So, I skimmed the MSN.com page this morning, one of a few pages I check every morning for headlines, and under the A-List Searches section, it said, "An enormous rodent roams the streets of Oregon". Beside that was a picture of a Patagonian Cavy! (Not the photo shown here, but another one.)

I found one story about a cavy (also called mara) found by a teenager on a street in Orgeon, as well as a slideshow of photos of the teenager and the cavy.

I remember, about 7 or 8 years ago, a neighbor of Boss had several of these animals. The guy has all sorts of exotic and unusual pets, including llamas, emus, and camels (Oh My!), and a few deer. This was back when our office was in a building behind Boss' house, and I drove past the exotic animal place every day. This one spring morning, I kept seeing some little animals (I thought they were rabbits at first) hopping in the grass beside the road. The grass was kind of high, so every few seconds I would see a pair of ears pop up above the tops of the grass. Then I got a clearer view of one of the animals, and it had a rear-end like a deer, hopped like a rabbit, and kind of resembled a little kangaroo, too. I was awe-struck, and it seemed they were everywhere, all up and down the street. I told the guys as soon as they got in, and they teased me about what I must have been smoking. I looked along the side of the road every day after that and didn't see them anymore. A few days later, though, I saw a large one in Boss' yard. I told the guys I'd seen a big one in the yard, and again, they teased me, until Boss saw it one day. He was as amazed as I was. Turns out, the little ones I had seen that morning had gotten out and the guy built a new pen for them, so that's why I didn't see them after that. I guess he found the larger one, also, because we stopped seeing it as well. I stopped by the exotic animal place one day on my way home, when I saw someone in the yard, and asked what the animals are called, and they said "mara", and that they are actually rodents. I did some web searching after that and found out they are also called Pategonian Cavies. They sure are cute.

A couple more links: Cavy on about.com and cavy on pawprintonline.

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Saturday was Dad's birthday and Sunday was Mom's. I know, funny, huh? I can't believe they're 76 and 78. It just doesn't seem possible.

Mom was making a bunch of lasagna for a church function on Saturday, so she made an extra batch and we all went over for dinner on Sunday. Sister brought her multi-grain French bread and made garlic toast out of it, and she brought a chocolate birthday cake. I made my own lasagna-ish in a small baking dish, with gluten free pasta layered with spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, and mozzarella cheese. It was pretty good. Not Mom's lasagna, but not bad. I made some gluten free cupcakes and brought a couple, so I could have cake with everyone else, and I brought a GF hamburger bun that I sliced into a few slices and made garlic toast out of. Mom also had green beans and salad. It was a fun day. Sister was there, and Neph1 and Neph2. Niece couldn't make it that day. We played a game before dinner, and as always, we got to laughing so hard we cried. That always happens.

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I've been hard at work, again, on the paranormal-suspense-romance I started for NaNoWriMo in 2006 and set aside a few times. My goal is to finish the first draft by about July or August, because this November I will be starting the sequel. Then I can do my editing on both of them in 2009, and then my hope is to end up with a two-book publishing deal so they'll come out within about six months of each other. I already the third story in the series partially worked out, and some ideas for others after that.

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More later.

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