Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Be the Cuteness

There are some days you may wake up, take a glance out at the current events unfolding on our small round blue planet and quite justifiably decide it’s a great day to go back to bed. No matter where your eyes may fall or what your ears may hear, it can seem there is noContinueContinue reading “Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Be the Cuteness”

Being Brave with Bruce: Opening Up the Box

Being a card carrying member of the wild life doesn’t leave much time for making friends. After all, everybody needs to eat…every single day. You know the moment you wake up each morning that it is game on once again. All day, every day, you keep your eyes peeled for delicacies while remaining hyper-aware thatContinueContinue reading “Being Brave with Bruce: Opening Up the Box”

Resting in Place with Malti: Brave Tortoise Face

There isn’t anything braver in this world than tumbling out of your little white escape pod into a great wide world with only the shell on your back for company. You could say you are born to be brave – and indeed, you are. From moment one, you are “it.” You are your own chefContinueContinue reading “Resting in Place with Malti: Brave Tortoise Face”

Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Make Mine Mashed

When you’ve been out of the egg for 21-and-a-half consecutive nesting seasons, you have had ample opportunity to learn that expecting things to stay the same is both optimistic and unlikely. On the one hand – positivity. You’ve got it. (And what ladybird doesn’t love positivity?) On the other hand – reality. The food chainContinueContinue reading “Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Make Mine Mashed”

Being Brave with Bruce: Two Shells Is Better

There is no doubt that “the shell” is a very good design. It is lightweight, attractive, sleek and stealthy. Tired? Take a snooze inside your shell. Looking for lunch? Hunker down in your shell to scope for snacks. Looking like lunch? Snap shut and send the predator packing for greener (well, browner) pastures. Depending onContinueContinue reading “Being Brave with Bruce: Two Shells Is Better”

Resting in Place with Malti: Super Stealth Shell

Being born with a shell means you are naturally very stealthy. The fact that you are also born low to the ground and slow and steady is just icing on the proverbial (tortoise-sized) cake. But sometimes you find that you want or need to add even an extra layer of stealth. For instance, maybe thereContinueContinue reading “Resting in Place with Malti: Super Stealth Shell”

Resting in Place with Malti: Soak for Success

It can be unsettling to wake up one day and discover you are suddenly at war with an opponent you can’t even see. Your enemy can get aerial without wings, survive for days (weeks) on surfaces without sustenance, stay dormant nearly indefinitely without losing any of their super-scary infectious powers. In a word….ACK. But thereContinueContinue reading “Resting in Place with Malti: Soak for Success”

Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Do Not Disturb Bird

Stress is nobody’s bestie. Whether it comes from unauthorized (at least from you) visits to the large featherless beings in the unattractive white lab coats or something awful called “social distancing” that means you are supposed to stay far away from the ladybirds during nesting season (as if), stress is a bona fide party killer.ContinueContinue reading “Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Do Not Disturb Bird”

Resting in Place with Malti: Grazing with Grandma

Choosing to live in an interspecies flock is not for the faint of stomach. It doesn’t take long to learn that some of the large shell-less beings are “delicacy whisperers”….and some are not. You need to learn quickly whose victuals are actually edible and whose are not….at least if you want to enjoy the averageContinueContinue reading “Resting in Place with Malti: Grazing with Grandma”

Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Big Bird Bite

Biting may not be considered the most socially appropriate response in certain circles. Sad but true. The longer you spend living in an interspecies flock, the more you are likely to notice how frequently your flock mates prefer to waffle around the important issues rather than tackle them head-on. Their loss. Whether the threat isContinueContinue reading “Cuteness for Comfort with Pearl: Big Bird Bite”