A good half-hour at Petsmart
I think visiting Petsmart almost daily for crickets is good for me; I haven't had as many longings for mammalian pets since I started going, because there's always a friendly dog that's eager for a random stranger's attention there. Today in line I ended up surrounded on both sides by friendly dogs. One was a King Charles Spaniel, who jumped up to everyone, with a big grin on its face, as if saying, "You love me, yes! Love me! Give me love! Yes! Yes! Lots of love!" and so was pretty much petted by everyone that walked by.
The other dog looked a lot like Dug from Up. She pretty much ignored all humans and kept trying to investigate other dogs, to sniff. I commented on the similarity, and her owner laughed and said that yeah, she did, and he had been trying to train her to react whenever anyone said "Squirrel!" but to no avail. In fact, she wasn't a golden retriever; she was a shar pei mix. Still, the resemblance was eerie.
I also looked at the rodents. The one mouse was being boring, but the guinea pigs have been catching my attention lately; I like the way they hop on their hind legs. The two on display were fighting, though. Then one of them dove for the rodent house, the other chased after the other, and then they both hopped up and started sniffing like nothing was happening. It was funny.
Then I looked at the rat, a beautiful fawn-colored rat. He was bright-eyed, and sniffing, and curious, and gorgeous, and I was almost tempted to buy him, until he turned around and reminded me why I was interested in buying girl rodents.
My only complaint about the visit was at the reptile center. The bearded dragons they sell keep getting smaller and smaller; I bought Sonja at about six weeks, and she was about seven inches from tip to tail. I was told that she was almost too small to be sold. By contrast, the baby beardie that I saw was at most five inches; a better estimate would be between four and five inches. I was tempted to complain, but I realized I should probably have some data and knowledge backing up my claim that they were too young to be sold. I can't complain to the manager, "I think they're too young to be sold!" I also can't verify their size. And they know me, I've been in there a lot to buy crickets for my bearded dragon, so I can't snoop alone...
The other dog looked a lot like Dug from Up. She pretty much ignored all humans and kept trying to investigate other dogs, to sniff. I commented on the similarity, and her owner laughed and said that yeah, she did, and he had been trying to train her to react whenever anyone said "Squirrel!" but to no avail. In fact, she wasn't a golden retriever; she was a shar pei mix. Still, the resemblance was eerie.
I also looked at the rodents. The one mouse was being boring, but the guinea pigs have been catching my attention lately; I like the way they hop on their hind legs. The two on display were fighting, though. Then one of them dove for the rodent house, the other chased after the other, and then they both hopped up and started sniffing like nothing was happening. It was funny.
Then I looked at the rat, a beautiful fawn-colored rat. He was bright-eyed, and sniffing, and curious, and gorgeous, and I was almost tempted to buy him, until he turned around and reminded me why I was interested in buying girl rodents.
My only complaint about the visit was at the reptile center. The bearded dragons they sell keep getting smaller and smaller; I bought Sonja at about six weeks, and she was about seven inches from tip to tail. I was told that she was almost too small to be sold. By contrast, the baby beardie that I saw was at most five inches; a better estimate would be between four and five inches. I was tempted to complain, but I realized I should probably have some data and knowledge backing up my claim that they were too young to be sold. I can't complain to the manager, "I think they're too young to be sold!" I also can't verify their size. And they know me, I've been in there a lot to buy crickets for my bearded dragon, so I can't snoop alone...