Thursday, February 3, 2011

shelter stuff

Hi everyone!

I thought I would tell you all what it is like at the shelter right now and what kind of critters I get to take care of there. So the shelter has the usual dogs and cats, and there are also guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, a ferret, and a rabbit there.

 I would say the shelter probably has about the usual ten to twenty dogs. My favorites out of the bunch are three dogs named Beowoof, Victor, and Sahara. Beowoof is a gorgeous fawn and white pit bull. He is very sweet with the right people. He is big on cuddling. Victor is a brindle pit bull mix and he is very amusing. He is full of goofy antics and he LOVES to run around very fast. He has been at the shelter for a long time, and has gotten a bit fat. So I take him out whenever I can when I am at the shelter for some exercise. His favorite things are running, and playing with ice. And Sahara is a fawn colored pit bull mix. I LOVE Sahara. She is very sweet. She is rather shy, but she has gotten a lot more comfortable with me now that she thinks of me as the "freeze-dried liver dispensing machine". I recently taught her how to stand on her hind legs and give me a high five at the same time. It is very cute.

As usual, the shelter has a LOT of cats, and I have no idea how many. All of my favorite kitties (I love all the animals at the shelter but there are definitely a few that come along that I really really get attached to) have been adopted.

So now for little critter goings on at the shelter:

The last degu was adopted! I am so happy! I will miss him though. He was starting to really like me (he didn't like me much at first). The shelter still has a six gerbils. Gerbils just do not get adopted out very often. These six have been at the shelter for over a year (fortunately gerbils are an easy and inexpensive pet to care for so the shelter doesn't mind keeping them for as long as needed, even if they were at the shelter permanently). I recently upgraded their habitats. The four females have a huge tank that I found in the shelter's basement to live in and they LOVE it. The two males just inherited all of the degus cool toys and hideouts, so they are happy.

The shelter has three mice right now named Mickey, Kiwi, and I guess I forgot the other ones name. Mickey is the cutest mouse ever with long fluffy black and white fur. He is a favorite of the shelter staff and he gets spoiled. The other two mice are white and they came in together but had to be separated. Kiwi had a lot of hair loss most likely caused by living in bedding that was saturated with urine all the time. Since he has been at the shelter I have been changing his bedding 1 to three times a week, so all of his fur is back! I am so glad. Hairless mice are not very pretty.

I love the shelter's rabbit. He is a lot like Munchkin personality wise and with his obsession with treats. He is really healthy with the exception that he is being treated for ear mites. He is a New Zealand rabbit. So he is white and fluffy and very big.

The ferret at the shelter currently has no name. She is adorable! I gave her a bath when I first came in because she had oily fur and irritated skin. She is feeling much better now and is going to be taken home by one of the staff when she has been given the okay by the vets. She is a really sweet ferret and she loves to cuddle.

And of course the guinea pigs. Fifteen guinea pigs to be exact. Axel, Ant, Betty, Billie Jo, Cream Puff, Blueberry, Yogashi, Kaede, and of course the seven babies. Axel and Ant are the boys. Ant was just a little baby when he came in and he is growing up now. He is the cutest thing with his fur making him look like he has a mohawk. Cream Puff and Blueberry are both medium haired guinea pigs and so cute. They each had babies, but only one survived. Sadly Blueberry had to be euthanized. After she had her babies she became very very unhealthy. Billie Jo who is still a baby was the first to have babies, and her babies are growing like crazy and they are already eating solid food. Betty just had her babies this week and she had four really cute ones. Yogashi and Kaede came in to the shelter about a month ago and I LOVE them. I call them the Japanese pigs because they have japanese names. Yogashi means "small cake" and Kaede means "maple syrup". They are both very fat. I have been limiting their food so hopefully they are starting to lose weight. They love to sleep on their sides in the cutest way ever. They also like to squabble with each other. They take turns kicking each other out of the "pigloo" hideaway.

So that is all the shelter stuff I have got for now. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about it.

2 comments:

  1. Baby guinea pigs are so cute! I love how their ears are enormous because they are already full sized. It makes them look like little 'Dumbos'.
    ~Char

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  2. Ant sounds adorable! I've never seen a guinea pig with a mohawk before! I think any hairless animal isn't very pretty!
    Sarah :)

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