Pets

In our household we have 3 types of pets. A dog, a cat and a rabbit. We used to have crazy crabs but they have all died. Below I have shared a little about our pet ownership journey so far...

Dogs

We have owned 3 dogs in our married life. Sammy, the dopiest dog we've ever had. Max, the second dopiest. And Billy our current dog and a smart one at that!

The funniest thing that Sammy ever did (and he did alot of funny things!) was jump up on top of his kennel (it's ok, the roof was flat) but because he took such a fast run up, he slid right off again!!! That's not all, we called him again, and...

HE DID IT AGAIN!

Poor Sam, not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Now Max, he was pretty smart, being Heeler German Shepherd X he was lucky. But he was SO protective of his bones that when he buried them he told you right where they were! It was like, "I buried my bone, but it's NOT THERE, ok!"

Hehehe.

Now Billy we got as a pup from the RSPCA of WA a 4.5mths. Having 2 girls (and none on the way), he's "boy".

We took him to basic obedience (aka Puppy School) which he did very well at and has been reinforced the following 4 years since. He's obedient and very polite. A quirk of Billy's is that he eats like a cat, daintily, which is nice to see in a 40kg dog. He also ALWAYS "asks" to get up on his inside chair EVERY time he gets off it and wants to get back on. Cute, but annoying sometimes. Poor thing will be standing there wagging his tail til you notice him! At least he has the brains to give up and go and lay down somewhere else, if it was Sammy he'd stand there all day. But if it was Sammy he wouldn't be asking in the first place!

Cats

We have owned 3 cats in our married life.

Winston, Ted and Kuching.

Winston was Dave's cat from before we were married. He lived to the ripe old age of 17 before getting sick and having to be put down.

Ted we had for a short 6 months, but he lived every second of it. Ted didn't make it across the road one night. He was BEAUTIFUL.

Kuching (which means "cat" in Indonesian I'm told) is with us still after we adopted her 5 years ago from a couple who were moving overseas. She is my hot water bottle on cold evenings accompanying me on my chair while I crochet. She's a typical "scaredy-cat". It literally took her six months to come out from under the bed during day time.

There will definately be more cats in our future as I am a cat lover, my girls are and I'm sure Dave is a "closet" cat lover.

Crazy Crabs

This year (2005) we bought some "Crazy Crabs". This is the brand name given to Land Hermit Crabs here in Australia. The live naturally in the mangroves of the North Coast of Australia.

We started with 2 Herman and Bluebell. Bluebell was a tiny crab and being beginners we didn't know that they are harder to look after. She died. We still have Herman who is now Hermie (being a girl - we saw hairs on her back when she turned over once). Since Bluebell left us we have bought 4 more crabs. Nikki (was Nik, but again hairs were sighted), Ron (named after Ron Stoppable on Kim Possible), Bebe (short for Bluey-Blackie, the colour of her big claw) and Zebbe (short for Zebra as he is striped.)

The kids have enjoyed having pets they can hold (the dog is too big and the cat is a scaredy-cat) and they get to see them in their environment too. We use an old fish tank lined with wood shavings (untreated) in the winter for warmth and beach sand (bought not stolen) for cool in the summer.

Find out more about Land Hermit Crabs here.

Rabbits

Our rabbit "Thumper" came into our lives in November 2006. We got him at 6 months from another homeschooling family here in Perth that had to give him away because of someone's allergies to him. He is interesting. I'm still not sure if I like him or not. I never did like rabbits because I was once bitten by a friends as a child. He can be a naughty bunny when he wants out of his cage, ripping up his newspaper and thumping. He needs a bigger hutch and needs an enclosed area to be able to exercise in (I like the ties on my chair where they are!). He is cute, he's mainly white with brindle ears and lovely brown eyes and some dots sprinkled down his back.

My Blog | Other Stuff | The Walk

Background and Images by