Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mira's New Pet

Some assembly required.




Mira has become fascinated with bones as of late. When she went on a bike ride with her father and brothers a few weeks ago she found all sorts of dead things in the ditch. Thankfully they were all well rotted dead things. I am not quite sure where she is going with all of the bones but it will be interesting.
When she first started carting things home we had a bit of a talk about germs and so she is very careful when picking up bones. She wears gloves when gathering and everything is bleached before it comes in the house.
I am amazed how she has this thing all laid out. So organized. But then again, she is my one child who keeps her room clean just because she wants to so maybe I shouldn't be too surprised.
Plans are in the works to go and pick up some of a deer skeleton that they spotted on their trip last week.

14 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

How cool.
I think Mira and my sister, Jessica should meet. Jess is twelve. Last summer, my Dad found a rat in the bird seed (my parents keep tons of birds), and one of the dogs had given it a pretty good shake. It was either stunned or dead.

Jess... cut it open. And identified all the parts.

My brother, who is sixteen, had to sit with his head between his knees.

Rock On, Science Grrrrlz!

Anonymous said...

Mira tells me that when she gets the deer skeleton assembled it will make a good lawn ornament for Halloween. What a kid. Her mind works in mysterious ways.

Anonymous said...

What an unusual hobby. Very cheap to maintain if you can find the skeletal remains of the unfortunate critters intact. But I know that Mira is always on the lookout for such things.

At Mira's age, being interested in bones of dead animals beats being interested in live boys don't you think?
Pretty soon though you will need another room or closet just for Mira's bones. Yeah, a bone room just for Mira sounds good.

I think that having real bones in the front yard at Halloween sounds much cooler than those fake plastic bones that you buy at Wall Mart.

You may have a serious anthropologist in your midst. Good luck Mira with your quest for skeletons.

Mamoo

Christine said...

Oh my! Does that thing have a tail?? Wow! Granted, when I was a kid it was always cool to walk in the woods by our house. There were beef cattle in a field nearby and we once found a dead cow in the woods. When you're ten and curious that stuff is way cool.

David T. Macknet said...

How very cool!

How is she going to assemble them?

Anonymous said...

Now when the first pimply faced boys show up at the house to ask to take Mira out on a date I can truthfully say to them, "Oh, you might want to reconsider this idea. She has a lot of skeletons in her closet." Truth + double entendre = boy repellant.

I think I'll help her collect bones for the next couple of years. Speaking of which, we found a really BIG dead deer today. It was stinking enough to make a grown man vomit, but it will be one great skeleton once it finishes rotting. It's in a place where it probably won't get too disturbed either.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see this. Are you taking pictures of the stages of decomposition? Oh Yuck! What am I asking? The waiting period must be intense for Mira. Waiting and hoping that the deer carcase will remain intact until fully decomposed.

She was sooo disappointed when she went to pick up a dead raccoon in the hay loft on Saturday only to find out that it was gone or covered with huge round hay bales.

Mamoo

f. pea said...

You guys are gross! And also way cool!

Anonymous said...

I am unlikely to make the 18 km cycle ride just to take photos of a decaying deer. It was pretty disgusting. We could smell it a very long way away (we were riding up wind). I think I'll just let the critters have at it for a few months.

But isn't it SOOOO much better that Mira is worried about lost raccoon bones instead of being worried about whether or not she gets to hang at the mall? I just love this kid.

David T. Macknet said...

When I worked at a museum we'd take the carcass out to the Mojave & bury it in the sand for a few years - it cut down on the smell quite a bit!

tanita✿davis said...

Yeah, I was just going to suggest that -- dump sand on that puppy, it'll cut down on the smell, and you'll be able to find it again.

She'll want to go to the mall soon enough -- for formaldehyde. Isn't the mall where you buy it?

KansasA said...

I see a future CSI in the making ;)
On a serious note: ooo yuck I could never, ever do this! I have a hard time picking up a dead chicken in my coop, funny though how just the day before I can lift them up and pawn under them for eggs... but dead, nope can hardly stand to touch them lol.

David T. Macknet said...

They aren't going to sell her formaldehyde anywhere ... because 1) it's poison, 2) it's used for preserving the gobbits of meat, and 3) she can preserve them in alcohol just as easily (rubbing alcohol).

David T. Macknet said...

Although there have been tales of sea captains pickled in the rum...