Out of Style

Rodents are, generally, regarded as kids' pets. These days, most kids get a hamster as their 'first pet'. In the 1990s, however, the rodent pet market was pretty evenly divided between hamsters, and gerbils.

Gerbils were a fad pet. It happens fairly often - Dalmatians, for instance, were super popular for a brief time after the release of 101 Dalmatians. Soon enough, people realized that the breed was too much for them, and shelters were flooded with Dalmatians. Eventually it evened out and they're back to being the relatively uncommon breed they were before.
Gerbils were very popular in the 90s, as classroom pets and for children. I grew up with gerbils, not hamsters, and I still prefer them. They're smart, active, gentle, social creatures. But for whatever reason, they fell out of favour and most kids have hamsters now. Gerbils have become fairly rare. This means that when we get gerbils at the shelter, it's a nightmare trying to get them adopted - nobody wants a gerbil anymore.

Which brings me to these three boys. Larry, Curly and Moe were surrendered to the shelter back in May for whatever reason. They were only 6 weeks old at the time, so I assume whoever surrendered them had also bred them. Well done, you!
Gerbils are one of those species that take forever to be adopted. Chinchillas take forever, doves take forever, and gerbils take forever. It's just inevitable.

These guys weren't very sociable either. Larry here was fairly friendly, Curly was okay, but Moe was almost impossible to handle. Crossing our fingers, we shipped them off to Pet Valu and hoped that they'd have better luck than us.

They were at Pet Valu for almost two months, with absolutely no interest. Eventually Pet Valu asked us to take them back, as they were taking up space that they could use for hamsters or guinea pigs, who always get adopted quickly. The boys came back to the shelter.

The good news is that their time at Pet Valu really brought these guys out of their shells. I think I was too hasty labelling them 'skittish' when they arrived - after all, they were only 6 weeks old. It's normal for young rodents to be nervous. Now that they're fully mature, these boys are totally sweet. All three are easy to handle, gentle, curious, and happy to run right onto your hand.

They've now been waiting over three months. I wish someone would take them. Honestly, I have two very old dwarf hamsters right now, and if they were to pass away, I would take these three boys immediately. I still love gerbils, these boys are sweet and they deserve a home after all this time. (Note: I don't actually want my hamsters to pass away. Keep on trucking, my old men!)

I will never understand why hamsters emerged 'victorious' in the childrens' pet industry. I love my hamsters, but gerbils make better pets. They're awake during the day, they're less likely to bite, they're smarter, they're more active. But - and I do think this worked against them - they have tails. And tails make people think of mice. Hamsters are fluffy and tail-less.
Cute wins over practical every time.

Go West, Young Photographer

About six months ago, I was at an adopt-a-thon at Petsmart, and there was a staff member from the West region of TAS working with us. She mentioned (jokingly, I think) that it would be great if I did photos for their shelter as well. Never joke with me about shelter photos! I immediately asked if I could go do photos for West every so often.

 Since then, I think I've gone about four times. It's an interesting experience. For one thing, we have Fred at TAS South, so I never do dog photos. To be honest, I'm not very good at them, but I've taken a few stabs at it for West. Some of the results were nice, like that boy up there from a few months ago, and some were not worth posting (live and learn!).

TAS West is much smaller than South - it's the smallest of the four shelters. They don't house small animals, and they only have one adoption room for cats (as opposed to our 4 rooms + 4 windows).  Thanks to the small number of animals, I can usually get through all the cats in a couple of hours, a task that would take me a couple of days at South.
My most recent trip was last week, and this time I asked if I could post a few results. So here are our guest cats of the week, all to be found at TAS West:

This handsome fellow doesn't have a name yet. He was quite an independent cat, not particularly cuddly but certainly amiable.

Kittens are usually a nightmare to photograph, but I usually have good luck with the West kitties. This little munchkin is named Dexter and he's 4 months old.

I'm glad I got a decent photo of Simba here, because his website photo shows him as a newborn. Adorable of course, but he looks a bit different now!

It's a good exercise, trying to get every cat done. Some cats require quite a bit of patience for them to calm down enough to stand still for a photo, but I got this shot of Lynx on the first try.

One particularly nice thing about West is that several of their cages are bright white, as opposed to the mostly metallic South cages. This means that for cats who aren't keen on coming out of the cage (such as Minnie here), you can still get a nice shot.

This was my favourite shot of the day, and this kitten was totally lovable - and of course, she got adopted while I was there! Of course, that's brilliant. But it does figure that my favourite photo wasn't even needed! Hey, I guess that's why I have a blog, right?

And finally we have Iris - a good photo of a black cat is the most satisfying shot to get. Black cats are infamous for having a hard time at getting adopted, and one of the reasons for this is that they don't photograph well at all. They might be gorgeous, but it's so very difficult to make them look like anything other than a bug-eyed mass of black fur. Luckily, I think Iris looks a bit better than that!

So if you're in Etobicoke, and you have a car (because it is seriously irritating to get there by transit, although not impossible), stop by TAS West!

Family Fun, Part II

I should never say I'm going to do a post "tomorrow" because I inevitably end up doing it much later. Oh well. 
Today I present my second foster litter! I haven't even posted these guys on the blog before, shameful.

This is Circe, the mom. Circe became quite well known in one neighbourhood a few months ago, as she was frequently seen running through people's yards, and many people took to feeding her. After a while of this, someone followed her, and found that she had a litter of babies under a porch.

They were pretty darned tiny when they arrived at the shelter, and only about a week old. It turned out she had seven little ones - I have no idea how she managed to keep them safe and well-fed out there in the wild, but she did it.
Circe's kits are two weeks younger than Ruby's family, but Circe is much larger than Ruby and the kits are almost the same size as their older house-mates. It's kind of nice to have a litter that isn't the Dutch breed! So here we go, introductions:

This is Achilles, the ring-leader (the Jet of this litter!). Naturally, they're all named after Greek mythology just like their mom. Unlike Ruby's litter, none of them look anything like Circe.

This is Apollo - in total, there are 4 silvery kits. I love this colouring, it's beautiful. Also, I love their giant ears. That's how we can tell they'll be big adults, those oversized ears - they look like Dumbo!

And here we have Artemis, the only female silver. These guys can be tricky to tell apart, but it's not impossible. Achilles has a little white on his nose, Apollo has the darkest colouring, Artemis is female and Zeus (the fourth) is the runt and brightest coloured.

And of course there are black ones - there are always black ones! This is Echo, the female black kit. She's quite shy at first, but she warms up to you rather quickly.

Hercules is the male black kit, and super friendly. He and Achilles are usually the first two kits to the door, jumping over their siblings to get your attention.

Pegasus is just the cutest thing on four legs, look at her. She's adorable. She's also nice and easy to tell apart from her siblings!

And then we have Zeus, the runt of the litter and the biggest scaredy-cat you will ever meet. He didn't quite live up to his name there. He is cute as a button though, with his super shiny silver fur.
A few more photos:

 

The thee girls in the litter, Artemis, Echo and Pegasus.

Baby silvers! This litter had heads shaped like blocks when they were little, it was adorable.

Man they were so freaking cute.

The Group of Seven (ha, I should've named them after the artists!) a month ago, and the group of seven now...

I'm actually quite proud of this. They're getting so big, it's hard to get all 7 of them in one photo.

So that's all the foster rabbits! Of course, there are still 11 rabbits at the shelter. Seriously, if you are looking for a rabbit, now's the time to adopt from us because we're in a bit of a bind here.
It doesn't really help that we've done, um, ONE rabbit adoption in the past month. I know summer's always super slow, but it's very disheartening to look at the crowded room and realize none have moved. Summer's almost over, summer's almost over...

Family Fun, Part I

So I have two litters of foster rabbits right now (which is ridiculous). Unfortunately, due to lack of posts and all this political craziness (which is still ongoing!), I haven't had much opportunity to show them off. Therefore, the next two posts will act as a friendly introduction.

The two litters are only separated by two weeks in age. Today I'll be posting the older litter. That's their mom, Ruby, a sweet, shy girl who was rescued from a hoarding situation with her two kits. A few weeks after she came to us, she surprised us all with a new litter. Her older girls, Jade & Sapphire, are now at the shelter waiting spay, and her younger six are having a good time at my house.
Introductions are in order!

The last time I posted them they were little fuzzballs. They've grown up a lot since then, as they're now two months old. This is Amethyst, one of the two girls in the family. She is one of the most outgoing ones and always runs up to see me when I walk by, probably hoping for a treat.

On the other side of the spectrum, this is Emerald, probably the shyest in the family. The family as a whole is pretty outgoing, but Emerald is usually content to hang out with his mum.

Then we have Jet, who is absolutely the friendliest of the bunch. This guy isn't afraid of anything, loves everyone and has decided his greatest goal in life is to be stroked on the head and fed treats all day. He's hilarious, and definitely the ring-leader.

This is Pearl, the only other girl besides Amethyst, and another one of the bolder ones. They all definitely resemble their mum, but they are also all distinct in personality and looks, and once you get used to them, it's very easy to tell them apart. Pearl, for instance, has a big white shoulder, a mostly black face and while you can't see it there, an adorable white splotch on her mouth.

Of course, Silver here is the easiest in the world to tell apart. He is only one that's not black and white, and he's also the runt and about 100 g smaller than his siblings. He is probably the second shyest after Emerald, but he's also adorable and very used to being held.

And rounding out the gang we have Topaz with his white necklace and nose and oversized ears. All in all, I think they're a rather good-looking bunch!
Here, more cute photos (obviously some of them from when they were younger):

The gang at, I think, one month old. Topaz (with his head perked up at the end there) was by far the most outgoing when they were younger, but he's calmed down a lot and Jet, Pearl and Amethyst took over the leading the pack.

Jet, Amethyst and Topaz hanging out on the balcony a week ago. Since we've been doing photos with them their entire lives, they're quite used to both cameras and fresh air.

This photo cracks me up. Silver loves his greens! There is an endless debate about whether you should feed kits greens before six months of age, but this is the fourth litter I've raised on greens and I don't plan on changing. Knock on wood, but I've never had a baby with digestive problems yet, and they've all turned out with healthy weights, shiny coats and a proper appetite.
One more photo because I can't resist:

 Oh, the indignities suffered by my foster babies. If only it said the real adoption fee (much higher than $5.99, thankfully) it would've been perfect! Poor Topaz.

Tomorrow, the other litter - would you believe it's actually larger? I don't know what's in the water these days, but I miss the simple 2-4 kit litters!

Birds of a Feather

A very flashy canary arrived at the shelter a few days ago. I called him Tiedye.

 

Handsome guy, isn't he? I've never seen a red canary in person, he was quite a standout. Tie was found fluttering around Bathurst street, and for a canary, he was pretty outgoing. Doesn't even mind being picked up. I wondered if someone was looking for him.

He's properly banded, so I looked up the number and it turns out he has a band from the Avicultural Advancement Council of Canada.  If I'm reading it right, he was just born this year, so he has a long life ahead of him.
And luckily, he will be spending that year with his owner! For the first time in my knowledge, a canary was actually claimed by his owner. I have never seen that happen, nor has the staff I talked to - Tiedye (or whatever his real name is) is a lucky bird! 

Then we have Dominic, a cockatiel who arrived at the shelter under rather odd circumstances. Due to those circumstances, we don't technically have custody of him yet, so he's not up for adoption. But I'm sure once he goes on the website, he'll be gone in a flash.

Like most cockatiels, Dom is fussy but ultimately harmless. He's much more timid than little Tiedye, however, and was not pleased at all with the canary climbing all over his cage.
Dominic arrived with another bird:

Certainly not one of our usual suspects! Jaspar here is an Amazon parrot, although don't ask me what kind. There are approximately a million species of Amazon, and they're all mostly green. I can never tell them apart.

He is a sweet bird, although timid. After a few days of getting to know me, he is happy to step up and hang out with me outside the cage, but he doesn't want to be touched and he is nervous of sudden movements. He doesn't bite, but he does mutter to himself like an angry old man, it's pretty funny.
We're not sure what we'll do with Jaspar - since he needs a special home that can care for him properly, we don't really want to put him in general adoption. I think we're trying to move him to a rescue or the THS.

According to the website, we have another cockatiel at the shelter now. Compared to the number of birds we normally have (zero), it's been very bird-busy lately!

Finally

I'm feeling rather proud of myself today! If you haven't seen it, the Star did an article about the fight to save TAS (aka keep it public and properly funded):

About a week ago, several TAS volunteers who have been working to protect the shelters from these cuts (myself included) agreed that we needed mainstream media coverage. The fact was simply that no one knew we were in the report in the first place. I, rather rashly, said, "I'm 99% sure I can get the Star to do it."

Thank goodness I was right!

I emailed Valerie Hauch, the reporter who covered our foster bunny explosion a month ago. Luckily, she was interested. Huge thanks to the Star for once again bringing attention to TAS, and massive thanks to Valerie Hauch, who took the time to interview the Montreal SPCA and Councillor De Baeremaeker. Also, Councillor Holyday, who clearly had no idea what she was talking about. Read his quotes, he clearly hasn't even thought about TAS and is making up some generic answer. It's pretty funny.

As often happens, Metro also ran (a truncated version of) the story:

Then, when I was googling to see if anyone else had picked up the story, I saw to my surprise that InsideToronto had done their own article about protecting TAS:

 

Unexpected but appreciated! Thanks, InsideToronto!
Hopefully this means people are going to sit up and take notice - especially the councillors. Fingers crossed that this leads to good things!

Unrelated, but I've really been wanting to post the adorableness that are my foster babies, so here's some photos! I guess it's related though - after all, isn't this what we're fighting for?

Oh, I almost forgot! Are you someone who is really good at HTML? Email me!