Meet the Roul-roul Partridge

I like charismatic mega-fauna as well as the next person. Elephants, tigers, emus... let's face it, they're hard to miss, and often a delight to watch. But what of shy mini-fauna? I think some of them should have a chance at the spotlight too!

So without further ado, I give you Rollulus rouloul, the roul-roul partridge. I imagine that this little bird is all but invisible in her forest home in Indonesia. Of course, I know her as an aviary denizen, and quite a stunning one, with a dark green body, black head, and brown wings. But even in an aviary she is easy to overlook until you get to know her. The Roul-roul that I work with is actually rather personable once she warms up to you. I ply her with meal worms, so she often follows me around the exhibit when I clean it, hoping that I might unearth some bugs for her to munch on.

Roul-rouls in the wild are threatened with habitat destruction, although they seem to be more adaptable than many forest birds. That's good, because this species is monotypic, meaning that there are no other species in their genus.

Unfortunately captive breeding of these guys is out of the question at my zoo since we only have the one female. Too bad, since the male is even cuter than the female. He bears a serious expression and a shocking red crest, which together make him look like some sort of tiny gladiator. Roul-roul is such a mouthful for such a little bird. Maybe they should have been called the Spartacus partridge.

Wordless Wednesday featuring Camila, Fredo, and Cooper

Snake Plant, Don't Do Me Wrong!

A stark fact: I suck at growing plants. No, this isn't false modesty. I would never make it as a horticulturist. To make matters worse, my mother has a house full of plants. She even works in a plant nursery... on top of a mountain where it snows. I live in sunny SoCal and can't grow a thing. Worse yet, on those rare occasions when I do get something to grow my cats invariably eat it.

Even cacti. I think they have issues about sharing the house with other living things.

Still, plants look nice and I'd like to have some. So I'm trying again. And I'm doing the smart thing this time: I'm basing my plant buying on movies I like. Basically this means just one thing: Sanseveria. Lost Highway is one of my all time favorite films. Sure, the couple portrayed in that story line is a bit more dysfunctional than Gabriel and I... but they seem like they have about the same level of plant expertise

Not to mention the fact that this plant seems to be all over the TV show Mad Men. We are trying for a sort of Atomic Ranch vibe for our place, so...

After I bought one I did a little research and learned that not only are they

often called snake plants (much cooler than your average non-ophidian plant) but they are also named after Raimond de Sangro, a prince of Sanseviero who was a horticultural patron during the 18th century. Too bad he wasn't the patron saint of horticulture, because I need all the help I can get.

Live! At El Rey Theater

The last several months have been very good for seeing bands here in SoCal! Earlier in the month we saw the Pixies at the Hollywood Palladium, and that inspired a blog post about that wonderful dance hall, one of my very favorites.

This time we saw the Fiery Furnaces at El Rey Theater, my absolute favorite place to see music. As a hight-challenged American, actually being able to see and not just hear bands is

very exciting to me. El Rey only holds about 700 people, has a lovely wooden dance floor, and risers all the way around the room. What this means to me is that I can actually see most of the stage!

Oh joy! I mean, just look at this picture of Eleanor Friedberger, taken from where we were standing near the front. I could even see her shoes!

The theater is quite beautiful too. It is art deco through and through, lovingly restored, yet also

quite functional as a live music venue. It was designed in 1936 as a single screen movie house by Clifford A. Balch. It continued to show films for the next 50 years until it became a dance club called Wall Street in the 80s. Yeah, it really was called Wall Street. I know, that just sounds so damn 80s, doesn't it?

Finally, in 1994, it became the El Rey that I know and love today. We've been there many times, seeing the White Stripes, Aimee Mann, the Walkmen, and lots of others. This time we not only arrived in time to see the opening acts, we actually liked them! Dent May went first, with his "magnificent ukulele", followed by Cryptacize, a band I had never heard of before which turned out to sing fabulously idiosyncratic yet endearing melodies. Of course the Fiery Furnaces did a fantastic job. Go see them if you get the chance!

Wordless Wednesday featuring Nana (Thanksgiving Edition)

Pity the Poor Opossum

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing the new Wes Anderson film Fantastic Mr. Fox. I really enjoyed the movie, but the role of Kylie, Mr. Fox's sidekick, got me thinking: ever notice how rare it is to see a positive portrayal of an opossum in the media? Or any portrayal of an opossum, for that matter?

I find this a little odd, since opossums are quite ubiquitous throughout the warmer parts of the U.S. But they are also very shy and quiet; many people have never even seen one, despite the fact that they have probably stood within three feet of one on any given night of the year!

I'm a bit biased of course, having cared for hundreds of these odd

marsupials when I worked at the California Wildlife Center as a vet tech. I loved treating them. Nothing this side of baby tapirs is cuter than a tiny fuzzy baby opossum. Many people find them ugly as adults, with their myriad sharp teeth and naked tails, but they are really quite docile. I've been bitten by everything from squirrels to monkeys, and I can safely say that opossum go out of their way to spare your flesh.

In fact, there are really only two thing that they love to bite: mice and rats. Forget cats as rodent control. Your friendly neighborhood opossum has that job well in hand! They are not obligate carnivores though, and will happily clean up any fallen fruit or old cat food you have lying around your yard. They will even slurp up the snails and slugs that plague your garden! And like the kitchen fairies we all wish we had to do the dishes while we sleep, opossums render their services under cover of darkness. So spare a thought for your quiet neighbors. They really have your best interests at heart.

Want to find out more? Go to the Opossum Society to learn all there is to know about opossums!

And the Winer is...

Zombie Squirrels! That's right, I used a random number generator and came up with the numeral 11, which corresponds to Zombie Squirrels' entry in my first ever blog give away! The prize? Three cat toys from my etsy shop, The Frog Bag. He picked some of my favorites too:

the nudibranch,

the trilobite,

the Asian tapir.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered! If you are disappointed that you didn't win, don't fret! I'd like to offer 10% of any item in my shop to anyone who puts "Blog" in the notes to seller. Thanks again, and may all of your cats be happy!