Peppa Pig

Anybody who is ‘friends’ with me on Facebook or has run into Emilie lately knows that we recently acquired a Guinea Pig. Her name is Peppa, as in Peppa Pig, and she was a belated birthday gift of sorts to Emilie from her Aunt Mandy and cousins. We, as a house rule, don’t have any inside pets but after much consideration we decided to make an exception seeing as she lives in a cage and isn’t running free.

So far it is going pretty well. Both kids love to play with her so she gets handled regularly. Almost too regularly if you ask me, I’m constantly saying, “Let’s give Peppa a break…she needs a rest about now.” Honestly, if they don’t love her to death she’ll be a pretty tame critter by the time she’s full grown. She gets to watch Farm Sim with Jack, cook in the play kitchen with Emilie, and play ‘hide-n-seek’ under the couch in the living room (my least favorite game and we play it at least twice a day it seems). They build her Lincoln Log forts, and she goes for rides in the baby carriage. She also gets to be the baby when the kids play house. Several times I have found her tucked into the doll cradle a veritable “pig-in-a –blanket.”

An unexpected side-effect is the Jack like to ‘read’ tractor books to his pig pal. He enjoys reading but does like to have someone listen to him and the pig seems to work just as well as me so he’s actually been reading more lately because the pig is more than willing to sit and listen to him read.

 

Both kids are getting a good lesson in animal handling and care which will be a handy life skill I’m sure. They are responsible for feeding her and help me clean her cage. Aside from pig pellets she gets a wide variety of fresh veggies and fruit. Romaine lettuce is her favorite followed by cantaloupe and carrots. She also enjoys carrot tops, bell pepper, and peas (in the pod).

In all she seem to be a fun and welcome addition so far.

Honey’s ‘Tail’

In case you somehow missed the news our weekend trip to Clark Co. was capped off by picking up a new member of our furry family. We’ve had our eyes and ears open for some time looking for just the right dog. We knew we wanted a female, preferably a lab or lab cross (depending on what the cross part was). We knew we wanted a younger dog…5 or under. With Tilly fast nearing the ‘senior’ label at age 8 and knowing caring for an older animal can have it’s own issues, expenses, and heartache we figured spacing out ages would be a good idea. One old lady at a time please. We also wanted something that would be good with kids, cats, livestock (read – goat), poultry, and whatever else may find it’s way into the menagerie. This isn’t a tough bill to fill for sure. I thought we would end up having to get a puppy and train it. Still after several attempts at adopting through local shelters with no success (young labs go fast) I posted on a local pets board for the valley on Facebook and found Honey. She fit pretty much everything we asked for so we figured the least we could do for her was try her out, especially since the lady who had ‘rescued’ her was footing the bill to keep Honey at the kennel where she worked.

So this is Honey:

 

She was owned by a man in Gooding who was not financially able to care for her and the Chihuahua she lived with. Their yard had a poor fence and Honey and her little Mexican buddy would get out to take themselves for walks consequently getting picked up on a ‘dogs at large’ call by Animal Control. Unfortunately her owner could not afford to bail her out. The first time a friend of her owner (and the husband of the woman we got her from) bailed them out. Honey was them tied to a post in the yard. The collar she wore was a choke chain and she tried so hard to escape she rubbed a bald patch behind her ears (which is growing back nicely). Eventually she did pull free and she and the Chihuahua got out and picked up again. This time no one stepped up to pay the bail and the Man owner surrendered them to the pound.

Well, nobody wants to hang out at the pound. Thankfully, the same folks saw she was back in the clink and bailed her out again but this time she didn’t go back to her former owner. The woman works at a kennel in Jerome as a groomer and has lots of experience with dogs. Would have kept her herself, except that she has a Dachshund puppy and a Cane Corso puppy at home along with a crotchity old Labrador.  She was paying to keep Honey at the kennel where she worked while she searched for a suitable home, but had Honey out at her place. Honey did fine with their baby steer, the chickens, and the horses. She liked the kids and didn’t bother the cats. When the gal saw my post on the Facebook page she thought we seemed like a good fit.

Long story short, so far so good. She and Tilly get along great (they are already sharing the crate at night, everyone needs a snuggle buddy) and the kids don’t phase her (they throw balls and give you treats….what’s not to love?). She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the goat at first and he wouldn’t let Honey come close to check him out. Finally we wrangled Goat and after she sniffed his butt thoroughly she left him alone. Cats have silently judged from a distance but seem to be making their peace.

One of the first orders of business, after a proper collar with nametag, was a trip to the vets. We knew she was spayed, but the chances of her having up to date vaccines seemed dubious. Both Doc and the office cat, Caliber, gave her their stamp of approval. Her only issue is that at 75 pounds she’s on the chubby side (please refer to photographic evidence….). Tilly is 62 pounds and that is probably a goal weight Honey needs to shoot for too. Hopefully with a big backyard and lots of ball throwing she’ll slim down and lose that ‘winter weight’ (yes, that’s what both she and I are going to call our extra jiggly bits) in no time.

There is some debate as to her breeding. Probably has some Labrador in there somewhere. The gal we got her from thought some Heeler too. However, both the next-door neighbor and the vet think it’s more Border Collie than Heeler. Who knows, maybe it’s all three. If we’re dying to know I suppose we could always do one of those doggie DNA tests. From the springs hidden in her legs though, the border collie is seeming more and more likely. Man can this dog bounce….all 75 pounds of her…it’s actually pretty impressive. The first time I left home after she arrived we shut her in the dog run. It’s 6’ high and she first jumped on the dog house (with ease….I watched her do it later) then tried to haul her chunky butt over the top rail. Gravity, and the neighbor, won. Same neighbor helped me get a ‘lid’ on the run when I got home so we won’t be doing that again. In all actuality she just doesn't like to be penned up. I left her loose in the backyard when I dropped off the kids this morning and she did just fine.

Five days in and our new addition is doing great. I think she’s going to work out and be a great new member to the household.

Meet ‘Paper’

One of our fish went to his watery grave last week after 4 peaceful years of swimming around the tank. That brought our fish count down to two tetras and one large algae eater. It was decided that after I gave the tank it’s semi-annual cleaning that we could get new fish.

The tank got scrubbed Monday and today after preschool the kids and I ventured to the pet store. We got two new tetras and this little guy. Jack has dubbed him ‘Paper.’

Paper is about the size of a quarter. I had one of these aquatic frogs back in college and it was a pretty cool little thing. Very zen. The one I had hung out doing ‘yoga poses’ mid tank most of the time as if suspended by an invisible string. Hopefully this one is just as cool.

He joins the rest of the clan: Leo, Quincy, Annie, & June (the tetras) and Rocket (Algae Eater). (Yea, someone is really ‘in’ too Little Einsteins right now.)

Let’s cross our finger and hope they all survive….if they make it through the end of the week I think we’ll be okay.