I knew that…

I just read an article (nothing overly scientific) on Yahoo News entitled “Do Animals Smile?”– Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely believe that animals have emotions and feelings and yes, they smile.

Tell me that's not a smile...

I didn’t really need an empirical study to feel this, but it’s a little reaffirming to see it somewhere that’s not myself:

According to Professor Nicholas Dodman, head of animal behavior at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine and a regular on Animal Planet’sDogs 101 and Cats 101, until recently, scientists have generally underestimated the emotional range of animals.

No really?

I’ve been a pet owner for 23 years–  I have believed for all 23 of those years, that every animal I’ve had in my life has had a personality, a smile and emotional range.

… today it is widely understood by scientists that mammals do experience primary emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, and happiness and even some secondary emotions like jealously and embarrassment—and they communicate them. Dodman says that dogs even have a sense of humor and laugh with a kind of huffing sound.

I have several stories that can attest to this– most recently with Luka:

Angelic... Not

The first time I really saw a dog be embarrassed, was a few months ago– Luka likes to sit on Mom’s ottoman (as seen above).  He really shouldn’t be up there, he knows he really shouldn’t be up there and Mom tells him he really shouldn’t be up there, but it kind of just happens anyway.  On this particular day, Luka was messing around on the ottoman, playing with a toy and not paying attention to what he was doing.  I tried warning him that he was particularly close to falling off from where he was, but since he’s a dog and he wasn’t even a year old yet… He didn’t listen.  Annnnd as I and everyone else in the room suspected, he fell off.  And not very flatteringly.

Needless to say, he was shocked and we all started laughing.  He became intensely embarrassed, he howled at us as we giggled over his gracelessness and kidney punched my Dad as he stood by and had a good laugh over his fall from his pedestal.  I’ve never seen a dog have such a reaction to people laughing at them before, but he genuinely seemed annoyed that we even dared.

The second was also a Luka experience and just happened this Monday.  My Dad had intended to take both Luka and Mystic for a walk.  Something Luka desperately loves and is even willing to leave toys for.  We’ve been watching a lot of Cesar Millan recently and Cesar says when you’re preparing for a walk, your dog should be calm submissive.  Well.  Luka was neither calm, nor was he submissive.  Mom warned him and gave him commands to calm down and he just wouldn’t.  So she sent Dad off with Mystic in tow and Luka– I kid you not– pouted.  Like this:

For over an hour.

This just goes to prove that Luka is a perfect example of how animals, dogs in particular, really do have a wider emotional range than some people give them credit for.  I knew that the minute I met any of my pets they did and I can see it every day, when Faith smiles when I wake her from a bad dream, or Luka laughs when he gets something he steals from someone or Mystic leans into one of us with all the love someone who realizes she has a family now can have.  I was validated even before the Yahoo article, as pointless or invalid as it might seem without pages of research to back it up.

I did my research in real life, that’s all that matters.

I just thought I’d share that, since I’ve been doing such a fabulous job updating.

Here’s the link to the rest of the article if you want to read it in its entirety

Think about it!

Until then,

Jaina

Zzzzzzzzz

I have no idea how I’m still awake and I’m COMPLETELY not sure why I’m taking the time to write a post when I’m about two seconds from my face becoming one with my keyboard; I guess I just wanted to share my ridiculous, self-induced afternoon and the results of what I put myself through.

Let me start with why this even became a task for me:

I have fish tanks, for those of you who are still joining us for the first time and maybe haven’t had a chance to read the pet biography pages:

<—- Thattaway. 

I originally started out with a 1 gallon fish tank when I brought home several baby fish from my second job at the pet store.  Then the baby fish got too big for the 1 gallon fish tank, so I took advantage of a sale at said job and got myself 10 gallon tank for $20.  Unfortunately, my baby fish did not handle the switch very well and passed away.  This was a little heartbreaking, since I had raised them from pups, annnnd also frustrating because I had just purchased this tank and now had nothing in it.  However,  unbeknownst to me, it appears our house has old enough pipes, that when I was limited to getting water from the UPSTAIRS bathroom, I was inadvertently exposing my fish to heavy metals.  Thus, I killed them.  Again, heartbreaking, but I at least felt better that it wasn’t necessarily something I had done, just needed to become more educated about.  After discovering this and concocting a potion to fix said problem, I now have a tank that works. (Let me know if you have this problem, as I can easily suggest a quick and inexpensive fix!).  I now have fish (way more guppies than I ever wanted, thanks customer that can’t tell the difference between a male and female guppy!) and a snail and even a frog that seems to be doing pretty well.

Not my tank, but a good representation of what mine looked like after all the fish deaths.

I also have a 5 gallon tank, that houses my Green Spotted Puffer, Winston.  Winston is very special to me, in the few short months I’ve known him, he’s actually proven to be very intelligent, fierce and resilient despite my numerous attempts of unwitting homicide.  Although I had done my research on Winston’s brethren, I was and still am fairly inexperienced in their care.  I am still grasping the concept of proper salinity and the fact I need to be vigilant about water changes as he’s in a tank that will eventually be too small for him.  And he’s really good at pooping.  Combine those three not being taken care of and you have a very sick fish.  Which I found out last month, when Winston was nearly knocking on his tank sides to get my attention he wasn’t feeling good.  I have upped my game and thankfully he’s still with us.  I should have realized he’d be a fighter from the moment I met him though, as he was waiting patiently at Wal-Mart for someone to find him.  WAL-MART!  Don’t even get me started.  I might have my fish in a small tank, but at LEAST I know he’s taken care of and he looks infinitely better than he did there.  I have witnesses.

We're good folks, I promise!

Anyway, this long and very drawn out, insomnia forced story has a point–ish?

I had a desk that I had my tanks on, but it wasn’t in the most ideal of places.  The desk had just fit into a dormer in my room which had been fine for my computer and homework, but add the tanks and it became less so.  It was hard to reach the tank to siphon or do full water changes and once I added Winston, I couldn’t see parts of my tank to make sure everyone was ok and there was nothing strange going on.  So I purchased this:

This one.

It was on sale and although it did NOT match my room decor, I figured it would be easy enough to paint it and make it work.

Holy crap, how wrong was I?

This piece of **** must have had EVERY water resistant paint, lacquer and sealant known to man used on it. AND IT’S PARTICLE BOARD!  I sanded that sucker within an inch of it’s life but every paint my Dad tried on it peeled off or crackled.  I had talked him into painting some designs on it to make it go even more with my room, but it took over a month just to find a paint that STUCK to the damn thing!  It ended up accepting a spray paint, sort of, which, if you bump into it, flakes off or scratches, but whatever.  At least it’s the “heirloom” white I was hoping for.  Took three months, but hey, it’s up now.

My Dad has requested I never buy another one of these again.

Long story short (not really), once it became clear it was actually going to work and be put together, I had to figure out how I was going to get it into my room.  Although I love my room, and it’s technically the biggest in the house, space is an issue.  I have a few pieces I got for my apartment three or four years ago that I wanted to take with me when I moved back in with my parents, so that does chew up wall space.  I sat down last night and devised a potential set-up that required me to be heavy-handed with what I intended to keep.  This afternoon after we got home from lunch, I got to work and rearranged all but two pieces of furniture in my room.  By myself.  Single-handedly.  On my own.  And boy am I going to pay for it later.  I don’t think my right bicep has stopped twitching for at least an hour.  Although I doubt it’s considered Feng-Shui, I’m happy with the results.

I have to be, or, as Jack Sparrow once said, “I hope everyone saw that, because I will not be doing it, again.”

It might not be the prettiest set up to most people, but at least now it’s more conducive to my fish being cared for.  I’m less afraid of it breaking this than I was the desk as the stand is a little sturdier than the desk was.  I can also reach my window again, which is a joyous experience now that it’s getting warmer and warmer up here.

AND, this is exciting for me and hopefully will be for my pigs too; now that I’ve moved my computer/TV to the other side of the room.  The pigs have the whole wall to themselves!

Don't look too hard, ran out of energy to clean their Royal Messinesses' cage.

Excuse the clutter, I had to choose which side of the room (I almost spelled tomb, subliminal?  I think so) to finish first, so they got a quick vacuum and I’ll get to it sometime tomorrow.  This will be more exciting in the next however many weeks because I will be upgrading them (hopefully they consider it an upgrade) to a C&C cage, or my own version if I can find the right materials.

For example…

I would love to make one just like this for them, but even with the newly acquired square footage, I don’t think it’ll be possible.  I will of course make a top for it, as we have dogs in the house that don’t understand little fuzzy things are for looking at, not munching on.  It looks insanely simple, but I have to make sure if I make it myself that the grids are not too wide for them to get their heads stuck in.  Buddha may be smart enough to stay away from that, but Dharma– is a special flower.  She does what she does and doesn’t really think about it.  How do I know this?

She’s knocked their water bottle off the cage 4+ times a night, every night for the last month.  I don’t know what she’s trying to tell me, but she’s grounded.

I know there’s a lot of people out their that probably think I’m a nut for the amount of time and money I put into my animals (I think I’m related to at least two of them).  They’re right.  I am a nut, but at least I’m a happy nut.  They bring me joy and if I can give that back to them in any amount, whether by letting them stretch their legs outside for a grassy snack, chop their veggies into chewable bites or make sure they have enough space to be happy, then I’ll do it.  I may fall behind on clean-up or playtime, but I do try (I think) and it is important to me.

This is the face of a dog who doesn't get why Mom is getting emotional.

Had to get some Faith love in there, somewhere.

Ok.  I think I’ve wasted enough time on here.  I congratulate you if you actually read the post and didn’t just look at the pictures.  I don’t blame if you did, I might too, but I figured I had to have worked half my weight in sweat off this afternoon trying to get the majority of this furniture moving done.  Might as well share my accomplishments.

I’m not very good at finishing things and when I do, it’s a milestone, so why not celebrate?  Everyone pack your bags, we’re going to Disney World!

I need sleep!
Until then,

Jaina