R.I.P. Little Caspar, Caspar. We already miss you............

RIP little Jinx......

We will miss you little guinea piggie!

Christmas Piggy

What? 

Gwin

We miss you little Gwinny Pig!

                                                 

Animals R us

Meet Stormy and Casper.  My kids can talk me into anything.  Their poppa and nana gave them some money for an Easter treat and of course, when they have their own money, they want to buy things that are alive and require food and bedding.  I am such a sucker!

Anyway, C13 finally got a parakeet.  He is so scared!  We tried to introduce him to A11's birds but none of them were having it.  So he is staying in a temporary house that we made up.  This is not a good picture.  I took it.  He looks really regal.

C13 took this one.  We let him try out the cage.

And this little cutie is Casper.  As you know, A11's guinea pig just up and died the other day for reasons we are still not sure of and she really wanted a new guinea.  There were so many cute guinea pigs at the pet store but she decided on this little guy.  He is all white except his face and backside.  So far, he is really sweet.  He is so small.  He is super scared.  Every time we pick him up or put him close to the other guinea pig, he poops!  A lot!

The introduction.  We tried to put them together because the pet store associates assured us that they would be fine together but our current guinea pig, Jinx, is way bigger, like 4 times bigger.  He is the Godzilla of guinea pigs compared to little Casper so I think for safety reasons, we will keep them separated for a little longer.

So our family continues to grow, lose one, add two, it makes sense, right?

Goodbye to Gwin

Our poor little buddy Gwin passed away today.  We are not sure what happened.  He was fine one minute and then not so much.

This was a real surprise to all of us.  Our other guinea pigs lived to be almost 7.

We will miss him! RIP Gwinny piggie!

A plethora of pets

Doesn't everyone have this many pets?

After I did the blog post regarding the acquisition of  our 2 newest family members from the animal kingdom, I jokingly said we would be ready to board Noah's arc soon if we keep bringing in animals the way we have been.  So that is what prompted this blog post about our family pets.

This is Ms. Rain.  She is 13 years old now.  We have had her for 6 years.  She is the "Obligatory Christmas pony" that every little girl dreams of but does not usually get but my husband thought it would be the best present ever, therefore, they loaded her up in a trailer and delivered her.

What my husband did not know was that not only did he get them the greatest Christmas present ever, he got them  two of the greatest Christmas presents ever as she was about 5 months pregnant when we took her.

Charlie Rose was born in May and what a handful she was.  We did the best we could do to train her and work with her but it was really like the blind leading the blind since neither my husband nor myself has had any formal instruction in how to train a horse, let alone a wild baby horse.  We gave her to one of the local horse barns in our area because she was getting bigger and wilder by the minute.

Here is Shadow.  Shadow is the first feline I have ever had in all my years on earth.  I did not think I even liked cats until we brought him home.  He is devastatingly handsome and such a sweety.  I love Shadow.

Smokey, on the other hand, made me question again whether or not I like cats.  I don't know about this guy. We adopted him from a shelter for some reason that escapes me now since I was really happy just having Shadow but he is here now so.........  We never know what he will do next.  He acts like he owns the place chasing around and pouncing on poor Shadow day in and day out but if anyone rings the doorbell or even sneezes too loudly, he takes off so fast, you barely know he has gone by and he is nowhere to be found for hours after that.  He is scared of everything but still he tries to be the alpha male. He is more like the alpha idiot.  I think he has mental issues as well.  He is just different!  I think that is what I like about him and dislike about him.

Ms. Emily. This is the sweetest guinea pig ever!  She had a nice long life.  Emily is another one of our female pets that was already pregnant when we brought her home.  She had 3 babies and they all looked like big cotton balls.  They were so cute and little.  I did not realize how little baby guinea pigs are.  We raised the babies for 6 weeks, and they all went to good homes.

Ms. Danny.  Danny was Emily's roommate for 6 1/2 years.  She was more of a booger than Emily was.  She liked human fingers a lot.  Danny also had babies while she was here.  She gave birth to 4 little cotton balls, and they all went to good homes too after 6 weeks.  Do you see the pattern of pregnant female pets going on here?  Our new animal policy is NO MORE FEMALE ANIMALS!!!!

Hermit crabs.  I think we have had 5 total but I do not remember.  I am only vaguely aware of their names.  I think Coconut, Breeze, Sandy, Oreo, and Peanut.  Anyhoo, hermit crabs are not exactly warm and cuddly.  I think they are the kind of pets you just say you have but cannot really interact with them, like fish.  That reminds me, we can also add fish to the list of pets.  At one time, we had 2 beta fish.  One was attacked by Smokey and the other was washed down the sink when we were trying to clean the fish bowl.  Oh well!

Jink is from last Christmas.  He was quite a wild man he we brought him home.  A couple of friends left out of here with bloody, chewed up finger thanks to him.  I was pretty close to getting a replacement guinea pig because this dude was acting like a Tasmanian Devil for the first week and a half.  He was not playing nicely with his roommate Gwin either.  He has calmed down now.  Lucky for him since my husband wanted to put him out in the field and see if any hawks were around for lunch.

Gwin.  This is a nice little piggie.  He does not really cause any drama.  He is my kind of piggie!

Ms. Cookie Butt.  She is one of the strays that has adopted us.  I love Cookie!!!  She is spunky, feisty, playful, and sweet all rolled into one perfect cat.  I think she should be cloned. She is 3 now and has been

around since she was about 6

weeks old.

Cookie Butt had 1 litter of kittens her first year and since you know my kiddos are animal crazy, we raised them for 8 weeks and then found them a home.  Luckily, they all went together.

Inkie

Callie

Blackie

There was a 4th kitten born but sadly he was not breathing and Cookie was a little busy giving birth and taking care of the other kittens to help him out and since I am not proficient in newborn kitten CPR, he did not make it.  These kittens were crazy cute!  And yes, my kids were begging to keep them all but dear husband was not interested in funding food and vet bills for any more pets.

This is Ricky Bobby.  What a dumb name!  This guy was another surprise.  His mamma is Rain, that stunning bay pony pictured at the top and his poppa is Norman, that very unattractive donkey pictured below.  This little Ricky Bobby is also unattractive, well, ugly is a better word for it.  He was ugly when he was born.  He was cute for about a week, and now he is ugly again.  Poor guy!

Norman.  He is not ours, I am just including him since he is Ricky Bobby's poppa.   Only a mamma could love this face.  Blah!!!  I don't like Norman because he tried to eat A11's finger one day and almost succeeded.

This has been an exhausting blog post!  Finally, down to the last of the pets.
Percy and Finnick.  They have only been here 5 days.  So far, so good!  They just sit on their perches and look at us.  I think they are getting used to all the noise and the cats looking at them like they are dinner.  They are really nice birds.

So there you have it!
I thought it would be fun to see all of these animals together in one place but now that I am seeing it all laid out like this, there is a good chance that we could end up on episode of Animal Hoarders.

Our guinea pigs are getting big

Just wanted to post a few pictures of our growing little guinea pigs.  They are getting quite handsome as they grow up, and the best thing about the growing up process is that they are finally starting to calm down.  For awhile, I did not think Jinx and Gwin were going to work things out but I guess they figured out there really were not too many options since they are sharing a cage.

Gwin

Jinx

Aren't they cute?

Do NOT be fooled by this sweet face!

So as you know, we recently brought home 2 guinea pigs.  No problem!  Our last guinea pigs lived to be more than 6 years old, and they were NEVER a problem.  But, do you see this cute little face below?  This guinea pig has the cutest face but the worst personality I have EVER seen in a guinea pig.

I AM TROUBLE!

I really believe that he is part Tasmanian devil!  He uses the bathroom in the food bowl, he bites to the point of drawing blood, he squeals for no apparent reason, and he chases the other poor little guinea pig all day and all night.  The cage is complete chaos!  The bedding is mostly outside of the cage because of this Tasmanian guinea pig.  Once he starts to chase the other guinea pig, it just shoots out of the cage and ends up everywhere. 

Earlier today, we actually went back to the store and had a conversation with the "Professionals" and they said they have never heard of a guinea pig acting like this.  They said "He is unique."  Great!  Just my luck to get a "Unique" guinea pig.  I wanted a normal guinea pig.  They said we could bring him back and get another but of course, C12 is not interested in this idea.  She likes his Uniqueness. 

Christmas piggies

Here are our new little guinea pigs. 

When our other guinea pigs passed away several months ago, we always knew we would get more some day.  Christmas seemed like a good time to just that. 

We decided to go with males this time since EVERY female animal we have gotten was already pregnant when we got them.  You can see how this might be a problem, can't you?  We have been fortunate to experience the wonder of animal births and babies 4 times in the last 6 years but I think we get it now, and we will no longer be needing this type of experience for a LONG while.

They are both around 3 months old.  They have been really shy so far but I know in time, they will come to appreciate the insanity that comes with living here.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce Gwin and Jinx.  The brownish one is Gwin, and the gray one is Jinx.  How did they get their names?  From the Inkheart Trilogy authored by Cornelia Funke, of course!. There are 2 martens in the book and now there are 2 guinea pigs named after them.  Martens are in the weasel family and look very similar to ferrets. 

Jinx in his new home.

This is Gwin sitting on a towel on the floor.  He is already contemplating his next move so he can escape.

They had never seen each other until yesterday so I am very glad they are getting along okay.  Knock on wood!

Here are links to my other post about Emily and Danny.  They were the sweetest little guinea pigs.  We use to call them the Gennies but I do not like that for male guinea pigs so we made up a new nickname for them, the Gimmies.

So long to our good friend Danny.

Yesterday, we said our final farewell to Danny our last little guinea pig.  Her good buddy Emily passed away on May 19th of old age, and we think Danny was just so sad without her.  We could tell that she was suffering, and she was not eating or drinking so we decided to take her to the vet and have her humanly euthanized.  She made it to the ripe old age of 6 1/2.  The vet said she had never seen such an old guinea pig.  She told my girls that they must have done a great job taking care of her and Emily since they both lived so long. 

Emily and Danny waiting for their snacks.

Danny loved lettuce more than anything.

We will miss you Danny!

Farewell friend!

Last night, C11's guinea pig Emily passed away.  Every night around 9 or so, we would bring the guinea pigs their nighttime snack of carrots and lettuce.  They were use to this routine so when they would hear us coming up the steps, they would both squeal with delight only last night, there was no squealing.   At first, I did not really think too much about it but when I got to the cage, I realized that Emily had passed away and the other little guinea pig was just sitting right beside her in silence.    

Emily was around 6 years old, and she had an infection of some type for at least the last year of her life.

We really enjoyed having this special little guinea pig.  This is how we will remember her.

Here she is hanging out of the cage to get the first bite of lettuce.

Nibbling away at the lettuce.  So cute!

She was such a sweetie, and we will miss her terribly. 
Rest in peace Emily!

Guinea pigs

When you are this cute, words are not necessary. 

More family members revealed.

We are animal lovers!  On top of having the horse (who had a baby) and the 2 cats, we also have 2 guinea pigs who also at one point had babies.  We brought them home from the pet store, and they were already preggers.  So at one point, we had a total of  8 guinea pigs.  Those babies were so cute!  They looked like little cotton balls.  We tried to have fish but the were smelly and our cat Smokey decided he wanted them more than we did so he knocked over their bowl and well so much for owning fish.  He actually did me a favor.  I did not like the smell.  But anyway, here are the gennies.  I called them that.

This is C11's guinea pig, and her name is Emily.  So cute!

This is A9's guinea pig, Danny.  She likes to get all the attention. 

Amazingly, these two little gennies have stayed alive and fairly healthy.  They will both be 7 in December.