aaa so sweet  Bullterrier mom with babies  My daughter and son-in-law wanted to breed once with their bullterrier bitch, but as bitches go this one had no clue.  The birth was difficult and in the end all puppies were dead. Taking my experrience with breeding cats  into account we all decided I would go and help out with the next batch.

It was no joke, but here they are !!   They had to be watched at all times as mom thought nothing of sitting on them.  

and the puppies six weeks later ... they are too cute

You have to cuddle them to really enjoy them.

 

  Since my husband Rudi and I joined forces about 10 years ago, the aloe hobby garden has grown in leaps to more than 100 different aloe species and hybrids. We used to have separate hobbies. Rudi started the aloes many years ago and I had my aquariums and pedigree cats. The cats are still here and we share them together now too

We divided the garden with each one doing what he/she pleases on that part of the garden, but that does not mean that any one of us do keep out of the other one's territory.

That is only the garden. The cats, silkworms, fishes - there is a lot to do.
No dull moment.
A young Siamese queen had her first litter last night and major crisis - she refuses the babies. She did not know that was part of the deal - her excuse. They are on an electric blanket but I must drip some glucose water in their tiny crying little mouths to keep their blood-sugar from dropping too low and going in shock. They need to get onto one of momcat's teats to survive and not being able to do that is a major stress to them. That instinct spells life or death. She refuse to let them. I do hope that her hormones will click in. I will have to start feeding by hand after another hour or two. That is very bad if the kittens do not get some anti-bodies via the queens milk first.

Meantime - I a watching the silkworms making silkhearts. They need some attention but that is on the minimum list today. The kittens are first in line. I must cut short for now.

This spider belongs to a separate group of arachnids called solifugids (sunspiders or Solfugidae). They are at home in dry countries from South Africa up to Asia or beyond.
I was busy on the computer when I heard a rustling in the papers next to the computer and moving my eyes over I looked smack into this face not even a mother can get used to.
Do not get me wrong we like our creepy-crawlies and even though I know that this spider,  known here as the roman (or sunspider) are not poisonous, I could not help to cry out and pull my legs onto the chair.


I got my wits back in a few seconds as these spiders are extremely fast and long gone before I even caught my breath. I made my way to Rudi to tell him the news when he smiled and pointed to a smaller one running along the wall. We counted four different sizes so there were at least four.
This is an invasion. We are lucky to see one at a time in Namibia, lived here for years and years and suddenly we have them all around.
We saw at least one every night for about ten days. Then they were gone. It is now three+  months later and we did not see one again.
I was wondering. Could it be that the silkworms attracted them? But then the silkworms were still around at different stages of development for more than a month and I could not notice that many of them were missing. A few I would not notice I acknowledge that.
The spiders were a treat so they are welcome if they did take some.