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Critters

Taylor and I have been in Shell by ourselves since Wednesday morning. Dustin's field trip to Quito has been this week. Each year the students in grades 5-8 go to Quito for some research at the Alliance Academy library and some fun in the city. Ellyn decided to go along at the last minute so she could visit the dentist. She had a filling fall out the other week, and it was one the dentist had just repaired the day before it fell out! Also, she went up so she could take Dustin in for an orthodontia consultation. It looks like he'll be getting braces. That will mean monthly trips to Quito for a while. But, he's at the right age, and the price is right. Dental work is generally more affordable here than in the US, and many dentists have trained in the US. But, that's not why I started this post. So Taylor and I are home alone last night, and playing Battleship when he jumped up on the couch and yelled, "Tarantula!" I was sitting on the floor, and turned around. Sure enough, there was a tarantula on the floor by the closet door. Just what we needed! So I grabbed a jar and put the spider in it. We'll use it to scare Ellyn this weekend, and we're plotting what would be the best way to do that. Then, later in the evening, I heard the dog outside barking. I decided to go out and see what see was up to, and found her barking at a foot-long coral snake. She loves to grab bugs and moths and play with them, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of this wiggle little snake. Actually this was the second time this week I had found her outside with a coral snake. So I got another jar and put the snake it it. We won't scare Ellyn with this one, but I captured it anyway. This is a venomous snake, but the mouth is so small, and the teeth are in the back of the mouth, so it's not very likely to get a bite from this little guy. Here's a photo of the critters.