So the last time I was here was quite a few years ago at this point, and quite a few things have changed since then, but I bumped into some old DT pals at a dog event this past weekend so I figured I'd shoot an update here for those who previously followed our journey.
The OG three- Quetzal (ball python), Barahir (brazilian rainbow boa), and Vision (dwarf bci) with my foot (men's size 10) for scale. All of them are adult size, so they're done growing, and Q's creeping up on his senior years at this point. I had them out while cleaning their enclosures and thought a comparison photo would be nice.
I also went to a reptile expo a few weeks ago and picked up these three- a m/f pair from one vendor, and a female from another. They are in quarantine right now, so I can't compare them to the adults yet, but they're tiny grey worms in comparison.
I also picked up a mink skull to go with my fisher cat skull I grabbed at a Renn Faire a few years back, but that's not a snake
Additionally, just general life updates;
I started formally taking Japanese classes a few years ago. I'm not anywhere near fluent and won't be for quite some time, and I'm farther back in my progress than I'd like to be thanks to some events from last year, but my Japanese is now strong enough to read some short kids' books and have some conversations with Japanese natives. Last year I had a good talk- in Japanese- with the owner of a really nice restaurant about his wife and children back in Japan, how everyone thinks kanji is hard and it's not just me, and then he gave me some pointers and corrected my grammar here and there when I struggled. He was very happy to see someone putting in the effort to learn his language and culture and give him a little taste of home as he was saying he really missed his family. The videos he showed me of his wife trying to teach his son to say "banana" were hilariously cute and it was a really good end to the evening that day.
About this time last year I was in a bad fender bender that left me with a back injury and brain injury. It wasn't until Feb this year that I was released from care, and for a while I was unable to move from my bed and had to really rely on my roommates to help take care of Creed. It also affected my speech and memory and while that's mostly done at this point, sometimes I still forget words and I've become much more sensitive to light and sound. Creed was in the car with me and was flung into the back of my seat on impact, and had a shoulder injury from it. Thankfully his injury was much easier to solve than my own and crate rest and anti-inflammatories let him regain use of his front leg again. It's been a long road and there are some details I can't go into for legal purposes, but I'm glad to have most of my independence and mobility back, and I'm glad Creed was able to walk away from it all.
Oh, and I live in Connecticut now, and we've got ourselves a house instead of apartment. Creed loves the fenced in yard and has filled out quite a bit! I've been told by a few IGP clubs that he's BH-ready and I just need to get over myself and enter him, we were supposed to be trialing for that last year but the trial was scheduled only two months after my car accident and I just wasn't capable of doing anything remotely dog training related considering at that point I still couldn't talk or walk on my own. This past weekend was the first dog event we were able to attend that I wasn't worried I'd do something stupid to my back or become overly dizzy and distracted while driving.
Speaking of this weekend...
I'm still waiting on some pictures before I make a thread about it, but here's Creed's first long bite ever and also his first time seeing a decoy in about 3 years.
The OG three- Quetzal (ball python), Barahir (brazilian rainbow boa), and Vision (dwarf bci) with my foot (men's size 10) for scale. All of them are adult size, so they're done growing, and Q's creeping up on his senior years at this point. I had them out while cleaning their enclosures and thought a comparison photo would be nice.
I also went to a reptile expo a few weeks ago and picked up these three- a m/f pair from one vendor, and a female from another. They are in quarantine right now, so I can't compare them to the adults yet, but they're tiny grey worms in comparison.
I also picked up a mink skull to go with my fisher cat skull I grabbed at a Renn Faire a few years back, but that's not a snake
Additionally, just general life updates;
I started formally taking Japanese classes a few years ago. I'm not anywhere near fluent and won't be for quite some time, and I'm farther back in my progress than I'd like to be thanks to some events from last year, but my Japanese is now strong enough to read some short kids' books and have some conversations with Japanese natives. Last year I had a good talk- in Japanese- with the owner of a really nice restaurant about his wife and children back in Japan, how everyone thinks kanji is hard and it's not just me, and then he gave me some pointers and corrected my grammar here and there when I struggled. He was very happy to see someone putting in the effort to learn his language and culture and give him a little taste of home as he was saying he really missed his family. The videos he showed me of his wife trying to teach his son to say "banana" were hilariously cute and it was a really good end to the evening that day.
About this time last year I was in a bad fender bender that left me with a back injury and brain injury. It wasn't until Feb this year that I was released from care, and for a while I was unable to move from my bed and had to really rely on my roommates to help take care of Creed. It also affected my speech and memory and while that's mostly done at this point, sometimes I still forget words and I've become much more sensitive to light and sound. Creed was in the car with me and was flung into the back of my seat on impact, and had a shoulder injury from it. Thankfully his injury was much easier to solve than my own and crate rest and anti-inflammatories let him regain use of his front leg again. It's been a long road and there are some details I can't go into for legal purposes, but I'm glad to have most of my independence and mobility back, and I'm glad Creed was able to walk away from it all.
Oh, and I live in Connecticut now, and we've got ourselves a house instead of apartment. Creed loves the fenced in yard and has filled out quite a bit! I've been told by a few IGP clubs that he's BH-ready and I just need to get over myself and enter him, we were supposed to be trialing for that last year but the trial was scheduled only two months after my car accident and I just wasn't capable of doing anything remotely dog training related considering at that point I still couldn't talk or walk on my own. This past weekend was the first dog event we were able to attend that I wasn't worried I'd do something stupid to my back or become overly dizzy and distracted while driving.
Speaking of this weekend...
I'm still waiting on some pictures before I make a thread about it, but here's Creed's first long bite ever and also his first time seeing a decoy in about 3 years.