Herp 'n' Knit

Baby Redfoot

My new baby redfoot, Vern, will be arriving tomorrow!

I am so excited!

I purchased this little guy from redfootranch.com. The owner, Bill, sent me this picture.

Papaya fest

Today I rewarded my tortoises and turtles with a nice meal of papaya. They scarfed it up in about 5 minutes. Here are some pictures of happy box turtles, a redfoot, and a sulcata chomping down. The box turtles are Eastern box turtles that were rescues.

I also managed to produce a vanilla pudding for dessert tonight. I think the banana slices add a nice extra touch.

Sulcata chomp!

Sulcata tortoises are such chompers -- watching them eat is so much fun! :) The sound in the background is my son little E. commenting -- among the babbling is "baby munch", "turtles", and "please".

The dog who loved to suck on toads

Hee hee -- I found this on Wendell's Frog Blog -- thanks for the heads-up on this story, Wendell. Click here for the story with pictures -- text only below.

The Dog Who Loved to Suck on Toads

by Laura Mirsch

All Things Considered, October 24, 2006 · A dog may be man's best friend. But one dog, Lady, decided she needed more friends -- and she found plenty in the knot of toads living at the local pond. A suburban family's secret struggle with an uncommon addiction comes to light in this personal essay by NPR's Laura Mirsch.

Lady "was really perky, and happy, and generally excited to see you when you came in the door every day," recalls Andrew Mirsch.

But that was before the Mirsch family moved into a new house.

"We noticed Lady spending an awful lot of time down by the pond in our backyard," Laura Mirsch recalls.

Lady would wander the area, disoriented and withdrawn, soporific and glassy-eyed.

"Then, late one night after I'd put the dogs out, Lady wouldn't come in," Laura Mirsch says. "She finally staggered over to me from the cattails. She looked up at me, leaned her head over and opened her mouth like she was going to throw up, and out plopped this disgusting toad."

It turned out the toads were toxic -- and, if licked, the fluids on their skin provided a hallucinogenic effect.

What followed was the Mirsch family's quest to stop their cocker spaniel from indulging herself. But it wasn't easy. Lady was persistent, and resourceful.

The situation seemed to resolve itself when the toads went into hibernation for the winter.

But when they returned, so did Lady -- and with a vengeance.

"We couldn't keep our dog's addiction a secret any longer," Laura Mirsch says. "The neighbors all knew that Lady was a drug addict, and soon the other dogs weren't allowed to play with her."

In the end, Lady seems to have found a way to manage her problem.

"She seems to have outgrown the wild toad-obsessed years of her youth," Mirsch says, "and now only sucks on weekends."

Bad and beautiful.

That would be the cantankerous yet gorgeous tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). I have two of these myself (a pair of juveniles -- hopefully they'll breed for me in the future). However, I had never heard a story such as this before:

"To recant a funny story, a couple who lived in Florida kept a large female loose in their kitchen so it would feed on pest palmetto bugs (large roaches). One evening the wife baked a lemon meringue pie and left it on the counter to cool before going to bed. In the middle of the night, she got up for a drink of water, and as she turned on the light, let out a bloodcurdling scream. Thinking a burglar was in the house, the husband ran into the kitchen with a baseball bat, only to find the fattest, most bloated gecko in the world sprawled on the kitchen counter. Their sweet "Mrs. Tokay" had devoured nearly half the pie!"

(from this Reptiles magazine post)

These guys appear to have even more personality than I thought! That's a gecko after my own heart, one with a sweet tooth. And, in case you're wondering, that is NOT a friendly smile in the picture. :)

Welcome to the new blog!

Welcome to the new blog! I figured I needed a new start after my dismal posting record on my old blog, http://froggyknits.blogspot.com/. Also, I realized there's another blogger (with seniority nonetheless) going by the same name "Froggy Knits", so to avoid any confusion I began anew.

As you can see, the definitions of both "herp" and "knit" are in the blog header. I figure that (hopefully) I will get some visitors interested in each, and very few interested in both, so definitions were in order. As a new years resolution, I resolve to try to blog at least several times weekly.

So, what's new? I recently began work on the Man's Intertwined Cables Pullover from Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled book (see below for picture from the book -- apparently this design is very appropriate for collecting shellfish) for my father.   I am using Nashua Creative Focus Superwash in a mossy green color, which so far is turning out nicely. I have only made it through the bottom, cabled ribbing section of the back, but for me that's an accomplishment, since I am rather new to cabling. Along the way I crossed a cable the wrong way, and became rather discouraged until spotting this posting by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on how to fix this.  Rather than having to frog back to the wrong turn, I was able to fix it, and you can't even tell! I already added Stephanie's instructions to my bookmarks. Thanks Yarn Harlot for encouraging all of us newbie and mistake-prone cablers to be brave and drop those stitches!

In herp news, this weekend I acquired a male Bufo marinus, or cane toad. I had one as a pet about 6 years ago that unfortunately died after a fungal infection, but to me there are not many creatures cuter than named Bufo. So I got some more information (apparently these guys can poison themselves with their own toxins so you need to add special toxin-absorbing pellets to the tank) and gave it another try. In case you are wondering, this special creature graces the top of my blog, and while many of you may not think of him as cute, I have always had a weak spot for these grumpy and bumpy toads. Here is another picture of him that I hope will not scare you away from my blog.

These toads were introduced into many parts of the world to control pests on agricultural crops, and due to their hardy nature and ability to eat virtually anything that can fit into their mouths, they have become invasive in most places where they were introduced. Introducing one species to get rid of another usually just causes an equally big, or even bigger, problem.

I also got some tadpoles for my son's entertainment -- they are in a tank destined to house a mudskipper sometime in the spring, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind to share his home with some froggy friends.

I will leave you for today with a picture of C. and I -- do you think she likes her new bunny towel?