Meet Steggy.  She might not have very much of a brain, but she makes up for that with the softness of her heart.  There’s not a whole lot that’ll surprise her (thanks to Pete’s training), and she’ll let just about anybody clamber on her back. 🙂

I say “just about” anybody, because there was that one time some kids wanted her to be their fortress in a water balloon battle.  That was a bit too much for Steggy.  But that class of preschoolers who came to visit were adorable.  Steggy just sat there and let them climb all over her (Pete stuck a few tennis balls on her spikes, so they wouldn’t be so sharp).  The kids had a great time painting stars and hearts on her big plates.

Steggy’s pretty mellow because of all the surprise games and “scary new things” Pete does with her.  Like horses, Stegosaurus tend to be nervous around anything new.  Like training a race horse to ignore the noise of the crowd and the track, Steggy here’s been trained to not freak out when she sees something new or something jumps out of the bushes.

That small brain (just one, and about the size of the average dog brain) means that Stegosaurus tend to be more reactive, you see.  More temperamental and aggressive when they’re surprised, nervous, or scared.  And they’re fast with that tail!

That tail is a spiked mace of pure muscle, and most Stegosaurus have a “swing first, don’t ask questions” sort of attitude.

But once Steggy figured out that Pete is just going to throw new stuff at her all the time, she learned to just not be surprised.

Here’s a peek into her thought process…

A giant stuffed bear in the crook of a tree?  Huh?  Weird.  Leaves are tasty…

Neon flags waving along the fence line?  What’s that! Ooh…pretty. (steps closer, takes a cautious bite out of a green one) Ooh, they taste funny.

A big, inflatable Halloween spider sitting in a corner of the pasture.  Monster?! Wait…monster? (stares at it for a while) Hmm…not coming closer…What’s for breakfast?

Making progress…

I’m clipping along at a pretty good pace.  Or at least a steady one (not really all that fast 😛 ).

• On Monday I officially posted my 50th post.

• I now have 19 amazing readers who also enjoy prehistoric critters.

• The website is looking more like a furnished house than an empty lot.

• The Critter Cards for six of the primary characters featured in the book are complete and ready as a set of free printables.

• All the sign-up forms and follow-up pages for Pete’s Postcards from the Shop are done and ready to go (just need to purchase domain name and “email space” so I can send ePostcards from the Shop. 🙂

And all this over the course of almost 6 months. 😀  Amazing what you can do in 15 mins – 1 hour a day

Next step is completing a collection of mini-comics.  Critter Cam: What You’re Dinosaur is Doing When You’re Not Looking.

I’ll also be working on the next set of Critter Cards, and slowly updating some of the header images on the site.  Like the Homepage picture and Meet the Critters.

While I do this it’d be awesome to see a small trickle of income…so the comic-collection gets priority so I can put it up on Amazon. 😀

Thank you so much for spending your time with me.  You’re awesome, and I truly mean that.  I hope what I do can give you a few moments of joy, entertainment, perhaps learn a little something you didn’t know…I always love hearing from you in the comments, so if there’s any way I can make your stay better, please let me know! 🙂

Coming Next Week…

This shy giant will do anything for his special person, even if it means getting out of his comfort zone.

Share your guess in the comments! She’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂