Animals of the Crown and Pearl

I probably should reach all the way back to the Rez day party. That’s when I first saw the CnP filled with non-Avatar animals. Remember all the sheep? Things have been fairly calm since then. I think that I have seen one or two animals appear. Maybe a little cat on a shoulder. Maybe a turkey hat around Thanksgiving. But it’s been fairly pet-free.

Until this past week or so. I guess the cold weather is driving all the animals inside. For me, it started one night when we were hanging about dancing. I’m not quite sure what started it and to be honest – I probably don’t WANT to remember. Because the conversation sank to a low level fairly quickly. 🙂 It began with Spike. Spike is a friendly, inoffensive dog. But the people around him were NOT so inoffensive. Poor Spike. I will simply say that some people have not quite mastered their inner 6-year old. Spike turned quite blue in misery.

Next to rez was a horse with 5 legs. I apologize – I do NOT have a picture of this “horse”. I only know that it was a horse because it WAS vaguely horse-like and its owner claimed that it was a horse. It looked a lot more like a squirrel with 5 legs. Yes, it was definitely a 5th leg, starting from the poor creature’s belly and ending in a hoof on the floor. It was perhaps the sorriest excuse for a horse that I have ever seen. 🙂 I will provide equal time for a rebuttal should its owner choose to offer a defense.

Then we had the post-Christmas infestation. The reindeer was fairly cute but was NOT house-broken. Sigh. This is why you are supposed to take your pets for a walk. Parents – PLEASE do not give your children pets if the children are NOT ready for the responsibilities.

And of course, there were the squirrels. Rrish’s squirrel was well-behaved. It did leave a few nuts about but they disappeared on their own. It wasn’t too noisy. 🙂 It allowed people to change its name. It didn’t respect personal boundaries, however, as it went burrowing beneath the couch cushions. But not too bad, all things considered.

The well-behaved squirrel appeared to have rude, aggressive cousins. We had been sitting and chatting quietly when Phin was ATTACKED! Yes! Attacked – the wrath of the squirrels. Prad, Bailey – it is DEFINITELY time for an exterminator.

This week more animals came out of hiding – uh, inventory. Marisa introduced us to Astro the dog, Turf the psycho cat and her little yellow chick. There was another dog there as well, but I confess that I don’t remember its name nor who owns it. We were all relaxing, not talking about much in particular. Mowgli was telling us a hilarious story about his encounter with a senior citizen in Greece. Mow had arranged his schedule so that he could see the Acropolis by moonlight. I won’t tell you the story nor the punchline but it was a case of the sublime and the mundane crashing headfirst.

We also talked a bit about Las Vegas. 🙂 In many respects I’d have to agree with one of the comments – SL IS a bit like Las Vegas. I like Vegas. I wouldn’t want to live there and I don’t think I would want to stay there for more than a few days at a time, but I’ve had a great time whenever I’ve been there. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than what it is. There are lots of fun things – just put yourself in the right mindset. I don’t even mean the gambling. I think that I’ve only played the slots once while I was there. I know – I’m NOT the kind of visitor they really want. We toured about the area around Vegas and we did all the 3D rides on the strip. There IS such a thing as 3D overload. By the time we were doing the last one, at what was 1am by my body clock, I simply closed my eyes and endured. 🙂

So how we got from the Acropolis and Vegas to more animals running about, I’m not sure. But that’s how conversation goes, does it not? Our friends were over yesterday to watch the football playoffs. They were hanging about in the living room while I set up on my laptop in the dining room. I was in SL but could watch the screen also for replays and such. 🙂 Yes, I LIKE football. American football that is. With the odd shaped ball. 11 players to a side. TOUCHDOWN!!! GO GIANTS!!!!! Oh – sorry. I got carried away. 🙂 Anyway, the fragile thread here was trying to explain to my RL friends what it is we DO here. We hang out and chat. Just like I do with THEM. Except my SL friends don’t leave crumbs and chips that I have to clean up. OTOH – my SL friends don’t bring me chocolates. So I guess I’ll have to stay in BOTH lives. Because I can’t avoid the psycho kitties and squirrels in either world.