6 posts tagged “pets”
I've been sick and whiny all week. If I were Steve, I would've sent me to my room, locked the door and thrown the key away. But I'm not Steve. Instead, he got up on Sunday morning, got the kids out the door, played last minute substitute teacher for my Sunday School class, and allowed me to curl up on the couch in my pajamas for both Sunday AND Monday. He also did the Sunday afternoon clean up. (The house always seems to explode during the Sunday morning rush to get ready for church) He's been great in the evenings, doing whatever he can to make stuff easy on me, even if that just means playing referree and answering the hundreds of questions the kids come up with.
Last night he really came through for me. He surprised me with 2 pints of Ben and Jerry's (Chubby Hubby and Half Baked) and this....
Yes, he brought me War and Peace. I read Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina a couple of summers ago and have been talking about wanting to read War and Peace ever since. It's something I've mentioned before, but it's been awhile, so Steve gets "good husband" bonus points for stopping and buying this for me. Not that he needs any more points. His score is off the chart this year already. Although, now that I think about it, maybe he bought it for me so I would stop trying to talk to him while he is trying to read "The Poisonwood Bible". Hmmmm.
Anyway, this is the newest (and supposedly the best) translation. Sure this might take me a month to read, but I'm looking forward to it. As you can see, ZuZu is unimpressed by War and Peace and just wanted me to give her the treat I promised if she would sit still for the picture.
ZuZu, Victoria's chinchilla, just ran across my keyboard and changed my browser settings. I have no clue as to how she did that. Crazy chilla!
*I edited this to add a picture of ZuZu for those of you that have never seen a chinchilla before.
I don't know what has gotten into my rabbit lately, but Benjamin Bunny's been quite hyperactive. It seems every morning, when I go into the laundry room to get the perfectly folded laundry (definitely not digging through laundry baskets of clean clothes), he is pulling at the cage down with his teeth. He is actually bending the cage door. He wants to get out and run around that badly. I usually let him out to run around after the kids are at school. I'm so afraid he will get out if I let him out earlier, as they have a tendency to leave the door wide open.
Ben's been running around the house for an hour now. He loves to "chase" me and run between my feet. Poor thing gets kicked down the hall every once in awhile, sliding on the wood floors. I forget he's out, and he loves to come at me when I'm least expecting it. Yet, despite being punted quite a few times, he keeps coming back for more!
He just now tired out. He's laying by my feet, relaxing. If I had a camera handy I would snap a photo. I know he's going to hop up and follow me down the hall if I go and grab one. Anyway, he just makes me happy.
Victoria, Sophia and Josiah are home safe from North Carolina. Victoria is so happy with her new chinchilla. Definitely better than a replacement rat she says. We were racking our brains sitting outside the Twin Kiss Ice Cream Parlor on 301 while licking our ice cream cones and sucking down our milkshakes enjoying the beautiful day. At one point, we didn't think we would come up with anything. Victoria even told me I needed to take a picture and stick it on my blog and get your suggestions.
Then suddenly within seconds of each other we blurted out, "ZuZu's Petals!". So ZuZu it is, after George Bailey's daughter on "It's a Wonderful Life", one of our family's all time favorite movies. Instantly we knew we had our name. It was perfect.
ZuZu has a new cage too. Multilevel living. She's going nuts in it. Jumping around like a crazy chilla. Rolling around in her dust bath. She's cracking us up with all her crazy antics.
To change the subject the overeating and indulging continues. We went to a cheap Mexican restaurant for lunch with my brother in law, Rob. I had my first tamale. I'm wondering why I hadn't tried one before. To quote Dora, "Yum, Yum, Yum, Deliciouso!". We also stopped at the Twin Kiss on our way back from picking the kids up in Virginia. We drove an hour south to help cut some drive time off of their father's long drive to and from North Carolina. So anyway, the Twin Kiss, I had a soft serve vanilla cone with chocolate sprinkles. Mmmmm. I totally would've moblogged it, but my phone died. Oh the tragedy!!!!
Oh, oh, oh and just now I took my other ball of pizza dough that I had bought from a small local deli/butcher/grocery/liquor store. They sell there own pizza dough frozen, 2 balls of dough for $1.99. I bought them to try with my flammenkuchen. All the recipes I've found called for pizza dough, usually homemade, but I'm not that brave yet. I have a fear of making breads or anything else that requires the use of yeast and kneading. So anyway, I used one yesterday for that beautiful delicious flammenkuchen (Recipe to come NorthernGeek, I haven't forgotten you!). The other was just sitting in the fridge, and I had the rest of the ingredients to make pizza, so I did. And it is yummy. Steve and I are eating it right now. No picture though, sorry. I'm going to pick up more dough this week and make pizza for dinner one night this week.
I'm off to eat more ice cream and help Steve finish up this pizza. Tomorrow, I'll explain what a "flammenkuchen" is and post a recipe.
Having a husband and son with allergies means I don't get to have kitty cats or dogs (although, I'm not really much of dog person anyway, didn't grow up with them). I do love having pets though. Having been known to come home with a puppy from the mall (never enter a pet store after your tax return hits your bank account) or a rat from the local Petco (it was cheap and supposedly really smart and likeable), I would like to explain today's purchase. I'll give some background on my past pet purchases also.
Shortly after Steve and I were married, we went to the county fair. I had never been to a county fair. Of course, I had to go look at all the animals. Low and behold, there was a half a barn full of bunnies, and they were for sale! I'm a sucker for a small fuzzy animal. Steve loves to make me happy, so he had no problem with me buying one little rabbit. So Steve picked out a perfectly sweet Netherland Dwarf rabbit that we named Iggie....
We bought him on Thursday, the day the fair opened. We couldn't pick him up until Sunday after the fair closed. What fun would the fair be if everyone bought and took their rabbits home and there weren't any to look at?
On Sunday, I returned with the kids to pick him up and fell in love with a doe that was in a cage next to him. I made a spur of the moment decision and shelled out another $15 and Sadie came home with us too.
As pretty as she was, buying Sadie meant that Iggie had no reason to want to socialize with me. They had each other. My cuddly bunnies weren't so cuddly. Well, not with me anyway. It's a wonder we never had any little bunnies!
The following year I went back to the fair. Steve agreed to let me buy a third rabbit, one that would be mine, that would love me. But our county fair had stopped selling rabbits. It seems too many were ending up at the local animal shelter in the weeks following the fair. Luckily the next county had a fair and plenty of rabbits. I ended up with a mini-rex that I named Benjamin Bunny after Peter Rabbit's not so well behaved cousin.
Benjamin was exactly what I wanted. I quickly learned that rabbits do have personalities. We have nursed this guy through a bout of pneumonia. So much fun trying to give a rabbit 4 doses of medicine a day for 10 days. He lived and just has a little wheezing when he sleeps now. He wasn't expected to live, but he defied the odds. Sadly, Sadie was ill but died before we realized she was sick. Anyway, Ben loves to chase us around the house and eat the wallpaper when he's mad (like after we've gone away). Other than that, he's a neat pet. Although, since Iggie and Sadie were outside rabbits, we didn't realize that a rabbit was just as bad for allergies as a cat or dog. Benjamin can't be outside due to his breed and lack of protective coat to keep him warm.
Then over a year later, Alex's best friend received a chinchilla for his birthday. Of course, Alex wanted one too. I wasn't so sure. The rabbits and a hamster I bought while I was feeling sorry for myself because Steve had gone away on business had always been my responsibility. The hamster had ended up in Victoria's room and she took care of him. Alex had never really taken care of anything. Steve and I decided to give it a try. Alex had some birthday money, not enough to get a chinchilla, let alone a cage and all the other things it would need. I searched the internet and found someone selling a chinchilla with everything, cage, food for exactly the amount he had. So Schnitzel the chinchilla joined the family. We quickly found out what a cool pet this was. Plus this little dude doesn't bug your allergies.
Victoria wanted a pet too. Herbie the Hamster had died. But she had taken good care of him before he met his untimely demise. I couldn't find her a chinchilla. So one day while we were at Petco, I made a decision to let her buy a rat. Yes, I said a rat. They are very smart you know. And Ginger was. I don't have a picture of her on this computer. But she was very loveable and quickly made her way into our hearts. Well, into everyone's but Steve's. He just couldn't get past the fact that she was a rat. Even if she was a pretty cream color, she still had that hairless rat tail. Ginger died a couple of weeks after we got her. I told Victoria we would get her another one, but not from Petco or another pet store. I didn't want to end up with another sick rat that was really only meant to be some snake's food anyway.
Months past, and still no rat. She would ask from time to time, and I would say we were going to get her one, just not sure when.
Iggie died the day before we left for Florida. Not sure why, guess it was just his time. Glad it happened before we left and not while my sister in law was over taking care of my animals.
Today, Steve and I went to Leonardtown to eat in this French restaurant I read about on the internet in my search for a Tarte Flambe/Flammenkuchen. There is a little mom and pop pet store a couple of doors down, so after lunch I had to go in. I just love looking at the animals. This store usually has more reptiles, birds and fish than anything else. They have rats and other rodents too. So I tried to talk Steve into buying a new rat for Victoria. Nope, no rat. It's the tail, he just can't get past the icky tail. Then he surprised me and said, "Why don't we buy her a chinchilla?" He was standing next to a cage with 4 young chinchillas. They were young and spunky and quickly Steve and I were set on getting another one to add to the family. So just minutes later we were heading home with that cute gal that I moblogged about earlier. She'll have her own cage in Victoria's room. We are going to try and slowly introduce her to Schnitzel. Who knows, maybe we'll even have chinchilla babies one day.
Victoria is in North Carolina this weekend with her father (so are Sophia and Josiah). I can't wait til she gets home so I can see the look on her face when she walks in her room and sees this sweet little thing!
*Ok, I know that was long and boring, but I thank you for bearing with me and listening to me ramble. I just love all my pets.
Alex is now the proud owner of a lovely chinchilla. He named him "Schnitzel". Yes, Steve let him get a chinchilla. With another birthday on the way in December. I'm thinking we are going to end up with another one. Can't let one have a pet and not anyone else.
I will say he is adorable. But I don't think he likes me just yet. I have nothing better to do during the day then bribe him with treats. I'm sure he'll like me in no time.
So yeah, we have 2 rabbits, a hamster and a chinchilla now. Wow.
