A collaboration with Mbala - I drew this guy and he colored him. I don't usually do cartoony style, so this was fun. :)

Look mom, I gotta stick! A pet portrait for Odder.

( Whole bunch more art under the cut! )

Who are your favorite artists? Any style, genre, time period, etc. Why?
The only thing I really miss about college was all the art history courses, where unlike most of the rest of my class, I was riveted looking at the slides. I feel like it's been awhile since I've been exposed to a bunch of new artists en masse, so... if you have the inclination, please share some of your favorites with me!

I'll post an update on other things soon - so far there is no news to share. Everyone else here at the house has been doing well, and I finally found Alma - the female tegu that was missing. There is still no sign of the gecko, but so far Alma has been doing alright (a bit sluggish and dehydrated but that's been taken care of with heat and liquids). That is a relief - the petsitter must have just left the cage open a little and she slipped out. Still waiting and hoping for more closure to all of this.

I get really stressed before I go out of town. I even worry if I'm gone for part of a day, I don't like leaving the house and all the animals here alone. We found a good petsitter and that was a big relief - we left for smaller trips, 3-4 days and everything seemed fine. Mbala and I had planned to go visit his family in the Czech Republic because he hadn't gotten to see them for almost two years. I told myself not to be such a worry wart - I checked and double-checked everything before we left, the weather was mild and in the 70s, and the petsitter came over to meet with me again to go over things before we took off.
We were gone for eight days, came back late Wednesday night. The trip itself was really nice - it was great to see Mbala's family again and we survived the delays for immigration and customs without missing flights. The time out there was very busy, and we spent all of it with family - it was nice to see how people live there day to day. I have some nice photos to post, I will do that later.
The problem is since we've gotten back it's just been a nightmare here. I feel like I'm in a horrible dream and just can't wake up. I keep hoping I will. I was ok for awhile but now I'm just breaking down.
First off, when we got back I did a quick scan of everyone. When I walked into the snake room I smelled that horrible death smell - and after checking through everyone found one of my favorite snakes, the prize of my collection, dead. His body so bloated to be useless for autopsy, liquefied. Snakes left dead rot extremely quickly when on heat and in a humid setting. I have no idea how long he was there - it really could have only been a day or two, but I don't know. It makes no sense. He was fine when we left, he'd never had any problems at all. Checking the snakes over again and again everyone else was alert, responsive and seemed ok. The alarmed thermostats didn't show any problem with heating. I've never lost a snake before and I was just in shock.
Checking everyone else was fine, but then we found out two lizards were missing - a tegu and a gecko. The tegu cage has really tight doors that are difficult to open even for me - the petsitter had sent me a note saying she knew the tegu got out and she possibly had left the cage open by accident so that might have been what happened. She didn't know about the gecko.
The next morning, I woke up to Mbala holding a dead genet in his hands. The female genet, looking totally healthy, just stiff and dead. I don't know what happened to her - she seemed dehydrated but that look can happen quickly after death. Just utter shock. I don't know if the house got too hot (it was warmer than it should have been but the alarms don't say anything) or if maybe the petsitter forgot to give them food or water... she said she was having a really bad week and maybe she was just too busy. We're going to get a necropsy done to see if there are any results that could help us understand what exactly happened. There are so many possibilities and I have some ideas about it - but time will now tell.
I feel sick. This is exactly why I hate to leave, why I stress so much and just don't want to go. I love to travel but I feel like every time I go I put everyone here at risk. I know everyone, how they act, their normal routines, I devote my time to caring for them. I don't think the petsitter meant ill but someone who doesn't work with these animals all the time can't catch things that someone who knows them well could - and that may be ok for a day or two but not for 8 days. It's too long.
I can't sleep, I'm nauseated and trying to keep myself together. Mbala and I worried it could have been something wrong with the water, maybe even the tap in the one bathroom so he went out in the middle of the night to buy purified non-local water and we changed the water in every enclosure completely. We saved water from many places to have it checked.
I just don't know what else to say. I am going to spend the day cleaning and checking everyone over again and again, and I have to work all weekend. It just feels so wrong here, not like home.

Meet the newest additions to our busy household - a pair of African Large Spotted Genets!


Nox, (short for Equinox) and Calypso.

( More photos under the cut! )

I will keep this short.

I am a snake keeper. I have many snakes. I feed these snakes. They eat rodents, since that is what the snakes I keep have evolved to eat for countless thousands of years.
However. I do not feed live prey except in two cases where I have snakes that I got as adults who will not eat frozen/thawed or even pre-killed prey. I have been trying with these guys for years now to switch them and will continue to try to switch them over. Every other snake I own has been switched (it's usually relatively easy to do) to accept pre-killed prey.
There are a lot of ideas on both sides on the live vs. pre-killed prey debate for snake owners. I have read it all. I have thought about it, and in the now ten years of experience I've had keeping herps, I am adamantly for feeding my collection only pre-killed prey when at all possible. There are a lot of reasons why, including safety (for the snakes, live rodents can do a lot of damage to a snake, they have incredibly nasty teeth), possible parasite/disease control (freezing kills a lot of things), convenience (with a large collection, I am not going to try to keep around the hundreds of live rodents it would take to feed them (they stack nicely in a chest freezer), etc.

The reason for this rant, however, is the most common excuse I hear for feeding live prey to snakes, one which really pisses me off. 'It's what they would do in the wild'.
I'm sorry, but the plastic box/aquarium you keep your snake in is NOT the 'wild'. You would not put ticks in your snake enclosure because that is what they would experience in the 'wild'. You would not find a feral cat or bird of prey to chase your snake down because that would be a natural predatory event that happens in the 'wild'. So don't give me a bunch of B.S. that you feed your snake live prey just for the reason it's 'natural' for them. Keeping them in houses is not 'natural'. When we take the reptile into a captive situation where we are responsible for all of its care, we make the decisions regarding its health, living situation, breeding life, and on and on.
Now, there are some creatures and situations where the 'wild' excuse sort of works - generally animals that have complex psychological behaviors or are being kept to be released or by people who truly believe in trying to mimic a 'natural' state as closely as possible (zoos, research facilities, etc.) but this is not the case for these snake owners that I here bandying this excuse constantly about why they dump live albino mice into a plastic tub with a snake. Mice don't fall from the heavens in the wild, either. In the 'wild' a snake would experience hunting in a very different manner - whether actively seeking prey or waiting in ambush. If people are so concerned about the psychology of their reptilian brained babies, they should perhaps be more concerned about keeping them in an unnaturally confined space than whether the snake needs the 'feel' of a kill. I have plenty of fat, happy snakes who constrict, eat, digest and live lives just fine without strangling to death a still living rodent.

If you're going to feed live, fine. I can't tell anyone what to do with their collections, and if you or anyone does it, I respect your decision even if I don't agree with it. But be realistic in your reasoning about it.

Sketch commission for vlad_badger! I love doing romantic/cuddly pieces. :)

ACEO for Bloodhound Omega.
( Lots more pictures under the cut! )

This past weekend Mbala and I drove out to visit kenket and blackteagan. Colorado is such a beautiful place, and the trip was full of awesome company, good food, and lots of fun. We got to take Preacher to the dog park for the first time (we don't have a fenced one locally) and that was awesome, too.

The four of us went to dinner at the Red Lion and sampled much exotic meat goodness. Dinner was delicious, and bubbly champangenois made everything even better. Emaciated buddha joined us for dinner and the duck exploded into flames.

( More photos under the cut! )

It's been announced, and a few people have already asked me about it, so I figured I would mention it here.
I have been invited to be Guest of Honor for Midwest Furfest 2008 this November.
I was very excited to accept, and will enjoy the chance to run a few panels (on both art and exotic animals) and join in on convention activities.

If you don't know what I am talking about, please check their website at : http://furfest.org/

They've got a fantastic theme this year, 'North to Alaska' - I look forward to drawing lots of caribou, snowy owls, moose, bears, and other arctic type critters. :)

And, with that, have some art!


Icon for Alpha_Ki

Icon for Orzel
( Larger/More images under cut! )

Nevermind. :) Taken!

I know it's a day early, but have some love anyways!


For my sweet potato. :)

If you don't get the reference, check out this link. It's an addictive song. :)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4378b_mika-lollipop_music

For the January anthro sketch exchange. Beaucerons are such cool dogs!

A commissioned badge for the great guys at Sofawolf Press.

( More art under cut! )

Shiva playing in the living room.



Dancing shamelessly for a treat.
( Few more photos )

It's very short, but full of cute. Mbala and I have been videotaping the fennecs a lot and will put together a nice video of their behaviors sometime soon. :)

Click to see my holiday 'card' for the year. :)

Here's to a great 2008!

"Chien Noir" - a custom wine label I made for holiday gifts inspired by the famous 'Chat Noir' poster.

For my dad - a custom beer label featuring his two previous K-9 cop partners, Hondo (the brown shepherd) and Sam (the black). The back says, "Man's best friend from man's best friend. Cold, refreshing, and even better than a partner who looks good in a collar." ;)
( More art under cut! )

Last minute christmas card image for Horsefeathers Farm.

Plunking away at commissioned badges. :)


Icon for glddaisy - Full pic under cut.
( More art )

The last few days are here to order for holiday/christmas delivery! We have lots of handmade, one-of-a-kind pendants ready to send, as well as t-shirts and other items. :) Please take a look! Check out our new, interactive tagua shop!

I work with exotic animals, and one of the questions I am asked most frequently has to do with their suitability as ‘pets’. To make things perfectly clear, I don’t consider any non-domesticated animal to fall into a proper category of being a ‘pet’. However, I am not against keeping exotics in captivity. Some of them, anyways. Let me explain.
I strongly feel that living in the wild, living ‘free’, is highly glamorized. People seem to get the idea of noble animals, striding through the forests and jungles, playing, loving, roaming where they wish. Not so. ‘The Wild’ is a very harsh and unforgiving place. Parasites, starvation, competition for food and mates, the elements, habitat destruction, predation and many other factors make life extremely difficult for wild animals. They are often slaves to their stomach. Granted, animals are generally well adapted to live in the environments they inhabit and they have many instincts built in to deal with these realities. When displaced into captivity they still have these instincts, unlike a dog or cat; they have not had thousands of years and generations to make that shift from ‘wild’ to ‘captive’.
In captivity, when properly housed and cared for by educated, experienced individuals, many creatures thrive. Food magically appears on a regular basis, there are no parasite loads to carry – the best medical care available, often mates without searching/fighting for them, warmth/comfort, a steady territory, etc. There are benefits to living a captive life. Yes, there are drawbacks. It is a double-edged sword. But some animals have made the choice themselves (arguably dogs and domestic cats) that the restraints of captivity are worth it when it comes to the comforts that living with humans provides. Some people even go so far as to say dogs are one of the most effective species, biologically, next to humans because of the relationship they have formed with us. We care for them, breed them, keep them and as a species they thrive. The wolf’s legacy will live on, intertwined with humans – which you have to admit (despite all the destruction we cause) we are a very successful species. The biological meaning of life is to survive and procreate.
I worked for many years in wildlife rehabilitation. It always made me really sad when a young animal was put to sleep because of an injury since it was unreleasable – though it was still young enough to be imprinted and could have enjoyed a long life in captivity. But a whole lot of people think an animal is better off dead than captive. Having worked with these animals, I beg to differ in many cases. Some animals do NOT do well in captivity. They show awful, self-destructive behaviors, pacing, etc. But many more creatures than people would think settle in nicely to the routine of regular food and contact.
I am not saying that keeping wild animals is great and everyone should do it. It takes a lot of dedication, knowledge, time and money to provide proper care for them. But if no one had taken in that first wolf or wild cat, we wouldn’t have the domestic companions we enjoy today. And life in captivity isn’t THAT bad ALL the time. It’s the generalizations that really get to me.
I could share many stories of rescued wildlife or exotic pets that thrive and have wonderful lives, being cared for by humans. And many stories of animals that came into the center in atrocious conditions from enjoying their ‘wildness’. And vice versa, really. It is part of why I got out of being so heavily into wildlife rehabilitation – to many people who devote themselves to that, the joy of releasing an animal back to its natural habitat is the zenith of their work. To me, educating people, interacting with animals, studying them, and working towards conservation and knowledge through captive efforts is where my passion lies. The sad truth is that most of the wild places are being destroyed at a truly alarming rate and it will come down to the choice, for many species, to live in captivity or not at all. Animals’ environments change over time. The climates change, species either adapt or die out. Captivity is sort of an environment change – just one that we have control over.

What do you think? Do you think a thriving life in captivity is better for an animal, or in the same circumstance extinction if it cannot inhabit its traditional habitat? Do you think a wild animal can ever be ‘happy’ living a captive life?

Look at the pouty fox lip!

Indra loves the hammocks, he rolls over upside down in them when I come into the fox room. Fennecs have such bulgy eyes and funny faces. ;)

Just hanging around!


And Tikka bathing on our kitchen windowsill. Shake shake shake!