The 90 Gallon Crabitat

I bought a 90 gallon aquarium in June and spent the rest of the month customizing it. Using plexiglass and sealant, I built two pools on one end of the tank. One is a fresh water pool, the other is a salt water pool and both have mini filters so they function as small aquariums. The crabs have been living in this tank since the beginning of July and everything has been going well.

90 gallon crabitat

A closer look at the pools

Can you spot all 10 crabs in this picture? (Pogo, Coco, Hula, Bermuda, Jack, Wellington, Ipo, Cookie, Darling, Inca)

Rio underwater in the salt pool

'Bean underwater in the salt pool

Rio and Aloha in the fresh pool

Barbados

Ipo

Coco

Happy Father's Day!

Wildlife

We've been having lots of problems lately with birds flying into our windows. It's getting downright strange how often it's happening.

Most of the birds are uninjured, but a little nuthatch almost didn't survive his encounter with the French doors recently. He hit the glass very hard and landed on his back on the deck. I thought he was dead but as I got closer I could see that he was obviously breathing. It took him about 20 minutes to flip himself over and even then his spindly legs couldn't support him. He sat as pictured below on the back porch for another hour before he could raise himself up. He flew to perch on the screen door for a few minutes before relocating to a nearby tree where he immediately began drilling the trunk.

Of course, I was frantically trying to transform one of the hermit crabs' iso tanks into a makeshift bird hospital while waiting to see how well the nuthatch would recover.



I got a picture of a well-camouflaged, adorable little toad sitting behind the front step. He apparently lives under the front porch and was not at all intimidated by me or the dogs.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me during a recent run-in with an eastern box turtle. I was driving down a very curvy road just a couple miles from home when I spotted something moving across the road at a very deliberate pace. I thought it was a leaf until getting very close and realizing it was a boxy. I literally yelled "TURTLE!" as I drove over him. Luckily, he was positioned between my wheels and wasn't harmed.

I pulled off on the next side street and ran back to where I had seen the turtle. He had made it to the side of the road and was unsuccessfully attempting to climb a giant concrete curb. (Since he had bright red eyes, I'm pretty sure it was a male.) The turtle wasn't shy at all and he growled at me and flailed wildly as I picked him up. The hill beside the road was so steep next to that portion of the road that I had to walk down to the nearest driveway, walk up it, and then wander around their yard until I found a nice, shady spot to relocate the turtle.

Happy Birthday, Dear Morgan

Morgan turns 14 years old today!

Morgan's mom was pregnant when she got caught in a live trap meant to capture some raccoons that had been terrorizing neighborhood trash cans. She gave birth in the trap and abandoned her kittens when the trap was discovered and opened. Morgan and his siblings were raised by the humans who had set the trap. Shortly before my 17th birthday, a co-worker was telling me about her friend who had the kittens but needed to rehome them ASAP or they would be taken to a shelter. I called my mom and asked if I could have one of the kittens for my birthday and I was completely shocked and unprepared when she said yes.

Predictably, I chose the runt of the litter when we went to go pick out a kitten. We took the new kitty straight to the vet and at 14 weeks he was half the size of a 12 week old kitten who was also in the waiting room. I was too worried about him to really participate in the naming process so he ended up being named Morgan in honor of the horse in one of my little sister's favorite movies. Morgan was very sick when I got him and infested with fleas, but he was the sweetest, most perfect kitten in the world.



14 years later, Morgan still has my entire family wrapped around his paw.

Happy Mother's Day