My children kept stick insects as an antidote to having to look after hundreds of farm animals. Stick insects are pretty easy going, don't require much attention and don't need a JCB to muck them out. However, I feel we should have gone one step further and kept....a stick.
Don't know why I didn't think of it. They are cheap to buy, keep dogs happy and can be used to beat recalcitrant children senseless in times of family stress. They are really useful too: lost your toothbrush? A nice stick does the job a treat. Door keeps blowing open? Fetch the stick and jam it in. Fed up of being shouted at by spouse? Wait until they are in full flow and pop stick into gob...silence!! Bored? Play 'catch a mongrel': tie length of rope to stick, take up position in park, lob stick at promising hounds until one bites then reel him in. Great fun (remember of course to throw him back if too small to eat). You don't even need a licence like you would for fishing. They have millions of other uses: you can carve shapes on them and worship them, sharpen them and exterminate vampires, keep them in trouser pocket to impress female friends/depress male friends, stick it in a pot and sell it for millions as a work of modern art, invent a paint stirrer...oh, the list is endless.
So ,get ahead: get a stick.
Too true agricola and don't forget how good a companion a stick can be....oh yes. these modern thinking folk take cats and dogs into hospitals and the like to aid the recovery of old folk....therapy they say ....well keep your bloody Labradors at home, cos the old uns have already got it covered...what with?....sitcks thats what, go into any old folks home or hospital ward and what do you see...sticks.
than I have ever seen him. It's clear from the angles that he is holding his fins at, that he is over the moon with the added interest that he has found in Tysons home compared to the old bowl he used to live in. He is swimming in and out of the excercise wheel as well as swimming up and down the stairs to the various compartments. The interconnecting tubes are a source of delight to him as they allow him to swim more freely and explore other areas of the home. Feeding him is not a problem as he readily comes to the surface to eat the flakes although I am a bit concerned that he hasn't got the knack of sucking on the water bottle yet, I shall monitor him for dehydration.
the minute I started to fill his home with water, he sought dryer ground by climbing on to the top of his excercise wheel, for a minute I thought that he had started to take to the idea as the water rose because he started to run on top of his wheel, this is normally a sign that he is content and given the speed that he was running at, I thought he was over the moon, however his delight soon passed as he tired and the water rose up the wheel and created more resistance eventually bringing the wheel to a halt at which point I heard for the first time, ever an audible....eeeeekkk....from Tyson just prior to him sliding into the water. For the first minute things still didn't look that bad, as he paddled around inside his home however, it became clear to me as his coat became more heavily saturated and he tired that he was in some difficulty, not wanting the creature to suffer I intervened and dragged him out of his home and for want of somewhere safe to put him I dropped him into the bowl previousely vacated by Cladius. This was a bitter blow to me because Cladius was clearly happy with the arrangements. I went to bed subdued.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 
