Here’s the brief:

A fire destroyed a house in the 2600 block of Wyatt Drive in Medford just before midnight Monday because of faulty wiring in some Christmas-tree lights, Medford Fire and Rescue officials said.

None of the three occupants in the house or responding firefighters were hurt in the blaze.

“It was electrically caused,” said Medford Fire Marshal Greg Kleinberg. “We think there was a failure in the wiring or some of the connections.”

A 7-year-old boy living in the house alerted his father and 12-year-old brother to the fire after his cat jumped on his bed and he awoke to the smell of smoke.

All family members escaped unharmed.

File that under amazing.

And please, watch the tinsel and take care that your trees are blinged out with safety in mind.

*Please note: Christmas trees in and of themselves can be deadly for cats! First off, if pine needles are ingested they can puncture their itty bitty intestines. Pine is also highly toxic for cats, connected to liver damage and even death. Finally the fire retardant sprayed on trees (both live and artificial) have been linked to feline thyroid disease.

Since we’re on the subject, perhaps you’d be better off celebrating Hanukkah this year.

A Green tree frog. This beautiful specimen is a regular resident on my front verandah.

One of my favourite species of Australian native freshwater fish. The Sooty Grunter.

Leichharts grasshopper. Photo taken by Grant Husband

A baby echidna, also known as a puggle.

Do you have a particular Australian animal that you would like to see? Send me a message, either in the comments below or post to Facebook and I will  post the photo in one of my next blogs! I’ll even go out and photograph the subject for you, if I can. Until next time, bye for now from Brad’s Pit.

I would like to acknowledge Grant Husband and Bruce Clutton for their contributions to Brad’s Pit Blogs by providing great photographs.

A Stimson's Python pops its head out of its egg and takes a breath. The start of new life. This is the first egg to hatch for breeding season 2011 at Brad's Pit.

Well, good news everyone. Over the past three days reptile eggs have been slitting and young pythons hatching. You know I have been breeding reptiles for more than 20 years, but I still get warm fuzzies when I see that first egg slit and out pops a little head ready to take a big deep breath. WOW.

A young Stimson's Python after slitting the egg may sit in this position for a couple of days before wriggling out and being totally free of the egg.

Finally out of the egg after two days.

Two young Stimson's pythons. Hatch Date 11.11.11

Look at the two Stimpson’s above. Imagine if they hatched on the 11th second of the 11th minute of the 11th hour on the 11.11.11. A once in a lifetime chance of a truly freakish birth date.

How beautiful is this brand new hatchling Stimson's python?

Well everyone, I must go and attend to babies and eggs. Keep watching and I’ll give you regular updates. Bye for now from Brad’s Pit.

A Striped Carpet Python bred during the 2009 breeding season.

A very colourful striped carpet

A Striped Carpet Python Bred at Brad's Pit in 2007

A Hypo melanistic striped carpet python bred at Brad' Pit 2008

Striped Spotted Python bred at Brad's snake pit 2009.

For more information on the variety of Striped Pythons I keep in Brad’s Snake Pit, visit www.crazycarpet.com.au.

Martini remakes famous album sleeves with cats replacing the rockstars. So far she’s given albums from Kiss, the Beatles, Nirvana, The Cure, The Clash, Sonic Youth and more the kitty treatment. She calls her project a personal tribute to the classic rock albums that influenced her own career.

Here are a few covers that we think rock. For more, check out her blog.

Confusion is pets.

Go ahead, put on the red light tonight.

Smells like kitty litter.

Welcome to Dynasty.  

The Kitty Underground

Rock the cat-spa. 

Stick another dime in the juke box, human. 

Are you surprised? You always knew I was an ol’ dirty bastard. 

A Common Death Adder. In the wild this species is found in and around the Sydney sandstone regions. In other words, they are found all around Brad's Snake Pit.

Hi, and welcome back to Brad’s Pit. I have had a very busy few days. So far all but two of my gravid Children’s Pythons have laid eggs. I noticed one of the two remaining females looking like she may drop this morning or even tonight.

Nature is a wonderful and majestic thing, isn’t it? Last week here in Sydney’s outskirts it was 35 degrees celcius and the next day it was 20 degrees celcius. You might be wondering why I’m talking about the weather. The point I am trying to make is that most of my female snakes lay eggs when a low pressure system moves through. A sudden drop in temperature and a day or two of soaking rain has a huge influence on all animals.

Having spoken to a few Death Adder Keepers in my time, many of them have mentioned that they can pick when the female Death Adders are going to give birth due to low pressure systems during March and April of each year. One keeper mentioned that he was amazed that in his reptile room, under varying keeping requirements, all the female Death Adders gave birth within 24 hours of one another.

I really love all the wonderful animals in Brad’s Pit, but more so I just dig the greater beast, nature.

A Satellite photo of Australia showing the low pressure system over NSW and WA.

A Western Australian Western Blue-tongue Lizard. I am currently trialling a NEW Kritter's Crumble pellet. This is going to be a great substrate for reptile keepers and all animal keepers. It should be for sale real soon.

In news ahead, my Western Australian Western Blue-tongue lizards have all been mating over the past week so it’s a busy time here in Brad’s Pit. In the meantime, I must check on my Children’s pythons who are ready to lay eggs today.

Until next time.

Thanks to all the Bearded Dragon keepers that commented. Here’s what they had to say:

“If you think of the personality traits of cats or dogs, well in the reptile world the AIBD is the closest reptile to a cat or dog as they, too, have loads of personality.”

“They come in great colours like, Hypo, Leucistic, Albino, Sandfire and Yellow.”

“They’re relatively easy to keep dragon.”

“They can be tamed and can also be trained a little.”

“Great to handle and they really like to interact with people.”

Another different colour and patterned AIBD.

Meet Prickle. An average coloured Australian Inland Bearded Dragon.

A couple of juvenile AIBD at different ages. Hey, check out our 5 and 10 cent pieces in the photo. These coins are part of our currency here in Australia.

Prickle, the green one pictured above, is a fantastic AIBD. He belongs to a friend named Anthony. Now, Anthony has a business called Australian Wildlife Displays where he takes out his wonderful selection of Australian native animals to show the public and school children, in particular.

Prickle puts on a great show for the children by head bobbing and arm waving and gobbling up juicy bugs. In all, he’s a big hit with the kids. And his breed is a great lizard for a pet.

*I would like to acknowledge Troy Martin for all the great Bearded Dragon photos and information he shared with me. 

I want to go shopping – I really, really do – but that would be irresponsible. Instead I do as any responsible person would and ignore my children whilst engaging in pornographic rounds of cyber shopping. It’s like window-shopping for the etsy generation!

Here’s what I found.

From the shop of ThePetiteChouette in Germany, the Lovely Kitten Tee.

Also from ThePetiteChoette, the Cuteness Dress. The best thing about cyber shopping is that in some pixilated universe out there, I could actually wear this dress and look “cute” at the same time. In the ugly real one – with bills and whatnot – I might have a hard time fitting this dress over my left thigh.

The kitten cruising on a scooter t-shirt, however, would fit quite nicely, thank you. From GearHeadArmy, it’s an original graphic that’s been hand screen printed in the designer’s home studio.

Let’s talk accessories.

Italian illustrator Eleonora D’Erme has created these wonderfully sweet cat portrait pins.

The Golden Kitten Ring from the “I’m All Ears” series was inspired by the artist’s renderings of bears, cats and rabbits, oh my! From The Golden Plague

And finally, diamonds really are a kitty’s best friend and I am just in love with this delicate baby kitten ring in sterling silver with diamonds, by MichelleChangJewelry.

What a wonderfully proud Goanna. This is known as Varanus panoptes also known as Argus Monitor. I took this photo years ago whilst in outback Western Queensland.

As well as my passion for all the wonderful reptiles in Brad’s Snake Pit, I have a real passion for WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY. A capital one!

I use a PENTAX K7 for all my photography. As a matter of fact when I had on of my favourite lenses sent away to be cleaned, the local camera store owner commented on what a great lens the Pentax 4 to 32mm Macro is, for my pursuits especially.

Reptiles are, obviously, my specialty and my muse. I am no expert in photography. Australia’s already got plenty of those including Steve Parish, Graeme Chapman and Ken Griffiths, to name a few.

But if you’ll allow me to toot my own horn, check these out and let me know what you think! Am I National Geographic‘s next rockstar photographer?

A Knob-tailed Gecko from Central Australia

An Eastern Blue-tongue lizard giving birth.

Come on, be honest…

Stimson's Python eggs being incubated using the water method. In other words the eggs are suspended above water by a plastic grid. No egg media is used in this method

A Woma python hatching from an egg using the traditional egg media method of incubation

During the 2007/2008 breeding season I experimented with using the water method and traditional egg media method for incubating a clutch of jungle python eggs. The clutch was divided into two. This was so I could compare notes from the alternative incubation (water method) with traditional methods (using egg media).

The water method involved placing 6 out of the 12 eggs on a plastic grid (see photos above) and suspending them over 20mm of water. I incubated at 31.6 degrees C. Meanwhile, the other 6 eggs were placed in an egg container with vermiculite and a layer of perlite over the top.

All 12 eggs hatched, eventually. Interestingly enough, the water method eggs took 62 days to hatch while the media method tool only 60 days to hatch. On the other hand, the snakes that hatched in the water method were on average of 4 to 8 grams heavier in weight. Interesting.

I now continue to use the water method but with a few adjustments. I drill a 1-2mm hole at one end of the container above the water level and also in the lid of the container. This allows air exchange in the container for the eggs.

One of the 6 jungle pythons hatched out after 62 days using the water method for incubation.

Instructions: Using the Water Method

Use a 10 litre cake container

Add 20mm of coll boiled water

(VERY IMPORTANT) Two very small holes drilled in one end of  container above the water line and one small hole in the lid. These small holes will allow allow air exchange

A label on the front to record information

Digital thermometre to record temperatures

Now, the water method of incubation is a fairly new concept for me. There are other reptile keepers from all around the world who have been doing it for a long time, so I encourage you to embark on more internet research as well. All of my blogs are from my own experience of keeping Australian reptiles for over 25 years. Always listen to advice from others and do lots of reading and research to get a balanced supply of information.

Happy Keeping!