Just a quick photo of the day to make you smile. Achilles, who never ever sleeps on his side or back, was snoozing by his water bottle the other day and of course when I saw him, with his little paddle feet up in the air, not moving an inch, and dead still, I freaked and thought he had passed away! I had no idea he was just napping. It scared the crud out of me.


After stroking him to see if he moved, I swear he gave me a look that said, "Sheesh, Mom, I am NOT dead! You are such a drama queen! Now let me go back to sleep, thank you!"


After calming down, I had to grab my camera to get that rare shot of Achilles' big pretty tummy with his lil spots. My sweet love. By that time he had already rolled sort of sideways instead of the alarming feet up the air, belly up position that took away 5 years of my life. Look at those lil curled up ratty toes! I always want to nibble them.






Achilles, the true professional lounger rat. Napping is his specialty, right after eating.

Holy crap that's a lot of belly! I can't believe you don't just dive face first into the cage to zerbert that!

Even if just to release the built up tension of his 'near death' experience. LOL

Ha ha! Yep, "rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated."

I know, if he had his tummy exposed more, I would be burying my face in that...mmmm! Ratty tum tum! My sweet bear.


And yes, that is a LOT of tummy.



By the way, I had another scare with him just days before this current one. I had put some of my blueberry smoothie that I made in the blender, into the boys' little treat dish (blueberries, rice milk and some banana, basically) and they lapped it all up (or so I thought).



Awhile later I went to their house to say howdy and see if they wanted to come out for outside time and when I wrapped my palm around Achilles' rear end area to snuggle him, his entire rear felt SOPPING WET. It was too dark in their house area to see any detail, but of course my mind instantly panicked and I thought,



"Ohmygoditmustbewettailordiarrheaorwhattheheckiswr ongogodpleaseheisisckblahblah........and then I noticed that I had forgotten to take their blueberry smoothie snack plate out of their house.



They had left a bit in their dish and Achilles had dragged his butt right through the blueberry smoothie, so he had a wet, bluish rear end. I sighed with relief, then laughed and cleaned up my baby, with about a million smooches and cuddles. Ahhh, I worry and fret like nobody's business. I am surprised I do not have totally gray hair.

Oh Vlad, you're too funny! All's well that ends well, right?
Sometimes our chickens lay all sprawled out on their sides out in the grass in the yard. I remember the first time I saw 2 of them like that I thought they had died. Scared the crap right out of me. I went running over to them and I think I scared them even worse. They still do that when it gets really hot out and I NEVER get used to it. After the intial heart pounding adreneline rush, I still go over and give them a little 'talking to' to make sure they are alright ;D
So very happy Achilles and Maximus are doing well!!!

Hey there AnimalFamily, how are you?


Oh my goodness, I read your post and laughed and nodded my head in understanding of your very horrible scare with your chickens! Same thing, different species, but yes, you know how funny that is (after the freak out part) when you get all upset and horrified, then realize that all is well, eh?


When you told me about your chickens, I remembered a book I had checked out from the library that had a million wonderful animal photos in it, and one of them showed a couple of wild birds (can't remember the species) that were completely sprawled out on their sides with their wings spread out and I thought, "Oh my god, why is this nice animal book showing a photo of two dead birds??"


THEN, I read the caption and it said that sometimes when birds are hot, they sprawl out like that, and look like they are dead or injured, but no, they are just cooling off." Wow! That was the first thing I thought of when I read your post about your scare with your chickens, so I feel for you! I am sure your relief was immense when you realized that all was well with your sweet chickens!


I will send Achilles and Maximus your well wishes, thanks so much! Sorry I have not been on the My Pets on Parade site lately, I have to go visit there! This Paws forum has been so quiet lately, except for Storyseeker and myself. I will come visit My Pets on Parade soon!

Hey Vlad back at you !
Great to see you!
It's funny, you were able to actually have a visual about the chicken thing!
Seems like we each have our fair share of the 'funny now, not so funny then' stories. I think you've just inspired a new thread topic .
It's been fairly quiet over at MPOP as well. Mostly I think it's because we haven't been on much recently posting new content, but we are getting back on track. Went through a little crazy busy spell back in the real world.
Hugs to Achilles & Maximus
See ya 'round!!

Aww, thanks so much Animal Family, I will definitely send your hugs along to Achilles and Maximus, thanks! You can give hugs and kisses to your chickens for me too!

Hope to see you soon on the MPOP forum!