animal meme

an animal meme

I've been tagged by Brian...

An interesting animal I had

As most of my friends are well-aware (and never let me live down),

I've had a series of pets with really uninventive names. I adopted my

second grade class' pet gerbil and named him Gerbie. He died a few

months later and I erected a little cross for him in my backyard, then

got incredibly concerned after my family moved that someone would dig

him up. Soon after, my family took in a stray cat when I was in third

grade, which I coaxed into our house on the way home from school by

letting it drink milk out of the little cup attached to my lunchbox

thermos. Thought we tested out more inventive names, Kitty was what

stuck. A few years back, my parents recently got two new cats to

replace the late Kitty, and as nobody could pull it together enough to

remember a new cat name, the two new additions promptly became Little

Kitty and Big Kitty. Pathetic, I know.

Before any of these pets, I do remember desperately collecting sowbugs

(we called them rolly pollies) from rotting logs in our backyard

before Bring Your Pet to School Day. That must have been early in

second grade, before Gerbie came along.

An interesting animal I ate

In true Bear Grylls fashion, I ate scorpion-on-a-stick in the back

alleys of Beijing. Squid-on-a-stick, too. Wouldn't recommend either.

An interesting animal in the Museum

I adore the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. Their recently

opened exhibit, the Hall of Human Origins, is absolutely fascinating

and I'd strongly recommend cruising around their website if you can't

make it to the exhibit itself. I also love their Oceans Hall - ocean

life intrigues me immensely (what can I say, my mom sent me to marine

biology camp as a kid). I particularly like the diorama depicting the

tussle between the giant squid and sperm whale, as you don't often get

glimpses of animals that live at those incredible depths, nevermind

their behavior. It takes a bit of imagination, but there's something

about that particular diorama that sparks my curiosity more than all

the others.

An interesting thing I did with or to an animal

For a while in junior high, I was really into horses, taking dressage

lessons at one stable while volunteering with special-needs children

at another riding stable. When my instructor wanted me to start

jumping, I quit my lessons - it was scary enough cantering around the

arena on my ready-to-run little mare.

An interesting animal in its natural habitat

Last winter, I took a two-week trip around Costa Rica. One of the most

beautiful beaches that I've ever seen was in the Manuel Antonio

National Park. Even though the water was perfectly clear, something

stung me when I was wading around. It was incredibly painful and left

patchy red welts on my right foot that lasted for six months and is

still lightly visible. I never figured out what it was, as the welts

didn't look like previous jellyfish stings, puntures that you might

expect from an urchin, or a contiguous laceration from a sort of skate

(???). A park ranger said it might have been something called ____ de

oro. If you know what he might be referring to, let me know so that I

can solve the mini-mystery about the identity of my little aquatic

friend.

I tag Ed Yong, Pondering, and Thomas!

Feel free to add your own animal stories as comments...everyone has

some good ones.

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