Animal chain...4/12-4/18

[Deb.Auchery]

werewolf

[lani]

reindeer

[antalina17]

Echidna 🦔 (disclaimer: that's a hedgehog emoji, but an echidna looks sorta like one from a distance)

[honeybzzzs]

Nudibranch

[lani]

cheetah

[Deb.Auchery]

Basenji 🐾 🐕 (closest I could get to a curly-tailed dog; I grew up with Basenjis)


Ohhhhhhh, honeybzzzs . . . it's not every day that you hear about nudibranchs! I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was a kid. We lived near the beach at one point, and there were often wine/purply sea slugs in the tidepools.

[honeybzzzs]

Deb.Auchery
Grew up within walking distance of Puget Sound.
Sometimes I wish someone had directed me in the Marine Science field. I would have loved that. Options were limited for women in my day.

Basenjis! My 4-H Leader had Basenjis. Also spent time with them when they were accepted to compete in Lure Coursing when that got started. That was waaaay before AKC took on the event. Just ran across my ASFA certificates other day on my Borzoi.
So I grew up with Basenjis too. Ahhhh….memories!!!

[antalina17]

Apr 18, 2024 7:08:46 GMT -5 honeybzzzs said:

Nudibranch

I've heard of sea slugs but didn't know this word for them! Weird critters.

[Deb.Auchery]

honeybzzzs, ohhhhhhhh, Basenjis and Marine Science . . . you are my people! I loved most all of the sciences, but I am severely math-challenged, and math is a major requirement for all of them. Pooh! Between Jacques Cousteau and our local tidepools, I was in Seventh Heaven. Would have loved to have Doc Ricketts' job as mentioned in Cannery Row. His character was based on a real person, Ed Ricketts, a marine biologist, which just made it all the more swoon-worthy to me.

I miss our Basenjis. We had three of them. Two were mother and son, and the third was a later adoption. I loved it when they yodeled at us! We also had a mutt poodle/terrier mix at the same time, and she was a little bit barky. Eventually, the Basenjis learned to woof a bit, even though they're not supposed to be able to bark.

antalina17, there are a huge variety of nudibranchs. The purply ones we had in southern California were intriguing, but kind of boring. Tropical nudibranchs, on the other hand, can be absolutely stunning. There is one called Spanish Dancer that is gorgeous. Supposedly, they can be found in California, but not in my limited experience (big state, long shoreline). At one point I tried to set up a saltwater tank at home when I was 13. Collected five gallons of seawater from Scripps Institute of Oceanography, which had a spigot that extended a mile out into the ocean from the beach. Brought it home, set up a tank, and collected a sea slug and sea anemone from our local beach (it became illegal to remove marine animals shortly afterward). Unfortunately, the tank was too small, my filtration/aeration system inadequate, and the seams of glass were connected with steel. Saltwater is highly corrosive to metals, so I'd periodically get huge, dry, bubbly salts built up all along the top edge, which wasn't good for the animals. They didn't last long. Years later, I eventually got a larger, proper glass tank with no metal, a good filtration/aeration system, the proper sea salts to add to fresh water to create a saltwater tank, had a salinity measuring device, seasoned the tank, aaaaaaaand . . . eventually put a lionfish inside. If you've seen Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard kept a lionfish in his ready room. I would have liked a bit more diversity in that tank, but marine creatures are expensive.

Anyway . . . /blog Get me started on something nostalgic, and I tend to run with it, LOL!