Monday, July 06, 2015
Wheel of Exotic Pets
So, I was reading a link roundup at The Toast a while back, which included an article about efforts to tame foxes.
And the article, originally on the Popular Science website and strongly reminiscent of one I remember reading in National Geographic a while back, contained odd tidbits like this: "Indiana has three classes of wild animals. Class 1 is mostly squirrels". And it linked to this:
Wheel of Exotic Pets
Go head and copy and paste that address into a browser. I don't know why I found it so fascinating; probably all the little keys in the bottom, like "Pees in the House" and "Difficult to Feed".
So no, I don't want a koala or a slow loris or an otter for a pet. But it's fun (and dismaying, tbh) to read about the nutcases who do.
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I followed your links, and yeah, I am dismayed at how much you see "Oooooo, I want one!" on YouTube videos of any and all cute baby wild animals. One video recently disclosed that you can buy a tiger cub for a mere $2,000, followed by discussions of how that's less than many purebred dogs cost, so consequently there are herds of teens saving up their lunch money to buy one. Sigh.
Spoilsport me - I responded to several with yeah, buying one is one thing. Feeding, housing, and insuring it is another. Take my word for it, you can't afford it.
A lot of insurance companies won't even write you a homeowner's policy if you own certain breeds of dog. I can't imagine the look you'd get if you put "tiger" down on the "Pets" section of the application.
Of course, the same mentality that would want to own a tiger prolly also doesn't worry about things like homeowner's insurance.
According to that wheel, skunks look like the easiest exotic to own if you can get the right foods, plus they have all the good characteristics - except "badass". I dunno - I personally think having a pet skunk is pretty darn badass!
Somewhere in the dim recesses of my blog I wrote about skunks. My cat when I was in high school had a skunk best friend.
Stranger in my living room.
Skunk wanders around corner.
Stranger: OMG, a skunk! Is it fixed?
Me: No. Don't make any sudden moves.
Badass!!!!
My cat Rocky got "skunked" once and I let him back inside before I realized what had happened. He ran around rubbing against EVERYthing, trying to rub the smell off, I guess. The entire apartment stunk of skunk for WEEKS.
Yeah, they're badass, all right!
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