I don't get it, Chaz... I'm blonde and slow! Duh... explain it slowly, please. Skip-Bo sounds like fun, and Uno has always been a blast! The ex and I played with another couple in the complex when we lived West Chicago. Uno nights always included plenty of booze! What a riot! As kids, my Dad taught us to play War, Poker and BlackJack... and they played Pinochle, and a card game called Donkey with their adult friends. Bozo the Clown... and Ringmaster Ned, and the original Cookie the Clown! Watched it every day! Even went there once and was part of the audience! Egads, I'm old!

It could be one of the oakworms, Sue, probably the spiny oakworm/anisota stigma. This cat is highly variable in coloring, but it has the long, red-spotted purple style "horns" that few moths have. If it were me, I'd offer it some oak leaves - still, it may not eat them, because when you see caterpillars wandering around they're usually going to pupate/cocoon. MissSherry

My Dad was the same way, Lazypup. Not with the hair and beard, since he was bald and couldn't grow facial hair because of facial cancer and a tissue transplant, but in the way he dressed when he was out with his cameras. He was a physician, but photography was his passion. He took black and whites, and would go out every chance he could and snap all day long. Not only did he dress for comfort, many times he would have his very well behaved dog Max (an Australian shepherd) with him in some of the roughest parts of Chicago. He was never bothered with that dog by his side. Stay true to yourself!

Well, I do grow Haworthias now, Imontestella- keep up, man ;-). My experimentation with gritty mixes was about 2 years ago. Too bad you weren't there as the voice of reason then, Imontestello. I had planned to try just a few plants, but others on the site didnt think caution necessary, so I jumped in with both feet. More recently, I advised someone else to experiment with just a couple of plants first, and Al jumped all over me about it- simply because I warned the person of some of the downsides of gritty mix. It's an insanely contentious subject on this forum. It is true that I'm very new to growing Haworthia- like new in the last week, but I've been growing plants for 3-1/2 decades; I read, and my thumbs are very green. I had not read that Haworthias lose their roots occasionally. Why is this? That sounds like a reaction to some environmental stressor to me. Where can I read about the phenomenon? I can imagine root loss occurring as a plant uses that stored water during a drought, but it would be evolutionary suicide to lose roots at a time when there is adequate water and the plant needs it. Renee, now that the search feature on this site is working, search the cacti and succulent forum for "failing to thrive in gritty mix" and you will find 2 pages of threads about dehydration in gritty mix and other people having problems just like yours. Here's one of my previous posts attempting to draw attention to this exact problem. Lots of helpful commentary on it. http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3068289/a-warning-about-gritty-mixes?n=31