The Menagerie

I am very much an animal person, I like having a pet around, am a vegetarian, and hate to see an animal suffering needlessly. This doesn’t mean that I am against meat-eaters, each to their own after all, it’s just my view. In Hague’s words, I’m a soppy cow when it comes to animals!

This has somehow led to us becoming the owners of what can only be described as The Menagerie over the last couple of years. Originally, in the times before Hague I had only one pet, my Basset Hound Bayleigh Boo (alternatively knows as The Boo, BooPig, WigglePuppy, PwincessPaddyPaws and a million variants thereof). I’ve had her since she was 10 weeks old in April 2005. She has a wonderful personality, is very stubborn, playful and jealous of anyone being around “her” Mummy. She likes to be the centre of everyone’s world, and will always try and make us giggle. She doesn’t just wag her tail, she wags her entire body! She can be utterly naughty and defiant as well if she thinks she can get away with it…..it other words, she’s a typical Basset! She also thinks she is a little lapdog despite weighing in at just under 5 stone, and is constantly trying to sneak up for cuddles with me on the sofa, thinking that Dan won’t notice the appearance of a ridiculously long dog taking up most of the seat! She owns the soppiest puppy eyes you’ve ever seen and for all intents and purposes is my baby….yes, I know that’s incredibly sad lol!

In July 2009 I got a phone call from a very old and dear friend, he was moving to Singapore with his lovely lady and was unable to take his Doberman with him due to his age. He had made plans for someone to take him in, but they fell through at the 11^th hour, so he made a desperate plea to us to take his 12 year old boy in – I shall refer you back to my opening paragraph to ensure the fact that we agreed to take him in is of no surprise to you!

Despite being much larger than The Boo, Mutley immediately moved himself to the bottom of the pack in the house. He obviously missed Lee desperately as he was very quiet to begin with, and we had issues with him settling. I think he has found a happy level now, he’s an old man, and he spends most of his time making his crate into a nice nest and snuggling up in it and sleeping. He has lost some of his bounce, but still has a good old wag of his little stump when he gets a treat for being a good boy :o)

Obviously 2 pretty large dogs weren’t quite enough for our house, as in the Autumn of 2009 Hague decided he needed more pets – and so the Gerbils arrived (for some reason pronounced with a hard G….don’t ask!). The new members of The Menagerie were named quite quickly, and as such, don’t particularly suit their personalities too well. We have JCB – named due to the fact that all he does is dig, and dig, and dig, and dig….he will also eat stuff in his cage, but digging is mainly what drives our little sandy coloured friend. The second of the Gerbily Little Dudes is TiggerPig, so named as all he did on the first day we had them was bounce around the cage like Tigger! He’s a brownish colour, and contrary to his name is actually much quieter than that. The last Gerbil is the bossiest one, woefully named Mousey as he barely showed his face for the first few days and was a pretty silvery grey, so we wrongly decided that he must be the quiet one….we couldn’t have been more wrong!! He bosses the other two around, always wants to be first to any food and is without doubt the leader of the tiny Gerbilly universe we have! I had owned a Hamster years ago, so wasn’t overly keen on the addition of more rodents, however, The Gerbils are way more fun, they are very nosy and at every noise or bit of movement a little head will pop up to see what’s going on! It’s like having a budget Meerkat commercial running constantly!

So, we’re now up to 5 pets and 2 people! Hague though is Cat People, and as you may have noticed, a cat flavoured pet was missing from The Menagerie. So we started to check various Freegle/Freecyle/Pet Charities for the perfect cat for us. They had to be used to dogs and litter trained, and we tried for a fair while until I randomly answered an ad for someone looking for a foster or permanent home for their PussyCat. After exchanging a few emails with Claire she decided that we sounded like the perfect home for her, and so we had our final addition – PussyCat, now more usually known as Flump. A tortoiseshell cat of unknown age, but totally dog savvy, litter trained, and who has slotted straight into the Random House of Mayhem that is the MitchHague residence! She enjoys nothing more than snuggling up on the settee and having cuddles, although she does get very vocal if her bowl gets to anything even vaguely resembling empty, again, she has a great little personality, and seems to revel in being allowed on the sofa when Bayleigh isn’t. In fact her interactions with Boo are highly amusing as Bayleigh has absolutely no idea what Flump is…..she keeps sniffing this weird looking dog thing with such intent, but seems to have no idea how to deal with her – poor thing!

Anyway….there you have it….an short introduction to The Menagerie, or How I’ve Suddenly Found Myself One Pet Away From Having My Own Zoo!