Category: animals

Sarah and William

indigoshellLeave a comment

All over the internet, a new trend has been circulating.

Sloths.

Me Gusta

Creepy sloths. Creepy sloths everywhere. Do people really know what they’re like? My guess is that not many people have seen sloths in real life.

Over the summer I spent six weeks at Cub Creek Science Camp and got to take care of a very wide variety of animals. Among my favorite were two two-toed sloths, Sarah and William.

Sarah Lookalike

Sarah was the more active one, slowly and carefully wandering around and around her pen. “Don’t touch her face!” warned many, many counselors. “Don’t let her grab you! Don’t let her bite you! Don’t feed her! Sit down on the stool and don’t move!”

“You can feed her and pet her if you’re very careful,” said Billy, a very mellow counselor that taught the “Jungle” class, which is where the sloths are located.

William was the one always sleeping in the corner of the enclosure and only awakened when I brought him a little lettuce. Only lettuce though, since William will take one bite of an apple and then drop it to the ground.

Sarah though, eats both apples and lettuce. Neither of them seem to like the sweet potatoes very much and I often wonder why they even have sweet potatoes anyways since none of the animals seem to like sweet potatoes.

After feeding Sarah her apples she would stare at me with her deep brown eyes and slowly reached her odd clawed hands towards me. Any other person would be told to duck and cover but I reach out and stroke her claw, playing a strange little game of keep-away. It’s true that if they grab on they won’t let go until they bite it, but I’m careful enough to not get grabbed.

When camp ended and I returned to OVS I felt myself pining for my summercamp and its animals. No, not for the dwarf miniature horse (my gods he’s small), not for the towering camel, but for the strangely charming sloths that have plagued the internet.

Not that I’m complaining about them.

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Down the Hole

frog3Leave a comment

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The rabbit is stuck.

Stuck inside its hole.

Lifted up and turned around.

The occasion would make Peter proud.

Unlike him the rabbits death will not be sacred.

No crowds will shout for him.

No men will pray for him.

No countries will war for him.

His life ends inside a predators jaws.

A snap is all that he requires.

The deed is done.

There is no justice for the life of the rabbit.

Mermaids

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

Recently there seems to be a fascination with becoming a mermaid – and not just among seven year-old girls.

Linden Wolbert quit her job in 2005 as a residence director of Emerson College, in order to become a full-time professional mermaid. She is equipped with a 35-pound, 6-foot long hydrodynamic tail.

Thanks to training as a free-diver, Wolbert is capable of holding her breath for five minutes, and swimming down to about 100-feet.

However, Linden Wolbert is not the only one who has made a lifestyle for them-self through an obsession with mermaids. Eric Ducharme, from Florida, was recently featured on TLC’s My Crazy Obsession, for his passionate love of menfolk.

As a child, Ducharme had been enraptured by stories of the elusive creatures. Now, Ducharme makes realistic looking mermaid tails out of various materials.

Personally, I don’t understand the obsession. But to each his own I guess, and I wish them the best of luck with their merbusiness.

The True King

frog3Leave a comment

frf

Who is the man who rules the country?

The Tiger yellow and proud seems to be in control.

He roars and claws threatening his neighbors.

They do not believe his threats.

It would seem that he is not the one who is in control.

The Tiger’s uncle, the Lion is the true king of the land.

The Lion shatters the tiger’s claws and bites his tail.

He threatens the Tiger, the Tiger must obey his command.

The neighbors will not sit quietly they will invade.

When this happens the Tiger will be held responsible.

It is not his fault however for his gruesome crimes.

The Lion is the true king.

To the sea

displacedlocalLeave a comment

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Ever since I was a little boy I wanted to explore the sea. Today I got my chance. I got into my skin tight waterproof suit and entered my sub.

I went deeper and deeper seeing the assortment of aquatic life next to me. The blue water slowly obscuring the sun and becoming black.

Animals the size of buildings would drift by as I explored this brand new ocean. Schools of fish would surround my vessel as I sat in wonder at the sights and sounds.

Deeper I go into the blackness. Arrays of light from bioluminescent creatures illuminate the sub at this level. The pressure down here is incredible from the huge weight of water above me.

A single angler fish appears in front of me its horrifying appearance is unique to this part of the ocean.

The bottom welcomes me as i give light to something that has never seen the sun, yet it has evolved and matured to become a thriving ecosystem.

I am always amazed at the way life can live in the most dangerous of places.

Mary Oliver, a poet of nature.

eternity1030Leave a comment

My favorite poet is Mary Oliver. She is the kind of the writer that perfectly combines the words by feelings. Her words can talk.

She picks up a bunch of aromatic flowers and smiles; she steps into the deep mysterious forest and listens; she smells the spiritual magic of nature and gets infatuated. She, Mary Oliver, the daughter of the earth, extracts every piece of the nature to build a poetic world filled with her particular experiences and feelings. Born in a small town with rural environment in Ohio in 1935, Mary Oliver spent her earliest days surrounding farms and fields and the deep woodlands attracted her. That became the moment when she realized the congenial places that lurked within her heart – nature.

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CASH

smackyjackjackLeave a comment

This past week, my family and I got a new puppy. Strangely, even though I’ve had dogs as long as I can remember, this is the first puppy I’ve ever had. Also, it’s the first dog that has ever gotten along with other dogs that I’ve ever had.

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Right now the little guy’s about 10 weeks old. He hasn’t barked yet, which is kind of weird, but he doesn’t make any other noise either, which is fine with me. Along with being mute so far, he doesn’t actually have the best sight. He’s fallen in our pool three times, and off of the steps countless other times. But still, he gets around and is too damn cute not to play with.ImageI’m hoping Ca$h will be a hiking and camping dog. He can’t make it around the block yet, but I still have my hopes.

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The Season of the LAX Bro is Upon Us

callmemaybe32Leave a comment

I’m sorry to use the term “LAX Bro,” but I just love using it to piss people off.

It is almost that time of the year to go beat the crap out of people with metal poles and have some good old fashioned fun.

Lacrosse has been defined by Webster Dictionary and all other reputable sources as, ” (n) Lacrosse: The sport real men play during baseball season, (v) To Lacrosse: The act of beating opponents with metal alloy sticks whilst others throw leather balls into leather mitts and slide in dirt because dirt is fun.”

If you would like to check up on that I urge you not to because I would hope you trust me enough to know that’s true.

Lacrosse combines aspects of basketball, soccer, and hockey.

It is the sport of all sports, while it is not my favorite sport to play it comes in 2nd due to a 3 way tie between Football and Ice Hockey.

Lacrosse is raw.

Lacrosse is mean.

Lacrosse is what is up my friend.

Last year was my first season and I was just learning the ropes.

I chose to play defense because I enjoyed the idea of holding a 6 foot long metal stick that I can beat people with.

It is so hard to talk about lacrosse without billions of sexual innuendoes going through your head, but bear with me people.

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Moosey Goosey

Daphne PsaledakisLeave a comment

So as promised, I’m writing a blog about the newest addition to our family, Moose. After our dog Hattie passed away from cancer several years ago, we went in search of a companion for our other dog Luna.

The first dog we came across, who we named Ute, was a bit too feisty for the family lifestyle. So we took him back to the animal shelter, and came home with Moose.

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When I first saw Moose, I was grooming my horse in the barn. My dad and brothers walked into the barn aisle with him on a leash, and I am not kidding when I say I thought he was the ugliest dog I had ever seen. He is very clearly a mutt, and as my mother says, “he is everything but the kitchen sink.”

He is black, with brown feet and brown cheeks. His tongue has a small birth mark on it, and his feet are absolutely ginormous, if that’s even a word. He’s gotten a little less odd looking as he’s gotten older, but my first impression was to look at my family and think “what have you done?”

Much to my surprise, Moose was a character. He would walk out our back door and disappear for hours on end. When we first got him, we lived on a ski mountain. He came home one night with a cut on his foot from someone’s ski’s, and another time he came home with a huge gash on his leg from getting hit by a car.

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The Prickly Plant

frog3Leave a comment

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On a hilltop the prickly plant sits lying in dirt

The humans that pass by question its worth.

It starts as a budding spore with no spikes.

Humans that touch it have no reason to take flight .

The years go on, its brethren die.

The prickly plant still survives.

By this time it has matured.

Any creature that touches it must endure.

The pain wrought by its vicious spike.

Every human that touches it now takes flight.

However even this prickly plant still has friends.

After all, its location as an insects home is in high demand.

The spiders crawl inside the prickly plants center.

The spiders permanent home it has just entered.

The prickly plant keeps humans away.

It also makes the spiders day.