The ancient, faded, chewed up, tailless, noseless, squashed neon green fake mouse is also Pumpkin's favorite EVAR.

...Cats are weird.

Horrific giant insect loves carrots.

Every year around this time, the giant Weta rears its nasty, squishy head. Must be the travel season. They're really fascinating, but nearly extinct (where's Billytea when I need him for reassurance I'm not being wrong on the internet?) and can only be found on a single island in New Zealand. Which is fine by me and I'm never going there.

HPF has a plastic toy one of those that she delights in hiding in my sock drawer. ::SHUDDER:: My sister is responsible for that particular toy. And I will get her for it.

As far as I know, we are safe from the egg-laying threats mentioned in the article. Though the escalation was amusing.

End of giant-squishy-bug pedantry.

Every year around this time, the giant Weta rears its nasty, squishy head. Must be the travel season. They're really fascinating, but nearly extinct (where's Billytea when I need him for reassurance I'm not being wrong on the internet?) and can only be found on a single island in New Zealand. Which is fine by me and I'm never going there.

There are actually a number of species of weta, about 70. (I'm especially fond of the tusked weta. Cue Fleetwood Mac.) Sixteen of them are considered to be at risk. There are about ten giant weta species; the largest used to occur all over the North Island, now it's found only on a small offshore island.

Angry Birds...so many Angry Birds stuff...

OTOH, M will be here in two weeks, and I am thisclose to being done with gift buying and am ridiculously excited to see him. We all talked tonight and had a speakerphone fight about various animals (badgers, lions, ligers, t. rex, velociraptors, etc., etc.) and who would win in a fight. Good times...!

Hil, my friend Jen has been a Big Sister to a girl for about 5 years now. It can be a really great thing; it depends totally on the individuals involved.

I would like a couple wetas. I think they'd make great cat toys.

evil

I need to talk about something. It's about MK's death, so I'll whitefont for those who'd like to avoid it. It's clinical and yet somehow important to me. After the anesthetic was administered, he went limp, like Devi was the other day when she freaked me out. But the shot to stop his heart was a different kind of stillness. Even after the vet checked his heart, and it was stopped, as he was nestled in my arms, I wasn't done. I knew I needed the confirmation of what I know are the final bits. The last shuddering exhale as the musculature gives up and forces the last breath out. It came out on a purr, not sure how, but it earned a choked laugh. The relaxation of the skin muscles that made his tail bush and odd duck's cap lie flat for the first time since I'd known him. The morbid humor that they lay a towel on my lap when I was all, he hasn't eaten or drank, nothing to evacuate, and I resented that towel and held him to me instead. That I couldn't close his eyes, so I tucked him in his preferred ball, with paws over his face.

That mattered to me. No one else. It's morbid and weird, but it mattered to me

It's morbid and weird, but it mattered to me

I understand that.

It's as if..I owed him honesty in life, gotta do the same in death. It was the nicest kind, but it still was the end. And lord knows I never censored his travails here. How many times did I wrongly fear his death here? At least 4, if not more. For once, I was right. Sucks and that's that.

It's not morbid or weird to me. You knew him, you loved him. And you honored that.

It does suck, sarameg, but I am so glad MK had you throughout his life, and at its end.