Bijou Rocks Around the US!

One of the 4 packages we received last week was from Bijou. Bijou is a Toy Rat Terrier from Falls City, Nebraska. She has a younger brother named Banjo who is also a Toy Rat Terrier. Rat Terriers have longer snouts and shorter tails but other than that look alot like chihuahuas - which means, of course, they are extremely good lookin dawgs! The package from Bijou was very heavy and Ziggy was very anxious to get it opened.

Before the rocks made their 1,370 mile trek, Bijou had to first pose with them!

Then she needed to smell them to make sure they were not only interesting looking rocks but also interesting smelling rocks! Smells are so important to us dawgs you know.

After the photos session and quality control inspection, Bijou gave her stamp of approval and declared the rocks were fit to be mailed to me!

Mom opened the package and laid all the rocks out on the patio with the letter. Bijou explained that the two speckled rocks on the upper left came from the Oregon coastline. The two triangular rocks on the lower right along with the white rock on the bottom left came from Arizona. The remaining rocks all came from Bijou's home state of Nebraska. So alot of the rocks had already traveled great distances before they made their way to me in New York!Libby the camera hog insisted on a photo shoot with the letter and rocks (as usual)!No offense to all my cat friends, but sometimes cats can be such attention seekers! Libby is constantly infringing on my time with mom. She insists on sitting next to mom on the couch every night which really annoys me because I want to sit next to mom! If I'm not quick enough she'll steal my spot next to mom in bed too! The little white rock from Arizona is called a Desert Rose. Mom had to take a close-up picture of it to share with all of you because it is so interesting and beautiful. Desert Roses are actually "chalcedony" which is formed when mineral rich water flows or drips over a long period of time. You can see "growth" rings on this beautiful specimen. It is very smooth and has an almost waxy feel. It's hard for me (and my mom) to really understand the geological make-up of this rock but it is somehow related to the quartz family and is often used to make jewelry. Please forgive me if any of this information is wrong. I did research but there isn't a Desert Rose for Dummies web site out there! All I know is I like it and it's a great addition to my mom's table!I chose the place for the rocks in the table on the two corners. Several of the rocks were too big to fit under the glass but no worries - my mom has figured that all out. Rambo sent a rock that was too big and the beautiful big shell from Byron & Xinver is also too big to fit under the glass. Last weekend my mom found the PERFECT clear glass candle holder that she's filling with the plus-sized rocks and shells and she'll post about that when it gets a little more full!