Heh. Well, Emmett wasn't that precise. He'd just ask, "So what's the most poisonous snake," and billytea would go through all the options and expand out to reptiles and beyond.

That was a good day. I'm looking forward to having such conversations with Ryan.

I'm looking forward to having such conversations with Ryan.

"Daddy? What can kill me right where we're standing?"

"Well, Ryan, that lizard over there is poisonous, that plant over there will kill you if you eat it, and that snake by your foot would have you dead as a doornail before you hit the ground. Isn't it gorgeous?"

"Cool!"

He is billytea's son after all.

edit: And they live in Australia, God's Testing Lab for Shit That will Fuck You Up.

Also, included in that conversation: all the many senses that animals have beyond our five.

Survival not being one of them, if my house is any indication.

Survival not being one of them, if my house is any indication.

They were mesmerized by your magnetic polarity.

That's about as good as anything I've come up with.

(For those not in Natter - I have a very rules-oriented dog who appears to have decided that the new rule is "I [dog] am not allowed to eat out of my food bowl" and therefore is cobbling together a near-starvation diet from post-walk treats and certain things that happen to fall on the floor..)

Is she, perhaps, waiting for you to break out the six-piece Limoges place setting? or maybe she'd be happier eating off the floor?

And I think that if you want to know about the most poisonous anything, it's probably in Australia.

And I think that if you want to know about the most poisonous anything, it's probably in Australia.

Not at all. It's just as often in the waters surrounding Australia. (DIVERSITY - WE HAS IT!)

Right - the blue spotted octopus and the cuttlefish. And sea snakes.

So ... if I should ever travel to Australia, should I invest in a wide range of antivenins?

Right - the blue spotted octopus and the cuttlefish. And sea snakes.

Box jellyfix. shudder

Do not want!