What's a Rat Terrier to Do?

I introduced Perro the pup to a new rat terrier at the shelter this week. Perro loved her, and she loved me, but she didn't love Perro. She jealously growled from one corner of the adoption room. I was forced to leave her behind. Although I know Perro would love a female rat terrier, maybe my family will be just a single rat terrier family.
I'm really just missing my cat, Beaner the Bagel Thief. She rocked. I appreciate the suggestion in the blog comments that I adopt a hedgehog. Strangely, this weekend I was checking the availability of Rep-Cal iguana food at my favorite reptile supplier, Twin Cities Reptiles, and I discovered they are a licensed distributor of African Hedgehogs. Along with acquiring the special licensing to distribute various reptiles, they've acquired the licensing to distribute a few other exotic pets. including hedgehogs and sugar gliders. I've met one of each at the homes of friends. Both were very sweet, but I'm trying to limit my family just to commonly domesticated pets.
Whippy the iguana is an exotic exception. I was pet sitting her for a weekend while her owner moved, and the owner decided not to pick her up. Although I registered as a foster pet parent with two shelters, when a new family was approved to take her, I elected to keep her. She's bizarre and scaly, but after a month, I was too attached to her to let her go. She waves at me when I walk past her vivarium, begging to be let out for play time or a bath. Despite her tiny cerebral cortex and her inability to vocalize or emote, she's managed to convey a neediness for companionship. In so many ways, Whippy exceeded what I ever expected her to be able to accomplish as a pet. She's more than just a lizard, she's a pal.

A New Pet?

I loved my kitty the Bean so much. I miss her - and it feels weird in a bad way to not have her around. My other pets are older and now I worry about losing one of them. I know no other pet will ever be what Beaner was - an incredibly awesome bagel thief, straight up from the trailer park and ready to snuggle on the couch. She was special. But now I feel like there is a hole. Someone is missing around the house.

What are your thoughts about adopting a younger pet, pre-emptively, before an older one is gone? I'm considering another pet - a little one, as always.

Rubber Duckies Sailing the High Seas

One of Whippy's favorites rubber yellow duckies is made by The First Years, Inc. I suppose it was intended for consumers to purchase for the first years of their child's life, but in this case, it was a Christmas gift that Whippy played with for the first years of her iguana life. Whippy loves yellow toys, and she'll chase her duckies all around the bath tub.
Oceanographers are currently tracking First Years duckies all around the ocean. Thousands of these yellow rubber duckies fell off of a ship into the Pacific Ocean in 1992. Since then, they've journeyed Alaska, Japan and Hawaii, with the remaining ducks following the currents to Cornwall and the South-West of England.
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracked the toys for over 17,000 miles over the past 15 years. The movement of the ducks has yielded unprecedented data about oceanic currents worldwide. Mr. Ebbesmeyer says the ducks are not hard to spot, as they've faded to white and have the words "The First Years" stamped on their bottoms.
I know I have a few faithful readers in the U.K., so if you are out at the beach this summer, keep an eye out for one of these world traveling ducks. The First Years, Inc., is offering a bounty of £50 for each duck. Everything's just ducky when you find a duck worth £50!

Get the full story from the U.k.'s Daily Mail here.

Mary in the Zoo

I’m planning a trip to Washington D.C. this summer. I was thrilled to learn the National Zoo in D.C. has an extensive reptile and amphibian habitat. There are a few of Whippy’s buddies, green iguanas, chilling out at the national zoo. There are also a couple of rare Grand Cayman iguanas living there. I can’t wait to visit!
The panda exhibit at the National Zoo is also supposed to be awesome. This week Mei, the female panda, was artificially inseminated to mate her with Gao Gao, a male panda residing at the San Diego zoo. Talk about a long distance romance - all the way from San Diego to D.C. Last year I visited a baby panda at the San Diego zoo. It was incredible to see this tiny ball of fur that eats pounds of bamboo each day. The mother panda was chowing down. She spends 2-3 hours a day working on breakfast. I doubt my employer would approve of a 2 hour bamboo break.

Reptiles in Danger!

Someone stole dozens of reptiles from the Steve Irwin teaching center in Australia, including a crocodile and some cute bearded dragons. Okay, I think they're cute. Plus, they are probably the only kind of reptile I've met that are cuddly. When you pick them up, they snuggle into the crook of your arm. They also wave at you to get your attention, just like Whippy.
This is an outrage! How could somebody take away teaching reptiles? These reptiles were doing an important job. I hope they're found safe.

Relaxing Photo-of-the-Day

Here's a relaxing photo of Whippy, just hanging out on her iguana hammock:

Most of her days consist of basking under her simulated sunlight bulb in 90-degree heat. She spends almost all of her time sunbathing. She's never seen the inside of a cubicle. Lucky iguana!

A Final Update on the Tails

The pets are finally all better. The vet removed Whippy's stitches last week. She showed off her best behavior at the vet's office. She didn't whip the vet tech even once and this time she went to the bathroom before we left home. (We had a little potty incident at the vet's before, but I won't go into details, in case you're having a snack as you're reading this.)
Mystic's appearance is a little strange with her shaved rat-like tail, but she is adjusting to her new look. Last week she was trapped in my closet for a whole day because she hid in there to lick a plastic IKEA bag while I was putting on my socks. I came home to find her meowing weakly, still curled on top of the bag. This morning she tried to sneak into the closet again, but I headed her off at the pass. She meowed angrily, but I'm confident she will get over it.

Whippy Learns to Toss a Log

This week I'm reflecting on all of the pets' trials and tribulations over the past month. We've had seven vet visits in the past month, with lots of adventures and nail-biting moments of tension. In addition to the tail amputations and cyst removal, we had another adventure over the weekend. Whippy occasionally sits on a sterilized log in her cage. (It's actually a piece of a cactus, which is recommended for reptiles because cacti are less likely to harbor parasites than branches from deciduous trees.)
So, the other day I heard a crash downstairs, and I rushed to her enclosure. She'd hurled the cactus log at the door, shattering a hole in the Plexiglas panel which serves as a window. I'm not quite sure how she accomplished this. But I suspect she was irritated that I put her cactus log in the basking area last time I cleaned the enclosure. An angry Whippy!
I taped up the hole securely and headed to Menards. I discovered that new Plexiglas would run me $40-$50, so dejectedly, I decided to wait for a few days and see if I could find a cheaper alternative. I'll keep you posted on the solution. In the meantime, I'll try to keep Whippy calm so she doesn't try to throw around any more of her cage furnishings.

Update on the Tails

Mystic's stitches were removed last night from both her side and the tip of her tail. She made cranky sounds at the vet, but otherwise the visit went well. She was a little angry with me for bringing her back to the vet again, and ran away to the basement before I had a chance to redress her in her sparkle princess collar.
Whippy passed her last tail check-up with flying colors, but since reptiles heal slowly, her stitches won't be removed until the end of the month. She's been eating a ton, and lounging on the middle shelf of her enclosure. Her head is shedding right now. There is a milky color to the unshed scales which contrasts strangely with the fresh dark scales revealed beneath.
Perro has a vet appointment coming up next week for annual vaccinations and heartworm preventive medication. Perro's tail was docked before I adopted him, so at least there is no chance a tail amputation is in his future. Now three out of my four pets have a stumpy tail. Everyone seems to be doing well with their shortened tails, however, so my tale of two tails has a happy ending.

A Tale of Two Tails

The past two weeks have been filled with anxious visits to the vet. Whippy the iguana had an injury to her tail several years ago, before I adopted her. The scar tissue from the old injury constricted the tip of the tail, impeding its growth. Two weeks ago, she shed a bit of skin at the tip of her tail, and the skin beneath was black. The circulation was inhibited by the scar tissue to the point that the tip of her tail became necrotic. I rushed her to the vet for an emergency tail amputation.
The day she had surgery was one of the worst days of my life. I was so busy at work, but I was so worried about Whippy that I had a stomach ache. Finally the vet called and told me that she was out of surgery, and even though she was groggy from the anesthesia, she was trying to climb. My little fighter! She was so feisty that she even tried to whip the vet tech with her tail as we loaded her into her carrier to go home. But that was not yet the end of this difficult day.
As soon as Whippy was settled in her enclosure, resting after surgery, I plopped down on the couch. Mystic the kitty hopped up next to me, and as I petted her, I noticed a scary-looking red bald spot on her tail. She's had a cyst on the tip of her tail for about three years. It was caused by an infected oil gland, and the vet was reluctant to drain it because of the poor circulation and thin skin at the tip of the tail. Well, for some reason, that day it became irritated. Mystic had a tail amputation on Monday. In addition, the vet removed another cyst from her side. She looks like Franken-kitty. Her tail and side are shaved bare, and covered in thick stitches. Poor Mystic. I secretly always thought she was the most beautiful of all my pets. Her black fur is silky and her bearing regal.
For the past week I've been administering antibiotic injections to Whippy. I was a little nervous about giving a four foot long lizard a shot every day, but I waited until she was a bit sleepy at bedtime. She barely noticed. Her tail looks well - I know this because last week she whipped off her bandage and I had to take her for another visit to the vet to get her tail wrapped up.
Mystic is wearing a not-so-stylish Buster collar, a strange, plastic device that looks like an upside down lampshade. She usually wears a shiny, black collar with sparkling rhinestones, and is embarrassed to be seen in the Buster collar. I know, because I wrestle with her every morning to put it on after she eats. The purpose of the Buster collar is to prevent her from chewing her stitches, but unfortunately, it also prevents her from chewing her cat chow. So twice a day I chase her down, take it off, feed her a tuna-fishy meal, and then try to slide it back on when she's distracted.
I'm happy to say that Whippy's and Mystic's tails are on the mend. They both have a follow-up visit yet, but I'm confident the vet will pronounce them healthy. Whippy is climbing up and down her shelves and banging on the door of her enclosure (trying to escape) almost daily. Mystic refuses to leave my bedroom, because she likes to lick plastic bags, and she's convinced I've forgotten a shopping bag in my closet. This tale of two tails will have a happy ending.

Webcam Foils Candy-Machine Crooks

Another hilarious story from the Farmington Independent. A couple of crooks high on meth knocked over the candy machine in Launder-On-In (the nicest laundromat in Farmington.) The owner caught them on a webcam he set up in the store. I was thinking about getting one of those X10 webcams to check on Whippy. I was hoping to have the first webcam in Farmington, but clearly I've been beat. Perhaps I can have the first iguana cam in Farmington. What do you think? Would you like to see Whipppy on the web?

Another Christmas with the Pets

Well, another Christmas has come and gone for the pets. It seems like just last week that I bought a delicate glass ornament with "Our First Christmas" painted on it to commerate my first Christmas with Whippy. Now that ornament has been hanging on the tree for the past five years. I can't believe it's been three years since Santa brought Perro a "Puppy's First Christmas" blanket. They grow up so quickly.



This year Mystic and Beaner tore into their stockings before Christmas morning, and dragged a package of catnip mice into the middle of the living room. Santa brought Perro a new cabinet just for his leashes, toys and treats. (He has a lot of accessories for such a small pooch.) Here are some photos of my little pals this Christmas.







Santa's Little Helper





Caught in the act! Beaner is scouting out bows to chew on.





Perro emerges from his blanket to get his ears scratched, while I'm trying to open a huge gift.





Whippy takes a bath on Christmas Eve.

Metal for Mutts, part 2

My friend Kristina and I really enjoyed the Dayfeed performance at Metal for Mutts. The highlights for me were “The Ballad” and the rendition of Nine Inch Nails'sSomething I Can Never Have. Although Rocky stressed to me that this show was all ages, the Garage seems to be a teen center sponsored by the City of Burnsville. There were lots of underage people and their parents rocking out at Metal for Mutts, and there was a huge iguana rocking out there too. He’s from the Minnesota Valley Humane Society originally, and now lives at the Garage. Dayfeed gave him a shout out during their performance. He is about twice as wide as Whippy and some of his spikes are an inch tall. When I looked in at him, he was bobbing his head, flaring his dewlap and doing push-ups. I’ve never seen such an impressive threat display. One of the volunteers who takes care of him said the iguana gets really worked up on metal nights. It was a great show and a nice chance to help out some homeless animals. It also was like a time-warp back to high school, seeing all of the 15-year-olds with black-dyed hair and black t-shirts milling about.

Whippy's New Chow

Lately Whippy developed a taste for the multicolored dry food that I asked the pet-sitter to feed her while I was on vacation. She'll gobble down several mouthfuls at a time, then she moves on to her regular iguana salad and greens. She likes to eat on the top shelf, but sometimes she drop-kicks her food plate and splatters pureed squash on the walls of her enclosure, so I've moved the food plate to the floor.

Iguana in a Tree

Just a link to a great looking juvenile iguana with beautiful green coloring. This is how Whippy looked back when she was a teenager!

Update on Whippy

Last night I made two huge plastic bowls full of "iguana salad" for Whippy. I bought fresh sugar snap peas for her at the Farmer's Market. I froze one of the bowls so I won't have to make her salad again for two weeks. She's doing great! Her head is shedding right now. I'm going to ask a buddy to take a picture of her on my shoulder so you guys can see how long her tail is.

Update on Whippy

I fed Whippy the iguana a huge plate of vegetable chow this morning. She's loves the fresh vegetables from the farmer's market and has been gobbling them down. She's still growing, even though she must be about 6-7 years old now and is definitely a full adult. She just finished shedding and already her head is turning the milky shade that indicates an impending shed. What an awesome lizard!