Capybara Update: Celeste and the Giant Hamster at Omnivoracious

I just posted a feature on Melanie Typaldos' excellent Celeste and the Giant Hamster on Omnivoracious. As I say in the feature, the chain of events that led to even knowing about this book looks something like this:

(1) A friend mentions as a joke that she wants a capybara for her birthday.

(2) This reignites my own interest in capybaras, the world's largest rodent, which leads to having a dream about capybaras.

(3) In the comments thread of the capybara dream-post, a capybara named Caplin Rous actually responds to me about my dream.

(4) I visit Caplin Rous's website and discover possibly the world's most famous capybara.

(5) I interview Caplin's owner, Melanie Typaldos for my blog, and the blogosphere explodes with love for giant rodents, with over forty thousand people reading the interview and BoingBoing linking to it under the title "Life with a 100 lb rodent that sounds like a Geiger counter when it's happy."

(6) Melanie helps my wife and me surprise our friend with a most excellent birthday photo (scroll down).

(7) Meanwhile, Melanie has sent me her children's book for ages nine through twelve, entitled Celeste and the Giant Hamster