Isn't this what Flickr is for?

I KNOW I probably post too many pet pictures, but when we got home from Spokane last night, we had missed the birds so much that we forwent (?) cleaning and unpacking to take them out of their cages and subject them to a photoshoot. What different little creatures they are from each other, and from Stanze before them.















Stanze would have NEVER let us pet Fritz in her presence, much less hold the two of them together ON THE SAME FINGER. Christian's hand would have been a mass of bleeding flesh had he attempted this when she was around. Pierre is so placid, almost to the point of alarm. He sits and stares and makes no demands. He let Fritz very assertively preen him:

















And while regurgitation may be disgusting, but at least we know they like each other.




















There was a tremendous moment last night when Pierre perfectly stepped up several times in a row with no nipping, flapping or clinging desperately to the perch with one foot. They even stepped up TOGETHER, which was the highlight of all pet ownership thus far.

We then, though, had a bit of an unnerving pet moment when feeding the snakes. Mom, don't read this. Frederick was unusually hungry and lunged for the mouse as soon as I opened the cage. He missed, but I felt the whiff as he struck near my arm. He took it as soon as it hit the floor of his cage. And to think we were worried about his eating.

Persephone was in the small feeding cage and lunged for her mouse as soon as she smelled it (they must have been extra stinky) and caught her teeth in the mesh of the cage lid. Fortunately, she disentangled herself with no apparent damage, but it can be shocking to see snakes act like, well, snakes, especially when they're usually so docile. They are who they are, however, and I wouldn't want them to change. I just need to make sure that the next time they eat, the bags the mice are thawed in don't leak, as wet mice must smell to them like cinnamon does to us.