----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 5:58
PM
Subject: Re: Unique Birthday Party For
Our Grandson
Phil, great party, and educational too, as well as
entertaining.
earlier, Phil Scovell, wrote:
Saturday, just past,
we had a very unusual birthday party for Elijah, one of our grandsons that
is adopted by my youngest 31 year old Son, Everett. I call him Lee,
that is, my grandson, some call him Eli, while others use his full name of
Elijah. He is 10 years old now. Lee is part American Indian,
part Black, and part Mexican. He has a Mo hawk hair cut and when he
started at his new public school, he was the only Mo Hawk in the
school. Within weeks, more than a half a dozen boys got the same hair
cut. My wife and I paid for a pet store to bring about 10 animals to
the house to be held and petted and we had a houseful of people at my son's
home in back of our house on Saturday. Besides all the kids, we had
other relatives and friends. The man from the pet store, and his
partner, came and set up the holding boxes and put on quite a show for over
an hour. He taught us about each animal, where it was from, what they
ate, and how they protected themselves in the wild. We felt, saw, and
held each animal. Some are quite exotic, too. Well, I'd say they
all were exotic. A couple were North American, some were South
American, some were from Australia and one was from Asia. I can't
remember the names of each specie but he started out with two different
sizes of snakes; one small and one large. The MC, Master of
Ceremonies, had Lee stand in front of everybody, eyes closed, and he would
put each animal in his hands before he could open his eyes again. The
first little stake the MC put into Lee's short sleeved shirt and the little
guy crawled around until he came out the bottom of his shirt as the man told
us about him. No, none of the creatures would bite unless you tried to
hurt them. Some of you may have heard of Sugar Gliders. They are
about the size and color, to some degree, of a chipmunk but when they
stretch out their arms and back legs, webbing comes out and they literally
glide through the air. They live in trees, I forget where, and eat
much of what parrots and other wild birds eat. From the top of a tall
tree, they have been recorded to glide up to 900 feet or three football
fields in length. You can buy them here in stores as pets but they
recommend buying two because they are so gregarious, they will die from
loneliness so they don't recommend them for people not at home most of the
time. Another one of the unusual animals were two different
lizards. One walked on his hind feet but the other on 4 legs. We
held a scorpion in the palms of our hands and also a tarantula. There
was a critter of the monitor family which lives in the jungle and is larger
than our little dogs; much larger. When they get older, they eat
animals brought down by lions during their hunts with their super sharp
teeth. If a lion gives them any trouble, they have a whip like tail
which they use to slap a lion across the eyes and face and it is so painful,
most lions leave their pray to this animal. It is related to the
Komodo Dragon from the orient. The man said that his friend has one
that isn't so friendly and one of his buddies came over and got too close to
the thing and the animal whipped his friend with it's tail and even wearing
jeans, his friend had to get 14 stitches. His body felt lizard like to
me when the guy let Sandy and I feel him. Then there was the huge frog
like animal. He doesn't hop but he was huge. They eat both
insects and small animals; even rabbits, rats, and mice. His belly was
damp and felt like large balls of jello while his back felt rough.
When it gets hot and dry, they dig a round hole and sit in it. There
back spreads out and he is completely hidden from pray. This is when
the fat belly he has discharges moisture so he doesn't over heat. They
feet by just staying in the little whole and they then use only their very
long tongue to grab food walking too close. He was heavy, too, at
least 10 pounds but they grow much larger. All in all, it was quite
the birthday party.
Phil.
Living His Name
John