Alyssa's world: A New Addition to my Menagerie

Alyssa's world: A New Addition to my Menagerie: One night I was with my best friend and we went to drop her brothers off at her house. Her brother hopped out and screamed, "There'...

A New Addition to my Menagerie

One night I was with my best friend and we went to drop her brothers off at her house. Her brother hopped out and screamed, "There's a frog!!!" So immediately I jumped out and grabbed it. As soon as I picked it up, I knew it was a toad because of it's rough skin. (The tree frogs I have are different because they have smooth skin and tend to be smaller.) I got back into the car and held him in my hands, and he kept trying to jump out of my hands. 

When I got home I ran in the door screaming, " I found a new member to the family". Both of my parents were curious about what kind of toad it was. When my mother was little she used to catch toads that found there way into the window wells.  (Window wells are basement windows in the midwest). She was excited to meet my new friend. My dad was excited too and wanted to do research immediately. A short time later I left for a school football game. When I got back at 9 o'clock I found a new cage with a happy toad inside. My dad went to the pet store after he dropped me off.  He bought what we needed because he didn't want to see the toad let go right away and wated him to be happy. 

This toad is like my tree frogs because he eats crickets. I have a funny story. One night I fed him crickets. I set the clear plastic container of crickets outside his plastic cage while I was feeding the tree frogs. He saw the cricket container and was trying to eat the crickets through the plastic side of his cage. He was bonking his tongue as we'll as his head against the cage wall. I finally had to move the container of crickets, otherwise he would continue to try to eat them. It was hilarious and we all laughed at his funny behavior. 

Looking at this toad who we named, Beast Mode after Caleb from Big Brother, he has one stripe down the center of his back and spots on his belly. From this we know that he is a certain type of toad and a male. In his cage he likes to hide under the moss and play or sit in the water. When I reach inside the cage he freaks out, jumping everywhere, splashing water, and hiding. Perhaps this is because of the way I grabbed him when I caught him. In just the short time we've had him he's gotten bigger and more tame. It will be fun to watch him grow as we don't really know how big he will get.

Here are some photos of Beast Mode.

My Summer Trip Part 2

One of the highlights on my trip in Illinois was going to the Illinois state fair. I've never been to a fair with so much compatition, animals, and amazing food. It was exciting and I have pictures to prove it. My first adventure was riding a mechanical bull. It was very challenging but I was able to stay on for a while before I flew off. My cousin and mom were there cheering me on. Next i went for a walk and found a man with many animals such as geese, farret,and a skunk. The man likes to dress up his geese. They had bandanas, little vest, a few of them even had baseball bats and mitts. The farret and the skunk both were on leases. For the first time I held a skunk and farret. He had taken out the sprayer I from the skunk so it was safe to hold him. They were both very docile and friendly. 

My favorite rides were the Ali Baba,The Farris wheel, and hang glider. The Ali baba is a magic carpet, that goes very high up in the air. The hang glider was probably most fun because I shared the fun moment on the ride with my cousins. 

Our trip to the fair was fun but the weather was hot and humid it didn't take any time at all to feel exhausted. But I guess that did matter to us because we managed to stay all day. Here are some photos that show my exciting time at the Illinois state fair.

My Summer Trip part 1

I took a vacation to Illinois and Ohio with my mother. We visited relatives, had a BBQ every night, and I did lots of things I've never done before. In this blog I'm going to talk about the things I did in Illinois and a bit of my time in Ohio.

We went with my aunts and uncles to a tractor pull. A tractor pull is when they hook a tractor or truck up to a semi with weights. As the tractor goes forward the weight increases. Each tractor is timed and the winner is the one who is pulls the weight the farthest in the fastest time. It was very fun to watch from the stands because there was lots smoke, screaming, and flames! It was a true Midwestern American experience.

My next adventure in Illinois was to go four wheeling on my Uncle's ATV's. He has 4 acres where he has added dirt jumps and trails. My cousin who is 6 asked me if I was ready and I said, "Yes!" and ended up going on a jump and stopping. Luckily, I got through it.   He stopped and said, "Next time go faster!"  The ATV's can go up to 40mph but I decided that was too fast. We rode for an hour or two and it was very fun. We only came in because it got dark. I rode riding past a bonfire we were having. 

We left Illinois on our way to Ohio to see my sister and her kids. When we got to my sister's in Ohio the weather was great. She lives in a development that is made around 2 man made lakes. We went to sleep. There was a storm that night and I slept right through the thunder and lighting. It had rained 5" over night and into the morning. My sister's house was fine but many others' basements were flooded. The lake had risen and flood over onto the grass past the pavement. I saw a lot of carpet on the sidewalk as people had to rip out the water soaked carpets and pump out their basements. That 5" did a lot of damage in a short amount of time.

California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco located in Golden Gate park is a place full of adventure. There is lots of fun things to do such as tropical atrium, aquariums, stuffed animals in there habitats, feisty penguins, an albino alligator, always special exhibits, and a planetarium. Although this place is very expensive it is worth the admission as there are so many things to see that you can't see anywhere else. There is also an expensive cafeteria that has a wide range of food.

I love this living museum. My favorite thing was the tropical atrium filled with insects, reptiles, birds, and many more kinds of tropical wildlife. You get to go through the Borneo, Costa Rican, and Madagascan rain forests. I also enjoyed the ocean reef filled with anemones, starfish, stingrays, and beautiful tropical fish.

In the aquarium area there are large viewing areas with many types of fish as well as smaller cases with special fish. One fun area is the live pool where you can touch starfish and sea urchins. 

In the marsh area there is a large reed boat. The man I took the basket weaving class from at Point Reyes actually made it! 

One of the last things we did was to visit the living roof. It covers several acres and Uniquely filters the rain water for use in the building. It is a great example of recycling and conserving resources.

Social media to the rescue!!

One day my Mom saw on Facebook that a close friend had a Afraican Fat-Tailed gecko that needed a new home. Her daughter was going off to college and couldn't take the gecko with her. We made an offer and it was accepted. I had to wait a week because our busy work schedules. I could hardly wait to meet this cute little gecko! 

His name is Obi which means heart in Nigerian. The African Fat-Tailed gecko is from West Africa. Obi came with a cage,water bowl, plant, huge log, and special silica. His cage is in my room. Obi and I have created a unique bond. At night he's very active and I normally take him out and snuggle with him in bed. He likes to snuggle up under my neck and loves my furry bed set. Obi is a huge cricket fan. He will eat live crickets right out of your hand.

So far, Obi has had some very fun adventures. One night my Mom and Dad were sitting on the couch and I decided to bring Obi down for a visit. My Dad decided it would be fun to feed Obi on the couch. When my Dad put the cricket in front of Obi,  he bit it so fast my Dad didn't have time to react and Obi ended up holding on to my Dad's finger. 

Another fun story was when Obi met Dash this week. I put Obi outside of the tank so that Dash could see him.Then Dash got excited and started swimming rapidly into the glass trying to eat his legs.

Ruth Bancroft garden

 This garden is located close to my home. I took a guided tour last Friday. Although the tour was slow, I did learn a lot about the garden. Ruth started the garden when she was in her mid-60s. She used lots of succulents plants that she had been collecting for years. I learned that succulents plants store water in their fleshy leaves  and that cacti store water in their plant bodies. Cacti have spikes that keep the animals away from the body of the plant, where the water is stored. Both kind of plants grow where it is dry. Mrs.Bancroft worked in her garden into her 90s. She is still alive and living in her home behind the garden at 106!!
The garden had many shaded and full sun areas. There was even a beautiful pond with Lily pads in the center. This was my favorite area of the garden. There were nice pathways and many benches where you could sit and reflect on the beautiful garden. While we were there they were showing sculptures from local artists. They were uniquely placed in parts of the garden. They propagate plants there too, and you can buy little plants to plant in your garden. They range in from $5-$100.
Here are a few photos I took.

Oakland Zoo

Summer is a good time to visit the Oakland Zoo. This Zoo is low key, has large animal enclosures, a children's playground, very kid friendly exhibits and even fun rides. First, we saw the flamingos which are at the entrance. Then we looked at the daily feeding schedule and decided to go see the giraffes being fed. In that area we also saw camels, elephants, zebras, lions, and tigers. At that point we decided to take the sky ride. It was a relaxing ride and we got to see the buffalo. After our picnic lunch, we went to see the enormous tortoises, the insect house, reptile house, monkeys, lemurs, and sunbears. We decide that the last thing we would do is go ride the train. It took us to the Outback section where we saw giant birds and wallabies from Australia.
My favorite part of the Zoo is the reptiles. They had the cutest frogs in crazy neon colors. I also loved the tortoises. The little boy that was with me loved the lemurs and zebras as he was into strips that day. The funniest part of this trip was taking selfies with the animals. It was hard but I managed.

Meet Dash!!!

Dash has had an adventurous life so far. She's about two years old and I got her from my former soccer coach. He discovered her in his swimming pool. That isn't unusual because they live in Southern California and Mexico naturally. They're an invasive species and multiply and spead in areas where they are let lose in the wild.
When I got her, we went again to the local reptile store knowing that the owner had just gotten 4 new red eared sliders out of hibernation. He sold us a used 50 gallon tank. We went to another store and got a platform, heater, filter, and gravel. Then later in the afternoon we went to Ace Hardware and got her a small baby pool. This baby pool is for her to swim in during the day to get sunlight and sunbathe.
Dash is an omnivore. Some of her favorite foods are crickets, mealworms, and night crawlers. We discovered she DOES NOT like crandberries or tomatoes.
Here's a funny incident about Dash- when she was eating a night crawler last night water shot out of her nose.  Also a sad tale- Dash got scared and threw herself into the water and hit the side of the glass tank and cracked her chin. It should be healed in a few days. I have to be very careful with her because she's fast when I put her down. So I have to be really quick.

Here's some cute photos of Dash!!

Point Reyes

Last week I took a trip to Point Reyes National Seashore park in Marin county. It is the home of a lot of cool animals and the former Miwok Indians.  Sir Francis Drake discovered Drake's Bay in the late 1500's.  Just like Drake and all the explorers since we encountered fog on the beach but it lifted later in the day.

The first animals we saw up close were deer. It was a doe and her two fawns. They didn't just walk they pranced. We stayed quiet and they did not seem to be afraid of us. We saw the fawns on our hike to the light house. The views were fantastic!! But we had 308 stairs down and 308 stairs up!!! After we got back from the light house, we took a side trail and ended up seeing Habor Seals. We also thought we saw otters playing in the water, too. They were a long distance off so we had to use binoculars. Then we drove to a look out point and walked along the seashore and saw Elephant Seals. During the day we ended up seeing lots of birds.

Besides seeing animals we had and amazing morning walk on the foggy beach. The water was frigid but we walked bare foot in the sand and water anyways. Our last adventure at point Reyes was a basket weaving class. We learned to make a woven basket using the same grasses the Miwok Indians had used hundred years ago. If you have never been to point Reyes, I recommend it for all ages. It is an adventure worth taking.

Stay tuned for my next adventure. I'm going to be getting a Red-eared Slider turtle. Gotta go now... So I can get a 50 gallon tank....

The Big Bad Frog

Yesterday I said the Pacific Tree frog was endangered. It is protected under state regulations. People are not allowed to kill them, capture and breed them or release them back into the wild without permission from the California Fish and Game department. In our case we rescued them from certain  death and will see about their proper release when they're older. 

As I said yesterday raising the frogs has been fun.  I have a funny stories.  For three days we kept hearing croaking in the backyard. So I decided I was done hearing croaking without seeing the actual croaker! My parents said, "You'll never catch one". I decided to prove them wrong. So I took a brownie pan and went on the Hunt! I walked around the pool and looked closely and saw a frog sitting on a water gun. Then I decide to grab the handle of the water gun and plop the frog into the brownie pan. I grabbed a bag and covered it. I ran into the house screaming, "I got one!! ". Then I came into the living room and set the pan down. My father and I were talking about how we would get this frog out of the pan. Suddenly my father say, "Uhh!!!  Alyssa the frog is not in the pan. It's sitting next to you on the floor starring at me!"  I screamed very loudly because I was so scared of this little fat frog. The frog jumped across the living room and my father grabbed the frog. She instantly played dead. I thought she was the cutest animal I've ever seen!! Then I ran into the laundry room and grabbed an old small carnival fish tank. I ran back outside and got grass and put her inside.  I named her Bonita because I had been watching the show Orangutan Island the week before and loved one of the orangutan names. We named her Bonnie for short.   

Below are pictures of Bonnie on the first night in the Merenkov house.

Playing dead 

Bonnie, terrified in my Mom's hands.

Bonnie-just hanging out!

Backyard friends

Three months ago, we discovered that we had frogs in our 25,000 gallon swimming pool. I found the first ones and we took them to our local reptile store. The owner of the store told us that we had Pacific Tree frogs. They are an endangered species. We decided to raise them and then later let some of them go in protected ponds. 

It has been quite an adventure with feeding them. They eat crickets. They will even eat something as big as themselves. They will make their bodies bigger to make room for the cricket. They eat crickets live. It's quite a trip to watch them wrestle the cricket into their mouth. Every month it is $72 to feed 50-70 frogs. It's very exciting to watch them grow. The largest ones seem very tame. Bonnie ,Cha-cha, and Snickers are the largest ones and will even let me hold them and feed them. They close their eyes when they swallow. 

      Here is a picture of one of the cages and them hanging out together!