Rat

So background: I work in the middle of downtown Santa Rosa...a nice bit of a pretty clean, mellow, smallish city. My office faces the "town square/park" kind of place, and I park my car in the mall in front of Sears and walk the few blocks in when I arrive in the morning.

This morning, I was a bit surprised to see a rat running quickly across the parking lot, into one of the landscaped islands in the middle. Surprised because you don't usually see rats in the open...it's in their nature to keep to well-traveled, hidden routes...or, rats being crepuscular critters, by day. Not surprised at her existence, of course. Because rats, really, are everywhere. I've even glimpsed 'em in Santa Rosa before. Not at the mall 'til now, though.

She was large but slender, her fur a pleasant honey-brown in hue, with a very long, dark tail. A pretty rat. What? Our urban coyotes have to eat something, after all.

Beautiful Animated Clip...

This is really beautiful.

http://www.yanim.net/ilotm/ilotm.htm

yanked from dimespin's journal.

Go watch it. The ray!!!!!!!! And yes, the fact that the ray isn't completely accurate physically does bother me, and in fact I don't like the song so much, but I can live with it.

...by the same token, I saw a gorgeous, gorgeous handblown glass octopus at a local shop yesterday...perfect tentacles...but the artist gave it buggy eyes in the wrong place, and that would just annoy me if I owned it so I didn't get it. But I'm thinking of getting the artist's info and seeing if she'd custom me one that was more accurate. Because it's wonderful, and octopus art, and you all probably have figured out how I feel about the noble octopus by now.

I did get one of her pieces, though...a lovely glass shark with a faint blue tinge to it. It's on my desk at work now. Because I'm a lawyer, right?

By the same token, I finally found a plush shark that I liked enough to get, because she has all sorts of nice details. She's a black tipped reef shark and very cuddly. Obviously I needed one.

I think I should go to an aquarium again soon. I'm needing my sea life infusion. And seriously, go watch that clip.