martinzoo

Our second tradition at the beginning of our homeschooling year is to take a trip to the zoo! We, at the Martinzoo, LOVE the zoo. We have such a nice one, too. It began as a tiny little zoo in a local family’s back yard. And it has grown into a fabulous, real zoo with an amazing assortment of cool animals. I didn’t get photos of the bears, the snow leopard, the tigers or the male lion because it was hot and the animals just wanted to sleep and be lazy. Maybe next time.

We went with one of the families from our homeschooling group. We don’t get together with this family very often because they have a brand new baby and have been kind of busy. Plus, they are loaded with girls and, typically, GB doesn’t engage well with girls. But he did this time! L was the kind of girl he likes, she loves animals and she plays like a boy. She even had a GI Joe battle with him in the car! So, he seemed very happy to have her along. I think she did much to improve his opinion of girls. Thank you, L!

After the zoo we had a nice picnic and then went on to the highlight of GB’s week; park day with ALL of the homeschoolers. So he had a great day! Not much schooling, but it was a very nice treat.

I also decided to put all our photos on a youtube video so that it wouldn’t take up so much space on my blog. Thoughtful, aren’t I?

Look at our swing set. Do you notice what I noticed this afternoon?

It’s one of my sunflowers!! Right there on the top of the swing set!

I just have this hilarious vision of a squirrel running through my yard with a sunflower clenched between his teeth, climbing the swing set, and perching on the tip-top to enjoy his treasure. 

GB and I think that Peatsy looks chubby in this picture:

But after a trim and a shampoo, he looks like he’s dropped a few pounds.

I cut, and GB shampooed. It was a co-effort. And GB insisted on me including this picture that he took of Peatsy.

As if you couldn’t tell, Peatsy is GB’s best buddy!

Murphy had a rough night.

During the night I was awakened by whining from our doggie. He does that a lot. It usually means that he’s got itchy paws or clogged up ears. So I usually pat him to comfort him and then go back to sleep. But this time when I tried to comfort him, he bit me! That is not normal. So I woke up my dh and told him that something was wrong with Murphy because he’d bit me. When my hubby tried to check on him himself, he tried to bite him too! We knew that it had something to do with his front left leg because he was really guarding it. He was in so much pain that he was visibly shaking. It was really pitiful.

This morning I promptly made an appointment to take him to the vet. And GB and I endured a -painful- twelve minute drive to the vet’s office. That is one smart 15 yo dog. He ALWAYS knows when we are going to the vet. The loud yowling from the back of the car was piercing my eardrums. At one point, even GB lost his patience with Murphy and begged him to be quiet. Murphy hates going to the vet because he always has to get shots. And he hates to get shots. Who could blame him?

Anyway, after checking Murphy’s leg, Dr. Jordan figured out that he had dislocated his poor little shoulder. So he made a quick little maneuver and we all heard a loud *pop* that literally turned my stomach. Ugh! The nurse, GB, Dr. Jordan and I all just cringed at the sound. But when we looked down at Murphy he hesitantly wagged his little tail as if to say, “Thank you.”

Dr. Jordan said that dogs get injuries like this when they are jumping down from something. So we figured that it must have happened in the middle of the night when Murphy tried to get down from the bed and go out the doggie door to go outside.

GB wants to take Murphy to Bruster’s Ice Cream Store because they give the dogs their own dish of ice cream with a little dog bone in it. That will make up for all his trauma, huh?

Anyway, Murphy was very happy to sleep the rest of the afternoon away in his little bed. Isn’t he cute? He’s totally camouflaged.

Missing sunflowers 

Mystery solved!

This year it’s not a squirrel. This year it’s an adorable little chipmunk.

How does he get up to the deck, you may ask?

He uses the dog ramp, which can be seen to the left of the picture. Grampa will be so happy that someone is using the ramp. Because, as of yet, our dogs won’t go near it…..LOL!

The other day I happened to read on another web site that crickets really like fish food. Well, GB and I maintain a cricket habitat to feed the firebelly toads and the skink. We buy about 4 dozen every other week, and we lose at least a third of them. I’ve been using the gel stuff that they sell in the pet store for crickets. But after reading about them liking fish food we decided to give it a try and see how they well they liked it.

Whoa! These guys were not messing around. They loved the fish food, which is great because I have lots of fish food. GB and I were fascinated because you could actually see them taking bites of the food. The flakes had little bite marks on them. And they were swarming the dish. It was funny because some of them were fighting over the same pieces.

Being a boy, GB thought that was way cool!

Last week GB got a new member for his menagerie.

We went to swim team practice, as usual……….. Oh, they just go on, and on, and on…….. every day ….. But, I digress.

One of the moms came up to me while GB was out of earshot and said, “I heard your son is the animal lover of the team.”

And I was like, “Yup, he loves them all!”

So, she proceeded to ask me if GB would like to take over possession of their little hamster. Her little girl was neglecting her hamster a bit, and Mom wanted the little guy to go to a child who would love him. So, I told her that it was ok with me, but that GB would have to agree since he would be handling care and cleaning duties.

Ha! I don’t know why I didn’t just say yes then. I knew what he was going to say. But I’ve found that when you are SURE what your child is going to say, that’s when they say the opposite of what you think they are going to say. So, even though I was sure what he’d say, I went and asked him. He pondered for less than a second…….. And then yelled out, “Yes!”

So, now Chippy has been welcomed into the zoo. Isn’t he cute?

He has such a cute, little, tiny cage. It looks like a little bungalow next to GB’s hamster’s cage. His is twice as big and Teddy makes a really big mess out of it.

Chippy makes a bit of a mess, too. See how he brings all his fluffy stuff up into the penthouse? He likes to have bits of food in all the corners, too………. Just in case we starve him, I suppose……….LOL!

Chippy is a lot more social than Teddy. Every time we go into the bedroom Chippy wants to be greeted. It’s super-cute!

Remember those kids in high school who were always tripping on drugs? We called them stoners in our high school, or heads, or druggies, take your pick.

Well, look at my poor little puppy dog. Isn’t he funny?

I had to groom him today. I wish I’d never started doing this. I started so that I could save the $40 grooming fee each month. And now Murphy won’t let anybody else touch him. He’s fifteen years old, so I guess I’ll have to see this chore through to the end. I hate to traumatize the little guy.

He hates haircuts. And it takes me an unbelievably long time, three hours all together. I have to cut away the bushiness. Then I shampoo him. Then he gets it all blow-dried out straight. Then I use the clippers to get the rest of the hair cut closer. There are much fewer snags on my clipper when I do it this way. And the last thing I do is clip his little toe nails.

Poor Murphy must be drugged sedated in order to endure this process. Our vet gives me some nice little Valium tablets for him. And look at him! He looks like a stoner! Doesn’t he? He looked like this pretty much all day. But right before his daddy came home I got this picture:

He’s definitely looking perkier. Other than the age spots that can now be seen through his white fur, I think he looks rather puppy-ish. Don’t you? I don’t think he looks like he’s going to be sixteen on his next birthday at all.

Peatsy (our schnoodle) is gonna have to wait until next week to get his hair cut, because my back is totally on fire right now. Oh yes, I’m a headin’ for the Advil momentarily. And then, I’m gonna sit back and watch The Bachelorette.  I hope she picks a good one. I’m a sucker for a happy ending!