OMG, I had insane amounts of fun at the Wolf Center today! When I got there, the manager was just getting ready to go on a run to pick up a couple of goats. See, the area around the Wolf Center is really rural - mostly farmers and ranchers. Whenever one of their animals passes away, they call the Center and as long as the deceased animal fits certain health restrictions, we go pick it up so we can feed it to the animals. So I tagged along on the trip out to pick up a couple of goats. We got back, and had no room in the freezers so we went ahead and fed them straight to the wolves. Oh, man, the boys ripped into theirs. They were very excited. :P Unfortunately, the girls got a smaller, frozen one, so they had to wait for it to thaw.

Just as I'd gotten a machete and was gonna go whack at some mustard grass overgrowth, we got a call from another rancher saying he had a dead goat, too. So off we went to get that one! OMG, that place was AWESOME. He had a few hundred goats, and there were TONS of kids (goat kids, not human kids) that he was bottle-feeding. As a result, they were like puppies. We got out of the truck, and a dozen of them started bleating and came running over for attention. So freakin' cute! We petted them and played with them for ages. It was about feeding time for them, so he asked if we wanted to stick around and help feed. So he made some formula and we got to feed all the baby goats! EEE! So cute! Eventually we got what we had gone there for and headed back to the Wolf Center and fed it to the boys, too (there's way more males than females). They're so cute when they're fed. I won't go into the gory details, though. :P

So now I totally smell like goat, but it was so worth it.

Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch

So last night, I totally needed an uplifting movie. Luckily, I had Lilo and Stitch 2. OMG LOVE! Not quite the caliber of the original, but close! Daveigh Chase (Lilo) is the only original voice cast member that didn't return. Her sound-alike isn't bad, although she really doesn't quite have the same air about her as Daveigh did.

The plot: before Jumba was arrested in the first movie, he failed to "charge" Stitch completely. As a result, Stitch is steadily losing energy, which causes him to become uncontrollably naughty and brings him closer to death every second.

The story: without giving too much away, it was extremely touching! Another wonderful message of love and family. And like the original, this one had tears streaming down my face in one spot. The interaction between Lilo and Stitch is very well-played out. I particularly loved Stitch holding her back from beating up Myrtle in the start. You'll just have to watch it to see why that's so funny. ;) I think the plot got a bit predictable at times, but it was still well enough done that I was inclined to ignore that. I also like the direction that they took the ending - that part did catch me by surprise.

The music: Elvis reigns again! I loved that they used "Stop, Look and Listen" because I busted out laughing and immediately started doing the super-cheesy dance that I saw/did all too many times while working followspot for "Shamu's House of Douse" shows last summer. I also really liked that closing song (which I can't remember the name of now). Would love to find a copy of that. And I'm always a sucker for the Hawaiian language songs that they use. That language is just too pretty!

Overall: See it! It's a cute one. Heartbreaking in parts, but still full of the same feelings as the original.

And because I think a lot of us need to hear something like this today:
"Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind. Or forgotten."