Hatchling Irwin

Hatchling Irwin has tired himself out and is ready for his first nap. Except he *really* is fighting falling asleep. LOL. He looks like he's trying to stay awake for all he's worth, sniffing the air and giving a tail wave now and then. Especially, he does this if I pat him or make a noise. Oh, and now that he's sleepy, if I pat his shoulder and/or rump sensors, he *purrs* the whole time! LOL, how cute! I didn't expect that! Gotta wonder who's conditioning whom here. He got me trained to pat him pretty quickly. We've seen the first meal, the first tug-of-war games, the first song , the first moonwalking attempts, and now the first purrs in the minutes after hatching. We've also seen his first response to the Training Leaf, as well as to something of similar color to the leaf. It's a plastic bottle of Benefiber nearly as big as Irwin, and its label is the same shades of green and yellow as the leaf. He must have thought he hit the mother lode when he saw it, LOL. He went directly toward it, but then started moonwalking just a he was about to reach it. In the attached photo, he'd stopped moving forward toward the bottle and was waving his head from side to side, hence the blur. He's already got his Training Leaf in his mouth, and as you can see, the bottle uses similar colors to the leaf on its label. Now he's parked himself against my foot and is trying not to sleep. I'll think he's asleep, only to see his little tail give a wave or see him raise his head and sniff the air. How long does that first nap last, I wonder? I'm sure he needs his rest or we'll be encountering his first dino headcold before long, and that won't do.

Posted July 13 at 21:09 PM