Lovely to know I am not the only rodent fan! Love rats and have had many of those over the years, golden hamsters, never had Russians but they are adorable and I like that you can keep pairs. My friend had mice and they were cute. Always fancied a chinchilla ut not had one - so far. I would love a cockatiel or a parrot but am worried that the bird would outlive us and fret about who would really want and love my pet in the future. I have a marginated tortoise called Sheldon who is 21 (daughter has bagged him when I am gone) and, although I do not have any, I love cats. We used to have 2 rescue moggies and my heart broke when they passed away. I love dogs and especially adore my daughters' German Spitz called Freya. I think I am just a crazy animal woman
I have just 2 chooks left but Paul adores them and wants to get more. I won't get any new ones until Marte and Gretel have gone. Chickens are ferrocious about pecking order and I won't have my 2 old girls bullied by spring chickens. I made that mistake about 10 years ago. I got a light sussex that my neighbour had bought. They only bought 1 chook which is odd but they just didn't want to be bothered, or invest in coopery. So, I took her, named her Trude as she was not named but it was a disaster. My 6 girls knew the pecking order and got along famously but when you introduce a new bird, the whole damn government goes up for re-election and it was brutal. Trude was wragged, pecked, jumped on, after 2 days I had to stop it. I brought Trude inside to eat and sleep. I got a dog bed, lined it and put straw in it and she slept there. The next evening, when the girls all naturally head back to their shed, she came to the door. I let her in and she hopped straight into her bed and so it was for 7 years! Harmony had resumed with the others within hours and the geese took an interest in Trude and she mostly foraged about with them and they chased the other chickens off if they came too close to Trude. They sort of considered her an honourary goose and groomed her, it was lovely! I am down to 3 geese as well now from 6 and Nina is 18 years old, so I am dreading the inevitable. She is so sweet, I cuddle them all but if I say "kissy kissy" to Nina, she gives me kisses on my cheek, like little gentle nibbles! When we retire, we want a bit more land so we can expand into duck keeping as well. I am sure my neighbours will have a party when we leave, they are brilliant though and have never complained about the honking at 8:30am. It happens when you let the geese out, they run around, fly up and down and honk for about 30 seconds, then settle down, just happy to be out and about. Also they are fantastic guards and have us and at least 2 neighbours that we know of from being burgled. Nothing gets past them and they know all of our neighbours, so strangers stand out. An old neighbour, now sadly passed away was in Burma during WW2 and he said that the locals kept them as guards for that very reason. My Polish neighbour loves them, he feeds them treats and chats to them as they remind him of his village where he says everybody has them as the norm.
Well, if you got to the end of this essay, well done! You will be happy to know that I will be working from tonight until new yeat's eve, so will be too knackered for loing posts. Have a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas. Please do stay safe and let us hope we will have a much better 2022.
Hugs to you all xxx
I’ve had cats, rabbits, mice, stick insects, tropical fish, a koi carp, a house guinea pig and, of course, my infamous iguana. I do prefer rats and mice to be pets though and not invaders from outside.
I would hate any birds to become a cat’s plaything, or worse.
(which he did!)
