Critter Corner V. 1

I am adding a new feature to the blog. In it, I hope to discuss small pets of all sorts. Today we will start with an introduction to our current pets in order of adoption/purchase.

We own two small dogs named Shadow and Little Dog. They are brothers from a litter of my mother-in-law's dogs. They are poodle, Maltese, Chihuahua dogs that we call yapperdoodle. Watching the Dog Whisperer (on DVD) has helped us get them past many of their fears (culverts for example) and their fearful barking at every dog or person they meet. They still love to bark, but at least company and walks are great.

Cheep-Cheep (yellow) and Pete (Blue) are our two parakeets. Cheep-Cheep will sit on my daughter's finger, but Pete (a newer arrival) is still very skittish. We leave their cage door open when we are here, but they hardly ever want to go anywhere. When they do, they are quite funny to watch exploring.

Two crawdads (crayfish) live in a large plastic container in our kitchen. The boy only has one claw and the girl has no antenna. They were the control animals in an experiment where my husband works. When the experiment was over, my husband brought them home. They molt every few months. This makes them vulnerable. In fact, that is how the boy lost his claw. He had just molted when he got in a fight with the big one (who later died). They had babies once but they all died and we never knew why.

Fuzzy the guinea pig is quite the treat aficionado. He loves to eat lettuce (not iceberg), carrots, parsley, apple cores, etc. If he hears the refrigerator door open, he starts the whistling just in case you forgot that he loves to eat.

Ollie Pumpkin is our male high-energy, miniature lop rabbit. We let him and Fuzzy out in the hall on an old table cloth every day. He loves to run and jump over Fuzzy and do twisting jumps. He is a very sweet boy, but he does not enjoy snuggling and being held.

The kids and I recently made Fuzzy and Pumpkin Ollie a C and C cage. It took us a while, but was worth the effort. The entire 2'x7' cage cost about $20 because we found the metal parts at a garage sale for $5.

Last and probably least, is my son's new acquisition. A snail. We owned a really great snail named Jesse Brown (in the picture) for about 2 years before it died. This new one is a different kind so we will have to see if we keep it our not. So far it seems to be doing great in its little plastic home.

Well, I hope you guys enjoy the new Critter Corner. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them.