fluffy ran up to Vlinder, Vlinder snapped the little dog up in her mouth (Fluffy pretty much fit right in the mouth) and the woman in the yard cried out in anguish "Snowball". When I realized that Vlinder had Snowball in her mouth I yanked on her chain (didn't want her to swallow) and yelled at her. Vlinder spit Snowball out and we continued on running without breaking our pace. I didn't even stop to check out how Snowball was doing. One of my favorite activities was to tie the toboggan to Vlinder and have her pull the kids while we were running in the winter time. The kids were little and they didn't seem to slow Vlinder down at all. Over the years Vlinder grew up and was much more well behaved and she became a part of the family. She seemed so docile around the kids that we only ever pictured her as this very calm and easy going animal. I should have known better from the "snowball" incident. We soon found out from all of our friends that if we weren't home they couldn't even get to our back door to knock on it. She was a very protective dog and was watching out for us. Lisa also never had to worry about Arts sickly cows getting into the yard either. She didn't like Art very much or his cows. When we used to go on holidays we often left Vlinder with the Nortons on their farm or the Halls on their farm. It wasn't long before we found out that the Nortons neighbor had a pure blood Collie. What beautiful pups those were. Vlinders home was under our back porch. It was very well protected and made a good dog house. We pulled into our driveway one night and out comes Vlinder but there is a puppy half way out. We quickly brought her into the house and gave her the proper love and attention she deserved. I then decided I had better go back out and check if there were any pups under the porch. Sadly, there was one dead pup there. I don't know if it was still born or if it had died without his mothers care. In any case, we had three very healthy and beautiful pups. I no longer remember who we gave them all to but what a great experience that was for us and the kids. One time we got home from a longer vacation and when we went to collect Vlinder from the Hall's we learned that Vlinder and their dog had gone out exploring the hills one time and never came home. It was a very sad time in the Leavitt house. The interesting thing is that years later I was at work and a bunch of us were shooting the breeze talking about random things when this guy asks the rhetorical question. "If a couple of dogs were chasing my cows do you think they would ever be found if I shot them and threw them in the irrigation canal?" This guy lived just a couple of miles north-west of the Hall's so I knew right then that he had shot my dog. I never confronted him on it because first of all it had been several years and secondly, a cow is worth a lot of money and if a dog was chasing my cows I would probably shoot it too. I still never liked that guy after that. As much as I loved Vlinder I swore that we would never get another dog. I held out for a good ten years but finally I broke down in 1999 and I let Kira bring home a little Beagle who was born April 1, 1999. I had always told the kids that the city was no place for a dog. To keep them quiet I finally conceded that if they found a small dog with short hair that was free that I might consider it. I had no idea they would actually find one. Bridget is now a part of our family.

Sheba

206.0 up 3.0
When Lisa and I first got married she wasn't too excited about the idea of having pets. I, of course, grew up with a cat and I thought having a cat would be a good idea. I was resigned to the fact that we wouldn't have any pets but then something happened that changed her mind. After I graduated from college and accepted a job at Global we moved to Bassano and rented a small house in Bassano. My family helped us move and put all of the boxes in the basement. After I started work and everyone had left Lisa spent her days unpacking all of the boxes in the basement. One day when I was at work Lisa called me at work and she is hysterical. She's crying on the phone and I'm thinking something horrible happened to the baby or something but finally, through the sobs and the tears I figure out what she's talking about. Apparently she had been going through the boxes in the basement and when she opened one box a mouse jumped out of the box right into her face. We got a cat. Our first cat's name was Dragon. Dragon was a male and he wasn't the brightest of cats but we never had a mouse problem after that. Dragon used to like to get into fights and sometimes he would disappear for a day or two and then come home covered with blood. One day he never did come home. I assume he lost his last fight. Our next cat was named Shadow. Shadow was a female and she was a very smart cat. She was also smart enough to avoid the fights or good enough to win them but she always came home and rarely was she hurt. She immigrated to the States with us as well. Shadow lived to be a good ripe old age but one day she went missing. She had been rather sick so we were a bit worried. I suppose it is a good thing that I was the one who found her. We had all of our bikes parked in the garage side by side and apparently Shadow jumped on one of the bikes and knocked them all over. When the bikes fell over one of the axles caught poor Shadow in the side of the head and she was quite dead. If she hadn't been sick I'm sure she would have been faster and avoided the axle but alas, Shadow is in cat heaven waiting for us. It was a sad day in the Leavitt household. Even Lisa (the self proclaimed animal hater) was in tears. Next came Cyrus. Cyrus was another male and another dumb cat. Are you noticing a trend here? We got Cyrus just before we bought our house and maybe it is because we moved from a Cul-de-sac to a busier street but as it turned out, Cyrus wasn't smart enough to know that he should get out of the way of the cars. We only moved a few blocks so we had been moving everything in our cars. I was coming home with the last load of the day and as I drive up the street I see a dead cat in the middle of the road. I knew right away that it was Cyrus. We had the funeral cermonies in the flower bed that evening. The flowers are growing really nicely in that flower bed by the way. Since Cyrus we have buried several mice, several hamsters, a bird, a frog and many fish alongside him. Lisa, who never wanted a pet in the first place, has been quite tolerant. Our tortois (Shelly) isn't buried in the flower bed because we want to save the shell so he is in a garden tomb and some day when we're brave we're going to pull him out of the tomb and remove the bones and display the shell. So after Cyrus we got Sheba. Another female and probably the coolest cat you'll ever meet. She is also quite possibly bi-polar. She is the most loving animal one minute and she'll slash you the next. Brandon used to play with her all the time and she would hide in a corner and literally jump across the room and attack him with all twenty claws fully extended. She comes when you call her and she'll even go for a walk with you (if she feels like it). Sheba was born in 1995 and so is now 13 years old. I did that "real cat age" test that I was talking about with Bridget and according to the test Sheba is an equivalent of 82 .3 years old. Because she is in such good shape however, she has a "real age" of only 67.3. The poor creature is slowing down now. In her prime I've seen her take on a Doberman and win. She was truly fearless. Now she can't take the neighbors cat and she stays mostly indoors unless we're out with her to protect her. She can hardly jump up on the table anymore to eat breakfast with Alex. It is quite a site, she drinks the milk out of his breakfast bowl. I don't know how much longer Sheba will be with us but if we ever do replace her I think I've learned my lesson, we'll get a female.

Bridget

Let me tell you about Bridget. Bridget is my dog. We had a Border Collie when the kids were young but when the dog was shot by one of the farmers in the area where we lived we resisted getting another dog until Kira was in high school. I had always said, we live in the city and it wouldn't be fair to a dog. Dogs leave hair everywhere and they poop in the yard. Finally I said that we would get a dog IF it was free, had short hair, was small and everyone signed a contract to pick up the poop. That held them off for years until that fateful day on April 1, 1999. Kira's friend had a Beagle that had a litter of puppies and now I was stuck. That is how we got Bridget. Of course I'm the only one who picks up the poop. Bridget was a hyperactive puppy and ran all over the place but she has one fatal flaw, she eats continuously and since we were used to just keeping the cats dish full we did the same with Bridget. In a very short time she became very fat and to make things worse she has very painful joints. I took her to a vet who said that her sore joints were either arthritis or some congenital problem (I don't remember what she called it). She told me that for a mere $250 she could take an x-ray and tell me what the problem was. I asked her what we could do for the poor dog. She said there was nothing we could do. I then, very politely, told her that I wasn't about to spend $250 if there was nothing I could do for the dog. So we have a lazy dog that can hardly move, she cries once in a while because of the pain (we give her Ibuprofen) and all she wants to do is eat. We take her on a walk and we end up carrying her home. To top it off she has this massive mutant mole on her right hind leg that grosses everyone out. So Lisa forwards me an email one day that has a link to a real age test for your dog. With my poor decrepit Bridget you can imagine that I couldn't pass up this test. I swear I answered every question honestly. When they asked if I take her to the vet I answered "never", when they had the pictures of the different sizes of dogs I selected the "fat" dog. When they asked what kind of dog food I fed her I selected "the one on sale". When they asked if she ate garbage I said "yes". You can imagine my surprise when they came back and said that Bridget was an equivalent of 52 years old and almost a full year younger than the average beagle her age. I hope that means that I'll have my dog around for a few more years but if she pee's on the carpet again I might just toss her into the canyon.