I keep looking up to heaven and reminding Shannon, we had a deal….
You get to move in with your animals, and I look at them and think they are cute, and that’s it. I know nothing about animals. Yeah, that was a great plan! Ha ha….. So here I am living with Joey… and the animal menagerie…..Louie the cat, Bentley the bearded dragon, Gizzy the rabbit and Eli, the guinea pig.
Now in all truth, Joey does most of their care, but I don’t want him to go it alone so I try to help. He cleans them and their cages, wlthough I hold Gizzy while Joey trimmed her fur. I do help clean up their cages and have learned the routine, if I could just keep the days straight about what happens when.
Except for Louie…. Louie is easy. Every morning, I feed Louie, and I must say he is a polite old guy. He is very respectful of my space, is extremely courteous. Although he will jump on Joey’s bed and sleep there during the day, he never jumps on mine. As a matter of fact each morning at 5:15 he comes to my door, sits at the edge and meows what sort of sounds like,”Hello?” If I turn on my light, he comes in and walks to the edge of my bed and meows, reminding me, it is breakfast time. If I pretend to sleep, he takes that as a signal that I need to get up and moving, moving onto a louder sound, but no matter what? Never walks in my room unless the light is on and never jumps on my bed.
I dutifully dish up his food and then he proceeds to take, what I like to call his after breakfast pre mid morning nap. Joey and I joke about his napping schedules. He stares at us, reminding us that it takes a lot of energy to be that cute, his only real job.
Every night, he waits for me by the door, and when I come in he walks over and pushes into me, then walks toward the fridge and looks at the top, subliminally reminding me that he is owed a treat for guarding the house as I asked him to, and minding the other animals.
In the morning, when I get up to feed him, the others start scurrying around knowing breakfast is coming. Gizzy is a silly rabbit, hopping while she waits for me to fill her dish. She looks at it and always dumps her bowl and picks out only the goodies she likes. I usually find one of her toys in her water bowl. Still not sure if she is playing soccer back there or what. I usually feed her first and Eli sits up whistling to remind me so I don’t forget him. He gobbles his food up fast.
He seems to think he is a gopher as he burrows under the fleece and newspaper making tunnels where he hides until later. That seems to be his major entertainment and I must say he is a pro. His trails are intricate and varied. I knock on his little hut, his hiding habitat and sometimes he comes out and sometimes he waits until he thinks I left. Then he peers out at me and whistles. No doubt tricks the rabbit teaches him as she looks on. They are funny, each with their own personality.
I have spent all kinds of time researching what organic fruits and veggies these kids of Joey and Shannon eat. Every night, Joey or I, dutifully chop salads of yummy goodness. Eli know the sound of the vegetable drawer and so I can’t make my lunch at night or he thinks it is the snack hour and begins to whistle like crazy. And Joey cleans them giving them their favorite evening hay.
But, as soon as I walk back there with berries and organic greens they are sitting up in the cage waiting with excitement. They push their faces by the cage waiting to see what goodness awaits. Gizzy always eats the fruit first and then the greens. Eli, the other way around. I will say some things have gained me points, the curly kale and blueberries were joyfully eaten.
Then there is Bentley. Okay, I like him from afar. I loom at him, he looks at me. We are getting there. I have petted him, just not worn him like Joey and Shannon. I have held him on his leash and let him walk around….. I just don’t do crickets. It’s a whole process that well….. yeah…. no thanks…. I will chop him an evening salad but crickets, no.
Joey buys those, and we feed them peelings to make sure they are gut loaded for him. I mean if you are going to eat crickets, they should be gut loaded right? Then Joey shakes them in calcium powder to make them extra nutritious. Yum…. and drops them in. He is a picky fellow and only eats them live. Of course on days when we didn’t get to the store, he will eat super worms and lovessssss them on a salad of kale. Someone told me you can buy them lunchboxes. Little boxes of crickets that hop out and kind of like the cricket drive thru at Tim Horton’s. Haven’t seen those yet.
Luckily no more have escaped this process of shaking tubes filled with full belly crickets, and we finally found the dead carcass of the one who tried to get away.
They are fun, her critters, … I never realized how attached she got to them, but I am starting to. They love Cathy’s visits and especially Louie gets excited to see her.
I find myself saying goodnight to them, telling them goodbye when I leave for work…. and looking in on them when I get home. When I grocery shop, I automatically think of them and what they might like. I talk to them and I am sure they converse that I am interesting, with my work tales and stories of my day, but they are at least happy I know how to make really good salad. I think I have earned their acceptance. You were right Shannon…. any tough day that happens, and then spent with them, makes you feel better.