Beardillosnake

In the picture below, the tail end of the dillo is right in front of Bear's nose. The pebbly grey surface is dillo butt.

Early yesterday morning, predawn, Bear and I stepped out for his morning constitutional and he immediately picked up on an armadillo in the bush. He nosed all around while I stood there in my shorts, and then, zoom he headed under the porch steps.

As soon as he arrived there, I could hear the grunty sounds of a ticked off armadillo coming through the treads.

In the few seconds it took for me to grab a flashlight and my camera. The dillo was already disappearing under the concrete slab beneath the step stringers. Bear would nose in cautiously and then retreat each time the dillo tossed dirt in his face.

I tried for a video, but the combination of a black dog, minimal flashlight, and predawn darkness was too much.

It wasn't long before the dillo was totally under the slab and Bear got distracted by his breakfast.

Just another unexpected, wildlife encounter here at PFHQ.

Here's another ...

This grey ratsnake pup was rescued at school by our maintenance guy. He brought it to me of course.

They bring me anything weird ... 'cause I'm the science guy.

This time, it wasn't weird just cute in a big-eyed herpy sort of way.

I brought him home for a few pics before releasing him into a small oak tree here at PFHQ.

Above is a video (about a minute's worth) of the baby snake exploring my hand. It gets a little fuzzy here and there when he moves in for a closeup, but it's still fun to watch him crawl around.

Yes, Bear makes a brief cameo appearance in the video.


Here at PFHQ this little guy can grow big and never have to worry about the hoe, shovel, or axe.

He may have to put up with being recaptured for photos some day, but that's a small price to pay.

I think this is probably the size Stewie the Cornsnake was when he became the pet of the folks who gave him to me. They said he was pencil sized when they found him in their garage. Stewie is doing fine in school and has become a bit of a celebrity.

Other news:

Another football game tonight. We are home for this one. Junior and his team will face a school from Daytona that is rumored to be pretty good.

The Escape got it's second opinion and the transmission is definitely kaput. So, if you wanna buy a pretty red Escape that runs great except for that one thing, I will make you a deal.

All this car nonsense means others are driving my JEEP and I am driving the Albatross (white and unlucky) car, a 97 Sebring we bought for Emma from an el cheapo lot.

It rides a bit like those magic finger beds the motels used to have when we were kids. I was supposed to have sold it by now, but as it turns out, it is actually serving a purpose while we are down a car.

As for blogging, I've downloaded Picasa 3 from Google and it is pretty sweet. I just discovered it has a basic watermarking feature too, so I deleted the truly junky program called Iwatermark that I had been trying to use. What garbage. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THAT PRODUCT.

And now ... to work!

Have a great Friday!