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[wombat]

Wombat's excellent but exhausting temporary job at the Reptile House of a certain prominient Mid-Atlantic region zoo recently ended.  I just started working part time for a private breeder and dealer of snakes and frogs.  The web site is here.  We would be happy to serve you for all your poison dart frog and green tree python needs.  Or just go look at the pretty pictures.

Also I just got a second dog.  Pictures here.  Rose was a rescue from a puppy mill where she was a breeding bitch.  She got no vet care so she is mostly blind from untreated eye problems.  She gets around pretty well despite her limited sight - her more immediate problem is that her foster family made her very overweight.  She is very sweet but can't do much of normal dog things yet, like walk on a leash, since she lived the first three years of her life in a cage, and the extra weight doesn't help.  Fortunately she already knows to do her business outdoors, which is great because lots of puppy mill rescues apparently never get housebroken.  She's OK on that, but is going to need a lot of socialization.  It will be interesting to see if it's really possible to make up for the deficits in her early experience.  If not, I have low expectations.  I did the raising the overacheiving first child thing with Lilly already - if the second dog can just sit and walk on a leash, I'm OK with that.

(If you don't already know this, you should not buy puppies from pet stores, especially those big stores that sell nothing but puppies.  They are bred at what are basically dog factories where USDA regulations allow dogs to be kept in cages that are just big enough to stand up and turn around and that's it and have to have litter after litter with no break.)

Number One Pug Lilly is not too happy about this development.  The main point of this was for her to have a friend, so I hope that she gets to like her, but right now, she seems to still be hoping that this other dog will leave and go home.  I keep telling her that Rose is just the emergency backup dog and isn't even fully functional, but she is not mollified.  Anyone got any advice about running a two dog household?

[Ben-San]

Those are some fine looking serpents being vended. I am particularly pleased at learning that there is an "Aquaman bloodline" of snakes, of which Aquaboy is the latest sire.

[CortJstr]

I keep telling her that Rose is just the emergency backup dog

Wow, Dave Barry flashback.

[wombat]

Wow, Dave Barry flashback.

Yes, although I believe that his was a full-service spare, as far as either of his dogs were 100% functional in the first place.

[side_show]

Tomorrow marks my second year where I am unemployed for two months in summer, which become the months when I work as a writer full time.  That means I'll be here a lot more... you know, writing to avoid the other writing...

I am starting with what I will hope will be a new routine - I will be getting up with the SO at 6 AM because he drives past our gym on the way to work.  I'll start each day with a workout and some socializing, in hopes these next two months don't feel so claustrophobic.

Also, wombat, your new dog, paired with the other pug, just kill me.  So cute.  I don't know how you don't just squish them.  Basically, if all goes well, at this time next year, I too will be working a rescue dog of our own into my household.  The only good time to do this is when you have a lot of time at home, I think.  Basically my only criteria for a rescue dog is being house broken and not killing my cats.

[wombat]

Yes, I think I now understand why most people have overweight pugs and don't see the problem - the fat one is just unbelievably squishable.

[side_show]

Yes, it is easy to have a stocky dog and make them even stocky-er.  We had a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, and he basically looked like a log that had sprouted tiny legs.  People would shout out "what happended to his legs!?" when they saw us coming down the side walk.  Nothing, he was born that way.  Then they'd say "where's his tail?!" He was born without a tail, as a are all of his breed.

Do either of you puggies have nasal problems?  My cousin had a pug and it had serious issues - you could always hear it breathing,  it would play,then get weak from not getting enough air, it snored horribly and had to have doggy nasal spray, and the vet said it needed some sort of operation, which it never got, and it lived a very short life.  Apparently breathing issues are common with this breed, or so my cousin said - but he is the sort of person who doesn't properly care for anything, so I sort of always suspected he was not caring for his animal properly.

[wombat]

We have been fortunate with the breathing issues so far, but Number Two Pug does snore.  We are hoping to keep her in the habit of sleeping in the next room on the nice dog bed, because it's a bit of a racket.  She is unable to jump up onto the human bed due to fatness and sight issues, which turns out to be sort of fortunate.  We now have one pug who can climb all over stuff almost as much as the cats, and one that can't leave the ground - it averages out to one normal dog.

[theinevitable]

I want a weiner partner-in-crime.
I love small dogs.

...mine is a king charles spaniel. a little runty one who is basically still a puppy, despite being 5. he is my favorite little guy, is what I am saying here.

[wombat]

Those are some fine looking serpents being vended. I am particularly pleased at learning that there is an "Aquaman bloodline" of snakes, of which Aquaboy is the latest sire.

I noticed today that we have a manual about these snakes and inside the cover it says that the cover picture is of a snake named Darth Maul.

I have decided that the breeding of fancy colored snakes is what men do who think it would be too girly to breed fancy colored flowers.  I don't really understand why you'd look at a green tree snake and say "Hey, let's try to breed a yellow one" instead of going out and buying a species of snake that was already yellow.... any more than I understand why you'd look at a yellow day lily and say "Hey, let's breed a purple one" instead of just going out and buying a flower that was purple to begin with.  It seems like exactly the same inexplicable impulse to me.

[jough]

So painting the dog blue... that's totally wrong in your book?

[theinevitable]

what if you were to red up the snake, hella Pittzburg stylez?

[wombat]

Oh, not at all, painting it is completely different...

[Mite]

I like the new pictures a lot! Glad you're enjoying the new gig. And new pug.

If it's any consolation, our kitties started out hating each other, but yesterday we caught them taking a nap all curled up together. It only took 3 months!

And do pet stores still really sell puppies? I don't think I've seen that since I was a kid.

[theinevitable]

OK I need to share this. I had to look up that phrase to make sure it was being used correctly. and then, I looked around randomly on Urban Dictionary.
And i found this:

I am pregnate.

What an illiterate girl writes on the back of her hand so that she will remember to tell her boyfriend that she is with child.

"Todd," (she refers to back of hand) "I'm pregnate!"

I fell in love with this.