Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Ivy catches a snake

This photo does not do the snake justice. He is much more 'snake' and much less 'pile of worms'.

This morning Ivy, the beautiful, blue-eyed, mostly Siamese cat brought me a very long snake. She had her mouth around it and was dragging its curled up, but very alive body. When I approached her, [this occurred in the backyard, not the living room] she dropped the snake. I scooped him up in an empty flowerpot so I could take him to a better spot for a photo. The photo above is of a pile of snake freshly dumped out of the flowerpot. As I tried to stretch him out a bit to show his yellow striped back and to gauge his length, he straightened, said ‘Thanks for your help’ and did a few fast ‘S’ wiggles and was off the sidewalk and into the flower bed. Had I been fast enough and brave enough I could have grabbed him. Instead, I was trying to stop him with a stick and my foot. The camera in my hand was my last thought until it was too late. You’ll have to trust me that he was four feet, well, maybe, three feet long. He did have a lovely yellow stripe down the full many feet of his back. He looks much like another snake who has lived in the garden for three years and whom I saw today. He is about two feet long and is identified by his short abrupt tail. They each will have private stone houses for weather and cat protection.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Corncob litter

I love this stuff. It is very absorptive. It seems to pull the moisture out of the chickie's poop. All that is left is a small dry thing about the same size as a piece of the crunched up corncob stuff. It seems to successfully quell the odor problem too. The girls don’t eat it. They do love to lie on it. There is only one negative...when they scratch (as if after bugs and worms), they sling it out of their birdcage-living-quarters. Little Arriauna is so cute when she scratches, she looks down eagerly, revealing nothing but a new place to peck, but she still goes at it with glee! Wide Scotch brand clear packing tape in double high rows around the base of the cage seems to keep it from flying out onto the floor...somewhat! Maybe they are picking it up and dropping it over the edge! Naturally, the price of corncob litter at the pet store is higher than at my good ol' farmstore.