Tuesday, May 30

Today I woke up with the feeling I had forgotten something. It's a pretty common feeling for me, but usually I surprise myself by realizing I hadn't misplaced or neglected anything, it's just post- traumatic stress disorder or something ;) Well, this morning I had neglected and misplaced something. I went out on the screened porch to check on the rats. I had let them out to play last night in their big PVC pipes, and then I fell asleep and didn't put them back in their cage. This morning they were nowhere to be found. I discovered I had left the screen door unlatched. I was lifting furniture and moving big plastic bins around, and Ray comes around back with one of the rats folded up in his shirt. It was Max, he had ben sleeping all night in a rolled-up jute rug I had laid out next to the trash can, but Petey was gone! I got dressed and looked for about an hour. I looked under the house about five times with the flashlight. Surely he has been some owl's dinner, I thought. I told Josie that she had to help me find him. She walked outside and looked under the house and found him in about three seconds. I got him to come to me with a piece of bread. He is covered in red dirt right now, but I won't traumatize him by giving him a bath today.

This afternoon we went to "Rainforest Adventure". I'll tell the story with pictures later. I am currently unable to post images on the web.

(Did you know that if you break a leg off a turantula, it will grow a new, perfectly-formed leg overnight? Weird.)