Nutmeg's Zooniverse

The baby dragons, that is. Please click.

Bored yet? Trust me, you soon will be. *g*

Kaiya continues to be adorable, and I say that even though there were two indoor accidents today. (I know where I screwed up on the second, but how/when she managed the first is a mystery.) Her adventures today: Petco and my nail salon, and more fun with the neighbors. But her big triumph was at Wednesday's puppy class. She's 3.5 lbs. The next smallest dogs in class were a golden retriever and a Portugeuse water dog. There were also an Old English sheepdog, a chocolate lab, a lab/hound cross and a border collie/something big cross. And Kaiya didn't care. During the off-leash play periods she rough-and-tumbled with the rest, and when they were running around the room, she raced after them on her tiny little legs. She also ran right up the 4' ramp, surveyed the room and ran back down. No dog aggression, and she was so calm that she sacked out and napped while the instructor was talking. Everyone loved her, too. I was a proud mama. *g*

She still hates riding in the car, but tomorrow (when she's going with me to a writers' conference) I'm going to try her in the car seat, which is like a raised bed she's seatbelted into, because I know part of her problem is that she hates being confined. She's screeching less when I go out of the room, though, and this morning she stayed quiet 'til the alarm went off. (That's vs. two hours of screeching the first morning and about half an hour per morning since.) She and Kizzy continue to nose each other undramatically when they meet, but the boys are still terrified of her, despite being almost five times her weight.

OK, I've blathered enough. How about a few ( pictures? )

And now I'll spare you any more puppy rambling until further notice.

OMFSM, she's so cute! And so little. She has a big head, though, which I've decided means she's really smart. She's already learning to walk on a leash with only minor objections, she goes in and out of her crate, she's peed and pooped outside only, she's learning what to chew and what not to, and she figured out right away that her bed was for sleeping. Oh, and she already knows how to climb up and down stairs. Yay! Also, the breeder said she's also already asking to go out when she needs to. That alone is worthy of major squee.

She already looks so different from when I first saw her. Her nose is pointy, her ears are up, she's lightening toward her final color, and the black on her muzzle is already starting to be replaced with the regulation white/cream.

Oh! And her call name is Kaiya, taken from what will be her registered name: Yukai Kitsune, which is Japanese for Happy Fox.

The drive was...interesting. There's something called the Shiba scream, and she's mastered it. My sister went with me to the breeder's, and on the way back to RI we were treated to the Shiba scream at full volume most of the way. Finally she screeched herself out and napped. She got to meet most of the family - including Lyssa the dog and Squishy the cat (Oreo, the other cat, didn't make an appearance) - and was petted within an inch of her life, which I guess tuckered her out further, because after screeching madly as I bought gas - under $4.00 a gallon! - she gave up on me making the torture stop and slept the whole way home.

The breeder gave me all kinds of goodies, too: a crate, tons of toys and chewy things, and a crate pad that smells like her old home, which I put in her night crate up in my bedroom.

So far the cats are steering clear, though Kismet at least let me hold her up close so they could sniff each other. Gollum ran past as fast as he possibly could, and Grendel has refused to come out to the living room (where I've got her with me) at all. They'll sort themselves out in time, though. I'm totally unworried on that score, knowing what sweeties they all are at heart, and also having mixed a cat with dogs before with entirely satisfactory results.

Anyway, there will be photos, though probably not tonight. My sister took a bunch this morning when I picked her up, and I took a few of her sleeping half out of her bed this afternoon.

The agenda for the rest of the week involves her vet appointment and first puppy class, cleaning, freelancing, lunch with a friend, and meeting with the dog walker who's going to do her midday walk on my zoo days until she's old enough to hold it all day. Saturday I have to speak at a conference, and Sunday is one of the aforementioned zoo days (and my Madagascar training).

Eeeeeee! So cute! She just took her crunchy rawhide stick and climbed into her bed.

Things to be discussed in future posts: Inigo is home and being reloaded with all his former files and software; South Pacific was fabulous; and other things I thought of earlier and have now forgotten.

It was coooolllld here today, but sunny, and since I was going to the zoo anyway for a class (mammals - my favorites, I confess), I wandered around for a while afterwards and - big surprise - took a bunch of pictures. The usual suspects are here, of course, along with some new ones. Everything's resized, but this is still going to take a week to download if you're on dial-up. (OK, not really a week, but it will feel like it.)

( Click for Pics )

It's the 1st of December, and that means it's time for people's holiday wish lists to start popping up. This is my second annual holiday wish list, and it's pretty much the same as last year's, with a few additions. That's OK, 'cuz I liked last year's list just fine.

( Nutty's Holiday Wish List )

ETA: Also please read celticfeministw's comment below, because she has lots more terrific info on how to help your local animal shelter.

I can't believe I forgot to post this. Me = dumb. I really like this shot, too.

( Dr. Lizardo )

Let's see if I can finish up in this post or need to move on to #3. (My money's on the latter.)

( More Critters )

Since I went particularly heavy on the tiger shots today, I think I'll put the big cats in their own post.

And now...the otters! There were five of them, the parents and three babies (who weren't tiny, tiny, unfortunately), and we were there for feeding time, so Alert and Active were the words of the day.

( This Way for the Otters )

This is a friends-only journal, but that doesn't mean I'm not open to making new friends. Just so you know, you won't find anything all that exciting here. Mostly I just talk about stuff I'm doing or thinking in real life, my current fandoms and imaginary boyfriends, maybe books, movies and music I'm enjoying, or politics (which, as of this writing, I'm not enjoying), and, of course, the occasional meme or silly quiz.

If you'd like to read and (I hope) comment, post a comment here or drop a line to the address on my user-info page, and tell me something about who you are and how you found me. If you've decided you can be bored to death just fine without my help, then feel free to wander away as silently as you've come, no hard feelings.

ETA: I left a music-related post unlocked (for reasons not worth bothering to explain), so you kind of get a preview of my brain. (Ooooh, poetry. Bad poetry, but still, a rhyme's a rhyme.)

Sandra Day O'Connor has just resigned from the Supreme Court, so if you want another Scalia or Thomas on the bench, just hunker down and do nada. Otherwise, here's a thought from People for the American Way:




Just Announced: O'CONNOR STEPS DOWN!





Within 24 hours George W. Bush could nominate anyone to a lifetime position on the most powerful court in the land.

If Bush gives his base what they want, this nominee will be far to the right of O'Connor!!

PFAW will help lead the fight against any terrible changes to the Supreme Court, but we are only as effective as our reach.

Extend that reach!

Click here to donate $10
and sign up 10 friends
for the likely battle!


Nutmeg3 :


We've been waiting and preparing for a Supreme Court retirement for the last 5 years and so has President Bush. He finally has the opportunity he's been waiting for: the chance to reward his right-wing base with a far-right appointment to the Supreme Court.

Constitutional rights and freedoms will be affected for decades based on what we as a people do in the coming months. Our very national identity hangs in the balance and progressives must be loud and clear. You must step up now.

We don't need to tell you what kind of jurist President Bush might nominate; you already know he cites Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas as his models for Supreme Court nominees - justices far to the right of moderately conservative O'Connor. Given his divisive lower court appointments - and the fact that right-wing groups have already pledged $20 million to back that kind of nominee - we can probably take him at his word here.

With Justice O'Connor providing the swing vote on critical 5-4 decisions regarding privacy, reproductive rights, affirmative action, government neutrality toward religion, and more, we cannot overstate the profound impact her replacement could have on the direction of American law and society.


We've called on President Bush to select a consensus nominee, but given his track record the odds are good that you and PFAW will have to mount a tireless campaign this summer to stop the confirmation of a bad nominee to the Supreme Court.

Because we don't know who the nominee will be, we are now asking for two universally essential needs: money and activists.

Please give us $10 and help us recruit 10 activists

The requested donation is low because we want as many of you as possible to invest in this campaign - even if you've never donated to a political cause before. We want tens of thousands of people to say with pride, "I helped make this possible."

Recruiting 10 activists is not so easy, but it is free. Please work hard to do this even if you can't give the $10. The more people talking at water coolers, writing their Senators, calling radio stations and emailing their friends, the harder it will be for Bush to slip a right-wing extremist onto the Supreme Court. You know better than we who out there will help, if asked. Be a salesperson for judicial independence and get your friends and family involved. They will thank you later.

With your help, we will pull out all the stops to saturate the media and mobilize people in the public square with three key messages:

President Bush MUST take seriously the Constitution's "advise and consent" requirement and nominate a consensus candidate with broad bipartisan support.
The Senate leadership MUST provide ample time for hearings and review of any nominee.
And, the eventual nominee MUST fully disclose - and justify - his or her judicial philosophy, especially on key constitutional issues.
These are not radical ideas; they are common sense.

PFAW has been at the forefront of battles against extreme judicial nominees - including nominees to the Supreme Court. Our expert staff has broad and deep experience working with and within the Senate; researching nominees; disseminating facts and analysis; and organizing people across the nation to weigh in on Congressional votes - especially confirmation votes.

We know that helping us generate funds and recruit activists is less exciting than writing a letter of outrage, calling an elected official, going to a rally, monitoring an election poll, hosting a house party, attending a meeting in your Senator's office, and all the other things you have done with us. Actions like these are coming - and soon - but right now we need to build our network of activists and lay the groundwork for the coming months.

Please give us $10 or 10 activists, or both. It's important, and no one knows that better than you.


- Your Allies at People For the American Way



Click here: http://www.savethecourt.org/10Friends