Okay guys. This one is so important, I haven’t even taken a real shower yet… sitting here in my grimy travel clothes to get some important thoughts out. Let me tell you about a little camp, on a little bay, on a little side, of a medium-sized island, off of a big state called California. Lost yet? It’s the Catalina Island Marine Biology Institute.
Tag: Animals
This One’s for You Oreo
Almost exactly two years ago, my family sent me on a scavenger hunt on my birthday. It was after we had eaten dinner, and my brother slipped me a paper. This paper sent me to various spots around the house, where each sat objects needed to maintain a pet guinea pig. A bag of food in the bathtub, a toy behind a chair, a water bottle under the table… until finally it all ended behind the couch in the great room, a cage. I was beyond giddy, squealing and jumping up and down. All that was missing was the guinea pig.
“Can we go now? CAN WE GO NOW?!”
I pleaded with my mom.
“Sure we can go tonight, or we can go in the morning if you-”
“NO! RIGHT NOW!”
I grabbed her purse for her and sprinted to the door.
•••
We pulled into Petco at about 7:30. It was dark and I was humming with that birthday buzz and itch for a sweet baby gerbil to take come.
My 13-year-old nose was pressed against the glass. Three sets of rodent eyes blinked back. One belonged to a black guinea pig, little and black is all I remember. You don’t see many black guinea pigs floating around on chain emails or google images. They’re all brown and white- spotted but too much blow-dryer.

So I think that’s why I picked Oreo… she was so different.
Not very photogenic but… different.
Oreo came home that night in a cardboard box on my lap with Petco’s logo on the side, and was put in a freshly made-up cage and pristine water bottle. That night, I watched her royal cuteness sniff things as I lay on my bed, the happiest 13-year-old in the world.
It’s been two years and in that time. She’s put on a little weight and gotten a sister, Chewbacca. (Yes I did say sister) Chewbacca’s a little different than Oreo. She bites and doesn’t like people. But I didn’t realize until just recently how much she really loves her sister.
Two days ago Oreo got a boo-boo. You might call it a wart or a bubble but I think that’s all disgusting to we’ll just call it a boo-boo. The Boo-Boo started out very small and then became a big problem yesterday. Poor Oreo. We called a Veterinary friend, who highly recommended that we go to an actual clinic and get some antibiotics. So I put my little cookie into a basket, covered her up in a towel and gave her some hay to calm her fluttery little nerves.
There was a poodle with an earache, Finding Nemo in the corner, and Nurses that were larger than life. Gosh I love those ladies. They came over and googled at Oreo but then winced at the Boo-Boo.
We sat in a room with the Doc who basically said,
“This is a pretty serious boo-boo. We’ll use medicine, which might work, or we’ll do an operation which might work a little better. ”
Behind his words I heard, “She’ll just die one way or another.”
We chose the medicine route and Doc took Oreo in the back to clean up the Boo-Boo.
We went back out to the living waiting room and waited. Nemo was still on. One of the Nurses went out to check on Oreo, and came back with a bent frown.
“Poor little Oreo… what a sweet wittle Guinea Piggy!”
She was sweet. Why do you think I named her after a creme-filled-cookie ?
The managing nurse came over to talk to us about the medicine. Doc came out with my basket and my trembling critter under her towel.
Doc told me that she was one of the best guinea pigs he’s ever worked with.
That was a hammer to my heart. I never realized this, but Chewbacca’s a normal guinea pig apparently. Let that sink in.
I lifted the towel.
She had a shaved little bottom with the exposed Boo-Boo, nasty stitches, and yet, she was the sweetest thing. She looked up at me and said, “Mommy, it hurts. I wanna go home.”
I cried the whole way home because if it get’s too bad, the $800 operation might just stop her little heart, so we’ll have to…
I have experienced death passively but I’ve never once held a little life in my hands. I suppose this is what it’s like being a mother. Providing life and love for another who would be nothing but a whisper in the wind without you. It’s incredibly hard to watch that life suffer and sit in the hands of fate instead of in yours. Your loving and protective hands.
She’s a guinea pig. Not a child of someone’s in Iraq or an at-risk-youth in the streets. But I get it now. Why it must be so hard for mommies to let go, because things like this might happen if you leave and then I’ll never be able to forgive myself. All children are sweet to their mothers. And it’s that sweetness that delivers a blow to the heart.
Chewbacca and I have three more weeks with Oreo. But that’s not all. My whole family does too, they love the pigs very much. (Yes dad including you somewhere deep down!) Tonight my little brother made a make-shift hut out of a cardboard box for Oreo because she has to be quarantined away from Chewbacca and the wooden hut they already share. My own mommy shredded paper and cleaned away the boo-boo germs for, as she calls them, her “grand-piggies”.
You, my dear dear reader have got a mommy too and other people who love you almost as much as she does. So please, do your best not to get hurt, whether it be staying away from drugs, designating a driver, or just walking away from the fight. “You’ve only got one life so make sure you live it right.”
This one’s for you Oreo.
Mommy loves you Oreo. <3
-SydneyJoTo
Study Habits! (yeah right.)
Studying for Bio Test tomorrow.
Study/ Procrastination Habits Include:
•Commuting home.
•Not grabbing a snack.
•Making study area comfy (I’m supposed to be there a while.)
•Opening Bio binder and stare at study guide for two minutes
•Stretching and figure it’s time for break
•Reading latest addiction, “Anne of Windy Poplars”… Write down quotes on bookmark, “My very soul has wings!” -Anne
•Leaving for an impromptu family dinner at Aqui in basketball shorts
•Convince sobbing brother that “trying new things isn’t always bad!”
•Fro-yo for dessert… Yogurt-hating brother fills his cup; sisterly success!
•Pet Store pit stop, grab the pigs bedding and let “Grandpa” splurge on an edible tiki hut for his piggy grandbabies HAHA
• Come home, clean pig cage (NEW RECORD: 7min!!!)
• Hot glue gun the thatched roof on tiki house to prevent edible destruction
• Admire cuteness
• re- assume studying position
• Kryptonite stare……………..
• blog
Epic Crabbing Adventures.
This is a post about a beautiful adventure with beautiful pictures. Not so many words… Forgive me? It’s also a journal entry of my first epic adventure of 2012, which took place (on/in?) Tomales bay on a motorboat I call Little Luno. My co-adventurers? Dad and his dad, my awesome adventure-seeking Grandpa. Our quest? To get crab, and lots of ’em. Equipped with eight traps and a bucket of nasty meat (Grandpa’s “Secret recipe”) we set off.
For all you my faithful readers, I apologize for pictures being rare on this blog, but today you’re getting your fix. All I’ll do is commentate.
Secret recipe? Ha ha think not, this is just a shmiggy of it.
Motor-homers can camp out while crabbing, if you’re hardcore enough.
Again, expert steersman Grandpa starting off… quite the bicep workout if you ask me
HA! My Uncles advice, you’re crab luck comes by petting the lucky feather.
We forgot to pet the feather.
Celebrity homes perhaps? I hear George Lucas has a place in the vicinity…
The smart crabbers out with their one-liners… but we’re the daring ones.
Pulling up for a pit stop
(Literally)
Welcoming committee was pretty grouchy, seemed to bark at all passerby’s.
A map of the Tomales: $23
We pretty much parked at the bottom and traveled up and down all day.
Cozy little bait shop, trophy fish pics and their proud sunburned fishermen
beaming at the camera.
Figured instead of putting our faces IN the holes we’d get a scenic shot of the whole thing.
We made our way to the dock, “This is where we say a lot of ‘How’s it goin?’s” -Gpa
Just scoping the scene.
I love the perspective here, our three shadows and a little girl waiting for her parents to pull up something good for dinner. The people here are experts and it was neat witnessing them do their thang.
Siblings, Aw how cute :]
WHAT DID I TELL YOU?! THE SMART ONES!
Blonde moment: I thought this meant the dock we were walking on.
Gorgeous water #1
Gorgeous water #2
(sorta) Gorgeous water #3
Visiting the locals
The most adorable stares I’ve ever received.
ELK!!! (Of course dad flips out)
How to pull in a crab trap, (Pretty self-explanatory)
FOR THE RECORD: The only dungeness we caught that day was in that trap.
Lunch Break: Little Luno :]
The tide swells so quickly here, there’s no need for tide pools.
It’s pretty much a living beach.
Discovered this little dude squirming around, attempted to help out,
I picked him up with seaweed… string and plopped him to freedom.
He gave us a “good riddance” ink jet and disappeared
Grandpa found a trail that led to a creepy little… picnic area?
Found this in somewhat of a random area, but it was a sweet little mini memoir all the same.
A view looking back, and most of that greenery is poison oak/ivy. This is where Grandpa informed us, “Ya know, there’s probably a big mountain cat about half a mile a way… and probably a bear in two.” I freaked and headed back to the boat, “Okay, time to go now!”
And then sweet Grandpa, bless his heart, let his granddaughter take the wheel, stick, motor-thing
Epic I know :)
And yes, it’s more complicated than it looks.
OH! Best part! While I’M driving my dad decides to feed the gulls (aka sea rats) the extra bait we’re not using. So they FOLLOW US in a SWARM just waiting for us to empty the next trap fill of old bait. My dad’s just laughing at how they can catch food in the air while I’m trying to see past the flurry of feathers as they’re practically DIVE BOMBING the boat!
Thanks dad.
CHICKEN MEAT too! How wrong is that?!
Sea Rats.
This is where the slide show ends. After evading the feathered greedy-poos we made it to shore. We came home with six mean red rock crab and one dungeness. Although the meat’s not deserving of mayo, they’re still going to make for amazing crab cakes.
With our sad catch, I think the sun warmed the bay and cleared the sky out of pity for us. It’s January for Betsy’s sake!!! Instead of the rain and fog we expected, the weather made for beautiful pictures I hope you enjoyed. Well it’s off to the cupboard with me now before my dad yanks the laptop away but on a final note,
It’s days like these when beauty clears my mind, that it’s easy to think about Jesus. (Before the sea rats) More than once that day I imagined what it would have been like to be Peter on that fishing boat, looking up from my net of flopping fish and seeing my best friend and master walking across the swells towards me. I felt him close that day, and I feel ready to start the new year with this beautiful adventure under my belt. And that’s all…
-SydneyJoTo
Silly Sparrow
This morning, I heard a squeal. So I ran to the back of the house… Which was where my mom stood in the preschool. (Yes… we have a preschool attatched to our house.) I guess my mom had left the back door open and a BIG FAT sparrow… (And clearly confused) had flown into the catapillar room… And kept trying to fly through the WINDOW. (stuuupid) It just kept smacking the glass, and I could hear little grunts of frustration. Well instead of helping my mom whistle to it in birdie language, trying to lure him out the door again, I BOOKED IT DOWN THE HALLWAY to get my camera before It got away.
By the time I got back it had hidden from my mom behind a drum in the corner. Sadly, There was no way I was gonna get that picture so I put down the camera with a sigh and joined my mom the bird whisperer. Then I had a lightbulb go off.
I….. RAN AROUND THE HOUSE behind the door that was behind the birdie, BANGED on the door, and I heard my mom’s shout of triumph. (And in the backyard Mr. Birdie singing “I Will Survive” -Gloria Gaynor)
Well now Mr. Birdie’s got the whole wide world to explore… And crash into. Even though I COULD’ve kept him… As a really COOL pet…….. I didn’t.
Cause my mamma taught be to be a good Samaratan. Or a good animal rights activist…. person.
Moral of the story is… Well I don’t know because there’s about 500 analogies you could make with that so I’ll let you pick one! :)
-SydneyJoTo
Recap: Stupid Bird crash lands on planet catepillar, and Is kindly released by moi. Birdie fly away never to crash again. (Hopefully)