Category: Pointless Ramblings

Merry Christmas

Posted on by Nimgimli

Well I’m sitting here at work, about to start a 10-day break and not really feeling the urge to dive into a new project, so I figured I’d write this post a wee bit early.

I don’t really ‘do’ Christmas very much. At least not the modern version full of frustrated shoppers and conspicuous consumption and towers of gaudily wrapped gifts. This year I bought Angela and I one of those single-cup coffee makers and a bunch of hot beverages to make in it, and I paid up her EQ2 for a year in advance. Work’s been drying up for her and money is getting tight so I figured this way at least she’ll know she can play the game she so loves for the next year.

And that’s the full extent of my gift giving/receiving.

So if Christmas isn’t about gifts, what is it about? Well of course there’s the religious aspect but… I’m not religious. At least not in any structured way. Certainly not to the point where Christmas is about the celebration of the birth of Christ for me. If it is for you, that’s really awesome and such a wonderful cause for celebration.

But for me ‘modern day’ Christmas is more or less just an excuse for a day off for me. But I do remember when Christmas was a state-of-mind that left me feeling warm and fuzzy. This was back when you could just say “Merry Christmas!” without fear of being politically incorrect. It was back before parents got into fist-fights over the last Cupie Doll on store shelves.

It was back when, around Christmas time, people were more prone to being kind to each other. To smile and hold the door, or offer up a parking spot, or buy a drink for a random stranger at the corner bar. Christmas was a feeling back then. It was warmth in the cold, short days of winter. It was friendship and compassion. It was peace on earth and good will towards your fellow man. Christmas was about spending time with people you care about, not about getting totally stressed-out about whether or not your gifts were up to snuff.

Simpler times, to be sure. Gone forever I suppose.

But be that as it may, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry, Peaceful Christmas and I hope you get to spend it with people you love. Cherish them — friends, family, lovers — they won’t be around forever. And neither will you be.

And while you’re out there doing your last minute shopping, try to remember that everyone else is as harried as you are. Be nice to a stranger, in the spirit of the season. And maybe someone will be nice to you, too.

Bright blessings of the season to you and yours, and thanks for reading my caustic ramblings all year long,

-Pete

Next Gen WoW

Posted on by Nimgimli

Good news! Last night I made the final tweaks to my time machine and traveled 5 years into the future where I got a chance to watch you play the next WoW Expansion: WoW: Epic Thrills! I wanted to report back on how Blizzard will do a great job of streamlining the experience and getting rid of all the parts of gaming that we all hate.

So you start the game and pick a race, then a class. This would feel pretty familiar to today’s gamers except there isn’t a lot of description. You’re just prompted to pick something that looks cool. Then you log into the game for the first time.

You’ll see your character standing in rags with a splintered 2×4 as a weapon. There’s an NPC to one side with a huge ! over his head and behind him is a wall on which a movie is playing. In the movie you can see a village with all its people going about their business. The graphics are amazing.

If you don’t do anything the NPC starts waving his hands saying “CLICK ME! CLICK ME!” Once you click on him he tells you a story about this village and how it is being attacked by bandits. You have to kill 5 bandits! The movie changes, showing bandits descending on the village, and suddenly 5 bandits pop into existence in front of you. “CLICK ON THEM!” the NPC yells so you click on one and your character swings his 2×4. The bandit screams and crumbles to the ground. You click on the next bandit, your character swings, he crumbles. You quickly click on the remaining 3 and all die. “BOSS INCOMING!” the NPC yells and suddenly a slightly larger Bandit appears before you. You click on him, your character swings and the boss dies.

Fireworks go off. “QUEST COMPLETE!” appears on the screen and the NPC says “You leveled up! You’ve learned Thorns. Thorns is a defensive spell that protects you from harm. Oh, and here is your reward.” The NPC taps his staff on the ground and your character changes. Now he is wearing better clothes and carrying a dagger. The NPC has a new ! over his head, so you click on him.

The NPC goes into a spiel about how the villagers will freeze to death because the bandits stole all their clothes. Their only hope is bear hides. The movie changes to show a woodland scene. The NPC tells you that you have to kill 10 bears.

Suddenly 10 bears appear before you. You click on it and your character thrusts with his knife and the bear dies. Yay! But Bear #2 bites at you! You notice a Green Health Bar drop a bit and the NPC yells “You lost some health, but your Thorns damage the bear!” and Bear #2 dies.

At that point, in the real world the phone rings. You pick it up to talk to a telemarketer. You watch the screen as Bears 3, 4 and 5 bite you and die from your Thorns spell. Bear #6 bites you and dies too, but at the same time he kills you. A huge green button with the word “GO!” on it appears on screen. You click it and your character stands up with his health bar full again. Bears 7, 8, 9, & 10 bite you, reducing your health, and die from your defensive spell.

“QUEST COMPLETE! You gained a new level! You learn FIREBALL!” the NPC yells. Your health bar fills up. When he taps his staff this time, a shield appears in your hand and shoulderpads grow out of your shoulders. The NPC has a ! over his head.

You click him and he says “The villagers need food. Hunt some deer!” The woodland scene continues to play on the screen and 10 deer teleport into the room. You’re off the phone so can focus again. You click the first dear and your avatar stabs it. It dies. You click the second deer and your avatar shoots a fireball at it. It dies. Click deer #3, another fireball, another dead deer. Click deer #4 and it’s a stab again, and another dead deer. You quickly click the remaining 6 deer and the NPC yells “SPEED BONUS!” and suddenly there’s a decorative butterfly fluttering around your avatar’s head.

As the 10th deer dies the NPC yells “QUEST COMPLETE! You gained a new level! You learned Hack!” His next quest has you fighting 8 tigers to get their teeth to make daggers to arm the villagers. The woodland scene is replaced by a jungle scene. When the tigers appear and you click on them you sometimes swing you dagger overhead and yell “Hack!” when you attack. Other times its a thrust and others still, a fireball.

The NPC pauses the action and says “In WoW 2.0 you don’t have to worry about what skill to use…we take care of that for you!” You pause a moment and a tiger bites you and you die. The big green GO button pops up and you click it and continue where you left off. This fight has a Boss Tiger at the end. You click it and your avatar does a crazy cool combo attack that consists of a fireball followed by a hack. “QUEST COMPLETE!” yells the NPC. “You’ve gained a level. Only 196 to go!”

And then my time machine pulled me back to the present. But I can’t wait for this version of WoW to arrive. I loved how you could do everything with 1 mouse button. There was no pesky moving hither and yon, or inventory or stats to worry about. No painful death penalty. No having to figure out what skill or spell to use next. I mean, these are COMPUTER games, right? Why should WE have to make all these decisions when the computer can do it for us!? Let it keep track of the numbers, right? We just want to click on stuff.

I read that the internal code name for the next generation of WoW is: Bubblewrap.

Facebook’s messaging dog & pony show

Posted on by Nimgimli

I originally wrote this for my blog over at ITWorld, but then decided it was a bit too ranty for a pro blog, and anyway it isn’t really my ‘beat’ over there. So I decided to post it here (in its raw, first draft form). Very very off-topic but hey, a good rant is always entertaining to someone (even if that someone is just the one doing the ranting):

Yesterday Facebook held yet another event (they’re getting to be like weekly occurrences, these Facebook events) to unveil their new not-an-email system, the Social Inbox. Well, part of it was the Social Inbox. I was one of the 30,000 or so people to watch the announcement online and I never figured out what the overall name of the system was. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it a “modern messaging system” but that was about it. Ryan Faas covered the event but I was so bemused by the dog and pony show put on my Zuckerberg and Facebook Director of Engineering Andrew Bosworth that I had to chime in.

Warning: old guy “you kids get off my lawn” rant incoming.

First, the whole system is apparently based on what high school kids do. We were told that high school kids don’t send emails because there’s too much “friction” involved with all the tedious details like a subject line and a salutation. Really? Adding a subject line is that hard? In this Facebook-powered new world order how are we going to scan the dozens and dozens of emails that we as professionals get, once subject lines are abolished by these high schoolers? How many important emails does the typical high school kid get, anyway? Of course they don’t need full emails: they’re just chatting with each other about high school kid stuff. Why are we modeling general-purpose systems on such a specific demographic?

Another anecdote, this one shared by Bosworth, talked about a box of letters that his 90 year old grandmother keeps in her closet. These are letters that his grandfather sent his grandmother when they were courting long, long ago. Bosworth lamented the fact that he doesn’t have a box of letters. Facebook to the rescue again! By archiving all your conversations, whatever format they’re in, Bosworth suggests we’ll all have our digital box of letters when we get old.

Now what’s wrong with this picture? I’ll tell you what. If you can’t exert the energy to add a subject line or a salutation to your email, chances are whatever you’re writing probably isn’t worth holding onto for the next 70 years. The reason Bosworth’s grandmother’s letters were so dear to her is that his grandfather put some thought and care into what he was going to write. All those social micro-updates about where you’re going to have lunch aren’t going to be that interesting to you when you’re 90. Trust me, you don’t need to keep every word you write. I’m not claiming there aren’t a lot of passionate and thoughtful emails flying back and forth through the ether; clearly there are. But if something is really worth saving, it’s worth saving on your own terms, not in some service that may or may not exist when you’re old and gray.

One last thing. During the Q&A session someone pointed out that their Facebook friends weren’t really their true friends. Their real friends were their email friends. (This came up while discussing the feature where a Facebook friend’s message gets high visibility in the Social Inbox.) The response was, essentially, that this person was doing it wrong and that all your Facebook friends should be true, legitimate friends and not just people you’ve encountered online. I know that my list of Facebook “friends” includes plenty of people that are, at best, acquaintances. I don’t want these people’s messages about Karaoke Night at the bowling alley back in the town I grew up in to be a ‘high priority’ message. So I guess I’m doing it wrong, too. (To be fair, you can ‘train’ the Social Inbox but having to do so seems to go against Zuckerberg’s assertion that people don’t want to fiddle with this stuff. Specifically he mentioned that no one wants to make lists.) Considering how many activities on Facebook (mostly games) pressure you to have lots of “friends” I found this attitude particularly disingenuous.

I’m really not condemning Facebook’s modern messaging system: I’ll give it a try and maybe it’ll change the way I do business, but I somehow doubt it. I don’t really want a unified inbox where all my business correspondence gets mixed in with emails from my dentist about my next checkup and IM conversations with my girlfriend about what we’re going to have for dinner. There’s something to be said for keeping different types of content segregated. Heck, I have several different email accounts for just that reason.

And that’s without even considering Facebook’s spotty record when it comes to privacy.

Maybe I’ve finally officially reached curmudgeon status, but I just don’t think most of us are ready to turn over all our communications to Facebook. At least I hope we’re not. I’d hate to see one company wind up with that much power.

What do you think? Are you ready to sign up for the Social Inbox?

Age and blogging

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’ve been thinking a lot about age and mortality lately, and the shifts that have happened in my perceptions of the world as I start to see the first glimmerings of the light at the end of the tunnel that is my life.

Seriously…I look at all the unread books I own and wonder if I’ll live long enough to read them (definitely not, if I keep buying new ones). Things of that nature. Now my mom is in her 80’s; if I live as long as her I have plenty of time left. But I’m the age that my dad died at now. If I follow in his footsteps I don’t have long at all.

Anyway, I was thinking about blogging about these changes in attitude that creep up as we get older.

But I’m not sure if I should do it here, or if I should start a new blog. I’m not sure most of my readers really care about this stuff that they won’t have to worry about for 20 years or more.

I think, once I’m gone, that it might be interesting to read an online journal of a person slowly coming to grips with mortality and then passing on. Jeez, that sounds really morbid and I don’t mean it to be at all. But I wonder if other people think the same things I do.

Y’know the old “You kids get off my lawn” attitude that we joke about…that’s becoming reality for me, in a way. I find it interesting, when I can look at it dispassionately.

Anyway, what do you readers think? Do it here or keep it separate from all the gaming and puppy talk?

Puppy, Week 1 (puppy post)

Posted on by Nimgimli

So Lola has been with us for 10 days now.

This past week was one of radical adjustments. Honestly by Tuesday I was really having second thoughts about the decision to get a puppy. She requires a LOT of attention/supervision.

But by, say, Thursday we’d all started to adjust and she began to ‘pay us back’ via tail wags and couch company and puppy-breath kisses.

She’s smart as heck and seems to train almost naturally. Her bathroom stuff is becoming routine…she’s learning where on the property she can go (our complex has a designated pet area) and she’s good about letting us know when she needs to go out. We walk her often (5-6 times a day) so that she can avoid accidents and be a winner.

Her being a winner is important to me. I try to challenge her, but not go too far, so we always end an activity on a positive note.

Still there are adjustments. She wakes up early so no sleeping-in on the weekends. And us being out and about means we have to be vigilant for ticks. We’ve found 2 on her and 1 on me. Today is her first vet visit and she gets her anti-tick/flea/heartworm/hookworm/etc/etc medicine refreshed which will help her but I still need to remember to do a ‘tick check’ whenever we come in from a walk.

Even with adjustments every day feels packed. Adding a couple of dog walks to doing two jobs, and factoring in that many ‘around the house’ things take longer due to puppy interest and it’s just go-go-go most days. I know this will get easier eventually but there are definitely times my nerves start to frazzle!

Gaming has traditionally been a big part of my life, but there just doesn’t seem to be time to do any ‘regular’ gaming now. I’ve canceled my MMO subscriptions and mostly I’ve been doing what gaming I find time for on the consoles (with her snoozing against me on the couch).

As busy as things feel, they feel more balanced, too. I spend a lot less time at this keyboard and a LOT more time outdoors getting exercise. Yesterday we talk a walk down to the nearby reservoir to see what reaction she’d have to water. I thought she might have some retriever in her and that she’d charge right in, but she didn’t. Instead she kind of sniffed the water and when a wave hit her, she’d had enough. Granted it was pretty chilly, too, so that one test might not mean too much.

Our next big challenge is overcoming separation anxiety. Since Angela is home all day the dog just has no clue what it means to be alone and she starts to whine and howl. This is a real challenge since we can’t just let her do it (neighbors would have a fit) and it’s hard to correct her when we aren’t there! So that’s a work in progress.

Overall though, she’s settling in really nicely and has become an important part of the family.

The Puppy Chronicles, Day 2 (puppy post)

Posted on by Nimgimli

Never fear, this’ll probably be my last ‘daily’ puppy post. Tomorrow I’m back at work and we need to settle into a routine. I’m still working on that balance thing… I haven’t found time to touch a game all weekend. The horror!

Anyway, last night was a good night. Lola got into her crate without too much fuss, whined once at lights-out but then slept through until morning. I got up before she did, in fact (at about 6:45).

Her big challenge today was the guinea pigs. Today was cage-cleaning day. When we do cages the girls, Mimi and Mona, get to romp around in their ‘playpen’ — an open topped temporary cage that we put on the floor. It gets them out of the way and they love their floor time as they chase each other back and forth.

Today Lola was in the room. We’d taken her for a good long walk ahead of time so she was tuckered out and she was just lounging on her bed chewing on one of those vile bully sticks. Angela sat next to her holding her leash just in case (we keep a short leash on her most of the time so she’s used to it). She gave the girls a stare once or twice but a quick correction broke her focus. After a few minutes she totally ignored the girls, and they her. So it was a big Win for everyone.

We’re getting the bathroom stuff down pretty well. I went out to do some shopping and while I was gone Angela was in the bedroom with Lola with a baby gate up so she couldn’t go wreak havoc in case Angela fell asleep (we’re both semi-sleep deprived). Lola started fussing at her. Angela would correct her and she’d stop for a few minutes then come get Angela’s attention again. Finally Angela got the message and took her outside where it was clear she needed to do her business. So that was good news; Lola knew that she had to go out and let Angela know about it.

Food is a problem still. She’s eating but not as much as I’d like. We feed her three times a day and when we first put the food down she’ll gulp a few mouthfuls and then either distract herself with a toy, or flop down and go to sleep. She’s slept a LOT today; I think her big few days are catching up to her. I know they’re catching up to us!

Tomorrow I’m back to work and Angela starts the hard job of teaching Lola to be alone without fussing. I’m not sure how she’s going to do it… how do you correct a dog that wants you back in the apartment without giving her what she wants?

Things are good though..anxiety is dropping for everyone, Lola is a total sweetheart who’s part of our ‘pack’ and the guinea pigs are no longer freaked out with her being around. I think we’re on the right track, at least!

The Puppy Chronicles, Day 1 (puppy post)

Posted on by Nimgimli

So here we are in the evening of our first full day of puppy ownership. I have the tiniest inkling of what parents must go through when they bring home their first newborn, I think. At least in terms of sleep deprivation! LOL

Bedtime last night wasn’t really awful. We put Lola’s crate in our bedroom so she could see us, and enticed her into her crate by putting her toys in there and sitting around it with her for a while. She was SO TIRED she was swaying from side to side and finally we closed the door and got into bed. She whined and let out one howl but Angela corrected her and that was that.

Unfortunately I have problems sleeping under the best of conditions and even though Lola didn’t make another sound I laid awake, tense and waiting for her to start to howl or something. I need to let go of some of my worrying and anxiety.

We’d set the alarm for 7 but at 6 Lola did give a kind of shout. We figured she really needed to go to the bathroom (she hadn’t since she’d left PA at this point) so Angela got up and took her out. Of course we brought the dog home right in the middle of a cold snap. I tried to get back to sleep but couldn’t.

Eventually they came back and I got up and let Angela sleep some more.

Aside from the sleep deprivation things are going fairly well. This afternoon she finally started going to the bathroom (I’d been getting worried). We read that we shouldn’t give her the run of the house when we first brought her home. Problem is, our apartment is a big open living room/dining room area which is where the front door is, then the 2 bedrooms. We wanted her crate in our bedroom (living in an apartment means we can’t just put her in a crate and let her cry herself to sleep the first few nights…the neighbors would [rightfully] complain) so we couldn’t block her out of there, and we spend so much time in the office (bedroom #2) that blocking her from there would mean we’d never see her. So we’ve opted to only let her in certain rooms when we’re with her.

I’m not sure there’s not a dark side to that, though. So now she doesn’t have run of the house, which is good, but she’s also NEVER alone, which is bad. As soon as she finds herself alone even for a few minutes, she starts to whine. So we need to put a stop to that sooner rather than later, but I might dump it on poor Angela since she can train her to be alone (with all the whining and howling that goes with it) during the work week when there are fewer neighbors around.

I went to Petsmart and spent *another* $200 on dog stuff. Sheesh.

I did get a couple of beds. A small one that’s now sitting between our computers in the office where Lola likes to flop when we’re in here, and another big one that I put in the living room next to the TV. Tonight we had a normal dinner and we put her on this big bed and there she stayed while we ate. It doesn’t seem to occur to her to beg for food and we’re going to see that it never does [*knock on wood*]. OK what I mean is that we have a pact never to feed her from our plates.

Anyway that felt like a win. We ate at a regular pace (last night’s dinner and today’s lunch were both bolted down while we had her alone somewhere in the house) and she conked out and slept peacefully.

Here’s a new flash.. dogs are messy. I’m a bit OCD about being clean but Lola is breaking me of that pretty quickly. That’s probably not a bad thing. She’s allowed on the couch when invited, and this is her watching TV. Sort of.

I’ve spend more time outside today that I have in the last 6 months, I bet. And I’ve talked to more of my neighbors than I have in the 5 years I’ve been living here.

We got her added to the lease so now she’s “legit” and not an illegal tenant. 🙂

She’s still pretty exhausted and isn’t eating with the enthusiasm I’d expect. She eats, and drinks plenty, but she doesn’t empty her food bowl when we feed her. So we’re watching that and training her to eat when she gets fed rather than ‘grazing’ all day (easier to predict when she needs to go out to go to the bathroom that way).

So far she’s been extremely good natured and affectionate. She’s a lot of work but worth it, and hopefully if we do our job right we’ll get her (and us) into routines that’ll make things easier.

Next steps will be about finding balance. I have jobs to do and I’m falling way behind on tech news and stuff. I can’t spend all day every day playing with this sweet puppy!

Lola comes home (puppy post)

Posted on by Nimgimli

Well like any proud new pet owner I’m going to bore you with puppy posts. I’ll be sure to put (puppy post) in the titles so you can easily skip them if you aren’t interested.

So Lola came home with us tonight. Aside from some concerns with my aging car (I was scared to death we were going to break down 4 hours from home with a puppy in a crate in the back of the truck) it was a good trip.

She came from the Hope For Hannah rescue in Bartonsville, PA. (Who is Hannah? See the video at the bottom of this post.) We really didn’t know what we were getting into, but Suzi who runs the place is wonderful. She brings dogs up from the shelter of a friend of hers in West Virginia, and a ‘batch’ of dogs had arrived last night. When we got there today there were 6 or 7 dogs, and 1 very fat cat, and 5-6 people in the house that consists of the rescue’s office. Chaos, right? Nope, not at all. The energy level of all these dogs was awesome.

In fact as we drove up Lola was just arriving so we got to see her being ‘introduced to the pack’ and it was like watching The Dog Whisperer. The other dogs smelled her butt and licked her face and approved of her and that was that. Tiny Lola and big old Hannah were having a grand old time playing but it was all very nice play. No one was getting over-excited. No accidents for the 90 minutes or so we were there.

Part of the adoption agreement says that if for some reason you can’t keep the dog you adopt, you have to return the animal to Hope For Hannah rather than just passing it off to a friend or dumping it at a local shelter. I was really happy to see that Suzi was that concerned for her dogs.

She went over everything we needed to know, what shots Lola needs when and all that. It was a great experience. She asks for a $100 ‘spayed deposit’ check that she’ll destroy or return once we send her confirmation that Lola has been spayed (she’s too little yet). And she made a point of giving me the paperwork so I can write-off the adoption fee, which is technically a donation because Hope for Hannah is a certified non-profit organization. She made sure we had her cell phone number and insisted we call anytime up to midnight if we had any questions or concerns.

I can’t say enough good about Suzi and this rescue… First rate.

So, once the paperwork was done and questions all answered, Angela, Lola and I walked out and we got her settled in the crate in the back of the truck. She was an angel for the 5-6 hour trip home. We stopped a few times so she could stretch her legs and in case she had to pee, and she was alert and curious but not frantic. Most of the trip home she slept (she’s had a big day) and a few times she howled a single ‘correction’ put an end to it.

So now she’s home and settling in. She’s adorable, sweet and clearly very smart. She already sits at the door before we go out…she knows the human leaves first. Suzi’s friend must be a Dog Whisperer fan and started teaching her already.

She’s curious, but not fixated on, the guinea pigs. Mostly she’s just surprised when she hears noise coming from their cages (she’s too little to see into them). So far she’s been playing with a few toys we got her and seems reasonably settled.

Of course, we’ll see what happens when bed time comes around and she’s the only dog. We’ve put her crate in our bedroom so at least she’ll have us for company.

It’s going to be a huge adjustment for us but I think we both fell in love the minute we laid eyes on her.

Pics soon!

Here’s Hannah, along with some sappy music. We met Hannah; she ROCKS and she doesn’t need anyone’s pity anymore…she’s a sweet, happy girl now.

Puppy Scams

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’ve been talking about a puppy scam email on twitter… but 140 characters just wasn’t enough.

We responded to an ad in the local online classifieds, someone saying they had English Bulldog puppies looking for a home. Here’s the response we got, with a bunch of *adorable* puppy pics attached.

Anyway if you read this, aside from the mangled English, there are other ‘tells’: cut and paste errors, referring to different numbers of dogs at different times, and the time pressure element (48 hours). Maybe I’m just a paranoid jerk and this is all legit, but I trust my instincts enough to not contact these people further.

It should be noted that shelters are asking $300-$550 as adoption fees for mixed breed dogs, so $120 for AKC bulldog puppies is way too good to believe in the first place.

I should also note that a bit of Googling reveals that classified ad puppy scams are a known problem.

Here’s the email, unedited:
==============================================

am very glad on your interest towards my lovely English bulldog puppies well these puppies are now available and ready to be a family companion or your best friend, they are called KELLY LOLO and NINA (Male pups) and CINDY LILI and SANDRA (Female pups), they are outstanding AKC male and female registered puppies from multi-championship bloodlines with an awesome pedigree.
They are all AKC registered and vet checked and they are full of natural beauty and will all make very good house companions.I am giving them out for adoption only to a good pet loving and caring home because i do not want them to suffer. They are medically well and they are very friendly with kids,adults and other house pets .
The reason i am giving them out is that i moved into a new apartment where pets are not allowed and I have been given a 48 hours notice to get rid of them ..It is really painful though and i need a new home that will provide KELLY LOLO NINA CINDY LILI and SANDRA a best of care they need and to provide them with their necessities that’s why I’ve been looking for a good pet loving and caring home for them that will provide them with all the love i want them to experience.I will like you to promise me that you will provide my little cute babies with all their needs and show them all the love they need..My babies are very sensitive and i will like to tell you a little about them:-
.
KELLY LOLO and NINA……. are absolutely adorable babies, who who are only 2.3 lbs at 11
weeks old. Estimated adult structure 7.8 lbs. baby doll face, with tiny ears. She is tiny for breeding or showing but absolutely gorgeous. She has been home raised with lots of TLC and pre-spoiled for her new home and is very friendly.there are excellent example of an extreme lovely babies.She is already willing to go to her new pets loving and caring home.
:-there are house/Potty Trained.
:-there eat 2 times daily and at afternoons she drinks Milk .
:-there are socialized with kids and other house hold pets .
:-there likes to be carried a lot and be spoiled.
:-there likes to be kissed ..
:-there are 12 Weeks old and weighs 3 lbs

CINDY LILI and SANDRA ……… there are absolutely adorable puppies, there are all female puppies and has
tiny ears, there are 7.8 lbs at 12 weeks.Estimated adult structure
9.9 lbs. baby doll face, with tiny ears,excellent silk coats and
already have personality plus and very playful!!He is cute for
breeding, but gorgeous and He has been home raised and is just so cute and is willing to go to a new home which is caring and loving.
:-He is house/potty trained
:-He eats 2 times a day and drinks milk at noon.
:-He is socialized.
:-He’s also a portable baby.
:-He feels shy when carried.
:-He also likes to be kissed.
:-He is 12 weeks old and weighs 3.5ib
I will like to have the information so that i can be clearly convinced that you will provide a good and lovely home for these babies.So Please i will like to know the following from you to see if my babies will be in good arms
1: Whats your full names and where are you located?
2: Are you Married?
3: Do you have kids.If yes, do they love puppies?
4: Do you have a yard that they can play in?
5: Are you a breeder?Or a Pet Lover?
6: How soon do you need them and will you care for them?
7: Which of them do you need?
Would it be possible for you send me monthly pictures so i can know how they are doing in their new home.Sorry for asking such questions but i am just trying to look a good and loving home for my babies.They are very dedicated to what we may ask them and they understand basic commands such as sit,stand etc.They enjoy retrieving toys, but mostly loves the attention of the family. With little training they will follow more commands since they are very willing to learn. Please if you know that you will take good care of the puppies i will be glad to read from you.All you just need to do is to take good care of them and they will be yours for ever and will make good house companions and will bring love to your family.You can contact me via email Each puppy will cost you $120 for it’s transfer of ownership documents from my names to your names so if you want both puppies, it shall cost you $240 for both.. Also that’s all you shall be spending to get the puppies. I have attached some photos so let me know what you think about them. Waiting to read from you soon and may GOD bless you.
Thanks and greetings from Mary family
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Isis (2004-2010) Rest in Peace

Posted on by Nimgimli

Isis gave up her long battle with health issues and left us last night.

She’d been unwell for a couple of years, really, but a few weeks ago she got really bad and I feared we were going to lose her. We made a vet appointment but by the time we got in to see him, she’d mostly recovered. Nevertheless the vet gave her a slow-release hormone shot and she sprang back, seemingly better than she’d been in months and months. We knew she was really old for a guinea pig and that we didn’t have much time left with her, but it was so great to see her cavorting like a young pig again.

Then yesterday afternoon I noticed she hadn’t eaten some treats I gave her. By evening her breathing had become very labored, as it had last month. She was still eating some but was becoming very selective. By the time I went to bed she was moving around again and I thought she was going to spring back, but this morning I was greeted by her still body rather than her usual strident demands for breakfast. It seems she went peacefully…she looked like she was sleeping.

On some level there’s a sense of relief. It’s so hard to tell how much discomfort a guinea pig is in, since they’re ‘prey animals’ and showing weakness is a good way to draw the attention of a predator. But I think she’d been pretty uncomfortable for a long while. She was slowly losing weight over the past few months in spite of eating plenty. I suspect her eyesight was going, too.

Her appreciation for pets and cuddles and scritches never left, though. Yesterday evening both Angela and I spent some quality ‘lap time’ with her (though in my case it was more like neck time… she’d crawled up and settled in on my shoulder with her little bum under my chin) and the last thing I did when I went to bed was give her a pet and I got a purr as a reward.

If you’ve never lived with a guinea pig all this fuss probably seems silly. I thought Angela was a bit bonkers when I first met her and she’d talk about Isis. Then I met her and my attitude changed and since then we’ve added two more members to our guinea pig family. Over the years as the vet bills ran into thousands of dollars friends would tell me “Just go buy another guinea pig!” and the pre-Isis me would’ve thought the same thing. But these creatures have strong personalities and are smarter than you might think. They are definitely not interchangeable.

So goodbye to Isis, or “Little bear” as I often called her. She’s somewhere in a better place where there’s plenty of fresh grass to eat and nothing looking to eat her. She’s probably already bossing other guinea pig spirits around, making things “just so” in the same way she managed to do that here with us.

Mimi and Mona are unsettled and a bit confused. When I came into the room this morning instead of the usual chorus of good morning purrs and soft wheeks, there was just silence. They knew something was wrong. Angela wanted to give them a chance to ‘say goodbye’ so we put them with Isis’s body. Mona just seemed perplexed but Mimi kept trying to prod or nip Isis awake. Heartbreaking.

If you have a pet of any kind, give him or her a hug for me today, will ya?