Pets take two

So I kind of wanted to talk about something else today but unfortunately I said I would finish nattering away about my pets and I don't like not doing what I said I'd do (... what?). So here we go on take two!

So last time I briefly talked about the cats and dogs of my life, so this time we move onto a sub-genre that I have always loved, rodents. As I mentioned two posts ago when I was much younger my parents bought me mice. Unfortunately I was way too young and the mice were way too small, so accidents happened over the year that we had mice. On the flip side though they did have a wonderful house =P It had two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and an attic (where we locked the males when there were a couple of pregnancy issues). Poor guys though without any privacy due to the huge sheet of glass that served as a wall.

Moving on however when I was around 14 my parents bought the family a rat. Being young and not particularly creative I called him Ratty, and he was just wonderful. Once our cat Ollie decided that he was hungry and started eying and stalking around the cage. I watched entranced wondering exactly how the cat would deal with the massive bars barring his way from the possible meal. Eventually he moved his head all the way up to the bars, pressed against head against the cage in anticipation and then it happened. Ratty jumped up, kicking off the wall of the cage till he was above head height of the cat. Flying past him with the deftness of a ninja he took a massive chunk from Ollie's ear and landed safely on the floor of his cage. The cat never bothered him again.

After Ratty passed on we decided to get another rat. Feeling more confident with my naming abilities (and it seems confused at what type of animal she was) she was called Polly. I was getting towards the start of angsty teen years so I didn't spend as much time with Polly as she deserved and she passed on from old age. Both Ratty and Polly were hooded rats and were the best companion to sit on your shoulder and carry around with you, I miss them both.

So I didn't even think of having a rodent again for many years until just over a year ago when my room-mate of the time decided she wanted guinea pigs (originally she wanted a hermit crab and they were out, so she changed to guineas, go figure). So that's how I ended up with Toki and Polo. This was my first time with guinea pigs and I really didn't know how to deal with them, and this proved their undoing. It only took a couple of weeks before Toki took offense to Polo and squished him under his huge big ass.

The two guinea pigs before the ass incident(Toki below, Polo above)

So I was left with one lonely (and evil) guinea pig, so I sought out a friend for Toki. After a week of looking at pet stores I was told that there were some lovely pigs to the east past capalaba. On arrival they were already gone and I was leaving with my tail between my legs when a man came in with the loveliest little soot coloured koala like little thing. So that's how I found my little friend Lord Sooty Foot the third.

Lord Soot Foot the third, defender of his castle

So they lived together in a nice large cage for a good three months before Toki caught a respiratory tract infection. He had to be put down in the smallest, cutest little gassing chamber you ever did see. By this time Sooty was too old to make friends with a male and was too old to not rape a female so what could I do?

So that's my pets and how I had them, I loved them all and miss all that are passed on =) I hoped you like be blathering