What’s it like to watch the cranes fly south? Lyons Cub has seen the Canada geese and the Siberian geese fly in formation, but this time, while we were at a playground with his little friend Giuliana, we watched a flock of cranes fly to warmer regions. They were right over our heads in arrow-like…
When Lyons Cub was 1.5 years old, we visited the Aquazoo in Duesseldorf during our summer trip to Germany. This fall, we came back. As a 4.5-year-old, Leander could appreciate the animals and especially the interactive learning stations much more already. Except for the parking situation, which was a hassle, and the many visitors, we…
This was Lyons Cub’s fourth Circus visit! First, he went to Circus Liberty; then, to Circus Proscho; and finally, to Circus Florida. Each one was an exciting event for a preschooler, and each one contained specific attractions that were phenomenal. This is a short comparison of what the four circuses we have been to so…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. My son has been to Cologne a couple of times already, once to visit the Chocolate Museum, see the Gothic cathedral, and…
This was Lyons Cub’s third zoo visit today! The first one was Nashville Zoo in 2019, and the second one was 2021, when we went with grandma to the Wuppertal Zoo. Alas, it was very hilly there and not easy to navigate with a senior and a stroller. It was quite exhausting, although the variety…
Today, Lyons Cub proved his bravery — he held an albino king python for the first time in his life!!! Given that his mommy used to be a vendor at reptile shows as LZRDGRL in Wheaton/Chicago, Indianapolis, Sheperdsville, and the Memphis Repcticon from 2010-2014, he totally steps into her shoes, heehee… This was his third…
Who would have thought that a dog that detects mines has his own Wiki page, or — even better — would be awarded the Order for Courage by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy? Meet Patron (meaning, “Bullet”), a Jack Russell terrier and Ukrainian sapper dog from Chernihiv born in 2019, who belongs to Mykhailo Iliev of the…
Today, we visited the Fauna animal park in Solingen and were not disappointed — we saw a few different animals than in the Solingen Bird and Animal Park and the Reuschenberg animal park in Leverkusen, where we had already been: What stood out most were their albino deer and the leafcutter ants that had a…
Lyons Cub loves to watch and touch animals. We’ve been at the Reuschenberg Wildpark in Leverkusen several times already, but today, we tried out a different place, the Bird- and Animal Park in the city of Solingen. It has more birds than the park in Leverkusen, even big storks and colorful pheasants. The most interesting…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub grew up with two cats, Frankie (our rescue from a reptile show) and Felix (our stray that came with our…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Today, Germany is awaiting a major storm, so the government of our state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has ordered all schools closed tomorrow. Since…
Guess what my over-50 husband wanted for his birthday in 2016? GUINEA PIGS!!! Maybe that was an unfulfilled childhood dream… whatever, I was willing to fulfill it for him. And it shouldn’t just be ANY kind of guinea pigs; I wanted to adopt them from a shelter. So I looked online, and I found a…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. There are so many cute porcupine children’s books out there, and guess what they’re teaching about? You’re right: befriending a special person…
Big day for Lyons Cub!!! We visited the zoo in the city of Wuppertal on October 31st. Alas, due to the danger of Covid-19 transferring from people to the big cats, we couldn’t visit the lions and tigers. However, the brown bears, the elephants, the pelicans, the penguins, the seals, the deer-pig (yes, that’s a…
Today was a special day for Lyons Cub. It was raining, so we didn’t drive to the animal park to walk around outside. Instead, we drove to three pet stores to visit the animals. He couldn’t pet them, but he got to look at bunnies and budgies in their cages, and—best of all—a clerk allowed…
Ahhh, finally!!! The otters were out. Maybe because it was a sunny day for a change (although it was quite cold for October, brrr… Lyons Cub wore a scarf and woolen hat for the first time outside). We made a trip to the Wildpark in Leverkusen again, in the hopes of seeing some animals that…
Lyons Cub loves parks, like the one with the climbing animals and exercisers, but most of all, he likes to pet animals. (Well, he grew up with two dogs, Honey and Sally, and two cats, Felix and Frankie, and several crested and gargoyle geckos.) So today, he was in for a treat. He had been…
On Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 after an evening meeting at University Baptist Church (UBC) in Carbondale, IL, I walked down the steps and saw a particularly grumpy old lady screaming at something that was jumping up and down in front of her car… She finally opened her car door to drive home, and that thing…
When running around on the playground, Lyons Cub stumbled upon something extraordinary–well, for a little boy: a lime hawk moth caterpillar! No, it doesn’t sting with its blue horn. It just looks a bit scary. It was rather big, about as thick and long as the index finger of an adult: It had tiny, white…
They are beautiful; they are frowned upon. Many reptile breeders admonish hobbyists not to “dilute the gene pool,” arguing that in nature, different species usually don’t mate, either. (Sometimes, they do, but generally, they live in different habitats and have different maintenance requirements, making a shared environmental niche more difficult). Reptile lovers who are against…
Being a reptile breeder has its pros and cons. The pros are that one gets to witness the mystery of birth, and the cons are how to give all the little baby geckos a good, new home. Just like I received many breeder animals per mail with shipyourreptiles.com, I also shipped out many animals to…
Cuteness overload!!! As opposed to mossy leaf-tailed geckos, crested geckos are an ideal beginner’s pet and great to start kids on – to keep them addicted well into adulthood, haha! Especially when your child is allergic to cats and dogs, geckos are often a good way out. They can be tamed and held on your…
Do you like creepy crawlies, especially when they are a little ghoulish and not just cute? Then, these little horned geckos might be the ideal pet for you. Like crested geckos, gargoyle geckos stem from the island of New Caledonia and are also called, “New Caledonian bumpy geckos,” since they have two bumps or horns…
Master of deception, king of hiding – the arboreal mossy leaf-tailed gecko can do mimicry really well and assimilate into its surroundings. This way, it can hide from its predators. They are reported to have lived up to 5 years in captivity; their real life span in the wild is yet unknown. These geckos are…
Do you have allergies and need to forego furry friends? Then, scaly friends might be just the right pets for you! There are no known allergies to geckos, as far as I know. Leopard geckos, just like crested geckos and gargoyle geckos, are a great entry-level pet for collectors and future breeders alike. When I…
He was supposed to be snake food. This is the story of how I set out to vend geckos as “LZRDGRL” at a Kentucky reptile show and came home not with a new gecko, but with a tiny kitten: Frankie! We had quite an adventurous trip from Carbondale, IL to Shepherdsville, KY. First, we drove…
I loved her more than Sally. I know you should love all your children equally, but Honey was special. She had eyes the color of caramel that looked right into your soul. She came from difficult circumstances; she had lived on the streets before we got her from the shelter. Who knows what she had…
After I had become a lecturer of English at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2007, I purchased my first home, and to offset the mortgage, I had taken in a student tenant, Jielei. She was an athlete and a life-guard in the Rec Center. We had nothing in common, except for one thing: we…