On a slow day, we decided to get some more footage of Noe (really, Yan did). First, the all-important feeding of pellets. This happens three times a day, though Noe would undoubtedly say that this is far too infrequent.
The second video (with slightly less artistic camera work) shows her eating some cecal pellets a few minutes later. While this sounds like a rather disgusting process, I think she does a pretty good job of making it seem quite dignified.
So now you’ve shared two important events in Noe’s day. I guess at some point we’ll have to film the all-important drinking of the breakfast juice…
Okay, so Noe actually doesn’t “vacation,” as such. But she’s been to quit a few places when I traveled, mostly in her younger years.
When I lived on Oahu, she came with me to Kauai twice for family visits. The first time, she stayed with me in my parents’ office-the only room that the cats wouldn’t meow constantly at the door of when they were being kept out (though there was some pug-snuffling at the door by the dog):
“Vacation sure seems like jail. I’m sure your mom wouldn’t mind if I chewed on her files.”
The second time, we got to stay in a guest room, where the cats and dogs weren’t allowed. Here, Mom was very sweet and bought a baby gate to install on the door, so it could stay open and give her a breeze.
While a nice gesture, that turned out to be a mistake. It took Noe abut 10 minutes to decide that the gate was the most interesting part of the room, and then a minute after that to realize that only one well-positioned nip would allow her to make a hole in the plastic mesh. That baby gate had about 20 minutes of usefulness.
Luckily, Mom was a good sport about the whole thing. Though the sarcastic comments about well-trained pets weren’t really appreciated.
No photos of Noe this week. She’s done some cute things lately, but always stops doing them when we go to the the camera. I don’t think she understands how this owner-pet relationship is supposed to work. I mean, we’re not even allowed to touch her soft, spotless white tummy, but she’s allowed to climb all over us for a piece of fruit…
Anyway, we recently went to a wedding in California, and took the opportunity to do a road trip on the way. In Arizona, we stopped at Petrified Forest NP and did some sightseeing. Among the colorful badlands and neat petrified wood, we saw several desert cottontail rabbits. Here’s one:
Can you spot the rabbit? (Photo: Y. Fernandez)
Can’t make it out? Here’s a more helpful look:
This particular rabbit was feeding right alongside the trail, and seemed pretty used to the presence of humans. One of the factors that probably contributed to its placidity was the giant freaky tick hanging off its ear. Now, I try to be mature about the presence of insect life, but parasites do give me the creeps. And this one was easily the size of a dime! I had no idea that ticks could get that big.
We initially thought the rabbit was tagged or something, but later research on the internet showed us just how naive we were about the little arachnid creeps. I’m not going to link to any photos here, because it’s the sort of thing that, once seen, can’t be unseen. Especially up close through binoculars. Brr.
We put some alfalfa hay in the center of an empty oatmeal container, and packed timothy hay around it. Alfalfa is apparently teh awesome, though we have to ration it for her because of its high protein content. But like a shark, she can smell the stuff from a mile away, so she spent hours trying to get at it (with naps in between).
Unfortunately, she didn’t eat all the timothy, so there was a trail of it across the living room floor.
Entropy bun. (Photo: Y. Fernandez)
She eventually did go back and eat some of the hay, so to some extent she’s a self-tidying creature…
