Thread 17 - TalkLair: "Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge."

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 16).

Spring is springing, daffodils blooming all over our LairGarden, which have not all been picked by a neighbour's kid...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, cosy rugs are down on the floors looking a bit stained by cat hairball regurgitation. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Happy birthday Fags - I hope you’re immersed in sloths as I write!

Happy Sloth Day @FagsMagsandBags!

I asked ChatGPT to make this picture for you. It got the spelling of 'BIRTHDAY' on the banner wrong, so I asked it to fix the spelling. It then produced a new image with' birthday' spelled correctly on the side of the cake, and the banner even more badly misspelled with 'BTTDAY'

Lovely sloths!

Capy Bitday @FagsMagsandBags!

Happy sloth day @FagsMagsandBags and happy 60!

Happy Birthday, Fags! My girl will be 12 this week...

Time flies, I thought she was still about 10.

TheCells turned 16 last week!

#2 not-officially-stepson (a lovely, kind, laid-back man) will be 55 on Saturday. I have known him since he was 28 and think of him as about 40!

I've been trying to perfect that oat bread. First attempt included wholemeal flour, prob a mistake, and was slightly overdone. Second was no wholemeal, better, but slightly overcooked, and crucially, I think, over-proved. Hoping third is an improvement. I guess it rose as much as something like that is going to, but I'll have to see tomorrow morning if it's baked right.

Early hours of the morning hello one and all!

I would have written earlier but I was asleep and then awake and that's probably going to happen quite soon again, so a quick update.

It happened! I fed three sloths and there are hardly words. They were mahoosive,* *Linne's two-toed sloth which are on the larger side. They are also beautiful and do not smell but my guess is they would if they lived in the wild. There were also tiny gremlin type monkeys in with our wee family and some fruit bats which delighted Snoop and me. There is video and photos and I'll sort through those tomorrow. Best birthday present EVER! Sort of best birthday EVER! Everyone should have a Snoop in their life, I am honestly blessed to have her and to know her and I mean "blessed" in every which way, almost religious, a little woo, having grace bestowed upon me, etc.

Oh I’m so glad you had such a brilliant birthday @FagsMagsandBags (and that you have lovely Snoop as your friend). Looking forward to the photos!

Oh that's so good to hear @Fags . I hope you took pictures you can share!

That's great that you were able to feed them! Are they gentle?

They're so gentle, @SinnerBoy. I guess you should have a bit of fear, especially with the size of these beautiful creatures and then the size of their claws but at no point do you feel that they're going to hurt you. I was very careful with lining up the food I was holding with the centre of their little pad, not because I was afeared but because I didn't want either of us to drop the food and because it gave me a chance to really look into their soft and gentle eyes.

That sounds really lovely, Fags! What did you feed them?

Here's me looking up at Sophocles having just fed him. It should be noted at this point that I never missed getting the food exactly where it was needed although Echo did throw some corn at me in disgust because I should have realised she now wanted courgette, so we sorted that out and all was well. I was a good feeder and frankly, I'm sure everyone is but it made me feel special!

Snoop and I looking up at Halina and Echo. Echo is a naughty girl and a beautiful mixture of her father and her mother. Echo came as a surprise to the zoo although I think there were suspicions toward the end of the over 11 month pregnancy but on the day itself they were fortunate that there was a visitor who managed to film the arrival of Echo. They're such a handsome family group.

We mostly fed them corn on the cob because they're mad for it but also courgette and a bit of brocolli. And there was more in their bucket but they were happy to have a nap after some serious eating!

oh I love the sloths! So cute. What an incredible experience. Do they smell of anything?

Oh, you were right in with them! How lovely.

That looks amazing! Lovely sloths! What an experience.

Wonderful sloth energy! What a brilliant experience, I am green with envy (rather than green with algal growth in my fur).

@VictorianBigot they didn't smell at all. We were quite surprised because with them, the monkeys and the fruit bats we were expecting at the very least a bit of ammonia but none of it. I'm guessing the sloths would smell more in the wild with the algae etc, but in capture they're just bit furry matts of beauty who tend to have a nice scratch after each bit of food they've eaten, which might actually mean they're cleaner than I thought and don't smell. Anyway. They didn't smell at all!

I'm also really pleased that these three came down just low enough for me. As you can see I am a total short arse and the sloths don't come down too close to us because why would they? Sophocles is very large so was naturally lower but mum and daughter seemed to understand that they had to stretch down just a little further so that I could get to them and maybe they figured out that it would be a nice thing to do for me. Or probably not at all and it was all pure luck but it meant a lot to me. We were so close and the desire to reach out and hold them was strong but easy to avoid because we know that they don't want to be touched so you want to, but you respect them, they respect you and they let you feed them when they're well able to do it for themselves, they let you because they' re gentle and are happy to share some of their Tai Chi vibes with us stressy humans.