Goodbye, Demon Fish!

The evil yellow damselfish is finally gone from my saltwater tank. It took David's help to get him out, but we took him to a LFS who would at least take him off my hands.



Now maybe I'll stop losing stuff! He killed off several of the new damsels I was trying to keep. Once I'm sure the tank is happy again (by the phosphates staying down (which they are after we installed the awesome turbo filter box in the sump), as this will help keep the nitrates processing out by the macro algae), maybe I will get a maroon clown back in, and some other things. I miss my maroon clown that I used to have before I moved the tank a few years ago and upset everything and lost him.

While there I also picked up an urchin, an anemone, and a bit of rock with some zoa polyps.

Farewell, Ratchet-Coon!

Ratchet the Raccoon, rescued in July 2008 from a missing mother, then raised from a bottle-feeding baby to a young, healthy juvenile now, was released back into the wild yesterday. As you can see in the video, he instantly fell in love with the wonders of the outdoors. He will be safe and happy now out in the national forest.

Farewell, Ratchet! You will be missed by your keeper and all your friends.




Same lil' guy who gave me a HICKEY last August. Yes, a chin hickey. From a raccoon. Sheesh, talk about feeling redneck. LOL




My co-worker HAD to snag a pic of that. I can't blame her. I had to get a copy of that too.

More photos of Ratchet available in my pets' Myspace photo album.

Snake found. Again!

Well, I found the blasted lost snake. I really hope he doesn't find some new way to escape again. I may call him "stupid" but he's really quite clever. However, unfortunately, twice now he has landed his destination at the mouse tanks where I found him and recovered him.


The 2nd time he was recovered with the help of David's clever duct-tape traps! He was totally unharmed but totally immobile. I found him right after he hit the tape.


I tried it this time but me and the cats kept getting stuck LOL, and I was afraid the cat would tape herself up again and I wouldn't be home to free her, so I took it down and that's probably about when he escaped to the downstairs room. He remembered exactly where to go, obviously!

The first time he was lost I'm not sure if he got in the mouse tank while it was upstairs, then I moved it/him downstairs, or if he actually found his way to it by himself the first time.

Oh well. At any rate, I am NOT going to remove him from the sand to feed him again, after he broke out of the feeder box. He'll just have to risk the ingestion!