SNAKES

Woof everypups and everycats, Suka's post about his fearless battle with the monstrous snake in his yard reminded us that we have a couple of snakes in our backyard.

This is a tiny Gopher snake. Mom named him Draco and even though he is very small, this little guy can grow to be nine feet long. Draco just hangs around in the backyard looking for food.

This is what Draco will become. This is a adult Gopher snake(he's about six feet long) and he's recently moved in with the tortoises. Mom hasn't named him yet, probably because he scared the puppy poop out of her the first time she saw him.


Mom says that Gopher snakes are good to have around because they keep the yard free of other snakes and rodents. That's because they have an attitude problem, they didn't get the nickname "Bull Snake" for nothing. For more info on Gopher snakes, please visit the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum website.

BACKYARD PHOTOS

Norman here, just thought I'd show a couple of photos of our backyard. This is me with our pool. Mom got us a new one this year because someone chewed a hole in the old one. Yeah, that's it, someone(probably a freakin rabbit) sneaked in at night and chewed a big hole in the old pool, that's what happened.

Here is a picture of Mom's favorite rock(she likes rocks, it's weird). The thing behind the rock is called an ocotillo. It's a desert plant with sharp thingys on it but it's not as bad as some plants and it gives us something else to pee on.

This is me, Keiko and Toby next to the tortoise pen. We're pretty good about staying out of the pen. We only jump into the pen in emergency situations, like when there's a rabbit or gopher in the pen. We've got to keep the yard free of those beasts.

DESERT TORTOISES

Woof everypups and everycats, here are some photos of our Desert Tortoises brothers(or sisters, we don't know yet). We've had them for about 6 years.

This is inside their den where they have a little visitor. They had a snake once but Mom was too scared to stick the camera in the den.

This is Brutus, he is the smaller of the two but he is the most active and loves to dig holes(Mom doesn't let us dig holes).

Here are both Brutus(left) and Cato(right) eating. Mom feeds them greens and yucky stuff like that to supplement their diet. They also eat desert shrubs and grasses such as Trailing 4 O'Clock and Fairy Duster which they have in their enclosure. And as you can see, they get grass in their pen. Mom says we can't have grass because all we will do is pee on it and dig holes in it.

LITTLE DOG SADIE

Woof everypups and everycats. Twice a week Mom goes down to Hope Animal Shelter to volunteer to help clean the kennels. About a month ago, a little white dog was brought to the shelter where she was named Sadie. Sadie is a feral dog and is really nervous most of the time. When Sadie was brought to the shelter she would constantly walk the perimeter of her kennel when she is inside and just have a distant look on her face. The lady that runs the shelter believes that Sadie has some type of neurological problems but Mom doesn't think so. Mom thinks that because Sadie was alone in the desert for so long she doesn't know how to interact with anybody. We think that Mom is right because Sadie doesn't seem to walk in circles as much as she use to and she is focusing more on her surroundings. She even has taken food from Mom's hand and will let Mom scratch her little nose. Mom asked us what we thought about Sadie coming to live with us and we thought that was a pawsome idea.

Pee Ess: Once again, thanks to Suka and K for being such great friends.