The Kids!

The Pets (aka the Kids)

All updates about the pets are now on my blog. I will post things here when pets come and go.

Buddy is my third Yorkshire Terrier. My first was "Sidney Cujo Vicious" and the second one was "Fast Buck Freddie". Buddy is probably the smartest Yorkie I've ever seen and definitely the smartest one I have ever had. Within less than a week of having him home (and he had just been weaned), he learned the "sit" command. On the third try, he understood what he was supposed to do. So his little list of tricks that he loves to perform is Sit, Lie Down, Roll Over, Play Dead and Jump. If I had spent more time with him I could have probably taught him more complex tricks.

While trying to teach him "Fetch", I discovered that he liked to roll a tennis ball down stairs. So I get at the bottom of the stairs and throw the ball. He will roll the ball until he gets to the edge of the stairs and he then gives it a hard butt with his nose so it will bounce down the stairs. He stays at the top of the stairs waiting. He has me trained to throw the ball again so we can repeat this process....over...and over...and over...and over...

Buddy was born July 14, 2000. He is one of two males born in the litter.

December 26, 2008: Buddy has been pretty sick lately. He's always had bad Yorkie teeth (Yorkie's typically are prone to tooth and gum disease). He suddenly stopped eating and acted like he felt bad. For a day I don't worry too much, but for more than a day I get concerned. He took a trip to the vet yesterday and as I figured he had some teeth that needed to be extracted. The vet said he was pretty swollen under his tongue so he's getting some x-rays and I hope to hear that it's an abscess and not a tumor or anything. If everything is good I hope Buddy gets to come home on the 27th. All of this started while Nim (see below) was getting sick and needing pretty much constant care.

December 29, 2008: Buddy is home today and he does not have a tumor. I was given a couple of cans of soft dog food to give him while his mouth heals. To my surprise he ran straight for his regular food bowl and began trying to eat solid food. I think he may have been swallowing it more than anything else. Still he loves the soft food better. Buddy will be on antibiotics for about a week and should be just fine. If there are no problems we go back to the vet in March for some follow up work along with his regular shots and check up. At any rate I'm so glad to have him back home and back to his regular playful self.

Paco is my first Chihuahua (or as I like to call him "my Chi-who-ah-who-ah"). Paco is very hyper and not easy to teach tricks. However, I will say that unless he is completely over stimulated, he will stop what he is doing with just a "Shhhhhhh" (from the Dog Whisperer). Paco was given to me by a friend at work (Richard). He was supposed to be the pup of Brittany and Hercules. However, he looks a lot more like another of Richard's Chihuahuas, "Angry Bob". As I learned even before knowing this about his mother's wandering, Paco is a little bastard. Seriously he's a very loving little dog that is full of energy and is always ready to play.

Paco was born November 13, 2006. He is one of three born in the litter. Paco has a brother, Jethro, who was also given away. Sadly one of the pups was still born.

March 15, 2009 - Just an update on the boys....they both go in Tuesday to be "fixed" (I never realized that they were broken). So as part of their pre-op, here are a couple of photos of them. They got to run around outside where it was still wet from rain and dew before I took these photos in the greenhouse....so Buddy is a bit of a bigger mess than usual. Paco, on the other hand, is definitely a "wash and wear" breed.

March 18, 2009 - Yesterday both Buddy and Paco got fixed and Paco also had his dewclaws removed (they kept getting caught on things). Buddy was a little restless and whiny, but poor Paco can barely walk with the bandages on his front paws. Today neither of them feels too good, but Paco definitely feels bad. He's eating a little and drinking, but he is definitely sleeping a lot. That's probably a good thing so he doesn't try to chew at his stitches and bandages.

And here are both of them wearing their satellite dish collars to keep them from licking themselves. Buddy absolutely hates the collar....it's almost as big as he is.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nimrod (Nim for short) is my red Iguana iguana (common green iguana). Nim was purchased around November 2003 and very young (maybe 6 months max). .I got him at a local Pet Co. Pet Co has (as far as I know) exclusive rights to a morph of the green iguana that is predominately red. I've head a lot of bad things about Pet Co stores, but I have to say that the location I got Nim was clean, warm (no heat rocks), semi-good diet and overall in good shape. If interested in a few good books or web sites for information on iguanas as pets, just drop me a line. As Nim has sexually matured, his coloration can run from an orange brown color to a reddish orange. It will depend on his mood, ambient temperature and mating season. Nim is a male and in the fall his personality begins to change. He goes from being a relatively docile pet to a hormone crazed, demonic hellion. I generally call this "Reptile Pon Farr". For non-Star Trek fans, Pon Farr happens once every seven years for Vulcans. During this time they go from logical, emotionless beings to aggressive creatures driven to mate. During this time I take extra precautions with Nim as he is large enough that he could bite hard enough to require a trip to the emergency room for stitches or worse. And while he has never used it, his tail could really pack a wallop now if he were to choose to use it. And in case you are wondering, no bites so far nor trips to the ER. So lastly, parents do NOT buy an iguana for your child. The iguana is an exotic with very special needs (none of them cheap) and if these needs are met, the iguana will grow and become LARGE! I repeat, LARGE!!!!!

Nim's behavior is becoming a little erratic. Wants to be held one day, wants nothing to do with me on another and even runs away on another. I suspect that time of the year is approaching...."Reptile Pon Farr". I thought he was starting last month, but it was only a day of being "touchy".

October 25, 2008 - Pon Farr is here!

December 13, 2008 - Nim's appetite is not very good. About 2 or 3 weeks ago he decided he did not like the iguana in the mirror (his reflection) who was constantly watching him. He rammed his reflection so much that he made a bloody mess of his nose. He has done this before, but maybe not quite so bad. I've put white foam poster board up over the lower 2 1/2 feet of the mirror so he can't see himself. That has helped and his nose/snout is healing up nicely. As for his appetite it's not unusual for him to eat less or even go a day without eating his food (but he will insist on digging through it and making a mess), but I don't recall him eating this much less than normal. He is still healthy and looks like he may have lost a tiny bit of weight, but he is still active and appears to otherwise be very healthy. I'll be glad when Pon Farr is over and I can have my boy back to normal.

December 23, 2008 - I had to have Nim put down. He stopped eating, would only drink water and was passing large amounts of blood as well as a large mass of solidified urates (equivalent of a kidney stone). A trip to the vet showed he had kidney failure and his ureters were still almost completely blocked by kidney stones. Passing the stones earlier helped, but the damage to his kidneys was already done. Between Nim being put down and Buddy's trip to the vet, it's been a rather stressful Christmas to say the least.

The Preying Mantis has no name. He accidently hatched from a mantis egg case I had collected along with a few hundred brothers & sisters. I thought I had them all outside, but tiny little mantis babies kept popping up in windows or on plants in the house. I kept moving them outside. Then one day I found this one in my kitchen's greenhouse window on an orchid seedling. I had no luck catching any small bugs for him so I soaked a piece of dry dog food to soften it up. I put a tiny little piece on the end of a bamboo skewer and waved it around in front of him. The reaction looked like something between interested and fear. So the first day I had no luck at getting him to eat. The second day I repeated it...he grabbed hold of the end of the bamboo skewer and started eating. Success! So now after spending the whole summer in my greenhouse window he has molted a number of times until August 30th, he has a full set of wings with a green stripe on the side. I think he may be fully grown now. Surprisingly he still stays in the window and eats dog food or a bug (if I can catch one) off the bamboo skewer. He does not like to be touched which is no surprise. His inclusion on this list is just temporary as I know he will not be around too much longer.

Got a surprise yesterday and found him in the sink. Not sure if he was searching for food or getting a drink. I put him back in the greenhouse window and I used an eye dropper to gave him some water. To my surprise, he drank it. I kept giving him water until he wanted no more and started his nightly climb to the top shelf of the window.

October 25, 2008 - The mantis is still around and while bugs are more difficult to find, I still have plenty of dog food. I forgot to feed him on Thursday so Friday evening I walked into the kitchen and found him on the floor with Paco watching him. No apparent damage or attacks so I put him back in the greenhouse window and fed him. Today he is still there. My plans are to just keep feeding him for as long as he will eat and as long as he's alive.

November 15, 2008 - It appears that "he" is actually a she. This morning I found a very small egg case in the kitchen greenhouse window on the ID tag of a potted plant. While I assume the case will be sterile, I will treat it as if it is viable. The reason? In some insects (the honey bee being the most famous), females can lay unfertilized eggs that will hatch to produce all male insects. This is called parthenogenesis (from Greek meaning "virgin creation"). However, I believe it will NOT produce any offspring as I've never heard of this happening in the preying mantis. Also with the laying of eggs I would guess that she will be very close to the end of her life cycle.

December 13, 2008 - I just can't believe that this girl is still around! I lower the venetian blinds on the greenhouse window she stays in to keep her from wandering at night so it gets pretty cool in there (but above 50 degrees F.). She is still eating, but definitely not as hardy an appetite as before she laid eggs and was growing.

January 23, 2009 - The praying mantis finally died. I would say that her last week of life was pretty rough. I think her exoskeleton had gotten old and she could no longer see (sort of insect cataracts). She would not grab at food so you had to slowly put the food up to her mouth and she would eat a little. At any rate her cycle is complete and I'll sort of miss the little girl.