Fish and Goose

I'm not sure why this picture's in with the animal set, but we'll just go with it. This is Rylie trying out our new carrier with her baby doll, Abbey. She'll be such a great mommy one day!Tripp decided, on a whim, to get Rylie a pet. I do not want a pet. I don't want to take care of pets the way my dad did when Caleb and I had pets. So...Tripp and I have decided on no cats or dogs, but I felt like I could deal with a fish. So...a fish is what we got. We got a little crowntail betta fish. It's a male, and it doesn't require a special tank, special water, or a special pump. In short, he's a pretty cheap little fella. We like him. Rylie LOVES him. She likes to sit up next to him and say, "Hey fish! How you doin?" And, the fish's name is......

Poppy. Yep, the name of the fish is also the name of her grandfather. We didn't coax her at all. We just asked her several days in a row what the fish's name was, and each time she responded, she said, "Poppy." And that's what she still says, so that's the fish's name. Cute, huh? Here she is meeting Poppy the fish for the first time.
She didn't really like him much for the first couple of days. Now he has a larger tank to swim around in, and Rylie loves to feed him his daily "sprinkles". She's such a good pet owner; hopefully she'll continue to love her little fishy friend.
There are a couple of ponds at our apt. complex. We venture down to the water every so often, and last week, we noticed this little goose sitting on a nest. She has 3 little eggs in there, and we've been visiting her daily with some bread. Lately, we've attracted lots more visitors during our feedings-more geese, mallard ducks, birds, and A SNAKE!!! I'll get to that in a minute. When the other birds come near any of the bread we've thrown for the mama goose, she raises up, flaps her feathers, and hisses. I think we've made a friend. :-) I can't wait to see those little babies...if they survive that is. I've found 3 eggs near the nest, broken and the contents eaten I suppose. There are still 3 in the goose's nest though, so perhaps she started out with a nest full, and the number is just dropping.
Back to the snake. We went down yesterday for our daily feeding, and I heard some brush rustling and a hissing sound. I looked over, and there was a snake about 6 feet from my flip-flop "covered" feet, and it was hauling tail right at me. Thankfully, Tripp and Rylie were behind me and off to the side a bit. I said, "snake!", and Tripp ran up the hill with our baby. It came from the edge of the water, but I don't think it was a poisonous water snake. It looked like a black racer to me. Anyway, I'm banned from visiting the goose again until further notice from my dear husband. I'm hoping he'll change his mind soon. When I saw the snake, I was pretty scared, but after I ran away, I wanted to go back and get a better look at it. The little adventurous girl in me wanted to explore. I used to have a little "pet" garden snake in our yard. I would carry it around and everything. However, since I'm still not sure if this snake is poisonous or not, I'm a little skiddish about going back down to the pond. Hopefully, we'll be able to safely visit goose again, and I'll get some photos of the baby geese!!! (if they make it past snake to their birthdays!) Oh, and Rylie says that the goose is sitting on "baby eggs".

I'm glad Rylie's got some of her "tomboy" mama in her. She loves to watch ants, play outside, and explore. I've had my share of "prissy" moments, but as a whole, I loved to explore as a kid.
Here she is waving, but it reminds me of how she's constantly needing to wipe her hands. She got that from her Uncle Caleb. She's such a fun mixture of everyone in the family!

Goose with her nest behind her