Day: July 4, 2019

Damon and Pythias

Fandango7 Comments

38683EDB-BB0E-457B-8866-759176FD1CA8Back when I was a youth — well, if you call someone in college a “youth” — I had a garter snake by the name of Pythias that I kept in a 20 gallon aquarium in my dorm room. Pythias was about three feet long and I would feed him (or her?) mostly crickets.

But then I made an interesting discovery. I was at the pet store buying my weekly supply of crickets when the owner asked me if I had ever thought about feeding my snake a live mouse. He said it was fascinating to watch a snake catch, swallow, and digest a mouse. He gave me a nice, fat, juicy one to take home with me. I called some of my classmates and told them to meet me in my dorm room.

When all five of us had gathered in my room, I opened the pet store box and lifted the mouse by its tail, dubbed it Damon, and dropped it into Pythias’ tank. Then we watched as Pythias slithered over to Damon, toyed with the petrified mouse, and eventually opened its unhinged jaws and swallowed the doomed mouse whole.80C5E20A-200A-4617-91C9-10CF19DC40FB It took about four days for the lump that was that poor mouse to work its way through Pythias’s body and to be fully digested.

After that, I would buy a new Damon each week and invite friends to come to my room and watch the weekly ritual. Most of us found it as fascinating as I did, but I admit that some found the whole scene to be totally inimical.

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (youth), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aquarium), Ragtag Daily Prompt (discovery), The Daily Spur (meet), and Your Daily Word Prompt (inimical).

Remember Your Four-Legged Friends

Fandango8 Comments

dog-fireworksYes, it’s that time of the year again when America celebrates its birth. Independence Day. The Fourth of July. It’s a time for picnics, barbecues, family, fun, and fireworks.

Most people love to go to their local fireworks displays. Since the 4th falls on a Thursday this year, that means, depending upon where you live, localities will have their big fireworks shows starting tonight and as late as Sunday night.

But while humans are oohing and aahing at these beautiful, magnificent, stunning displays that celebrate the birth of our nation, our beloved canine family members are not going to be very happy.

No dog that I know of, and certainly not our dog, loves fireworks. Over the next four nights, we will either have to take our dog out for her last walk of the day well before it gets dark and the explosions commence, or very late after the last of the fireworks has been launched.

Because during the fireworks, while humans are thrilled about seeing and hearing the loud, colorful explosions of bombs bursting in air, our terrified dog will be shaking like a leaf, sitting in the bathtub in a windowless bathroom while we are playing loud music to try to drown out the sound of the exploding chaos going on all around us until quiet and calm have returned.

So by all means, have a wonderful Fourth of July today. Be with family and friends, celebrate the holiday, and enjoy yourselves. But please don’t forget about your loyal, loving, furry four-legged friends tonight. Those fireworks you love so much are going to scare the shit out of them.

#100 Word Wednesday — The Mist

Fandango18 Comments

FA23283B-26CC-4403-915A-1D21CC724E9EShe appeared out of nowhere, as if she walked onto the shore from the sea. I rubbed my eyes. Was I seeing correctly? Was she real or an apparition? As she neared, I could see that she was looking directly at me, her dark eyes hauntingly fixed upon me. Her mouth formed a pout. I couldn’t tell if her expression was one of sadness or of sensuality. She held a lit sparkler in her hand that she held out to me. I reached out to grab it, but it was as if I was merely touching a mist. She disappeared .

(100 words)

Written for Bikurgurl’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt. Photo credit: KAL VISUALS at Unsplash.com.

FOWC with Fandango — Aquarium

Fandango23 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 4, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “aquarium.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.