Eggs and Hope

This episode of SpringRain's Tiny Horses brings you Eggs and Bacon Hope! :D

With a pinch of despair and only one breedable female (or so I thought), I had planned to import some female Horse Norns I had downloaded from The Creature Repository and Helen's Bibble Directory to give my males a bit more of a chance. I found a few fabulous looking females, though some of them were not entirely Horse Norn (such as their arms or legs being a different type) and there didn't seem to be too many of them on offer.

Maybe I can upload some of mine from the saved copies I keep of them. I'd be happy to share them for those who are interested. Anway, I now have some female Horse/Chocolate Norns waiting in my hard drive which may be brought in to add new genes to the pool.

I also downloaded some male Horses from Helen's Bibble directory in case we need a bit of variety later or something similar occurs again. Happily, there were a lot more of these on offer.

Many thanks to the giving and kindness of those who decided to share theit Norns with others. Perhaps you have an idea of how tricky it can be to find Norns of one type or breed to match in with your populations of 'purebreds'. :D Whether that is that case or not, I am truly grateful.

***

Feeling bad for not including Pommes much in the previous post, I lavished more attention than usual on this girl and with a slap or two and repeating myself many times over, I finally managed to get her eating! It was a fantastic breakthrough because even though she complained constantly, her health had been dropping to around 60% at times.

Basically it involved getting her to look at the food by simply typing 'food'. This draws the Norn's attention to whatever you tell it without actually giving them directions as to what to do with things. It sounds strange but that's actually the way I teach most of my Norns to eat. Saying the name usually draws their attention to it and they then decide what to do with it, which if they are hungry is to eat 'push' the object. I have tried telling them 'push food' but that never seems to work out too well for me. Especially not with a fussy Norn like Pommes.

After I got Pommes to look at the food, I asked her 'what'. This gets them to tell you what they are doing. She kept saying 'run food' or 'run Mummy' or 'run lift'. It was 'run' everything! I don't know exactly when or where or even how she learned that behaviour. Perhaps when hanging about with other Norns and getting too crowded, or maybe from being slapped? In any case, running away from everything, including food, was not helping any. So when she told me 'run food' I told her 'no' and repeated 'food' and when she was looking at it 'push'. Repeating this process a few times over somehow got her eating again and when she finally gulped down that strawberry, she got copious amounts of tickles and 'yes'-es!!

To go on with what happened next, I shall tell you that I needn't have bothered downloading any extra females for the current herd, because much to my delight, I found that both Pommes and Wiff had finally grown up. Much later and much slower than everynorn else yet that became irrelevant as soon as I discovered that both of them are able to breed. I was also really glad to be past Pomme's fussy phase. Maybe that was the rebellious teen stage and I mistook it for eating problems. Lol.

With Pommes' dark colouring and Wiff's reddish hue, they are sure to continue the array of pretty colours in my Norns. I love pretty colours. I don't know who doesn't. XD

Thanks to Jessica at Discover Albia and Grendel Man, (who took a look at Aurn's genetics for me), I have discovered that the dark colour being modelled by Pommes here, as well as several of my other creatures, is actually linked back to Aurn, who apparently is related to (or may be one of) a Creatures 1 breed called a Night Norn. For more information please go and take a peek at Discover Albia blog around August 2012. It really is exciting stuff! (Oh, you might want to also read the rest of her Blog while you're there, just a thought =^_^=)

I have yet to prise my C1 genetics kit open as I have encountered trouble first with locating the key code or whatever it's called to unlock it, and secondly, to install the darned thing, which has well and truly had a dummy spit at me. Poo. -_-; I mean, it's not like I'll be able to understand it once I get it open but I'd at least like to poke and prod and get myself into trouble. Ah well, we'll leave that saga for another day.

Suffice to say, once these two slowpokes had finished their growth spurts, I lured them off to join the others, not wishing good opportunity to pass by. (Those are...uh...apples, sprinkled around the sea bridge. Yes...>.> Apples! Alright, they're tomatoes. There's nothing wrong with a little encouragement, is there?)

They made a lovely sight hanging about together and I gave a sigh of relief for Miss Bellis, who had previously been preparing to be loved up by every male around (apart from sweet Crimson, whom, as it turns out, appears to be infertile). Not that Bellis is having a bad life, that is. She's happy as ever, playing with Sam and Fluffbum and the bouncy ball. It was so cute I just had to take a piccy. Although, she sort of looks like a sales lady in an Albian advertisement for squeaky rubber balls. "Here we have the bouncy 2000! Hours of fun for everyone! Safe for both Grendels and Norns - (teleporter not included!)"

I hadn't had to wait long before we had our first new baby on the way. I believe the father is Sam, though there have been several eggs since this so I'm trying not to get my eggs scrambled. :D

Unless my observation kit lies, Fluffbum the Grendel leads me to believe that the egg resulting from Bellis and Sam's tryst is his. Hee hee. He's going to have to don a blonde wig and a squeaky voice before I'll believe that. Still, he's a sweetie for trying. <3 He was interested in this egg for a while (trying to 'push' or 'look' egg) before moving on to find some food and a toy. Bellis sleeps on up the lift, completely unaware.

Not long after that, he found the cable car and had a great time riding it back and forth over the garden. There's nothing cuter than a happy Fluffbum. :D I think he had some honey in there too. Needless to say this Grendel loves a lot of tickles and attention. If he spots me, he follows me around till he gets a tickle.

 With the Grendel gone and her mother and father nowhere to be seen little <un-named> hatches out of her crackly cocoon with only a banana and a dolly for company. Nevertheless there's a sweet smile on her face and she utters her first words. The reason she's remaining nameless is because, like I promised earlier, I was wondering whether anyone reading this would like to have a go at picking out a name. Suggestions can be posted in the comments here or sent to my email: HoneyGlobule@hotmail.com

If you can't come up with any (or I don't like what you chose - nah, just kidding! Even if you call her something silly, that's okay. I have a Grendel named Fluffbum so if it's along similar lines I am fine with that.) then I shall choose her a fitting name.

Something bad had to happen to counteract all the happy. Is that how these things work?

A short while after exporting this girl and making a back-up copy, I now have a couple of sick Norns on my hand(s). Sam is eating okay when I distract him from his spinning dance and prompt him to eat but Crimson is spinning around in circles of woe, sneezing and coughing with items of food clutched in his sweaty paw. (Do Norns sweat? XD) When distracted, he drops them and when told to eat, he picks it up, gets interrupted by a sneeze and the ballet recommences.

Hoping that this illness won't spread does nothing to stop the spread of it and soon Bellis is also down with a cold. I am a little panicky and hover around them, trying to get them to eat. A nap or two and a few licks of honey or a carrot seemed to get them back on track but it was a scare I could have done without with so few Norns in the world. Losing Sam, Crimson and Bellis would have left me with only three Norns and a lot of sadness. Thankfully that didn't come true.

With the Norns on the mend and things calmed down once again, it was time for a double dose of goodness to overcome the triple dose of ick. Congrats to Frodo and Pommes on their very first pregnancy! I had to stare at the screen for a while to make sure it was really happening. Congratulations also to Bellis and somenorn! I can't remember who the daddy is, though I'm sure we will have it on their birth certificate when a name is chosen.

Naturally, being the first to conceive, Bellis is also first to lay her purple ellipse in the strawberry patch before quickly retreating from the thing that just caused her a ton of pain.

And Pommes falls asleep seconds after laying hers! She has a rare, pretty smile on her face and it looks like she's cuddling her tiny treasure close while she slumbers, in contrast to Bellis, who being much more experienced, may have the attitude of 'get that thing away from me'. At least, it's fun to imagine she does. Hehehe. XD

Two proud mothers with their growing eggs. I might or might not be hiding somewhere just outside the frame whispering things like 'egg' or 'look egg' into their furry little ears. :D

With a crackle and a snap, <un-named> Bellis Baby number 2 is here! She seems to have a peculiar reddish hue...

Joined a few minutes later by <un-named> Pommes Baby 1, who has a dark colouring which probably comes from Pommes and Frodo. XD

Speaking of Frodo, I had to rush to his side weilding my syringe! The observation kit findings were pretty grim and his whimpering was also ringing a warning bell. I don't care about survival of the fittest. When my cat is sick, I take it to the vet! My computer pet wasn't going to suffer either. Plus I have an attachment to him because of his name XD. There can't be a Sam left in the world without a Frodo. Not in this world anyway! :D 

 This is why I am freaking out:

Both of them at once, too. I was wasting time trying to get them to eat but there wasn't enough time to dilly dally watching the silly things cark it. So out came Mr. Needle. Sorry guys. :( I know it was painful but it kept you alive.

Meanwhile, the healthy Norns are getting clucky. Bellis canoodled with Wiff and they soon had this cute little egg! :D I didn't take pictures of every stage because it all starts looking alike after a while but here it's just about to hatch...

And out comes our first boyo! I'm wondering whether the genetics of this third generation will have any mutations yet but it's probably too early for that. So long as he's happy and healthy, that's the main thing.

Bellis also had another few foals, and I forgot to take pictures of two of them (I think it was two) but here's another of hers, which I have saved under 'Bellis Baby Something' because quite frankly, I've lost count:

She has had many eggs before reaching her elder stage, after which I have seperated her from the boys to spend peaceful quiet time with Pommes near the light house and the bee hives. I think she deserves it, plus I now have enough Norns for generation 3!

And she is not the only one to start enjoying retirement. Fluffbum finally resembles a grey dust bunny a little bit more than a crocodile. I brought him a new toy to his island to celebrate.

Just to show how much time has passed, here are the stats. Plus a pregnancy. How'd that get in there? :O (hehe. It was a surprise to me too, though a happy one).

The below picture of Pommes just goes to show that if you didn't pay attention to who was kisspopping whom, or didn't use the observation kit, you wouldn't be able to tell. Unlike in Creatures 3 and Docking Station where they get those adorable roly-poly tummies! *squee!*

Yet here is the proof in the pudding. Or...the chocolate Norn anyway. Or is that the proof OUT of the...you know what, I confuse myself sometimes... x.x

Meet Pommes second child and the last of our line of generation 3! She doesn't have a name and you have three guesses for who the father is. Wiff doesn't actually transform himself into a pair of wings and fly around Albia though it would be fair to assume that he does it when I'm not looking as I am quite certain most of this next herd are his offspring.

As stated before, none of these pint size babbies have names yet, so feel free to make suggestions for any you might like. Until next time, take care and God Bless!

May your dreams be filled with Norns tonight. In a good way.

SpringRain. <3