Pets
Now that I'm 44, it's clearly high time I set aside my obviously petty grievances with the felons in high office, doncha think? To that end, I thought I'd post some pretty pictures of the pets I had in my youth. Unfortunately, I've never been much for picture taking, so I'm simply going to steal these pics from the Web for the most part.
My first pets were gerbils. I don't remember how or why we got them, but these guys lived for a looong time--longer than the average, that's for sure.
We had two of them, and there were many afternoons that we forgot to feed them. Which sounds horrible, but I bet that our neglect ended up allowing them to live their long lives; my guess is that gerbils in captivity are far more likely to be overfed than not, leading to their short lives. Our gerbils were also radically in shape, since they spent countless hours running on their wheel:
This contraption doesn't look like much fun to you or me, but man oh man did those guys love it. Their favorite trick was to run as fast as they could to get that wheel moving, and then stop instantly while grabbing onto the metal crossbars with their claws. The momentum of the wheel would then carry them all the way around the loop! Long before any roller coaster was perfected that could take you upside down, these gerbils had done it themselves. Fun for the whole family!
I will spare you the gory and heartwrenching story of their demise; I'm still upset about it. Seriously.
I miss having these cute little furballs, but they are illegal to own in California, so they might just remain simply a part of my past. *sigh*
My first pets were gerbils. I don't remember how or why we got them, but these guys lived for a looong time--longer than the average, that's for sure.
We had two of them, and there were many afternoons that we forgot to feed them. Which sounds horrible, but I bet that our neglect ended up allowing them to live their long lives; my guess is that gerbils in captivity are far more likely to be overfed than not, leading to their short lives. Our gerbils were also radically in shape, since they spent countless hours running on their wheel:
This contraption doesn't look like much fun to you or me, but man oh man did those guys love it. Their favorite trick was to run as fast as they could to get that wheel moving, and then stop instantly while grabbing onto the metal crossbars with their claws. The momentum of the wheel would then carry them all the way around the loop! Long before any roller coaster was perfected that could take you upside down, these gerbils had done it themselves. Fun for the whole family!
I will spare you the gory and heartwrenching story of their demise; I'm still upset about it. Seriously.
I miss having these cute little furballs, but they are illegal to own in California, so they might just remain simply a part of my past. *sigh*
posted by bryduck at 9:16 AM
8 Comments:
Bah. Go to Arizona and buy some. Tehy're bound to sell them in the stores that sell ferrets.
Breakin' the law, breakin' the law!! They're legal in Nevada as well. With my luck, though, the inspection station will catch me . . .
get a rat. they're smarter and legal
They are pretty cute. Much cuter than Buttercup. (My sister and I kept forgetting her name and calling her "Butterball.") Buttercup was the hamster my friend presented to me at school for my birthday in the 8th grade. Mind you, I never said I wanted a hamster, because I, uh, didn't. But I was handed a shoebox with holes poked in the lid. And there was Buttercup. My pet hamster.
I have a recurring nightmare in which I suddenly remember I own a hamster that I had forgotten about for months. I dig through a bunch of debris and find its cage with a little mummified body inside. I know it takes more than a few months for a body to naturally become mummified, but it's always mummified in my dream.
On that note, cute pics!
You owned gerbils?? I've owned guinea pigs since I was 4. My current pig is Carmelo, that my niece named after Carmelo Anthony, the basketball player. I don't know why she did that. The smartest one I had was named Junior. He had such a personality! Even my mom liked him. My first one was Snoopy. We kept him in a big cardboard box in the kitchen and fed him huge heads of lettace.
I like snakes, too. And I love it when people name their pets nice, simple names like Corny.
The Towel Thrower (and Carmelo the pig)
Why is owning gerbils illegal in CA?
My sister and I had gerbils growing up. We had one pair named Lox and Bagels. One day we found Lox with a fat belly and the corpse of Bagels slumped over in the corner. His head was missing. I swear I heard Lox burp.
Oh wow. Now that I've typed that out, it seems quite disgusting. But it's the first gerbil memory that popped into my mind. You started it.
Many, many animals are illegal to own in California. Probably because all gerbil owners are so careless that they would instantly release all their pets into the wild, thereby eradicating the entire vegetable crop system statewide. Wouldn't you?
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