My Morrillo

How embarrassing. I can't believe she's using this photo again.

 

 I want to talk about my morrillo. I think it is disappearing.

 My morrillo is the gland on top of my nose. I use it to mark my stuff, but it doesn't have any odor that humans can smell. It is a little greasy to the touch. 

Only male capybaras have a big one like mine.

This is me on August 4, 2011 (President Obama's birthday!)

 A few days after that last photo was taken, 

Dr. Hoppes, a veterinarian from Texas A&M University, came to visit me. 

I really, really liked her and wanted to mark her all over! 

Stacy gave her a bucket to hold and I marked it instead.

 Coincidentally (I think....) I ended up at my veterinary clinic two days later!

 Look how big my morrillo looks here! 

 When I got home from the veterinary clinic, by nether regions were really sore. 

I was so uncomfortable I could barely drink my milk!

 

 A couple days later I was feeling good enough to make my rounds, marking my apple tree and anything else hanging around at morrillo level.

 Here I am about a month later. Already my morrillo isn't quite as swollen and shiny. 

 By mid-October, it is a little smaller and 

my fuzzy face hairs are starting to come back around the edges.

 My little front yard pond started to refill around Thanksgiving time. 

My morrillo doesn't look much different now, though.

 By early December, my morrillo has started to deflate, kind of. 

It isn't as uniformly swollen. 

It is still kind of greasy, though.

 You can see that it is a bit more dented in mid-January. 

It is more swollen toward my nose, and less toward my ears.

 From this angle you can see my morrillo is a 

slightly different shape from when it was really swollen last August.

 By early February you can see how my facial hair is reclaiming my morrillo.

 In the right lighting, my morrillo is still very prominent.

 Late February and it has lost some luster.

 In the wrong light, my morrillo is almost gone! This is in March, 2012.

 Fast forward to May and my morrillo is just an extension of my nose. 

It is barely swollen at all, but still somewhat greasy and still very visible.

By late June, it is clearly disappearing!

 See? It is a shiny spot, but it isn't really a bump at all! 

 Here I am in July. 

In this light it is still a prominent feature, even though it is flatter and smaller.

Go back to the beginning photos and check out the difference.

 

 Here is my sorry little morrillo, now.

I'm starting to look like a baby again.

Let's go back to MY beginning- here I am at 1-1/2 years old, June 2010. 

This is when my morrillo was just starting to grow. 

I'll miss you, morrillo, when you're gone!