At lunchtime today, somehow the topic got onto worms. Flatworms (Platyhelminthes) to be exact. You may remember Planaria from high school science. In a college parasitology class, I also learned about parasitic flatworms and liver flukes come to mind. Nasty fuckers. In addition there are free-living terrestrial flatworms. Once, back in my days of living alone, I found one on the kitchen floor in a gob of slime. I had never seen one before and got seriously freaked out. Not because of the slimy, nasty thing on my floor, but because I was convinced it was an intestinal parasite that had either crawled out of the cat's butt, or had been puked up. I debated taking it to the vet for identification, but felt silly, so I grabbed it in a wad of paper towels and threw it in the trash. I've seen a few since, always outdoors, and am glad I didn't take it to the vet's office. They probably would've laughed their asses off at me.



Tonight as I was getting ready start the car and leave work, hubby called. I noticed a sqirrel rappelling along a phone line and had to stop hubby to interject a "holy shit!" Hubby asked what was up and I explained. The squirrel was not running along the top of the phone line in normal squirelly fashion. He was hanging onto it upside-down and scuttling along like a soldier on a covert operation. It was awesome. I couldn't believe how fast that little fucker was. Hubby made a "hut hut hut" comment, which led to visions of squirrel infantry armed with acorns and sharp teeth.