Letter to God

This is an email forward I got today. It was such a cute story I just have to share it here :)
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Letter to God:

We don't know who replied……, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find. I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

Baby Quail!

My first quail hatch is over. Aren't they cuuute!! I have 24 healthy babies that hatched fine on their own, three died while hatching during the night, I assisted 5 out of their eggs, but 2 of those didn't make it, so I had 27, but three babies drowned in the chick waterer in scarcely a quarter inch of water. After thinking for a minute I put marbles in the water- no more drowned babies. I'm back to 24. Of the other 21 eggs that didn't hatch,... I'm thinking maybe quail eggs don't keep as well as chicken eggs if you wait to start incubation? Or maybe they were not held at their ideal temperature while waiting? ..., live and learn. I think I'll start a new batch, but I'll add eggs to the incubator daily as they are laid. I'll have 7 babies a day at the end, but I can keep them in a couple of groups if the bigger ones start picking at the smaller ones. After a couple weeks they'll be close enough to the same size and I can introduce them to the bigger pen all at once.

subscription feeder update

Hi all :)
If you have a current subscription to our email updates (as of 6pm Wed), please take a moment to re-subscribe to our new email sign up box (same as before). I know it doesn't look any different, but it redirects info back to me from a different account now.
Thanks :) ... sorry for any inconvenience :(

Delilah :)

A New Year

It has been such a lovely winter. :) I have so enjoyed the snow. As usual, much has happened and now I'll be writing about it all at once.
Loki found a new home with some experienced snake owners who I know will take good care of her. But I miss her so much! :( She was the perfect size. Big enough to really feel weighty, but small enough to manage- not too heavy to lift, not to big to house, and not to expensive to feed, and most of all, not to big to be dangerous - except for maybe a bite on the nose! ouch! (I'd hate to be that guy!)
I can't wait to have dwarf Burmese and super-dwarf reticulated pythons. Both of these normally giant snakes only top out around 7 to 8 feet in the dwarfs. (about the size Loki was) If this year's breeding season goes well, I can expand into the larger room in the basement and have a couple of these bigger snakes. I'm looking at granite Burmese, but there are so many pretty retic varieties... I can't make up my mind where I want to start!
Also I want to get into carpet pythons. Yesterday I brought home Toby- a male (unconfirmed as of yet) coastal carpet. I don't know anything about him unfortunately. He's just a pet shop boy. But he is a super sweet snake and I just love him! Here's a picture of him asleep in his new house.

Here's a blurb I wrote about his trip home from the pet shop:
Toby had a pretty stressful trip home. He HATED the pillowcase. I've never seen that before. Usual...ly snakes LOVE pillowcases. But then again I've never seen a claustrophobic cat before and yet our cat, Turbo, freaks out if you put him in a cat carrier. His eyes dilate and he howls and starts panting and clawing at the door. That's kinda what Toby did. I thought he was in pain or something like his tail was bent maybe, so I opened the bag to see if he was ok. He stuck his head out and crawled up my neck and then he was fine. So his bottom half was in the pillowcase and his top half was around my neck like a scarf. We thought about just letting him ride home like that but I was afraid if the car noise (vibration) frightened him I'd stress him out even more trying to keep him still. So back into the bag he went. He was not a happy camper. He kept pushing at the bag all the way home. Then it was to the bath tub. Not only was he dirty, but he was dry as a bone getting ready to shed. I thought a nice warm bath would be a comfort, but no, he hated that too. :(
So he just got a quick warm dip, a quick run through the towel and another scan for mites, and then he went down to his new home which thank goodness he seems to adore! He crawled all over his tree branch and started rubbing his nose on everything. I expect I'll find a shed in the morning.

Here's a couple new pictures of Amina. She's friendly, curious, and growing like a weed. She gets into everything. Here she is helping Nef with her makeup.





And here she is climbing the fig tree and looking out the window at the snow.