Bandit, the School Ferret

For the rest of the summer, we will be taking care of the school ferret. The ferret is a classroom pet of James' 7th grade Science teacher. We took care of him over the winter break last February. His teacher asked us if we would like to watch him for the summer, but I didn't want to commit for the whole summer. So we asked her to find someone to split the summer with us. Bandit arrived last week.



The kids LOVE him! So now we have a dog, a hamster, a rat, and a ferret. (And as I am writing this, we have another dog because we are dog sitting for a neighbor.)

One thing I like about watching the ferret is that the kids can have the experience of keeping a ferret, but in August, he'll go back to school! I like this short term commitment!

He's a very curious critter. And he walks sideways. He does smell a bit - but that is the nature of ferrets. He's fun to watch. He's very flexible when held, similar to a kitten.

He sleeps a lot in his hammock.

The kids bought some books on ferrets at the local used bookstore. They are also fully responsible for cleaning his cage weekly. They are really becoming quite the responsible pet owners/pet care takers.

Scampers, the Fancy Rat

I have posted about the hamster and the dog, but haven't posted about Scampers, the Fancy Rat yet.

About 1 1/2 years ago, Hannah was begging for a pet. At that time, our cat was about 18 years old, so I told her absolutely no kitties. I tried to get her to just wait until the cat passed away before getting any type of pet, but she stood her ground. My husband convinced her that a rat would be the perfect pet. He told her that they were extremely smart and easy to train. So that is how we ended up with a rat.



Scampers enjoys climbing up and down the stairs.

He always stays near us and doesn't wander off very far.



Here he is on Hannah's head.


I used to be a bit squeamish about rats. But I have become rather fond of this rat. He gives little ratty kisses. He's fun to watch. I will hold him on my lap while Hannah cleans out his cage and he will stay with me the whole time and not try to leave. We love Scampers, the Fancy Rat!

Snickers, the Keeshond Sheltie

Snickers joined our family in January, 2004. We found her at Petsmart during one of their Adoption Days through the Paulding County Animal Shelter. We went looking for a Labrador or a Golden Retriever, but we ended up with a Keeshond -Sheltie mix.

This is a Keeshond:
And this is a Sheltie:



And when you mix the two together, you get Snickers!


Snickers has proven to be a wonderful addition to our family. She is super sweet and fairly obedient. She does have some faults. She sheds like crazy! Every May, we take her to get her summer hair cut. According to what I have read, hair cuts don't really make the dogs feel cooler during the summer months, but it does help on the amount of hair she sheds. Which makes me happy!


Some of her summer hair cuts have been better than others. The first couple of times she had them, she really acted embarrassed by her appearance. Some groomers have ended up making her look like a lion. It's really funny! Usually it looks better after a week or so. She LOOKS happy!



This is one of the first pictures we took of her. She has those big, brown puppy dog eyes.


She's great with the kids.



She is very social. If given the opportunity, she will just wander off to see who else is outside. When the kids were younger, they would sometimes forget to shut the gates and then later we would get phone calls saying our dog was down the street.


She likes participating in the neighborhood 4th of July parade.


But she doesn't like the fireworks. We took her with us to watch the fireworks one year and she spent the evening in our laps. She's a little too big to be a lap dog. She doesn't like thunderstorms either.


She enjoys going on hikes and walks. However, she likes to stop and smell EVERYTHING along the way.

She waits patiently for us when we take her to the Powder Springs Coffee Shoppe.

Most of the time she is very calm, but she does get the occasional crazy streak. We think it's funny when we does that.



We love our Snickers dog!

Sushi, the Chinese Dwarf Hamster

In December, my son James got a hamster as an early birthday present. He had a Syrian hamster several years earlier and he did well with that. This time James selected a Chinese Dwarf hamster. Being nearly 13 at the time, and having the sense of humor that goes along with being almost 13, James named his new pet, "Sushi". Yes, my son knows that sushi is Japanese, not Chinese, but he thought it would be clever to have an Asian theme to his name. Chinese Dwarf hamsters are exceptionally small and cute, not unlike edible sushi.


Here is Sushi. He likes to nibble on shirts, especially ones worn by James. We have had to throw away at least 3 or 4 shirts due to this naughty habit of his. But he's so darn cute, we forgive him.



Sushi likes to run. He runs in the morning. He runs in the afternoon. He runs in the evening. He never gets anywhere. When he's not running, he's sleeping. And nibbling on shirts.

Run, Sushi, Run! (You have to say it like in Forest Gump - "Run, Forest, Run".)


Here's James with his little Sushi. It looks like Sushi has his other eye on James' brand new shirt.