Saturday, September 6, 2008

My sweet little pets

I love my rodents, which is odd because I hate mice, rats, gerbils, squirrels, chipmunks, gophers...you get the idea. But guinea pigs and chinchillas equal love for me. Charlie is around 8 1/2 years old. In chinchilla years, she is an old lady. The first year of her life, she was not handled, she was rescued from a home with 80 or so neglected pets. Experts say that the way a chin is treated when they are very young has a direct impact on their life span. I was thinking about that and realized that we could lose Char at any time. That makes me so sad. She started out as a nervous little thing. She would shake if she heard an unfamiliar voice. It took a year or so for her to trust me, longer for her to trust Ashley and Christopher. It seemed that as soon as she stopped being so nervous, she became mean. She started to attack me and Ashley, as well as the broom, which she used to love, and the vacuum cleaner. We had to get thick leather gloves to even handle her. Then, just as suddenly as she became nasty, she mellowed out. She is still in this sweet stage. She craves attention and loves to be scratched and rubbed. She is a total lover now.I love her so much and I hate thinking about losing her.Mimzy is still a baby, not quite two yet. We adopted him as a 4 month old, so he should have a nice long life span, 10-12 years. He went from being a spaz to being a bit of a recluse. He still likes attention, but would rather stay in his cage than come out for playtime about half the time.The piggies, Calico and spot, are just babies, only about 3 months old. We have had them for such a short time, but they are so sweet. Tonight, during play time, they were so vocal and they were jumping and running like crazy. I love that they purr when they are happy, it is so cute. Being able to hear them really gives an insight to what is going on in those little pea sized brains.All four of my rodents are unique, they have great personalities. (not trying to humanize them, but I don't know of a better word to describe their behavior than personality.) They are such a part of the family and I cannot imagine having to live in a cageless house. :)

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