Here's a long distance call from West Africa...from a certain assassin known only as the Pinch. O_O :O :O

ANYWAYS, greetings to you all, from all the strange animals here, including our newest addition, Bobby the monkey. He evidently thinks I'm his mother and hangs on like a tick. And screams when he's pulled off. >_> Nights are not easy for him. XD He screeches and hangs on to our shirt, our hair...and while we hold him sleeps like a baby. As my grandfather would say, "He's quite a character."

He teases the dogs, and went so far as to grab Pippin's muzzle and nibble on him like a rabbit. *gasp* He did it to me too. XD And monkeys do NOT go 'ooh ooh ah ah' unless they're angry. XD They chirp kind of like a bird when they're happy, and groan when you pet them when they're sleepy.

CURIOUS GEORGE IS INACCURATE.

Not that I'll tell them that or anything...>_> Just saying.

Monkeys can do zippers, but they can't do knot. Thank goodness.

When he's mad, as I've mentioned, he screams, shows his teeth, jumps up and down, and makes a sound kind of like a mongoose's war cry. :) Quite a character.

As for the kittens, Cess has grown to be the biggest and the fattest. She's twice as wide as the others and her paws are huge! If nobody knew her temperament, she'd be the first to go if we were giving 'em away...she has white paws, a white face, and tabby everywhere else, and fat cheeks. She's very adorable, hates to be held, meows, and has extremely sharp claws with which she likes to dig in...which I know all from experience. She's a glutton and literally growls at the other kittens when they're all eating together, and runs off with her food if anyone comes near her. She tends to rip the bottom of the trashbag in the kitchen to get the old dried fish, so we have to put it out of reach.

One day, she ripped the bag yet again, and I scared them away and put it up. But she kept hacking a little, and pawing at her mouth. I thought maybe she'd eaten a pepper (haha), or gotten a bone lodged in her throat. Upon opening her mouth by force (with great, strangled meows protesting all the way) we saw that there was a hard, flat bone stuck on the roof of her mouth. XD She just couldn't get it off. Alex picked at it, and Cess hacked it out. The little silly kitten.

Chai, the white kitten with spots, is not extremely cute, since she's going through this thin-faced stage, and eats the least. She's long, but not fat at all, even though she eats her share. Her fur is kind of straggly and longer than the others, but not extremely soft. She's sweet, though, and every once in awhile will purr for one of us (something we've been trying to get them to do for months! They really like us, and Chai will even come when I call, but they don't purr that often). Yesterday she jumped on my lap and fell asleep while I was drawing. :)

One night she managed to climb Jake's pant leg, jump onto the table in the kitchen, steal a chunk of dried fish, and run off with it! She is very good at climbing and when I'm getting their food ready at night sometimes climbs and meows at me.

Snitzel, the gray kitten, is actually more of a light tabby...she's darker than Ninja. She's also extremely shy, and runs away from even us this time, though in the last week she's suddenly been coming out a little more and warming up to me. She even climbs on my lap trying to get food. When you try to pet her, she kind of shrinks under it and keeps walking, but when she's sleepy she likes it. I'm glad we didn't give her away, because now we realize she's not extremely strong. She has trouble eating hard or chewy meat, but loves bread and fish and chicken. She also doesn't have a very strong grip when it comes to climbing, even though she WAS the first to figure out how to climb on the bed. :)

Then, only a week ago, I knelt by the bed to get something, and she was there, sleeping on the edge of the mosquito net. She kind of rolled over and let me pet her belly, then rolled back. Then, I realized she was purring. She, the most shy one, actually purred for me! That's the first time she's ever purred for anyone in the family. :) Cess purred for Jake one time, and a couple times when she was really small, and Chai has purred for both me and Alex, but Snitzel, the oh-so scared, shy, sweet kitten never did for anyone. :) She's been getting a lot more friendly and doesn't run away when we walk up quite so often. ^_^

Ninja...the very word describes what news there is of her. Someone told my brother that its common for a very happy cat to lightly nip your cheek when happy (which Ninja does rather often, getting cat hair in my mouth from her constant face-rubbing), but never does a cat who loves their owners bite them on purpose. XD Never met Ninja. She most obviously loves us, by the face-rubbing and purring I mentioned earlier, but then she goes 'Ninja' as we call it--when we wipe of the bed, she scrambles around, chasing your hand, or goes under the sheets or attacks things (such as your hand) moving under the sheets. She even went so far to leap through the air and pounce on my arm--and, of course, bite it. :) Of course.

Merry and Pippin have been going through the usual routine--happy-whining-Merry wants to be petted, likes to jump on people--Pippin gets jealous and bits Merry, and it all ends in growls and play-fighting. XD I love my dogs.

 However, the next dog we get will be my dad's choice, and he wants a big dog. Where will that put Pippin, I wonder? Well, anyways, we went to go look at these South African Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies. They're...oh, maybe seventy-five percent Rhodesian Ridgeback? Well, the father was HUGE. Over one hundred fifty pounds, perhaps, and its paws almost as big as my closed fist. I couldn't tell which one was the mother, since they had several tied up, but the puppies were in a different pen, being four  months. There were only two, though there was a third that was six months old. However, he was smaller than the four month ones and was so out of the question, not to mention he seemed to have a nervous problem. There was one male, and one female of the four month ones. We got Pippin at four months, so I was kind of imagining that size...no, these puppies are bigger than Pippin is now! The male was brown, with a black muzzle, and was wary of you at first, but once warmed up to you was very friendly. Good qualities in a watch dog. Don't know if we'll get one yet, though. :)

One of our Security Guards (he's twenty-four, I think) just graduated highschool! Also, Ezekiel, another of our Security Guards, is bringing his wife, who's visiting from America, to come see us. So, we're kind of having a small celebration...we're eating GB (kind of like fufu, 'cept its a different sauce) and bitterball and fried chicken (Mamie makes it the best!!) and sala, which is kind of like a potato salad.

Yum. I can't wait.

I'm entering into a dragon-drawing contest just for fun. :) Not sure exactly what I'm doing, but hey? I've got nothing else to do. XD

Oh, and here are some pictures... Mwahaha. The scanner (yes, the scanner is now working!) I used bleached them, especially the Arabian horse. Beware; its much darker than it appears. MUCH darker. It was a black horse, after all. >_>

ANNND...my drawing of Matt Smith. The photo, I believe, came from a part when he must choose between two bad alternatives. >_> Cheers!

The scanner bleached his hair, and also made the skin appear to darkly shadowed, and his cheeks too brightly highlighted. I blended it thoroughly, but this makes it appear as if I ended each shadow abruptly. :P 'Tis a leetle better in real life. :) Ooh, ooh, and lookie! My signature in the corner. ;)

G'bye.

--Vrenith