Thursday, September 13, 2007

ICE DOG PLANET

 ICE CAVE SLUMBER DSCN0662
The horned toad in this image is one of three that I took in, to care for, while their land was being disrupted by earth moving equipment for a construction project. They are currently back in the land of fire breathers & horsebacked lancers.
This image is not manipulated (I do that at times), but the actual setting I kept them in, trying to make them feel at home.
In the header you may recognize the belly slither of one of the favorite photogs around. These horned toads, known for
their mimicry of humans, are well represented in this character trait, by this one, who has the belly crawl down to a "T".
On Planet Earth, the "Deciderer`s boss shows that these wonderful animals do have cold blood, but I know they have warm hearts, as you`ll see in some of the images in the set connected to that one.
Keep all your hearts warm for those left out in the cold, please.
And have a safe weekend.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey, there, I'm just catching up on your recent amazing posts. Great horned toad shots... another of the seemingly unreal reals.

It occurs to me sometimes that you may actually be living on some other planet... as the creatures you present here are that foreign to me.

(Of course I know many here who consider the residents of CA aliens of some sort, ha! Not me though, as I have resided in N CA, and lived to tell the tale.)

AndiF said...

Yay, NDD is here first so I get Friday commenting off and can just say "What ndd said".

(Well, not the residing in California part -- but I have visited and survived so it's close.)

Happy Weekend!

Nancy P said...

What handsome fellows. In their own way. Wonderful.

you may recognize the belly slither of one of the favorite photogs around

lol! Funny, I never pictured Olivia looking like that.

dada said...

haven't seen a horned toad in years, head...used to catch them as a kid, just to gross out the girls, ya know.

they're amazing soft tactilely, if that's a word, contrary to their gnarly appearance.

glad they've returned to their natural habit.

thanks for the memories.

Knucklehead said...

NDD,
Yes they are strange little creatures.
Their feeding habits are some of the strangest. Ants being their main food, I would order thousands of them at a time.
I also had a little "DustBuster" vacuum, i would use to suck up ants on ant trails anywhere I found them.
People would wonder why I was zipping a dustbuster along cracks in the sidewalks.

Knucklehead said...

Andif,
I`m still here, but then, I`m a survivalist at heart.
You & yours have a pleasant weekend also.

Knucklehead said...

Nancy p,
I don`t ever picture Olivia that way either, but I am not responsible for the toad`s sense of humor.
Thanks for stopping in.
It`s always nice.

Knucklehead said...

dada,
You are absolutely right. People`s perception that they are hard and dangerously prickly, is diametrically opposed to how they actually feel to the touch.
You chose a good word (yes, it is one).
It`s strange that our eyes will tell us something that can only be disproved tactilely.
The other thing that turns people off is that they can squirt a stream of blood out of their eye, to fool a predator into thinking that the horned toad has wounded them, & maybe retreat is in order, leaving the toad an opportunity for escape.
Their ability to simply disappear into the substrate they are on, in front of your eyes, is also an amazing capability of theirs. They are truly amazing.

olivia said...

lol Nancy ... :)