Maybe It's a Sign?

So I had some weird wacko dream last night that had something to do with a football game.  As American football is my absolute least-favourite sport (no one has ever successfully managed to explain it to me and the men are hideously unattractive; enough said), this was peculiar anyway.  I don't remember much about it other than the football, and the fact that they all had bizarrely long numbers (like, eight digits) on their uniforms, and that "I" - and I think I was a guy, too - was talking to this guy and his girlfriend who was my totally fictitious friend's sister and the guy's name was Angel Joe.

What does this have to do with my menagerie?  Well, I woke up after this dream and found myself cuddling with the still-anonymous ermine, and now I'm wondering whether I should take it as some sort of vision telling me that his name is Angel Joe.  He is white.  White things are angelic... right?

Angel Joe is a very weird name, but now I can't get it out of my head.

In further onomastic news, I have deduced that the lynx's surname and/or title is Pearl, relating to the almost pearlescent quality of his fur; and that the black panther's friends call him Magick, although that is neither his name nor his title.

Hrithik Isn't Speaking to Me Right Now

I cleaned my room yesterday.  The primary objectives in doing this were eliminating the dust and getting the books off the floor.  I had a series of minor fits or something over the last couple of months and wound up with piles and piles of Harlequin Blazes on the floor, so I had to rearrange the contents of my bookcases to make room.  Now they're all on shelves.  I still have books on the floor (I've shoved them under the dresser for the nonce), but they're books I could get rid of.

The problem was that in doing this I had to displace Hrithik.  Lemurs like trees, right, so I had him on top of one of my bookcases, to imitate the tree environment as much as possible.  But I wasn't sure how much space I was going to need and ended up using the top of that bookcase for books.  Hrithik had to move.  He was distinctly unhappy with me over this.

Fortunately, it turned out I had about a shelf and two-thirds left over after I'd moved everything, so I could leave the top of one of the other bookcases (on the other side of the room) blank.  Now Hrithik is up there, on one side of my driftwood bat statue (Henri is on the other side), and it's just as high as the other one.  

I think this worked out just fine.  Hrithik still has a tree, and it's just as good as the other one, and he's even in a better position for conversation now because he's on the side of the room with more animals.

Hrithik, however, is distinctly pissed off at me.  He's been refusing to speak to me ever since I moved him down from his old tree.  I think he thinks I didn't care about removing his habitat.  Which wasn't true!  It really wasn't!  One of my other bookcases has my tarot card collection on top of it, and the tarot cards don't take up the whole space, and I'm pretty sure Hrithik could have lived up there, if the other bookcase hadn't worked out.  It would have been a tighter fit, is all.  I tried to tell him that, but he's still not talking to me.

As a result of the re-organisation, Skandar and Sithri have been moved to the shelf below Hrithik and Henri - they barely noticed, they were so absorbed in each other - and the chameleon has moved to Hrithik's former bookcase on the second-to-the-bottom shelf.  Casper and Seymour have moved down a shelf or so, which they're happy about because they're closer to Seal.  So I haven't ruined everyone's life, just Hrithik's.  Apparently.

I Think My Ermine Has Problems

The new ermine - who has an improbably pink nose and a first-rate tail - may have some problems.  Clearly there's an interesting backstory there, only I haven't learned what it is yet.

A lot of the time when you buy a new animal, it arrives with its whiskers taped, so it didn't faze me when I noticed that the ermine's had been taped.  But when I went to take the tape off, I discovered that the tape couldn't be removed without removing a lot of fur with it.  As I was unwilling to remove any of the ermine's fur, the whiskers are still taped.  This implies to me that someone, somewhere, has done something very nasty to the poor guy.

This impression is further borne out by a general consideration of the ermine's demeanour: he's wary and watchful and seems slightly traumatised, and he's the first animal who has taken Sleepyhead's narcolepsy completely in stride (he just seems to appreciate having someone unthreatening to cuddle with).  Possibly he'll be feeling less shell-shocked when he's less jet-lagged, and I do think he'll get along well with Cami, but I'm kind of worried about him all the same, and I'd really like to know what happened. 

All the details are currently obscure.  I'm not even sure whether something happened to him recently or whether it happened a long time ago.  Maybe he's so wary because it was very recent; maybe it was a long time ago and new situations dredge it up.  Whether the ermine's trauma has any connection to his dual citizenship is another point of mystery.  None of this is clear.

I don't think the other members of the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegation were in any way responsible; the black panther is clearly dangerous, but I don't think he had anything to do with this.  They all, including the panther, seem very protective of the ermine.  This implies that they know his story, or some of his story, but they haven't said anything about it.  Poor little fellow.

He's in very good hands at the moment, though.  Few things in life are more therapeutic than cuddling with Sleepyhead, and the ermine seems content to do that for the rest of the day.

That went well...

SIR TRISTAN IS SO HAPPY!

The Delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy Has Arrived

The long-awaited delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy is finally here!

They're kind of large, so they required two boxes, and of course Murphy's Law mandated that we were at house parties, so I had to go down to the post office to get them.  I'm rather proud that I managed to walk back with them unassisted, and even stop at the store to get milk.  The boxes weren't heavy, but they were decidedly cumbersome.

Seven delegates arrived in all.  They've yet to explain their respective positions, or (of course) reveal their names, but that will come.  Here's the list:

• An ermine.  The ermine is slightly confusing because he's labelled as belonging to the Wild Republic.  I assume this means he's a dual citizen; presumably one of his parents was from the WR and the other from the WPM, where he was raised.
• A serval.  She, of course, is Sir Tristan's much-missed girlfriend, and she's faced with the rather daunting prospect of being the only female in a sea of males.
• A lynx.  He is kind of huge; I think he's the largest animal we have so far.
• A capybara.  He's the only one we know something about: he's a doctor (being from the Amazon), and his name is Pedro.
• A snow owl.  Also rather large, but not as big as the lynx.  The penguins will be thrilled, or something.
• A white goat.  I'm glad he's medium-sized, because he's going to be living with lots of carnivores.  He's just about the only herbivore who is neither naturally armed nor known for speed.
• A black panther.  Sir Tristan's best friend from school.  He looks rather dangerous, and will need to be watched.  Murchison will be delighted to have something obvious to do.

More details to follow.  (For one thing, some of them, like Sir Tristan, probably have a title of some kind, but they haven't yet revealed them to me.)  At the moment, they're kind of jet-lagged, and also a bit confused from languishing at the post office for a few days, so I'm not introducing them to the animals in the main room until tomorrow.  (Yes, this has everything to do with Plouie.  No one should have to deal with Plouie while jet-lagged.)  They can stay in my room, where it's quieter; I'll just move Sir Tristan in here so that he can finally be reunited with his beloved.

I Know Some Really Super-Awesome People

I know some really amazingly wonderful people.

Not long ago, KH presented her LJ friends-list with a link to this insanely cute video of two baby red pandas in a box.  (Watch it.  It is the cutest thing ever.)  The video made me wish our local Wild Republic chapter had a red panda in it.  I even found one online.  But I'd just acquired a bunch of new animals, and I knew perfectly well that I should wait awhile before thinking about expanding them again.  I got my LJ friends-list to counsel me to be strong and resist temptation, and they did, and I did.

Fast forward to the second awesome house party I went to over New Year's, which is where AJD is at the moment.  He emailed me this morning to say that EHC had found me a red panda!  She had meant to give it to me before I left the party, but it had been misplaced.

Here's AJD with the red panda.  They make a very charming couple, don't they?

The red panda will make his debut with Barry Gaylord when AJD gets home in a couple of weeks.

Thank you, EHC.  I was not expecting that, and it was so lovely of you that I don't know what to say.

Coming Soon!

I just got back from two awesome house parties.  (AJD is still at one of them.)  At the first house party, there were some stray animals in need of a home.  We adopted one of them, an elephant.  He's still at the party with AJD, where he's having a marvelous time and getting extremely spoiled: he was adorned with magnetic sphere jewellery and he got to tell a story and everyone thinks he's adorable (which is true).

It will be interesting to see what happens when he comes home, because Mimsy (the mammoth) has issues with elephants.  He calls them "bald pachyderms".  I suspect he's galled by the fact that they're not extinct.  Mimsy's an adult, if a slightly immature one, so he's probably going to be polite about his prejudices, but we're not sure what else will happen.

The elephant's name is Barry Gaylord.  He's a musician, you see: he's a baritone (maybe even a bass-baritone), and he plays the bari sax and bassoon and is thinking of taking up trombone. 

Pictures to follow, once he and AJD make it back.