2011 is the Year of the Cicada! Cicadas, which are often wrongly referred to as locusts, are actually related to leaf hoppers and spittlebugs. In massive swarms, they grace us with their noisy presence every thirteen years. Males sing wooing songs from the treetops to entice the quieter females to mate, and after, she will deposit hundreds of eggs into slits she cuts into the bark of a twig. These are interesting little creatures, but in massive swarms, they give me the creeps. I hope to get more pictures before they all die off. Thanks for looking!

These little guys are so cute.

My boyfriend’s sister works at the Humane Society, and has volunteered to foster a pregnant dog that was recently admitted to her location. Sadly, the options were (1) someone had to foster the dog throughout her pregnancy until the puppies are weaned (8 weeks) or (2) the dog would be spayed and the puppies would be euthanized. There were conflicting opinions on the matter at her workplace, and I can understand both sides (they deserve a life VS. population control), but she couldn’t stand the thought of the puppies being killed.

Just a few days after she took Juno home, she had her six puppies. Below are some pictures taken at about 2 weeks old. Thank you for looking!

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I had a free afternoon this past Saturday, and because the weather was so nice, I had to be outside. It’s been a while since I visited the zoo, and I couldn’t have picked a worse day to visit. The zoo was packed, in fact, both paid-parking lots were full if that tells you anything. However, I was lucky to find a spot close by after nearly giving up.

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