Animal magic (again)

Spring has sprung, new life is abounding.  I have proof. 

Look:

Puppies!  How cute are they, eh?  It wasn't exactly a planned pregnancy but they are very much loved. 

I love the one on its back, little pink paws in the air, fast asleep.  They are tiny.  More like hamsters than dogs at the moment.

That's the proud mum on the right.  She's not much bigger than a hamster herself.  Well, a cat maybe.  Oh alright.  A small Jack Russell. 

Ok, that's enough cute puppy pictures for now.  But they are very endearing.

Other spring-like evidence:

Violets, growing in my lovely Mum's garden.  They have self-seeded all over the place, even making a break across the wall and onto the grass verge. Marvellous.  They are the most beautiful blue colour.  Violet, I suppose you'd call it.

Each flower is perfect.  And they smell lovely, but you have to scooch right down to them as they are very subtle. 

Also, I took some pictures of the fish, in case you were wondering how they were getting on.  We've not had any more tragic floaters, and Mr WithaY has bought three more shrimp.  These shrimp, though, are HUGE, rather than teeny and shrimpy, as the last ones were.  They'd make a decent starter in a posh restaurant.  We wanted them to be able to defend themselves from marauding carnivores, and we though that if they were too big to fit into any other fish's mouth that might help.  So far so good.

This is a rather nice picture of three of the leopard cory all chilling out atop their rock.  They are waiting for feeding time, when things really kick off.

A shot of the leopard cory from behind (the glamour element) with some of the tetras and a pentazonal barb in the foreground.

I just like saying "pentazonal barb".

Other news:  A sad farwell to Elvis the cat, a member of Youngest Sis' family for many years.  He's the one that caught fire one Christmas.  I told you about it here.

He was much loved and will be missed.