Critically Endangered
Unfortunately there is not much at all known about these. They are a marsupial most closely related to possums. There are 2 museum specimens. I have no idea how they were collected, if the animals were studied while live or just a "hey, look at that interesting thing, I'm going to kill it" sort of thing. The weirdest part is there is, or was, also one kept as a pet. I do not know how long ago, if it is still alive, or anything about it. From all I could find, I am betting that the owner is the only expert in this species. The species was only described in 2004. There have been 5 surveys, and no others have been found. The last assessment the IUCN lists was June 2015. They are from the west Papua area of Indonesia. It may seem as if I screwed up on the eyes, but honest, they all seem almost wall-eyed because of how much their eyes bug out.
You can't tell in this picture, but my son's eyes are an absolutely gorgeous bright blue. There is a lot of history tied in this picture. One of the car accidents I was in was a really bad one. I had the boys in the Subaru Outback we owned, along with some of my camera equipment. It was a 45mph road where everyone usually goes well above that. I was stopped at a red light. A guy on his phone didn't realize the light was red, and slammed into the back of the car going about 50mph. Most importantly, both the boys were perfectly fine because of properly installed car seats. Initially I couldn't open my door, the frame of the car was too damaged. I had to kick my way out. I then somehow managed to get one of the back doors open and hauled the boys out of the car, keeping them in their car seats and setting them on the sidewalk out of the way. There was glass in the road for 40 feet behind our car. Our outback essentially had turned from a hatchback into a car with no trunk area at all. I was standing there and firemen came up asking if I was alright. I said I was in pain and they convinced me I should go in the ambulance to the ER. The second I said ok, one of them had grabbed me and held my head stable while another put a collar on me. I was out of it, but was very impressed with their speed and how careful they were. The boys got to ride in an ambulance with me. I had bruised internal organs that caused some bleeding, and I had whiplash but this time no concussion thankfully. Goodness, long story short here...we finally settled with insurance, and I replaced my camera. A day or two after getting the camera I took this picture. Within 5 days the beagle in this picture had died from cancer. We only had about a week with him after his diagnosis. He started coughing, we took him to the vet, and he was full of cancer. I got a picture like this with both of my kids. The best way to get a picture like this was putting a little peanut butter on their noses, which made them laugh and our beagle loved. As you can see, my son was given ridiculously long eyelashes. In fact, when he was a baby, they got tangled in his eyebrows! I still desperately miss this dog. He was my problem child, and taught me how to childproof our home!
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