Porcupine Painting

Following the thought

We were painting with the baby porcupine today. It was the cutest thing ever :) After we each claimed our paintings we had some left over. Dr Ferretti had been helping out Dr Lewis lately so I asked Denise if she could have one too. She said that would be good. Yay! I had been taking pictures while the baby was painting and I got a really good shot of him with paint all over so I thought I would print off the picture and put it in with the paintings. I went to get the photos printed after work and had some time to kill so I thought I would go over to Michael's Crafts and maybe get a cute little frame for Dr Ferretti's painting and one for mine. As I was walking into the store one of the voices in my head suggested we get a pretty little envelope to put the photo in to go with the soon to be framed painting. We unanimously agreed that was a good idea and made a bee line for the paper section. After debating over glossy vs matte and red vs blue I decided on sparkly silver. On to the frames. I had the painting with me so I started holding it up to EVERY frame they had. I didn't like one of them so I thought "maybe if I got a cute little box (like an over sized scarf box) it would be perfect." So I went over to where the gift wrap was. No small flat box that would work. Hmmm. Feeling a little defeated and not wanting to just hand Dr Ferretti a little canvas I thought I'd look around. My mom always told me presentation is everything! So just tossing the painting in a dumb little bag with some cheap tissue paper was beneath me. I found myself in the isle with the Christmas ornaments. I LOVE giving ornaments no matter the time of year. They always look cute tied to the wrapping of a gift. I didn't want to make it look holiday-ish. Just a thank you cause your awesome gift. But the glittery little snowflake was way to perfect...and it is cold outside. Now what do I tie it to? Not a gift bag! When me and mom would bake we would use baskets to hold all the baked goodness and I would attach the ornaments to the baskets. Off to the basket isle. The Christmas baskets were very cute but the snowflake was as holiday as I was willing to go. I found a square wicker basket with a little chalk board on the front. Perfect! Now I need some chalk. White or colored? Same price. Colored. The basket is too big for just the painting and the photo...I need a filler...hmmm. What would work? As I was walking around the store thinking I saw that Michael's was carrying Ghirardelli chocolate chips for the holidays. Those make good chocolate chip cookies! Mom also told me stick with what your good at and it just so happens I can bake the shit out of some chocolate chip cookies! Cookies make good fillers! That's what I should do! COOKIES! I will also need some of that scrunchy paper filler too. Having added that to my basket I thought "what should I put the cookies in?" "a tin perhaps?" I went back to the wrapping department. One of the voices in my head pointed out that a tin wouldn't fit right in the basket. Besides, all the cookie tins are holiday themed right now. That leaves cellophane treat bags. It took forever to find them amongst all the damn holiday shit. Finally found what I had in mind and it came with silver bag ties AND there were "Home Made" stickers right next to them! SCORE! But presentation is everything so I will need to be putting ribbons on the bags. On to the ribbon isle. I was trying to balance the now full basket in one arm and the painting in that hand and match ribbon colors to the painting with the other hand. People were staring. I decided on red. Red always looks good. So I checked out and headed over to pick up the photos and go home to bake. I am now very pleased with myself. My mother would be proud. :)

Huggable?

I don't think of myself as huggable. I don't try to project myself as super friendly. I don't try to put out there that, "YES! I want you to talk to me and I REALLY want to be friends!" I am my mother's daughter. She always wore black and not really a big smiler. She could silence other people's screaming children with a single look. THAT'S the power I want to have! But no matter how hard she tried to repel people they always seemed to want to be around her. This was something we never really could understand. I find myself  having the same problem. People freak me out to be honest. Especially in large groups. Last Thursday I won a coffee break from a radio station and the djs were going to deliver it to the zoo. When they did they shook everyone elses hand but ALL of them hugged me. Twice. When our HR person left the zoo she made a point to track me down for a hug. I was the only person she did that to. I rarely get a handshake. No matter the situation I almost always get a hug from complete strangers. My brother said it's cause I'm short. That's ridiculous. Still, I can't explain it....and I have a feeling that those were not the last hugs i will get from complete strangers. And that keeps me awake at night. NO TOUCHING! Maybe I should have a t-shirt made that says NO TOUCHING! Sadly I don't think that would deter anyone. Maybe I'm just huggable.

What do you do with a gorilla with the hiccups?

I was cleaning out the lemur cage on Wednesday morning when my phone rang. I didn't recognize the number but answered anyways. The man asked "is Michelle there?" I said "this is Michelle." He said "I have a question, what do you do for a gorilla who has the hiccups?" Not gonna lie, that kinda freaked me out. So I hung up on his crazy ass. Crazy man called back 4 times and every time I ignored it. Finally I got done with my outside stuff and came in the hospital to do a reverse phone number look up on my computer. While I was doing that I told Dr. L what happened. He said that for a gorilla with hiccups you should scare him. Like it was so obvious! Not helping! I was a little freaked out because crazy man knew my name, phone number and what I did. Creepy. About that time the hospital phone rang and it was the main office. The girls were laughing. Lisa said, "Hey! Gnarley Charley says he needs to talk to you. You won something and you won't answer your phone. He called the main zoo line and I need to transfer the call to you." "I DO NOT WANT TO TALK TO HIM! I DO NOT WANT TO BE ON THE RADIO!" "Well he says he needs to talk to you so answer the phone." I turn to Dr. L who is finding this to all be very amusing. "Dr. Lewis! Please talk to him! I don't want to be on the radio!" "No I can't do that." He laughs. "What did the girls in the office do to me? Why would they call a radio station and pick on me?! I thought we were friends! I am NEVER speaking to them again! I could kill them!" Now I get a text message from a number I do not know. It reads: "Hey Michelle It's Gnarley Charley from kiss country...sorry about the gorilla comment I was just trying to be funny...can you call me back?" I do and it turns out I won the Panera Bread coffee break! I had entered the contest awhile ago and actually won! He said that he and Jody Jo would be stopping by around 9:45am to bring bagels and coffee. YAY! I tell Dr. L and tell him to come with me. That's a NO. He tells me to go find Jody. She'll go with me. So that's what I do. At 9:45 we go to the main office for my prize. When they show up the whole office staff disappears! "If you are not in my picture you do NOT get a bagel!" Mayra was the only one office staffer to get a bagel and coffee. We took a picture with the radio people who were all super nice and I even shared with Shawn and Robbie even though they also ran and hid from the picture. Punks! We took the rest of the stuff to the hay barn to share with Sal who would have joined us but someone had to stay behind and work. Some people were a little squishy faced about not being included in my winnings. But what can I say? It was my prize. LOL

Favs list

Food: rum cake, pumpkin pie, ice cream (not all at once), chocolate chip cookie dough

Places: Pismo, my house, Cat Haven

People: Sister Jill, Dale, Mom, Ricky, Papa, Bee

TV shows: I Love Lucy, Law & Order, Two and a Half Men, Worlds Dumbest

Movies: All About Eve, Labyrinth, The Women (1939), Freaks, House of Wax (Vincent Price)

Shoes: Rope sandals, AstroTurf flip flops, UGGS, Sanka's

Clothes: Jeans, Bob Ross Happy Trees T-Shirt, Take Me To Your Leader T-Shirt

Things To Do: Day Trip To The Coast, Visiting Zoos & Aquariums, Watching Movies, Panting With Animals, Scrap booking

Sounds: Purring Cats, Piano & Harp  Music, Silence

Smells: Baking cookies, Cooking spaghetti sauce, roses, lavender, peppermint

Drinks: red wine, chocolate puddles, blue kamikazes, dr. pepper, hot tea

Eddie the cat

One of my absolute favorite pets that I sat for was Eddie. He was a big black cat who was in renal failure. He was having to receive SQ fluids daily and he was allowed to eat whatever he wanted. What Eddie wanted was meat flavored baby food. His mom always kept three flavors in the fridge because you just never knew what flavor Eddie would be in the mood for. And Eddie didn't just eat out of a bowl like a normal cat. He wanted you to heat up his baby food and lick it off you finger. This was not really so bad, what made it bad was Eddie's favorite time to eat was 1 am! There was NO sleeping through Eddie's demand for food. He had a very loud, piercing meow. He wouldn't meow a few times and give up. He would go on until you got up. Eddie was worth it so I'd get up, heat up his three flavors of baby food and park myself on the kitchen floor to figure out which flavor he is going to prefer. In the morning, I would go into the living room and get Eddie's special pillow that he would sit on while I administered his fluids. This is the part that astounded me. The fluid needle was by no means small but Eddie would sit there and take being stuck everyday like a champ. When I would go into the room he would come running over, jump on his pillow and instantly start purring and kneading his pillow. Eddie considered this his special "Eddie" time with his people. Where he got love and scratches until the fluid bag ran out and then some. If all it cost him was a little stick with a needle, then that was OK with him. Eddie was also unable to retract his claws so when he would walk down the hallway on the hard wood floors he would click. He LOVED to make kitty muffins (kneading). His pillow was his favorite but anything would work. I would be watching TV and here he'd come. Click, click, click down the hall. He'd get to the door and meow for permission to come in, then meow for permission to jump up with me. He'd curl up and go to work on the muffin making. I always sat with a blanket because I knew what he'd do and I wanted something between me and his nails. He would somehow end up kneading the bottom of my foot which tickled...BAD. Eddie was amazing. To this day he is the cat standard I judge all other cats by.

Live BOLDLY.
Take Risks.
Make somebody say,
"What the Hell was THAT all about?!"

Pet sitting is not for me

I like pet sitting. I've met some very cool pets. One of my first pet sitting experiences was pet sitting for three Newfoundlands. Two girls and a boy. The male was HUGE! Bushman! I'll never forget him. He was a rescue and the sweetest dog. Newfoundlands are water dogs. Bred for water rescue and it is very ingrained in them. My brother came over and went swimming once, and only once, while I was staying there and the girls thought he was drowning and jumped in to save him. He freaked out and almost drown for reals. The first night I spent with the newfies Bushman came over and put his head on the bed just out of my reach so I patted the edge of the bed for him to come closer. He did. He jumped straight up and landed right on top of me. All 250 pounds of him. My life flashed before my eyes and I thought I was dead! I was fine. The next morning I got up and ran downstairs to let the dogs out. When I hit the tile floor I skidded right into the glass door. It seems the dogs had been standing around drooling on the floor setting a kind of dog sitter booby trap. Despite that I very much enjoyed staying with those dogs.

Another memorable pet I sat for is Saddie. She was a big (very well trained) German shepherd. I always felt totally safe staying with her because you would have to be crazy to try to break in to her house. Her parents said sometimes she wasn't good with new people so they wanted to go camping for overnight and have me stay at there house to see if Saddie was ok with me. My first half hour there was uneventful. I sat on the couch reading with Saddie curled up next to me. We were sitting quietly when I heard a rustling/scratching coming from the fire place. At first I thought I was hearing things but Saddie had heard it too. We were both staring at the fire place and the noise was getting louder. "Santa?" Nope. A sparrow shot out of the fire place and went zooming around the living room. Saddie was barking her head off and the bird was shitting on everything! I managed to get Saddie locked in the bathroom and shoo the bird out the door. The next day when her owners got home they were cracking up. "That's so funny. Nothing like that has ever happened to us."
The next time I stayed with Saddie was even more eventful. I had had my wisdom teeth out the day before so I had planned on sleeping most of the time I was with her. It was about 2 am when I heard a scratching coming from outside. Saddie wanted to go investigate but being a chicken I wanted her in with me. It really sounded like someone was in the back yard so I called my dad who told me to call the cops. I did and they came right over. The officer went in the back and decided it was just a raccoon but to call him back if it continued. About 3 am There was a knock on the door. A man dressed like he was from PG&E was standing there and asked if he could get into the back yard to check the power line that was back there. I didn't see a car and refused to open the door. I told him I was going to call the officer back and he could talk to him about it. The officer came back and talked to PG&E man. Turns out other people had called the police about the noise and There was a branch on the power line in the back yard of the house I was staying at. I got dressed and let the officer and PG&E man in the back. By 4 am there was a whole crew in the back yard with chain saws removing branches and massacring the tree. I couldn't sleep through all the noise and Saddie was going nuts so we went into the spare bedroom. About 7 am the crews were still working and I decided to take Saddie out on a walk. Saddie's parents had neglected to tell me not to close myself in the spare bedroom because the door sticks and you can't get out. Thank God I had my purse in there with me and my purse had my house key in it. I must have been fun to watch, climbing out the window in my pajamas in front of all the workers (good thing I was wearing sweats to sleep in). I let myself in the front door and took Saddie on her walk. PG&E was real nice. They slaughtered the tree and left the carnage of branches all over the yard. Saddie was in heaven. "Throw the stick! Throw the stick!" Typical dog. Saddie's parents found the whole thing hysterical! "Things like this only happen when your here!" They ended up moving to Michigan which was sad. I liked Saddie and would be happy to still be sitting for her.

Pieces of Ivan

What?!

Holy Crap!

Morato art