Pet-pourri

I have been laughing myself silly about a news article from the state of Oregon.  A pet shop reported the theft of a Galapago monkey, or Bush Baby, and a few days later reported the theft of a money jar with Girl Scout cookie donations inside.  Then a laptop computer was reported stolen.  The pet shop was owned by a couple - and, several days after the reported thefts, the male half of the couple was seen behaving erratically on a sidewalk, having just exited an adult pornography store.  The man was arrested after it was found he was high on methamphetamine.  The Bush Baby, named "Gooey" was found in a local motel room - having been given to the out-of-town renter as a "tip." The renter was a prostitute from another town.  Besides finding the monkey, the missing laptop computer was also found.  Police surmise that the Girl Scout cookie money jar was also a part of the tip the male pet shop owner had given the prostitute, but neither money nor jar has been recovered.  The wife of the man charged in the incident was a co-owner of the pet shop.  She is currently having his name removed, legally, from anything to do with what is now her business.  The shop's name?  The Zany Zoo.  Isn't that appropriate?

    As of last night, there were ten foals on the Virginia end of Assateague Island, and the colt on the Maryland end was showing his athletic prowess, jumping over car barricades.  I'll follow this written piece up with photos of the new foals....     For hundreds of years, people have used the words foal and colt interchangeably - but, in strictly correct usage, a foal can be of either gender, while a colt is a male.  Chincoteaguers, however, use the old-fashioned designations for the pony babies - you have either a "horse colt" or a "mare colt."  After working on a horse farm and at a thoroughbred breeding farm, I still cringe when I hear the word colt used indiscriminately, but - that's Chincoteague.  It goes with a lot of local Elizibethan-era words, like pitchpole and pizzle.
   And, speaking of Chincoteague words, I saw a perfect example of  "a scud of rain" yesterday, here in Boulder.  I had just returned to my apartment from picking up friends at the Denver International Airport, and I sat at my desk, as I am now, and looked out the window.  The Flatirons and the front range of hills are usually clearly viewed - but yesterday, as I watched, a wall of wind-driven rain came over the mountains and passed by with a good wind behind it.  We had, perhaps, five minutes of rain, and then the skies cleared behind the scud of rain, and we were dry again in less than 15 minutes.  I had forgotten how one can clearly see a line of rain coming at you when you're out boating, or just sitting on the islands.  Yesterday's scud made it's point.

   Originally, today was my only full day off this month - with absolutely nothing to do.  Well, I'm half-way through my job for today.  I've already been up to Githen's Acres and have released Chocolate and Blackberry from their hutch; I've refreshed their water and made certain they have plenty of food.  I'll need to go back near dusk and re-cage them (for their own safety).  That's my only job today....  I'll start over at Rosie's tomorrow, come home Thursday night, and begin Friday at Tess's.  From May 2 through 8, I'm scheduled only to walk Rosie and Tess daily; then I'm back at other houses until the end of the month...  And one of the couple I'll be house-sitting for (plus 4 critters) will be visiting Chincoteague.  Wish I was going with them......