Home Zookeeper

Here is a new weekly feature for Home Zoo Keeper. Each week I will spotlight a pet that is available for adoption. For those wanting a pet, adopting a pet from a local shelter can be very rewarding.

Today’s pet isn’t for everyone but I’ve heard they do make great pets. This is Lily, a pot-bellied pig, who is six years old. She is female and while she isn’t aggressive, she doesn’t care for too much contact.

Her current owners are moving to the city and will not have any room for Lily. Lily is available for adoption from the Pear tree Avian Sanctuary in Springfield, Missouri.

I have always loved black cats and even own one. Well, she allows me to be in her presence at times like when she’s hungry. But still I claim her. Some may consider it bad luck to cross paths with a black cat. Apparently though it’s good luck if a black cat comes into your house. Then we should have good luck coming by the truckloads since Fade always strolls into the house when the door is open.

Black cats historically have been associated with witches, which might be at the heart as to why they are considered bad luck. In some places in the world that didn’t really have witch hunts - like Japan, Britain, and Ireland - black cats are thought to bring good luck.

I don’t know if our black cat has brought good, bad luck, or any luck. She is quite entertaining, so she has brought some laughter and joy. That’s better than luck any day.

We went to the fair last week, and this was our favorite part. It was the petting zoo. My two-year-old loved it. I nearly went broke buying carrots and feed, but she had a great time.
Here is the llama who was very patient and allowed us to feed the goats first before getting to her. She didn’t spit once.

Here are those hungry goats. I couldn’t even get the feed out before they had devoured it all. I learned to place my hand first and then put the quarter in to get the feed.

Here I believe is a mountain goat. I can’t remember exactly. Anyway he dwarfed the other goats there.

It was a fun day, and it makes me really wish the local zoo had a petting zoo. This was a great experience for Rae. Hopefully we will get the chance to do it again before the fair rolls around next year.

Today at work we were discussing pets, one of our favorite subjects, when someone mentioned the pet of the week. She talked about how cute he was and how she really wish she could adopt him. There’s no doubt the cute animals are more adoptable than other ones. But also beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is cute to me may just be OK to someone else.

I think all puppies are cute. They are like babies in that there it just is nearly impossible for them not to be cute at such a young age. It’s hard not to bond with a puppy and become attached really fast. It’s actually a good thing since puppies can be a handful sometimes.

It’s amazing what attracts us to our pets and why we ultimately decide to make them ours. With our cats I had always wanted a calico, so the choice was easy with Calisto. With Fade, she was the last one left of the litter, but we simply loved her black fur and cuddly disposition.

How did you pick our your pet? Were they friendly or did they really pick you? Share by adding your comments.

When I was a teenager, I had a pet guinea pig that looked much like the one pictured above. I named him Hokie after the Saints football player Hokie Gajan.

It was fun to have a guinea pig as a pet. He stayed in a cage in my room. Mostly he hung out in his little box since guinea pigs seem to like covered dwellings. I would take Hokie out of his cage and pet him. He was very good to sit and watch TV with me.

I had bought a book on guinea pigs that really helped me to know how to take care of him, which I would recommend anyone who gets a small pet to learn all they can to probably take care of it. I bought the small book at the same place that I got the guinea pig.

Since you use cedar shavings to line their cage, place their cage in half-cardboard box to keep the shavings from hitting the floor. Guinea pigs can die from common colds so place their cage in a part of the house that isn’t drafty or directly under the air conditioner.

Guinea pigs are fun indoor pets. I really enjoyed having one and would love to have another one sometime in the future as I think it would be a good pet choice to have with a small child.

When I was a young kid, we had several chickens. We always had fresh eggs and never a mosquito in sight. Even though we’re not big egg eaters, I do like that chickens eat mosquitoes since spray is not a deterrent to the pesky insects.

My co-worker has chickens as a hobby. Well, I get the impression that it’s more her husband’s hobby than hers. Apparently he has a favorite one who lets him pet her and is very docile. He has become quite attached to them.

I would like a few to help with the mosquito population. Plus I remember it being kind of fun having chickens, collecting eggs and everything. Sadly though I’m not sure we’ll get any just because of the neighborhood dogs and wild animals that might get after them.

It might still be a pet idea I will do some research on and see what kind of structure we can build to keep them safe.

Our local zoo has an event each year around Halloween called Zoo Boo. It runs for the week of Halloween and offers kids a safe place to trick or treat. The event has grown each year they have had it with more decorations being added each year.

We go to the zoo a lot. The little one loves the peacocks that roam freely around the zoo. So, the zoo is very special to us.

The local zoo has always done a lot for the community. It brings him tourists from surrounding small towns, and it provides a great place to take your kids to enjoy the day. Yes, the zoo is dear to us and many other families in the community. That’s why it’s heartbreaking and disgusting that someone would steal from the zoo. There has been a theft of a lot of the Halloween decorations that mostly were made up of the inflatable characters you can readily find this time of year. The zoo doesn’t have a huge budget and I’m sure most of the decor was either donated or bought on clearance. It makes me sad and angry that someone would want to ruin one of the best activities for kids in our community.

There is good news. Our local Moms group is collecting money from members to buy a few decorations for the zoo. Hopefully more local organizations will pitch in to help out the zoo. One good thing does seem to come from tragedy. People come together to fill in the gaps and help out anyway they can. Zoo Boo opens next week, which we will be attending. Even if the zoo can’t replace all that was lost, it will still be a great event knowing that a community came together to replace what was lost.

A few weeks ago, I remember Ellen DeGeneres talking about how they had a new puppy. Well, apparently they had adopted it from a local shelter. Apparently part of the agreement was that should they not want the puppy anymore that they would return it to the shelter. Instead Ellen found the puppy a new home with her hairdresser and her two daughters, thus the trouble began.

Can you believe the animal rescue place, Mutts and Moms, actually went and took the puppy back from his new home? The family had the puppy for three weeks and Iggy, the cute Brussels Griffon mix, and had grown quite attached to the new member of their family. The organization Mutts and Moms has received quite a backlash from their actions, especially after Ellen’s heartfelt plea on her show to return the dog. Their actions have left a lot of people wondering just what is this all about. Is it just a power trip or are they truly interested in the dog’s well-being? Surely a family with two pre-teen girls and one family dog already can’t be a bad home for another pet?

I find it quite sad that the dog was taken, and the new family not given an opportunity to formally adopt the puppy. I guess it’s a good lesson also to read the fine print of any agreement since the paper work they did sign stated to return the puppy to Mutts and Moms if the adoption didn’t work out. I can understand why such measures are in place since it is the well-being of the animals that the shelter is championing. Hopefully the family will find a new puppy soon as there are probably thousands of dogs waiting to be adopted in shelters around Los Angeles.

Lately we’ve been planning Raegan’s Halloween costume. I was browsing the website Halloween Express when I ran across pet costumes. This one is my favorite. He’s a watch dog. Too cute.

I’m not sure a pet costume would work with our cats. They barely leave on their flea collar let alone a costume. Still it would be fun to dress them up this Halloween even if they didn’t leave the costume on. Anyone have plans to dress up their pet this Halloween? Share with us.

Bird watching is a favorite hobby of mine. I’m a novice at it but have always wanted to learn more about bird watching. There’s no better place to start than the backyard. We have a bird feeder and have found that the birds around here really love sunflower seeds. In fact, they will sort through the seed to find the sunflower seeds and leave the rest. I love to make homemade treats for our pets, so why not whip up a little something for the birds?

During the fall, there are several baking items that are good treats for birds as Dana at Backyard Birding lists. There are some great suggestions. Another option is to make a treat just for the birds. Here’s a recipe that I received from the local Audubon Society:

Bird Pudding

1 pound lard
8 ounce peanut butter
1 cup sugar
4-5 cups corn meal
Nuts, raisins, etc.

Mix and make into balls about the size of meatballs. Flatten the balls out and either refrigerate or freeze.

You can pretty much add anything to it. Nuts and raisins are just suggestions. I will, of course, be adding sunflower seeds and will take Dana’s advice and add pumpkin seeds. You can buy seed cakes for birds at the local store, but I find it very rewarding to make something myself. If it’s anything like home cooking, then homemade bird pudding is bound to be better than anything bought in the store.

More bird cake recipes are coming up in the future as well as cat and puppy treats just in time for the holidays.

We are very lucky when it comes to our pets. Our cats are very laid back and mild tempered. It’s a good thing since Raegan loves to be where they are and play with them. She has never been bad to pull their hair or to be rough with them, and they have returned the favor. They are very gentle with her. When Rae was younger, she would love to lay on the cats. I think she was hugging them.

She loves her cats, so it’s wonderful that they are so understanding to her ways of affection.

You might have attended or notice an announcement for a pet blessing in your area this month. Pet blessings are usually held around the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, which is October 4th.

This past weekend there were a couple of pet blessings held in our town. We didn’t make it to not one of them but luckily I found a pet blessing that I can do at home. It’s nice to do something special for your pets. Pet blessings are a nice way to meet up with fellow animal lovers while showing off your pride and joy. I’m disappointed I missed it but am glad that I can find a blessing I can do at home until next year.

It’s a new month today and so it’s once again time to give the cats a flea treatment. I started giving the cats their monthly flea treatment at the beginning of the month so that when the next month rolled around, I would know that it was time for another treatment.

I started giving the cats their flea treatment at the first of the month because I kept forgetting when I had given it to them. Now a smarter pet owner might just note on a calendar the date of the last flea treatment or mark on the next month when it should be given again. Not this pet owner as that just makes too much sense. Between the cats and the kid, to find a working pen and being able to hang onto it long enough to walk to the calendar is quite challenging. So, it’s easier for me to remember by just giving their treatment the first of each month.

The treatment I use is Hartz. You just place it on the back of their neck, and it does the rest. It’s less messy than flea powder that is for sure and more reliable the collars since my cats have a tendency to lose those.

We want to make sure that our cats don’t have a flea problem since it can be terrible to get rid of fleas in your home. Luckily we haven’t had much trouble with fleas in the house since regularly treating the cats for fleas.