Friday, July 30, 2010

Pet Fox Stories: Hanging By His Toes

A lot of people question the need to have a complete roof on their fox enclosures, doubting the fox's ability to climb upside down. Well, I recently had an experience with Gizmo the other day that made the need for a full ceiling very clear.

The other day while I was making lunch, I had Gizmo shut in his indoor playpen so he wouldn't be "helping" me to make and/or eat it. The play pen is about 50 square feet, with a fenced in top. Usually he can be left in there to entertain himself without worry that he'll get himself into too much trouble.

After realizing that I was not currently in the room giving him attention, Gizmo did his typical "mommy come here" warble. My hands were a bit full at the moment, so I just called back to him to let him know that I had heard him.

He continued to call, getting louder and more upset sounding, until he finally gave up on the warbling and just started out right shrieking. At this point, I was getting a bit concerned, so I walked in to see what all the fuss was about.

Gizmo was hanging upside down by his toes, desperately clinging to the top of his play pen, and wailing his little heart out. He wasn't caught on the bars or anything, and no toes were trapped. He had just managed to climb onto his ceiling, and now was afraid to jump down. I entered the play yard, got a good hold of him, and got him to let go of the ceiling and drop down into my arms. Nobody was hurt, and Gizmo was thrilled to have been rescued.

Do you have any interesting stories about what your pets have done when you're out of the room? What interesting predicaments have your critters managed to get themselves into while you weren't looking? (Or for particularly talented pets, while you were looking.)

And stay tuned! Tomorrow is going to be the first "Featured Photo of the Week", then Monday I'm going to be discussing trimming a fox's toenails.

6 comments:

  1. Can't take your eyes off him for a second, can you?

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  2. Any idea what he was trying to get at? I don't think he'd climb onto his ceiling for no reason.

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  3. my old cat appy ate 2 feet of a felt kitty ribbon, he needed surgery my poor baby :C

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    1. I had the same thing, except my cat ate a long balloon string, popped the ballon, then swallowed the balloon :(
      He didn't make it because he chocked.

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  4. I had a hamster when I was a kid, like 7, and also a German Rottweiler. She liked to play soccer with him when he was in his exercise ball, so we kept them separated while he was out running around. One day someone slipped up and the dog was in the house with him and no one realized it, and my mom came into the living room to find the ball empty and no hamster in sight, and the dog laying in the floor with her back to my mom, 'eating' something. In horror, my mom ran over and started to reprimand the dog: she was a sweetheart and no one could believe she could kill anything. As she approached, Ella lifted her head, her docked tail wiggling in happiness. And clasped between her paws was the hamster - alive and in good hands: she had been giving him a bath!

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  5. My dog gets her foot stuck while scratching.

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