the gentino zoo (by amie).

There are four things our family collects: Legos, books, plants, and animals. This blog post is about our current collection of animals.

This is Max. He is our chubby, spoiled, furry friend. You can definitely tell that he’s happy with his life. He lives in Gabe and Noah’s room, and all day, when people are coming and going, he gets plenty of “hellos” and pats. His least favorite days are bath-and-nail-clipping days. Which happened today.

Dad’s role in the family is “guinea pig nail-clipper.” You can tell they don’t like him because of that, but immediately after we bathe Max and clip his nails, we give him a piece of bell pepper and he forgets his misery.

Noah and Gabe clean Max’s cage, but I do the rest. Noah and Max have a special bond. They like to cuddle together and he makes it clear when Noah’s petting him a way he doesn’t like. He gives Noah a good hard nudge to get his hand away! If you haven’t spent time around guinea pigs, you’ll be surprised to know that they are very chatty. They give little squeaks when they’re happy or annoyed or hungry or when they want attention. Really anytime! It is super cute.

You may remember that my first guinea pig was named Milo. I had him for just over a year, but during Christmas week, he sadly passed away. There were many tears.  I thought that I wouldn’t want another guinea pig for awhile, so I was surprised and pleased when my parents gave me Oscar on Christmas Eve. Oscar made me feel so much better! I made “Milo” his middle name. I still miss Milo, but Oscar and I are inseparable. He looks so much like Milo that it makes me happy and sad. It’s amazing how fast you can have a bond with these furry companions.

We try to let Oscar out on the dining room floor daily to run around and get some exercise. He’s like popcorn because of the way he jumps (when a guinea pig jumps, they’re happy)!

Next I’ll tell you about our chickens. We currently have six, and I’m their mother. They love me because I’m the one who feeds them, and they remember my voice. I’m also the only one of the family who remembers which is which!

Here are Sophie Elizabeth Foster, Hyacinth, Bess, Batty, and Aino (pronounced “I know”). If you’re wondering, we named this flock after characters in novels. Tell me if you can guess any of the books they’re from!

This is Sunny. She is “broody.” It’s kind of sad, because this means she sits on the eggs and hopes for them to hatch. But they can’t because we don’t have a rooster. When I get the eggs, she clucks at me, not pleased that I’m taking them from her. I let her out in the grass sometimes, so she can get exercise and hopefully snap out of it. Thankfully, she’s getting better.

All of our chickens are healthy egg-layers.

And now, this is our newest addition: Albus Dumbledore Gentino. He is a Bearded Dragon. I got him last week, for my birthday (over a month late!). I saved up my babysitting money and allowance to get his tank and all the supplies. My parents bought him for me. I’ve been mostly the one to hold him so far, 1. because I just like to!, and 2. because I want him to know I’m his mother.

He needs to sleep for 12 hours a night, and I feel like a mom of a newborn baby, because I’m always checking to see if he’s eating enough, getting chubbier, and sleeping enough! He is very curious. When he finds something new, he’ll stick out his tongue and lick it.

Albus is small now, but he’ll grow to be about two feet long. He eats mealworms, grasshoppers, vegetables from the garden, and crickets. My mom is very thankful that she doesn’t have to buy mice from the pet store like she did for my snakes. She isn’t too pleased with how big he’s going to get, and it took some persuading to get her to like the idea of having a big lizard in the family.

All our pets are very much loved by the Gentino fam (except Judah)!