Brief lesson on fear avoidance

http://hellogiggles.com/10-awesomely-adorable-dog-gifs?sl=2#sl=3 GIF #3 if it doesn’t load properly.

This came to me on Twitter in a link entitled "10 awesomely adorable dog GIFS" - the rest of the images are, in fact, cute, so go ahead and click the link and look at the rest of them if you want to check them out, but I had to comment on this particular one.

If you recognize the body language here, this is NOT cute at all. This dog is showing very fearful behavior here. Now, if you’ve ever seen an object (ball or whatever else) come too close to your dog’s head, you will recognize the ear position and the squinty eyes - dog trying to duck and protect its face from being hit. Add that to the fact that this dog is turning its head away from the person whose shadow you can briefly see in this GIF, the mouth stretched back in a grimace, and the licking of the lips, and this is a VERY nervous dog right here. If it looks super-friendly, it’s because this dog is trying to make an appeasing gesture to avoid a confrontation.

A primer on pet rodents: rats and gerbils

I know a do a lot of talking about cats and dogs on this blog, but did you know that rodents make great pets too? Usually when we think of rats and mice, we don't see them in a positive light. They chew holes in our walls, they carry disease - why would anyone willingly bring one into their home? But pet rodents are not the disease-carrying pests we wage war on every spring and fall. I myself have kept rats and gerbils, and so these are the two types of rodent I want to dicuss today.

Rats are often portrayed in cartoons as dirty, scruffy, vicious animals - often playing the role of the villain (exceptions, of course, being Master Splinter and the rats of NIMH). Pet rats, however, are quite the opposite. They are very fastidious creatures, and can in fact be very loving. The rats you find in the pet store are descendants of the wild Norway Rat, domesticated and bred with many coat patterns, including the plain brown you would expect in a wild rat. The sex of your rat can affect its personality to some degree - for example I tend to prefer females as they remain more active over their life span. All of the male rats I have known get a bit fatter and lazier as they age.

Rats are fairly easy to keep, but there are a few things you should know. First is that while they can be kept alone, most rats are social and prefer to be kept in groups. If you buy only one, you MUST be certain to spend plenty of time with your rat, as much like any other pet they are happiest when they have someone to play with. If you decide to get your rat a friend later rather than buy them all from the same place, you may wish to look up some articles to help make sure the transition goes smoothly. Here is a brief article with the basics on introducing new rats: http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introducing_rats.php

Gerbils are another popular rodent in pet stores, and they, too, should never be kept alone. Gerbils are VERY social animals, and they tend to become vey unhappy very quickly when isolated. I recommend buying at least two from the same place - preferrably related. I had been told in the past that males get along easier than females, so I have had only male gerbils thus far. Remember that gerbils are nocturnal, so if a lot of noise at night will drive you crazy, I would recommend keeping them someplace other than the bedroom.

I always had two cages for my gerbils - the living cage and the play cage - but you may wish to instead have a larger home where they can always play. You don't want to just let them out on the floor like you can with most rats, as the gerbil is more likely to get loose by the sheer fact that it is smaller and quicker. Make sure to change up their play equipment often, as not only will they chew it up no matter what it's made of, but the change keeps them interested and active. They will readily use hamster balls and tubes, however if you use an exercise wheel make sure you buy one that does NOT have an open design, as the tail can get caught in the spaces and snap off. For this reason it is also very important that you not pick up your gerbil by the tail - if you have no other way to catch it, catch it by the base of the tail ONLY, never at the end, as much like a gecko a gerbil will sometimes allow its tail to break off as a defensive mechanism. Unlike a gecko, however, the gerbil's tail WILL NOT grow back.

Remember that all rodents are chewers, so keep anything you don't want chewed on out of reach, and make sure loose play is well supervised. Always have something in the cage for your rodents to chew on. Not only is it a natural instinct to chew, but much like rabbits, their teeth can get too long and start to cause problems if they do not have sufficient chew toys. Chewy treats are also a good idea - check with your breeder or veterinarian, or look online for lists of safe foods, but anything you see in their regular food mixes can also be fed as treats. My gerbils always loved banana chips and sunflower seeds, and would take them from my hand when offered.

The cage is another important thing to consider for both species. While a smaller cage or aquarium may be fine for gerbils, or rats if you plan to spend lots of time letting them out to play, if you are going to be gone for long stretches you may wish to invest in a larger ferret cage for your rats. This will allow them to have room to move around and explore without worrying that they might get out and get hurt, or chew on anything that they shouldn't. If using an aquarium or cage with a bedding pan, DO NOT use a sawdust bedding for any of your rodents. Common types of sawdust such as cedar and pine can cause severe respiratory problems in small mammals. I would recommend either corncob bedding, or aspen bedding which do not put off a lot of dust. Shredded cardboard or paper-based cat litters may also be used. I also recommend giving them either a tissue or a bit of cloth to chew up for nesting material, so they have something soft to curl up in and sleep.

Has anyone else out there had rodents for pets? What care tips can you offer for new rodent owners? What are your favorite pet rodents, and what stories can you tell about your pets?

Den size and crating

Sometimes when I try to explain animal behavior to commenters on Youtube, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. Most often I find myself trying to explain things on a friend's channel - see, she has a fox. No, not from an "exotic pet" breeder. Hers is a fur farm rescue. She used to have two, but recently lost one due to old age. I do not often condone the owning of wild animals, however in some cases where it's clear they are being properly cared for, I do admire the caretaker's ability to bond with a non-domestic critter. This friend of mine is one of those people. She made a point of learning  her foxes' habits and patterns, both in terms of how foxes in general act, and their individual personalities. And I do believe animals have to be treated as individuals.

To get back on the subject, the other day she posted a video showing her fox's sleeping quarters at night, telling her viewers that the fox got scared alone at night now that her companion is gone. The new sleeping quarters consist of a large dog crate with a few good inches of straw along the bottom. Naturally, one of the commenters started going on about how the cage was too small, and how did she know the fox got scared anyway?

Enter the animal behavior nut, who still has not gotten a response. I tried explaining first of all that if you know an animal and its normal behavior patterns, you also learn to know what abnormal behaviors mean. I don't know about you, but I find it VERY easy to determine when my animal companions are scared. Besides which, it is already a known fact that this particular fox has terrible separation anxiety.

As for the cage, it was plenty big enough for the fox to pace in a circle if she so wished. However, this is not her full time enclosure. This is her sleeping place. Unlike most foxes, this little oddball seems to have synced up to her human momma's diurnal sleep schedule. If anything, that cage is too BIG. Anxious animals tend to like close quarters. It's comforting. In the wild, a fox's den is only really big enough to stand up and turn around in. Even for a denning mother, babies only take up so much space. Sound familiar? Yes, that's exactly the guidelines you are given when picking out a dog crate. The smaller space feels like a den, which is where an animal goes to feel safe. So no, the cage is most certainly not too small for a nighttime sleeping arrangement.

Please, PLEASE, before you try and harass someone about how they keep their animals, take the time to both research what you're talking about, and to find out more about the person. A single video is only a small slice of the day. Trying to accuse people of abuse for things that are not will never help your cause. It diminishes the reality of actual abuse that goes on every day, and worries people that if they vote in favor of anti-abuse laws, that it will also ban perfectly acceptable practices that are misunderstood.



On an unrelated note, I am very proud of Anubis. For months we have been trying to show him that the other two litterboxes in the house are also his to use. Finally after this last time we dumped and hosed them out, he has started using the one in the middle of the house. It only took a few good cleanings and James putting him in it to tell him that he could go to the bathroom there. Part of the issue, we think, was that it smelled so overwhelmingly of Simba that he had written it off as her territory, and someplace he wasn't to go.

Writer's block=repost.

I seem to be at a loss for anything to post lately, so instead I am reposting an entry from an old forgotten blog, posted back in January of 2007.

We had a slight adventure this morning.

Remember how dad and I stuffed the holes in the floor so the mice couldn't get in? Well we stuck glue traps just in case, so I could find out if they were able to get back in.

This morning I caught something.

See, I had gone into the cupboard to get a plastic baggie to take something to work. Wasn't in any rush to shut the door - cat seems afraid of going under there anyway. Go to put my shoes on, and finish with the first. I hear this frantic scraping noise. Get up to go look - it's coming from the cupboard. I duck down to peek inside, and out shoots the cat.

As soon as I noticed the glue trap was gone, I realized what had happened.

So, off I go, chasing the cat across the house with one shoe on. Cat runs into the spare bedroom and under the bed. I follow to try and catch her. Cat runs out of the bedroom - gets one of my shoes stuck to her somehow in addition to the mouse trap, and starts running faster.

The cat loses the shoe somewhere en route to the living room, and hides under a stand. Now that she's cornered I can finally grab her to pull the trap off her foot. Thankfully, these are the ones with what I call "snot glue" on them, rather than the flypaper type stuff, so it's fairly easy just to pull her foot out of the goop, and it sticks to itself so there's not much residue left on her paw.

That was my morning... all before breakfast. And with only one shoe on.

Hopefully my cat will forgive me for laughing at her expense.

Pets and stress

"Into each life a little rain must fall" - or so the saying goes. No matter how well your life is going, there's bound to be some stressful moments. We all have them, and we all need to deal with them in one way or another. But many of us forget how our stress can affect our pets.

James and I are no exception. Both our cats are very good at sensing when something is wrong with either of us, and usually they take it in stride and try to stick by us with purrs and snuggles to try and make it all better. Lately, though, since we both manage to injure ourselves slipping around on the ice and snow, we haven't been able to get out and blow off steam with a good dose of exercise like we normally can. So, naturally, we've taken to ranting a bit while at home to air out complaints in private, whether they be about work, politics, or whatever happens to be going on. Now, this is a normal practice and one most wouldn't think anything of. It's not like we're yelling at or about each other, just grumping about those pet peeves that we can normally just walk off.

The trick comes when you've got a cat who, by our reckoning, seems to have the approximate intelligence of a human toddler. There's a reason most people don't like to let Junior see Mommy and Daddy yelling - it upsets him, and for a kid that young it can be hard to explain. Anubis is very much the same, except for him, it's impossible to explain given that you can't just sit down and have a talk with your cat to tell him what's going on. He may understand a bit of language (no, down, good kitty, food, that sort of thing - especially food, that's the important one), but he has his limits, it's just not within his scope.

Also much like a child, Anubis has a habit of acting out when he is confused and upset. Many animals do, in fact, for various reasons. The problem being that although a child can tell you what's wrong - your pet can't. So when Anubis started chasing after Simba when she was clearly done playing, and trying to play too rough, at first we couldn't understand why he had suddenly stopped being polite. More than this, he was not listening when daddy told him "no", which is a very rare occurrence.

It was just this morning that we discovered the reason, as we had the time to really notice the succession of events. We were having a good rant, raised voices and all and after staring back and forth between us for a moment, Anubis made his way straight toward Simba and started swatting at her. The light bulb turned on. He thought we were yelling at each other. Last time daddy got yelled at by somebody that much, daddy had to move. Besides which, he is used to seeing us quite a bit calmer around each other, so the change was cause for confusion. It was not normal, and not-normal things very often make pets very upset. So when he heard us yelling, he ran off to do something he knew would make daddy come get him. It was a predictable reaction, and one he had some degree of control over, as well as a way of getting attention. Of course, we have no way of explaining to him that we aren't really fighting and that his position in the household is not in danger, so in order to change his behavior, we have to change ours.

So we have decided from now on if there's something worth yelling about, it needs to be done outside of the house as much as possible so Anubis won't go taking his confusion and frustration out on Simba.

That's part of the trick of handling behavior problems in pets - the behavior doesn't always match the cause as much as you might think, you have to do a bit of sleuthing and really figure out what changed around the time the problem started. Sometimes it is as simple as pooping in your shoes because you suddenly started going to work or school every day again after a long time of being home. Sometimes it's more complicated. And from my experience, the smarter your pet is, the more complicated their problems can be, not least of which because they can come up with much more creative ways of getting into trouble.

Yet another overdue cat update

The cats are getting along beautifully now. They even play with each other, which I never thought Simba would do. Even as a kitten she wasn't big on rough-and-tumble play with other cats so this was a pleasant surprise. She's getting real exercise again, and it seems her cystitis has gone away. She's more relaxed than I've seen her in a while, not least of which, I'm sure, because she now has somebody to keep her company when we're not home. Anubis is much the same. He still wants to spend time with daddy, and she still wants to spend time with momma, but they're not as desperate when we first get home now.

Today, though, we had our first miscommunication in a while. Simba seems to have a little bit of a bug - started getting a bit sluggish about the same time we did, when the weather changed to cold quite suddenly. Even indoors she feels it. Well, Anubis wants to play and with Simba not feeling well she kept trying to slink away from him quietly after a minor slap-fight by the box (which by the body language was play - she ran with him a couple times but she can't take much right now so after the little playfight she was done). He wouldn't take the hint - kept trying to chase. He cornered her under the window seat and she hissed at him. I had to remind him that means enough and it's time to be done playing for the night. So she made her way over to me, glanced at him a few times with that look she gives me when she thinks she's upset me and didn't mean to, so I reassured both of them and told him next time to listen when she says she's done. I know that last part sounds silly but he does understand a certain amount of human speech, and the tone clues him in to what I'm getting at if nothing else.

I'm trying to teach Simba now that he's learned her cue for being done with play is jumping onto the arm of the couch and curling up. If she does that he seems to leave her alone.

Overdue Kitty Update

I suppose I owe you an update by now, since it's been a while. Between being busy and being ill (illness being the latest in delays) I haven't had much time to type up a blog post. However the antibiotics have kicked in and I think I'm up to at least offering a brief update on what has been going on.

Firstly, Simba's cystitis seems to have subsided for now, which is a relief. It isn't something that's serious or fatal, but it does cause her pain so of course I hate to see her like that. Thankfully my vet does not seem bothered at all by my requests for news on possible new treatments every time we're in his office. So far it still looks like Diazepam is her best option, though it only really treats the symptom and not the disease.

Simba has stopped hissing at Anubis almost entirely. She will still hiss every so often if he startles her (or runs over her when he has turned the hallways into a racetrack), and we had to chide her for hissing at him the other night without due cause. Well, I'm sure she considered it due cause - we had a large cardboard box sitting in the living room and she decided it belonged to her, and her alone. That was quickly corrected and she (perhaps a bit grudgingly) learned to share.

Anubis is now frequently found asleep on the bed. He and Simba seem to trade places - one on the bed, one on the cedar chest. On rare occasion they will both be on the bed. They have yet to curl up together, but they're coming closer.

It seems they have come to some sort of agreement about acceptable play, too. Rather than pouncing, Anubis has settled for playing something that looks like tag with her across the house. One cat will start poking at the other, at which point the second cat will take off running. They usually only chase back and forth a couple of times, but we're making progress.

All in all they seem very comfortable with each other now. Simba even uses Anubis' litterbox and drinks from his water bowl. I'm pretty sure I've caught Anubis eating from Simba's food bowl once or twice. He regularly goes into the bedroom, she regularly goes into the office - before they were very wary of entering each other's "safe zones". And sometimes when James and I go to sleep at night, Simba retreats to the office and curls up in Anubis' cat carrier, with him sleeping on the chair nearby.