Return of the Skrewt Spawn!

[Shirley]

Amanda, the Skrewt-killer:
<<much snippage, but Shirley must say:  *great* story!>>
> 
> Anyway, I now give you the URL so you can see the Skrewt spawn. 
It's 
> clearly related to Hagrid's larger blasting Skrewts. From the 
> descriptions I found, this subspecies does not shoot fire. Thank 
all 
> the good gods. I must warn you, not only is this thing hideous, the 
> lunatic taking the picture has it sitting on his *foot* and his 
> *hand.* This makes my skin crawl on two levels, the thing itself 
and 
> the thought of it touching me. I still won't even poke the body 
with 
> a stick; He Who Deals With Bugs must handle it when he gets back. 
> This is beyond me trapping stuff under bowls and cups and balancing 
> large unabridged dictionaries on top to keep them there until he 
can 
> arrive and handle it; this thing had to die and I'm even ooked out 
by
> the carcass. Looking at the pictures, I can see the tiny black eyes 
> buried in the crevice, but they are much less harder to see on the 
> one I met. And mine was larger.
> 
> In a word. Eeurgh.
> 
> --Amanda the Skrewt-Killer
> 
> P.S. of October 2003--the Skrewt was, some months later, mounted in 
> lucite, has been carried on trips and shown to other HP fanfolk, 
and 
> is currently on the shelf above my desk at work as I type.  ~A

now Shirley:
Oh, **ICK**; it gives me the willies just *looking* at it!  And to 
think that guy is letting it *touch* him.  I hope I manage to forget 
about those pictures before bed tonight!  You are truly brave if you 
can sit with it so near you on a daily basis, even if it *is* in 
Lucite.

That looks like something you'd find in the desert, except I don't 
ever remember seeing anything like it around Midland.  What's it 
doing in humid San Antonio?  Yep, definitely a sign that *someone* 
has been ignoring the rule against magical creature cross-breeding :-)

Shirley, still creeped-out (thank God it's awhile until dark, here!)