Giraffe

This fellow was in a paddock by himself (intact male) looking wistful at the other giraffes being fed by the visitors. So I bought him a bunch of lettuce and fed him the whole thing. (Cheyenne Mountain Zoo sells food for the animals as part of their fundraising. Feeding giraffes by hand is very cool. Their tongues are black.) (edited)

Reconstructing the accident scene

I left Bandit home alone for about four hours today. Apparently, at some point, he jumped to the top of the dining room table, disrupting the table cloth, then jumped down to the tray table a few feet away. We may have to rethink the tray table as an end table.

Fortunately, Bandit did not seem to harm himself when the table flipped on him dumping him on the floor.

Orion – 10/20/08 to 11/04/21

In July, Rion’s veterinarian discovered via an x-ray that Rion probably had a mass in or near his bladder. A specialist vet with advanced imaging equipment determined that he had a five cm inoperable mass growing from either his abdominal wall or his bladder. She very gently explained what we could expect as the mass continued to grow and how to keep him comfortable as long as possible.

Thursday morning, Rion ate his breakfast with his normal enthusiasm. Three hours later, something major happened internally, and Rion looked like a dog on the edge of collapse. He spent the rest of the day in what resembled a coma, and was euthanized by his vet late that afternoon, two weeks and one day past his thirteenth birthday.