Can I Keep It?

Fiddy-one

Yesterday was my birthday!  

I turned the page on fifty and became fifty-one at six thirty-two in the morning.  I'm one of those people who rejoices in their birthday, always happy to be older.  I'm quite sure that at some point in the coming year, I will start referring to myself as fifty-two.  Yes, I round up.  It started on my thirty-ninth birthday.  As my age came up and I told it, the person asking would respond with a wink, "How many years will that be?"  BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  You' re a laugh riot.  So I started saying that I was forty.  The reply was always swift and always the same, "OH!  You really don't look it!"

Le sigh.

So I round.  I round up.  It's my thing. Pretty soon, I'm going to start saying that I'm sixty.  'Cause I look unbelievable for sixty! Hey!  I look awful for twenty-eight.  But sixty?  Hawt.

I like to do new things on my birthday and this year, at the Memphis Zoo, they have a new temporary exhibit, Sting Ray Bay.  Why would I go to the zoo when I live in one you ask?  They have animals there.  Duh. As one of the few animals I have never touched, we went to feed the sting rays!

Scary right?  Okay.  True confessions?  I have a fear of large fish.  And some of these were three feet in diameter.  Because they are trained for this, these animals loved to be touched. They fly around the edges of the tank, gliding under your outstretched hand.  Surprisingly, the sting rays weren't sand paper-like as I expected.  You know, like a shark's skin.  They felt soft and fleshy.  A baby's butt.  Very unusual.  The luck of my birthday had us arrive at feeding time!  (11:00-12:00 and 2:00-3:00, I believe)

I screwed my courage to the sticking place and bought a cup of sardines and shrimp.  You place the fish between your fingers in the middle of your palm and hold the palm flat.  Stick your hand into the water and they swarm you as they smell it. The one who wins the prize is the one that reaches you first, slides up your palm and sucks the fish out of your hand!  It's thrilling and frightening and ohhhh! I can't wait to do it again!

As a bonus, the bears were all very active and enjoying the weather.  The pandas were in the outdoor enclosure for a change. Instead of snoozing indoors, reared up on a pile of bamboo, looking like they need a beer and a remote in either paw.

I know.  He was walking around and everything.  Exciting.  You just don't understand.

And the grizzlies were catching trout in their river, play fighting and eating.

He was ginormous.

We went to one of my favorite places, Dejavu and had the boudin, Big Easy Pasta and Bananas Foster  Cheesecake.  Let that sink in.  Bananas. Foster. Cheesecake. To die for.  Then we headed on over to the movie theatre in midtown and saw Silver Linings Playbook.

And Hud gave me a little diamond Eiffel Tower to waer around my neck to remind me that we'll always have Paris.

Fifty-one may not be so bad.  I might call it for the whole year. 

Long Time, No Blog

I've been crushed by commission deadlines for the past month.  I know.  It's probably bragging, rather than complaining.  Work is good.  Pets are still crazy.  Everything was humming along and then -

It turned cold. We had the boiler serviced and the pilot lit. Scintillating, I know.  But the system never fully heated and in the morning, Hud went down to check on it and the pilot had gone out.  So we had James come back.  He found a leak in a pipe, so he thought.  Hud called a contact from work who came out that day to see it.  They referred us to a heating company.  They came out and then - 

The serviceman found out the boiler reservoir had cracked.  

I know.

Game over. Scene.  Get the Fat Lady warmed up.

But we're counting our bessings.  The mechanical engineer who came out and diagosed the problem said it should have exploded when Hud and James tried to light it the second time.  Said he had seen them blow through the foundation seven or eight feet into the ground.

I know.

We've been without heat since Friday.  It's colder than a witch's hoo ha at night.  Even the dogs are snuggling up for warmth.  

Bou fink dis gud idea. Bou lyke.

Bou was shivering, despite cuddling up against Zoe.  So we covered the two of them up.

The guys just arrived to install the new one.  Twenty-first century, here we come!

Bou fink dis gud idea. Bou lyke.

Zoomerang

Ever Spring when  the weather gets nice, I get pulled to the zoo.  I try to do something else, but it snaps me back inside of its gates.  The temps entice all the animals out to play.  Even the pandas gave up lounging and played on the swing set.

Normally, LeLe here is reared back in his enclosure, noshing on bamboo snacks and looking as if he needs a beer and the remote.

 

It was a rare treat to see Tombak and Puti out with their offspring tussling with the climbing ropes.  On the average day, Tombak, the giant male, is perched up top, covered in a burlap sheet.  Uncharacteristically,  he was actively wrestling with the baby.

 

The grizzly bears were having a relaxing day. 

 

This one was scratching his belly with a stick.  Good times.

 

But the hippos,

 

gorillas,

 

otters,

 

and wolves, were all enjoying the beautiful day in a different way.

 

And what a terrific day it was.

 *All of the lovely photos were made by my own sweet Hud Andrews*

 

Tigers Love Bacon

My friend Vickie in Gatlinburg, sent this to me this morning.  I DID NOT beleive it in all of its adorableness.

In a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth

to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs

Unfortunately,
Due to complications in the pregnancy,

the cubs were born prematurely

and due to their tiny size,

they died shortly after birth.

The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery,

suddenly started to decline in health,

Although physically she was fine.

The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter

had caused the tigress to fall into a depression.

The doctors decided

that if the tigress could surrogate

another mother's cubs,

perhaps she would improve.

After checking with many other zoos across the country,

the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs

of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother..

The veterinarians decided to try something

that had never been tried in a zoo environment.

 

Sometimes a mother of one species

will take on the care of a different species.

The only orphans' that could be found quickly,

were a litter of weanling pigs.

The zoo keepers and vets

wrapped the piglets in tiger skin

and placed the babies around the mother tiger...

Would they become cubs or pork chops?

 

I looked it up folks, except for the fact that it is not a zoo in California, but one in Thailand (Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand, near Bangkok)that specializes in raising species thought to be enemies, it is all true.  The tigress was raised by a pig herself.  She considers them to be the same species. 

 

Let's all sing Kumbaya, shall we?

Merry Christmas You Drafty Old House!

The Hudarosa is having the most marvelous Christmas, thanks to all the love and support of our great friends.  Hud is going to guest post all the photographs he took over the next several days, photojournalist style.

Here's a close up of the living room tree to whet your appetite. 

All the kids got a new toy.  They vollied them back and forth while Hud and I were opening our gifts.  It was a happy, happy morning.  We followed it witha lunch of spiced ham, sweet potato souffle, shredded Brussel sprout with prosciutto and a flat bread topped with blue cheese, pecans.  We smothered it in my bourbon orange cranberry sauce.  Now we're getting dressed to go downtown.  We'll have a drink with the Peabody ducks.  Later this evening, we'll stroll throught he zoo.  It's the annual Zoolights celebration.

And if you think it couldn't get any better, we've been having snow flurries all day!

Merry Christmas, blog family!

Saving Graces

My friend Evie sent me this lovely group of photos of twin koalas from Australia.  Their Mum was hit by a car.  The driver rushed the mother to the vet, but sadly, she had passed.  The vet, however, discovered these two beauties in her pouch.

In the beginning they were oh so tiny.

But the nurturing vets helped them to flourish.

Pretty soon, they started to resemble their Mum.

At this point I'd like to interject just how jealous I am?

And now, you're jealous, too.

Don't you just love a happy ending?

You Smell Purrrrrdy

Hud sent me an interesting article the other day from Reuters.  It seems that scientists are using Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men to lure jaguars in the wild to study.  The big cats think it stinks good.  I'm allergic to most colognes and perfumes, but Obsession is not one of them.  I adore the smell of it and it does not give me a migraine.

Wed Jun 9, 9:29 pm ET

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters Life!) – Biologists tracking jaguars in the Guatemalan jungle might smell nice but it's all in the name of science, with researchers finding the Calvin Klein cologne Obsession for Men attracts big cats.

Biologists Rony Garcia and Jose Moreira from the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Jaguar Conservation Program say they use hidden cameras as a primary source for observing and tracking jaguars in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve.

But they also rely on Obsession for Men, a cologne known for its complex scent, to help lure then research and hopefully ultimately preserve jaguars in the Central American country.

"The method we are using to study the jaguars here in Guatemala is a non-invasive method which is based on photographing the individuals by using camera traps," Moreira told Reuters Television.

"It has been very useful using Obsession (for Men) to get the jaguars in front of these camera traps ... and that allows us to estimate with greater confidence the genders and the numbers that live in each studied site."

The discovery that Obsession for Men acted as a magnet for jaguars was the result of an experiment by the WCS's Bronx Zoo in New York.

The WCS was looking for ways to get cheetahs in front of camera traps, and, after several years of testing with different fragrances, found spraying the musky Obsession For Men near the heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras drew the cats for longer than other scents.

They also tried out about 23 other fragrances but Obsession for Men kept the cats' attention for longest with Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps coming second.

The practice made its way down to Guatemala, where Garcia and Moreira said they have been recording similar success in the wild since 2007, allowing them to track jaguars and even record their mating rituals.

Garcia said the results will be invaluable to conservation efforts.

"These camera traps help us to identify how many jaguars are living in this area ... (and) helps us to have control over the population and lets us say to the government, to the public, that Laguna del Tigre still deserves conservation," he said.

The WCS said it tentatively plans to expand the use of the cologne in programs in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in coming years.

(Writing by Reuters Television, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

So is it coincidence that the Furry Godmother, too, is attracted to the smell of Obsession?

Methinks the Furry stinks too much.

*photos by Hud Andrews of the Memphis Zoo jaguars.  Nice, huh?*

Precious

Nancy in Miami sends me great things all the time.  This is too good no to pass on.  So sweet!

One pound deer    Amazing - he is beautiful! ! !

This tiny deer was delivered by Caesarean section at a wildlife hospital after a car killed his mother.  Little Rupert, who is so small he can fit in an adult's hand, was born after vets failed in their battle to save his mother.
 

At just six inches tall and weighing just over a pound, he is now in an 
incubator in the intensive care unit at Tiggywinkles Wildlife   Hospital in 
Buckinghamshire.  He has only recently opened his eyes.

Les Stocker, founder of Tiggywinkles, sai d, "Rupert's mother had very 
severe injuries.  We brought him out and got him breathing, and then he 
went into an incubator on oxygen.  He is now being fed by a tube."

Tucked up:  
Rupert in an 
incubator.

  


 

Rupert pulls 
a 
striking pose for the 
camera.

Staff members are optimistic that Rupert, now five days old, will make a full recovery.  
"Deer are very, very tricky, but this one has spirit.  He's an extremely feisty little guy and quite pushy,"  Mr. Stocker said. 

Asleep:  Rupert takes 40 winks

Great.  Now I want a Rupert, too.  Hmmmmm, Hud?  Please?

FYI

There are some out there who believe that zoos are organizations solely created for the amusement of the public.  It is an antiquated idea.  Modern zoos practice all forms of conservation and species survival programs.  To illustrate, I received this wonderful article in my mailbox from  ZooBorns :

Since 1976 the Mystic Aquarium's Seal Rescue Clinic has treated over 300 marine mammals from tiny seal pups to stranded whales and released over 160 back into the ocean. Here is the tale of one recent rescue.

On January 25th, the International Fund for Animal Welfare located a lethargic baby gray seal on the beach in Sandwich, Massachusetts and transferred him to the Mystic Rescue Clinic in Connecticut later that day. The pup was only 7 to 10 days old and thought to have been abandoned by his mother.

While in the Seal Rescue Clinic, the pup was bottlefed and treated with antibiotics due to an elevated white blood cell count. Eventually the pup recovered, reaching a healthy 50 pounds and learning to catch fish on his own.

On March 25th the pup was released at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, R.I., joyfully returning to the sea.

Photo credits: Mystic Aquarium

I like to give credit where credit is due.  Kudos Mystic Aquarium! Happy life, little dude!

Big Momma

Sunday, Hud and I took advantage of the lovely day and visited the Memphis Zoo.  All of the animals were out enjoying the sunshine.  Even the elusive pandas.  Normally when you visit their digs, they are snoozing like old Le Le here.

But Sunday, Ya Ya was up and munching thoughtfully on a bunch of bamboo.  Ya Ya has been up to a few tricks and the keepers are patiently waiting to see if she is with cub.

I'm hoping that's what all this snacking was about.

Maybe the birth of Hud's first granddaughter, Gwen Murphy, last Saturday, is a promise of good things to come. 

Congrats, Amy and Chris!  And you too, Hud.  Great things to come indeed.

*DARN!  The Zoo officials just reported and hour ago that the ultrasound performed this morning did NOT find Ya Ya pregnant.  Sigh.