Tag Archive pets

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Garbage Pets

Anyone who has talked to me in the last four years knows that I think getting rabbits as pets was a Big Mistake. Rabbits are a lot of work, and they don’t really act like pets. They run away from you instead of to you and don’t like to be picked up, even though they need daily brushing. They’re kind of garbage pets.

I didn’t stage this photo, though. Rabbits would never stay put if you place them for a photo. He just decided to jump in this waste basket all by himself. So I guess that’s kind of cute, at least?

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Dust Bunny

In the original U.S. release of Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbor Totoro, makuro kurosuke were translated as “dust bunnies.” Dust bunnies, Nanny explains gather in unused houses and out of the way spaces. In Western culture, we expect to find dust bunnies under the bed. Nanny said that dust bunnies leave when people come back to live in a house and start cleaning. But this one just stayed and stayed.

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Hamster Wheel of Pain

The year 2015 was the year we tried keeping rodents as pets. It didn’t work out well for us. The first dwarf hamster lasted less than one week – most of it loose/lost in the house. The rabbit (I know, technically a lagomorph, not a rodent; potato potato) turned out to be all work no affection – and very long-lived. Still going.

This hamster was, in theory, a success. She lived as long as dwarf hamsters ever do – nearly a full two years. But she also cost $500 in vet bills and boarding because she got sick right before our family trip to Iceland, and I didn’t want the kids to associate vacations with dead pets.

And she bit us every time we tried to pick her up. For two years. This cute little picture of her next to her wheel was the most pleasure we ever got out of that particular pet.

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A Tragedy Waiting to Happen

Long ago, I told the tragic story of the Brief, Wondrous Life of Princess Lilac. Recently, I stumbled on this image from that brief golden period in between Petco and hamster disaster. A single day, filled with hope and the joy of a little girl with a fuzzy pet. A day before second attempts at species never meant for domestication, before compensatory rabbits, before cranky cats named for fictional dogs.

(And since this is posting close to Christmas, let it serve as a reminder that pets are not holiday gifts.)

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RIP Rorschach

RorschachSleeping

Rorschach

1997-2016

Thou cattest of cats whose shadow plays on Plato’s wall