Ferretology

[cbertsch]

I talked with Skylar this morning. She proceeded to reel off a great number of facts about ferrets. Kim says she has read the book she got from the library many times already. It was like hearing myself at her age. I used to lecture my mother about the latest topic of interest -- snakes, whales, rocks -- and read catalogues over and over trying to figure out whether I could acquire them somehow. I like the fact that Skylar is getting into stereotypically "boy" activities, like the marshaling of science facts -- all the boys in her class prefer to read non-fiction -- without losing all the girly ones that she was already into. I want to encourage to experiment with science and technology. It certainly made me feel better talking to her today, but I miss her. It's time to go home. First, though, I need to visit a certain location on Bardstown Road. . .

Comments

Safari Cards

[evilones.livejournal.com]

Go Skylar. Go science facts.

I used to get Safari Cards in the mail when I was a kid: do you know those? These big strangely-shaped indexed cards -- hundreds of them -- with animal facts and science data about their diets, habitats, etc. They sent you a cardboard case to file them into. I remember fanning them out, shuffling them, spreading them out and organizing them into groups: mammals, reptiles, invertabrates, spiders, etc. I don't think I knew what to do with them. I read them and filed them and sorted them and stared at them in their sorted piles. And Zoobooks. I got Zoobooks in the mail. I organized those too.

I did have ferrets when I was seventeen: two of them, Doolittle and Modean. They ran at me, bit my feet and got fleas in incurable waves. I eventually gave them up. But they were cute. I'd seen "Beastmaster" as a kid and had always wanted a pair of ferrets to steal me trinkets and ride on my shoulders. It didn't quite turn out like that, though.

Re: Safari Cards

[cbertsch.livejournal.com]

At least fleas shouldn't be a problem in Tucson. I'm a big fan of the weasel familyl, but the sheepdog in me worries that the ferret will constantly be missing, based on what owners have told me and what I've read.

It's great to see you back in LJ space, BTW!