Finbaby

There is a new member of the Tucker family!  We may never see this member of the family again, so I took a picture before we put it in its home.

It’s a plecostomus.   We got the fish to eat the algae in the pond we have as part of our backyard landscaping.  The fish eats algae and there is LOTS of food available to him (or her?).   The lady at the store was right, it looks prehistoric.

We put the fish in the pond last weekend and haven’t seen it since, but the pond is beginning to look cleaner.   When it gets cold we'll get a heater for the pond, don't want the poor thing to freeze- though that isn't much of a worry in Houston..

We’ll give it a name, right now we’re calling it Slimer, like Ghostbusters.

Since Smokey is our furbaby, I guess this one would be our finbaby.

Animal Magnet

Animals LOVE Kevin and keep finding him.  I hope this doesn't become an annual occurrence.  Last March, a bird randomly appeared in the yard when he was home and today, March 1 (see a trend?) a little white dog started following him and Smokey on their walk.   They weren't even on their way home yet, but the dog followed them for the whole walk and all the way home.  

K called me wondering what to do, he's clearly a lost pet..  I've seen signs up in the neighborhood but they are mostly for FOUND pets.   He took him to our vet to see if he's microchipped - nope, and no collar or tags or anything. Do yourself, and your pet, a favor - put tags on them!

We've already put a notice on our e-bulletin board for the neighborhood and will put up signs if needed.  Our guess is that people may not even realize that he's missing until tonight if they were at work all day...

He's a cute fellow, just not what K needed today.  He has class today and was busy getting ready for that.  We're also not sure how this dog and Smokey will get along, they seem ok now but have snarled/snapped at each other.   Smokey is very spoiled and loves his only child status.  Luckily my boss is really understanding and let me leave early so I could puppy-sit.   

I'm going to take this as a trial period to see if we want a second dog :)

Poor puppy, he's tired....

Friday chaos

I had more excitement than I needed this morning.  Rockey (parakeet) got out while I was changing his millet.   Luckily Smokey was outside -- that is now our policy, the dog must be outside for the bird cage to be opened.

I tried to catch him but couldn't grab him - not sure how my sister grabbed him so fast when he got out Labor Day weekend.  Kevin gave me the idea to toss a small towel on him so he couldn't fly away, and then grab him and the towel.  That worked well!   I did have to catch him TWICE-- he got away the first time I tried to put him back into the cage, but he is safe and sound.

I'm looking forward to Rockey going to live with my brother and his wife...He's cute, but not much fun as a pet. 

My day can only get better! Happy Friday!

New Friend

Kevin made a new friend today - a parakeet showed up in our yard! Thankfully Smokey was inside the house when the bird showed up.

Its very domesticated and a 'people-bird' because it came right up to Kevin and wanted to go into the house.

We'll have to try to track down the owners, but for now we have a bird at the house, and lucky for me - a lady at work has a cage that I can borrow and since she has parakeets she's able to tell me exactly what we need to feed it and keep it healthy until we can find the owners..

A neighbor told Kevin he should tell me its a St Patrick's day gift, it is green, and pretty cute.