A River Runs Through Them...

river? hardly.

i should rather have named my wahabbi (a pejorative far more fitting than hajji, as the latter's honorific roots should be respected, and the adherents to the teachings of muhammad ibn abd-al-wahhab refer to themselves instead as salafis... so wahabbi may be understood to apply only to violent radicals) mouse splinter instead. or wolverine.

his record is now 9 and 0: three scorpions, one scorpion, one mouse, one lizard, one scorpion, one bat, and one snake, in that order (i think). the only one that gave him any serious trouble was the fifth scorpion, which managed to land half a dozen stings or so before river cruched it open down the center of its thorax like a little scorpion hot dog bun. poor fellow was not looking well after that bout, shuddering droopily in the corner of his cage, but in two days he was right again as rain, feasting upon fresh bat head. yum. seriously, these scorpions are purportedly some of the deadliest in the world, and he just wore it like a really bad hangover, and shook it off.

i swear, he must be the mononoke of this little patch of iraq.

he's made several valiant attempts at escape, the most recent while i was away in qatar; he leapt clear of his terrarium and shot up my merc friend's arm, going straight wethinks for the throat. at the last moment he chose rather to veer off and launch himself into the air (about five feet up), limbs splayed. apparently his tiny little demon legs were churning before he hit the ground...

and so, i am retiring him. no more battles... he'll instead be "fed" scorpions when we catch them. he's even been rewarded with a little female playmate, and they seem to get on famously; i'm pretty sure his record with her is much better than 9 and 0.