That was fast...

Peter's pet guinea pig died over the weekend; he was very sad the day it happened, but between taking some time to veg over video games and blogging about it (I was so proud!), he bounced back fairly quickly.

And is now lobbying for a lizard.

Yep, a slimy (ok, so I know they're not really), scaly reptile.

I thought a rodent in the kitchen was bad! Do I really want a reptile ANYWHERE in my house? I'm just not sure....

Initially he said he wanted a gecko, I think a leopard gecko specifically. Not sure (I have to admit I'm not good on the various families, genuses and species of the Reptile class. Or order. Or Phylla, or whatever the heck it is. (Aside: I do, however, remember that the order of nomenclature for, uh, everything I guess is Kingdom, Phylla, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Funny what sticks with you from 7th grade science.....)

Anyway, so he initially was talking small lizards, but then threw out an iguana, which:

• Sounds too much like guano (yuck!)
• Reminds me of Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo (I wish I was in Tiajuana....), and Peter would get mad if I talked about barbecuing his pet
• I'm thinking is just WAY to big a reptile to .... exist, probably. Certainly to share a house with.

So, I dunno. I've told him to find out the answers to various questions I have: how long do they live, how hard is it to regulate their temperature (cold blooded little beasts), how prone to carrying disease are they, how often do their cages need cleaning.... We'll see after that.

But seriously, reptiles? He's such a boy!

And still more Halloween

The boys do NOT like being locked up in the playroom!

Dusty and Dazzle

Dusty has figured out how to get around the nasty (to a cat) orange smell I put on Dazzle's cage -- a sneak attack from the rear!

Who thought this was a good idea????

Kathy is having a New Year's Day open house, so I volunteered to keep her cats, Jack and Dusty, so that she wouldn't have to shut them up for the next 3 days.

She'd have to shut them up for 3 days for a 3 hour party because these cats are not normal cats. They're velociraptors. Truly. They can destroy a room in less than 10 minutes, and a house in under an hour. Kathy has had no indoor decorations this holiday season because every time she tried to put something out, the cats attacked it. They climbed the greenery she tried to drape over the door. They pulled down the tree (fake). She didn't even wrap any presents till late, because the cats would've attacked them. Oh, and she kept the presents that she DID wrap in the bathroom so the cats couldn't get them.

So, for her to have a party on Tuesday, she has to get them our of the house by Sunday; that gives her time to clean, decorate, etc without the velociraptors in the way. Since the kids love them, and are constantly asking when WE can get kittens, I'm happy to kittie sit periodically.

The last time I kittie-sat, they were much smaller, and I kept them in the playroom the whole time (we didn't trust them to not fling themselves off the balcony. This time, though, they're very big: probably 8-10 pounds each, and LONG. So we decided they'd be better off having the run of the house this time.

So Kathy brought them over today, and they had a grand old time for about a half an hour running around, looking out all the windows, sniffing at everything, and generally making nuisances off themselves.

And then Jack found Dazzle.

So who the heck thought it would be a good idea to bring two half-feral cats into a house with a rodent in the kitchen????

So far they've just looked at each other. Dazzle doesn't seem fazed at all; I guess it pays to have a brain the size of a peanut. Jack is the most interested in figuring out exactly what Dazzle is, how he (Jack) can get into the cage, and if he (Dazzle) would be delicious. Dusty, though, is certainly interested; just not fixated.

I managed to keep Jack away for a bit; I had a clementine and rubbed the peel on the base of Dazzle's cage. The next time Jack tried to look in, he got a horrible look on his face and got down quickly. Which only goes to prove that I do NOT have a brain the size of a peanut!

More updates later......