(One sweet ass - Miracle relaxing)
Living out on the farm means never knowing what’s going to happen next. Things just happen here you wouldn't expect. Take our newest tenant Amy. She's a little off beat, just the way I like 'em. She drove here from Texas with her mother who was nice enough to come with her and help her settle in. It was wonderful to watch them walking the property collecting flowers and talking. I knew my mother would have loved it here too.
Amy’s nineteen, and a trained paramedic looking for work. She volunteered at the Dallas zoo for eight years so she says she's completely prepared for life on the farm. She claims the drive won't bother her a bit. Amy doesn’t have a cat or a dog but she does have a couple of huge bunnies and five sugar gliders.
The “glidies”, as Amy call them, look like flying squirrels. They are in fact, marsupials from Australia. They leap from place to place person to person and can make a myriad of chirping sounds. Sugar gliders eat meal worms, crickets, baby chicks, fruit and have extremely sharp teeth so they can eat bark off trees. The two originals are Gizmo and Cleo, the mother and father of Mia and Sophia who are almost identical twins. Charlie is the baby. Charlie was named after the youtube video “Charlie Bit Me” as Charlie is the biter.
When Henry and I went into meet them, Amy was wearing a little pouch around her neck. One at a time like a Dr. Seuss book she kept pulling gliders out. Mia and Sophia ran all over Henry, but not Cleo. Every time Amy put Cleo on Henry, Cleo would leap more than three feet back to Amy.
"So they just stay in the pouch and don't get out?" I asked.
"Well, they don't usually," Amy's mother laughed, "but if they hear crinkling of potato chip bags or smell food they like, out they pop! And that's just what happened at an AM PM™ on the way here. People were crowded around to see the flying squirrels."
(one of the twins)
(Henry's loving this)
(Hmm Henry needs a haircut- off to the barber?)
(Amy and Cleo - who is about to leap to her cage)
When they are not in Amy's pouch or eating at the table, they are kept downstairs in the room my father used as an office. The five of them live in a huge cage filled with mirrors, bells, tunnels and little cave type areas. And next to them are Rizzo and Frenchie the bunnies.
“It’s like your own zoo down here!” Henry exclaimed as he saw the giant cage.
The big bunnies are sweet. As you might expect, Rizzo is tough and brave, but Frenchie’s not quite as sure he likes the wood floor so he hippity hops around for a while but then vertically leaps right back in his cage. It’s quite impressive.
(Rizzo)
(Henry snuggles Frenchie)
(Brave and independent Rizzo is in the background as Frenchie prefers the safety of Henry's lap)
(Rizzo on the move)
“Frenchie was out with me on a leash and met the geese. It didn’t go well, Rizzo was fine, but Frenchie squealed and carried on, I thought he was going to have a heart attack” Amy said as she held him. “He’s over it now, but he was a wreck”.
“That Quackmire! Just wait ‘til Phoebe and Quinn see this” Henry murmured. “When my cousins get here and see these guys there is going to be a lot of high-pitched squealing. ‘Theyyyyyyyyyyy’re sssssssssssweeeeeeeet’” He imitated.
(Cleo -I think)
“They are sweeties” I had to agree.
“Mama can I get a sugar glider?”
"You could have one if it fit in my colony and then just keep it in my cage" Amy offered.
“Ahh no. You have five right here.” I said flatly. “You don’t even clean the cat box for heaven’s sake.”
“I do. When you make me.”
“Exactly. I’m just grateful Mr. Bubbles found a home before you arrived” I said to Amy.
“Who is Mr. Bubbles?” Henry wondered.
“He was my orange rat snake” Amy informed him. “I think I’d like to get another snake. I kinda miss being stared at” she said.
"He was orange! That's my color!" Henry jumped in encouraging her. I just shook my head and rolled my eyes.
