New page for a slither

This is the link for Cactus Jack. He's an aberrant ball python and I'm looking at seeing what kind of genetics this little dude has. This is where I'll track his progress. Here soon, I'm going to measure and weight him, as well as try to get some better overall pictures.

Things I never thought I'd say - really, really never say

I have a new one to add to the "say what?" tag of things I never dreamed I'd say:

I washed my hands and looked for the towel, which had mysteriously disappeared.

"Mom! Come here!" KitKat requested.

"My hands are wet and I have to go sex my first snake," I replied.

Cactus Jack is a dude. So are Gideon's two. Scooter gave us two girls, and I'm just a tad embarrassed to say I'm good at "popping" snakes.

Back to work of the "normal" kind.

A 36-year-old female, not requiring therapy at this time.

I have had a great week.








Truly.

Amazing.

I feel like gloating.

We hatched our first morph! If you really, really want to know some basic info about what a normal ball python is and what a morph ball python is, I made a campy little page. It started out because my boss is interested in all my critters. I told her we had babies pipping and how excited we were to get to the morphs, and she asked me what a morph was. So, knowing pictures are hard to upload in a document, I made this little page: Scaly Critters. Enjoy, if that's your interest. Joni, I have other conversation topics below. We went 50/50 (the expected odds) for our black pastel/normal pastel pairing. Gideon is a daddy!


















Also, my wonderful boss sent me my own copy of the WebMD Blue Book for our area. It's an amazing tool when you have to send letters and carbon copies. This one is the large print version (yay).

KitKat's out for the summer, ManCub has one hour left (yeah, they get Memorial Day off and HAVE to attend school for the hour on Tuesday), and Tiger's Eye has finals...and my sisters and my mother are helping him. Awesome, yes? His study guides are almost completely finished, and I totally amazed everyone with my skills for Google by finding the "largest battle of 1812" by changing "largest" to "biggest" and it pulled it right up. For some reason, although I pay substantial book fees to the high school, they collected their books and wouldn't let them have them for studying for finals. Oh, the answer is New Orleans and, coincidentally, the biggest battle was fought after the treaty was signed.

Mom had surgery to get fluid out of her shoulder, and it went just fine. I made it to the hospital right before they took her in, ate lunch with KitKat and Squitch, but had worked nights and couldn't stay for the duration. She felt good enough to help Tiger's Eye with his study guides (I hope the pain pills made her good and mean), and that is so good. So, big thank you to my mom and my sisters for helping me. It feels so good to have backup!

I have a recipe for chocolate cake I'm dying to make. I made ekmek (Turkish bread) and, although I doubt it will be happening again any time soon, I had a little taste of childhood. It took four days to set up, eight minutes to knead, a few punches, and then another three minutes to knead. Like I said, it's probably not going to happen again any time soon. I have a sourdough recipe, though, on the printer, and ManCub had so much fun with the ekmek that he swears he'll help me keep the sourdough tamed.

We shall see. I hope it freezes well.

We got our stimulus check. I can get a new crock pot, which is great, because it's pathetic that I darn near needed a shrink to cope with its loss. I think I'll overcompensate by getting one with a timer. I have to be careful on bells and whistles or we're going to stimulate our stimulus into nonexistence.

Oh, another good thing: The kids' computer is, well, crap. We can't install a word processor on it, but they can surf the net and type in word pad and attach it and I can format and...and...

Google documents. Why oh why didn't I think of this before? My little writer can stop fussing at me now. Not only is it backed up, a computer crash won't end her creativity streak.

I can't even think of any bad stuff off the top of my head. My hands are tired from kneading dough and chronically tired from typing. That would be the biggie...but...but...but...I found out that wrapping my forearms in Ace bandages for a while makes a big, big difference.

Wow. Even my clouds have silver linings!

Critter heartbreak

See here first.

Today, I posted this on the forums at ball-pythons.net. If anyone has additional input from the blogging world, we'd like to have it:

I've been searching for a while now and coming up empty. We had a clutch of four eggs. When the first one pipped, one of the other eggs started to swell. It was a perfect egg before. Within hours of the first egg pipping, the indentations totally filled out, and the white of the shell disappeared, leaving it completely transparent. At this point, the snake could be seen inside, perfectly developed, but motionless. The bloated egg continued to sweat, while the surrounding eggs remained indented and unaffected.

By the time the other little ones pipped, this egg looked like a water balloon, only minimally larger at this point, but hub cut the egg open to reveal a perfectly formed, same size as its siblings, but dead baby. Heartwrenching.

What happened? None of the eggs was pre-cut. The egg was fine. We candled them and detected movement in all eggs in the clutch before the first one pipped. Within an hour or two after the first pip from another egg, this egg just filled with fluid, rounded out, and did the things mentioned above.

The rest of the clutch looks fine, although they're still pipped. We're not messing with them unless there is a danger posed by the egg remnants from the bloated egg.

Any help is much appreciated.

This is our fist clutch of the year. It's absolutely heartbreaking. The one that didn't make it had a beautiful pattern. The albino didn't prove out, but she gave off some very aberrant patterns to her offspring, and to lose one so close to the end is just hard. No other way to put it.

So, if you're a ball python enthusiast and you've ever had something like this happen, please let us know. I can't find anything on the net, and we lost a very gorgeous baby.

Gah.

To add insult to injury, Chester Junior got loose again. He's gone to gerbil heaven. We couldn't find him before the cat did.

Now, I'm going to type for colorectal surgeons, and I've already typed three reports on terminal cancer patients. Life is very depressing.

I think I'll go hand feed my bunny some hay.

My kind of Easter eggs

This is the year's first (hopefully not last) breeding success. There might be a little albino or two in those eggs. Doesn't she look like "Mine! Back off! Mine!"

Can't blame her. Now Mr. Sapphire will begin the daily chore of sitting on his hands and not checking on the eggs every five minutes. Maybe it will work this year.

The Spaz finally figured it out!

This, my friends, is Spaz. He's what's called a "spider" ball python "morph." Mr. Sapphire has a link to the very top right of the page if you want to know more.

We named Spaz shortly after getting him, because he had this funky, swaying motion he did with his head, side to side, perpetually in motion. Honestly, we rarely ever found him resting!

A few months back, I heard Mr. Sapphire yelling for me. I went back to see what happened, only to discover a Rubbermaid lid with a snake's head coming out of one of the air holes Mr. Sapphire puts in the snake containers. Okay. Spaz's head = 2.5 cm. Hole in lid = 0.5 cm.

Mr. Sapphire managed to remove him from his spazzy freak accident, but it became apparent that Spaz's jaw was dislocated. Imagine Mr. Sapphire's joy when Spaz finally ate for the first time, going back to the religious head motions and constant movement that we'd come to expect.

'Tis breeding season, now. Scooter, Gideon, et al, have figured out what's what in attracting the girlies. In fact, Mr. Sapphire retired Scooter because he was doing too well...almost to the point of exhaustion. He wouldn't eat until moved well away from the ladies AND got the idea that there were no more for him.

Spaz, however, got in, and did his little head motions and slithered all over the cage. Quite friendly, and admirably so, but that's not why we paid good money for a spider ball.

Mr. Sapphire charged in here the other night. "He's got it," he said.

"Spaz?"

"Yeah. He's lockin' up, and it ain't for long, but he's figured it out."

We're excited. Spaz is a pretty boy, and he's the foundation for a lot more morph projects. Again, if you're interested, please visit Mr. Sapphire's Page.

This isn't an attempt to get you to buy anything. We have nothing to sell, and probably not even after breeding season's over. Building stock takes some work.

But, our Spaz, dingy thing that he is, might be a proud papa.

Gratitude I took for granted.

I have something to be incredibly thankful for. I usually have a very long list, but the most important are:

I still have my son, I still have the back part of the house, we still have our snake collection, and Mr. Sapphire still has a business where the critters are breeding.

We almost didn't.

One of our heavy-duty extension cord melted right in the middle, where the neat coils fused together in a bubbling mess. The fire alarms went off when the smoke got bad enough, but, because there were no flames (yet), we had difficulty finding it. By the time we did, it melted the carpet, the padding, and was on its way into the subfloor. I imagine, had the wood been any further burned, the flames would have started - right in Tiger's Eye's bedroom.

Count your blessings, name them one by one, and may your list be as long as mine!

Slither - Pit to Hiss In

Sister Joni, dear? Don't read any further down this page. Skip this post entirely. I'm not stalking tonight; I'm talking slithering.

I felt a little uptight today. One kid missed school, one has a big test tomorrow, and one had a project due and a test. In other words, I have IMs going like mad and Google wants to charge me per hit, while my mind switches from manganese to ser versus estar to Wounded Knee and back again.

Two Nimrods wanted the Nimrods' computer. Both had valid reasons. After some debate, I gave up mine and went back to bug Mr. Sapphire.

It's been a while since I've been back to the snake room. I mean, I go there almost daily to talk to Mr. Sapphire, but I was actually in the snake room, looking around, and paying attention. A certain frame of mind needs to be utilized in the snake room, because everything...and I mean everything...moves.

Mr. Sapphire pretty much keeps the mice to the left-hand wall, along with their food. To the right, there is a 50-gallon tank with rats. Yes, rats. Huge, ugly, smelly...

They used to be huge, ugly, and smelly, until Mr. Sapphire introduced us to soft-furred rats. Their little ears are so big they flop onto themselves, and they are so soft! I mentioned how cute they were and KitKat, who wandered back to let me know the computer was free, covered my eyes. The last time I took a shinin' to critters, I stole their cage. I have a spot by the window that's free...

Mr. Sapphire no longer keeps the ugly rats in the snake room proper. We have a room toward the back of the house, and they have been rightfully banished to give way to the precious soft furs with their soft, ruffled coats. Did I mention we have one that looks like a panda bear?

Then, you see the snakes, each kept in its own Rubbermaid (or knock-off brand) tub of a size made to accommodate the slitherling. We have a couple of new acquisitions lately, a baby spider ball python and a baby lemon ball python. I talked to my friend from the kitchen tonight.










Arachne (right) and No Name

I know it's silly, but picking a name for a snake takes a while. We now have two spider balls, one who got named "Spaz" pretty quick because of the motion he does with his head, a weaving motion. Scooter was always on the go, and Gideon - he was just a special deal. Mr. Sapphire purchased a snake and his snake got shipped to someone else. In order to rectify the mistake, they gave us Gideon at the same price. Given that he's a black pastel, which are hard to find, it was worth missing out on the snake Mr. Sapphire initially wanted. Gideon's grown a lot. He's a very nice little guy. He's never tried to strike anyone, and we got him out of his box twice tonight, once to satisfy my curiosity, and the next for me to show my enthusiasm to KitKat over how much he's grown. He wound his tail around our hands and looked at us like we had a right to be there. Yeah, he's cool. Delilah was one of our first; Jezebel, too, and she's got a nasty habit of striking food but not eating it. Both have grown so much over the last year.



Scooter (right) and Gideon

In addition, we have one we think is ovulating. Her body is all bumpy and her spine is showing. We're not new to snakes or their genetics, but we are relatively new to the whole reproduction thing. This is Mr. Sapphire's first true breeding season, and the boys are hard at work. Scooter's finally figured out how to slow down his life a little bit, and Gideon's just stalwart.

We've had a few accidents, too. Spaz thought it was a good idea to stick his head out of one of his air vents. We still can't figure it out, but he got his 2.5-cm head out a 0.5-cm hole. Mr. Sapphire called me back there to help, and it took a few breaths to realize what I saw, Spaz's head poking up with the white Rubbermaid lid hiding the rest of his body. He dislocated his jaw and, when he took that first rodent after the accident, Mr. Sapphire breathed a huge sigh of relief. Tonight, he proudly showed me how Spaz is back to normal, his head waggling every which way.

Our other accident involved a very large normal female. We only suspect she struck a rodent and hit the floor a little too hard, as there were no marks on her, just a very swollen head, so swollen we thought she lost an eye. In looking at her tonight, her head is now back to normal, and the eye is still there and working fine! Mr. Sapphire just IM'd me to let me know she just ate for the first time since 09/22. That's significant. That was her date of injury.

We named the new spider baby "Arachne." My friend from the kitchen is now "Moonlight," and we're working on names for a few of the others. I'm gaining confidence that we might actually be able to get some more eggs soon, and maybe little morph hatchlings.


Moonlight

My gerbils rock the world, though. If having the snakes got me my gerbils, I think that alone was worth it. Most certainly, some of it has gotten me some good blog fodder, so that's definitely worth it.

I'm redoing my tags here to make things more organized, so bear with me. I feel so relaxed right now. I'm excited about the future and creating morphs, not just for the retail value (although that's definitely the first priority), but for the experience. This gives us material for science projects for years to come, with established documentation. Mr. Sapphire's exhaustive records are such an asset.

To see the rest of our ladies and gents, please visit his site. I might help him get some new pics this weekend and help him update. We don't have anything for sale, but it helps him keep track and let everyone see what he's doing.

For more dementia, please see sapphiretigress.com. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

Never mind the snake in the kitchen - beware of the cat!

Mr. Purr is at it again, and I found someone we thought we lost. At 2:00 a.m.

My life is never boring.

Gerbils!

I like gerbils.

I am not a big fan of rodents, never have been. I am in no way fond of hamsters, no matter how hard Mr. Sapphire tries to get me to like them. They're noisy. When our power went off during the last ice storm, Mr. Sapphire and I stayed to take care of the snakes, using the gas heater in the snake room for warmth. Sleeping among snakes didn't bother me one whit; the stupid HAMSTER kept me up and made all kinds of horrible noises.

So...

Mr. Sapphire, as we all know, has snakes. Ball pythons are African in origin, as are gerbils. He wanted a cheap snake, and "wild caught" snakes from Africa are about as least expensive as snakes go. They are, however, by repute (and now experience) finicky eaters. Naturally, wild-caught African snake + African-originating gerbils = dinner.

I had no problems with this...at first. I mean, rodents either go in mouse traps or serve as part of the food chain. Then, one day, I meandered to the snake room and noted that he bought a colony of five gerbils. A rodent's a rodent, right? But these little guys stood up on their hind legs and looked at me, kind of like miniature prairie dogs. Still, I don't get attached to rodents, and I left.

The second time I went into the snake room, I saw them. Once again, the stood up on their hind legs. I asked them how they were doing, and they got all excited, running up to the sides of the cage and back. Okay, still no real tugging on the heart strings.

The third time, I talked to them and went to the cage and tapped their little noses. They got up on their little legs and came over, sniffing and running around like they were actually happy to see me.

I thought and thought hard. I went back out for just one more time, and stole the gerbil cage.

They now are housed in three different enclosures. The original colony reproduced, not horribly so, but enough to the point where the older females were ready to kick their daughters out as not to compete with their males, so we had to divide the colony a bit. Most live in one large aquarium and get along just fine. We have bought two more females, little ones, because Anubis, my black one, is going to be bred. I was all excited about the concept until we got him:



He's the offspring of one of our original gerbils. I call him Dreamsicle. As you see, he's snuggling quite comfortably with Anubis, our little black dude.

Here's a better pic of 'Nubi:



I want to make something clear: They are clean, quiet, and soothing. I have them right next to my desk, and am making room for the larger tank. Just looking at them brings them to you, and they are just sweet, sweet, sweet. The kids love to just go by for a minute and put their hands in. They love to shred cardboard and anything paper. It's like having your own little town right under your nose.

Thanks for reading this dissertation on the quality and importance of gerbils in the Sapphires lives.

Yilan!

I think this guy sums everything up tonight. Work's been slow, but the kids have had plenty of homework. I'm at an impasse writing wise. I don't have block; I just don't feel like doing it. That rarely happens, but it does. So, I'm writing here to hopefully stimulate me back into either a world of half-Xalaxian humans or mutant roaches and the telepathically led armies who exterminate them.

Tiger's Eye, yet again, has another love interest. Yes, the introduction. The note. The proclamation that she has no one yet to take her to the homecoming dance. I asked him, "Do I need to hit you over the head with a baseball bat?" to which he replied, "She wants me to take her, right?" So, this is officially a quadrangle (I would prefer a quintangle - I want a vote, darn it!). Tiger's Eye likes Lady A. Lady B likes Tiger's Eye. Lady C likes Tiger's Eye. Lady A and Lady B are good friends. I say take the easy way out and let good ol' Mom rescue you with choice Lady D. Like that'll happen.

Sigh.

Why does Yahoo! My Station only play the good stuff I want to hear - after training the darn things for months - right when I want to go to bed? Never fail, at 2:30 a.m., the 80s hair bands play, Robert Plant sings in all his glory, Nickelback rocks down..

Why can't my download Wal-Mart music work? I can't seem to make the player recognize the licenses. I have licenses for three computers and burning 10 CDs. So far, I have zilch. Good music, too. Music I'm anxiously waiting to hear.

Oh, cool. A good song. Let me put four stars on it and hopefully they'll play it again in the next month or five.

This is the highlight of my week. This is Yilan, our new Brazilian Rainbow Boa. I'm not a huge snake person, but, in this instance, I'll make an exception. I first saw a Rainbow in Myrtle Beach last summer at Alligator Adventure. Mr. Sapphire loves snakes, and we all miss Steve Irwin (Crikey, Beauty, RIP). Anyway, I just kind of wandered around after him, more interested in the poison dart frogs and a weird animal that ate its own poop, which Tiger's Eye witnessed and was quite horrified. Here it is:










So, in my wandering, I stumbled upon the most beautiful reptile I ever saw. The creature was a cinnamon brown, covered with these beautiful circles, nearly polka dots. Also, when it moved, this rainbow sheen shimmered on its skin. I had to photograph him, and felt it never did justice to the majesty of the creature.

For a long time, I really had no clue as to what type of snake it was. When Mr. Sapphire expressed the desire of obtaining a snake, I instantly thought of that polka-dotted one down in Myrtle Beach, and found the picture and shot it over to him in e-mail. With some research, he discovered it is a Rainbow Boa, and they get even prettier than the first one I saw. Surprise, surprise, there is a place called Reptile Auctions, and that is where we purchased Yilan, which, of course, means "snake" in Turkish. I still have to explain that Turkish connection. Hmmm. That will take a lot of blogging and a lot of pics, too.

So, that's my world. Hey! Yahoo! is cooperating again, and now I'm hearing Blue Murder! Nice way to end this. Moochas Smoochas, ya'll.

This is Tiger's Eye, KitKat and ManCub doing their Steve Irwin impersonation at Alligator Adventure in Myrtle Beach. I don't know if the world realized what what one man and his lovely wife accomplished - influencing a world full of children with a great sense of humor and a love of animals at a time the world so sorely needs it. Steve, our best to you. We enjoyed watching your enthusiasm and your bravery (although we sometimes chalked it up to a photo-op) but you did get your point across. Thank you!