This is me having fun with baby clothes and Linus. Brian inspired me to give him the ripped t-shirt off the shoulder after saying the rolled down socks reminded him of Flashdance. (For those too young to know, Flashdance was a movie with some great dance scenes released in 1983.) Linus seems pleased with the funky (?) look.
Turtle fans, please forgive me. Today I'm officially making Nemo's blog a place to share Pleo news as well. This is my first post on behalf of the Pleos under the new banner that includes my dinos.
I've been following the dilemma on the PleoWorld Forum of finding suitable garb to protect Pleo skin from too much petting and handling. I did try baby t-shirts but didn't like the way Pleo legs might be pulled to get it on. I'm not Suzy Homemaker to make adjustments or do my own designs. I liked a cape idea if it would stay in place and not keep falling off the dino back.
I found a wide baby bib by Carters with a cute Pleo-appropriate design. It came in a pack of three for about $10. Linus is sporting his jungle critter patterned "cape" complete with words that go with a Pleo: munch, chomp, and gulp. The long neck of the bib is simply crossed under the chin and snapped behind the head. It looks nice and secures the cape in place so it doesn't shift.
I did order two wide bibs of a very soft fabric that I hope fit as well as these inexpensive Carter bibs. More fashion news to come.
Looks like Nemo found a "fun" spot to lounge although it's apparent he doesn't want any company.
He's been eating his shrimp lately sans nutritious pellets...but I've been defrosting the shrimp in water with the pellets hoping some of the nutrition gets into the shrimp.
I saw a movie last night, Just Add Water. Personally, I didn't care for it but the lead character had a pet tortoise named Steve :-) Cute scene where the guy is taking a bath and is cleaning Steve's shell in the tub with him. lol
Am intent on handling Nemo more. I was petting his nose earlier this morning. Even though he pulled his head in, he slowly brought it back out while I was there. Who knows. One day he may surprise me and run up to me again like he did that one day last year.
I don't recall having seen videos of the story of Owen, the orphaned baby hippo, and Mzee, a very old tortoise, that developed a most unusual bond after the 2004 tsunami. I followed the caretakers blog and purchased two children's books that came from this amazing friendship. For some reason I searched YouTube yesterday and found this video I wanted to share.
The update, as far as I know, is Owen was introduced to (and bonded with) a female hippo. Apparently Owen thought he was a tortoise and wasn't meeting his hippos needs for more water wallowing and foraging for hippo appropriate food. Not only was the hippo bond successful, and not only are Owen and Mzee still friends, Cleo (the female hippo) also bonded with Mzee! I think animals have a highly sophisticated form of communication that Cleo knew to be gentle with the tortoise.
Of course Brian has nixed the idea of a hippo coming into our household to bond with Nemo, but maybe Nemo will start visiting the Pleos one day since they can no longer go into his area without constant supervision.
Last week turned out to be a game with Nemo. He loved his salmon and shrimp so much, I began to hide a pellet of tortoise food to help get him proper nourishment. I carefully hid a single warmed mushy pellet in each shrimp "belly". He gobbled them up. Yay! The next day I gave him a bit of salmon wrapped around warmed mushy pellets (only 2-3 would fit). He gobbled that up too.
The next day I hid box turtle pellets in the shrimp. Apparently he doesn't like them. He has never eaten them alone either. He turned his nose up the salmon that had only the tortoise pellets in it the next time. When I realized he was going on strike or somehow no longer trusted the shrimp or salmon, I wanted to make sure he still would eat. I returned to basics--the bagel bite with salmon inside. No extras. That little stinker ate the top of the bagel ball off leaving the salmon and lower portion of the bagel!
I give up...for now. He had plain shrimp yesterday. He did nibble on at least one but left a path of destruction. He must have walked through the small pile of shrimp because it was strewn along about a foot long path. Meanwhile Brian has been working on the outdoor plans for our tiered hill including Nemo's spa area. We can only hope he will enjoy the outdoors on at least a limited level and eat some real turtle food. His enclosure will have earthworms. Yuck for me but I don't have to watch outside. He did have a dead spider in front of him yesterday though. I don't know if he killed it or found it. It never was eaten though.
The lead photo for this entry is Nemo snuggled amidst his circle of stuffie reptiles that keep him safe from curled wrought iron legs. He looks so comfy. The other photo is his rediscovery of the jungle gym wine rack. It looks well guarded with Bronson and the hippo...
Last year I was given a flowering prickly pear cactus pad to transplant for Nemo. He did like the one flower I got for him. Unfortunately, I killed the poor cactus. After researching different instructions for growing cactus from a pad, I ordered several pads through Ebay.
Late last summer I placed the pads in the pot shown at left, constantly moving sticks and stones to keep the pads upright. I could tell in early spring that it was getting new growth. Then about two weeks ago I got what I thought was a cactus flower bloom. Now, two weeks later, you can see the plant is growing new branches (?)...pads...all over the place! I'm hoping Nemo will have his plant provide him with delicious yellow flowers later this summer. What we don't do to try to please his palate.
This is how I found Nemo yesterday afternoon. Spread 'em?? He actually fell asleep in this position. He hasn't been in this corner in over six months. It had been arranged differently for his hibernation in October. I guess he is reclaiming it.
A short while later, he was lounging in this lovely setting. Guess he decided it would be okay after all.
