Thank you and goodbye

This is the last post for Animalia. Again, we want to thank you for the six years we were open, and we particularly want to thank the volunteers.

Several people have emailed us asking about boarding and other services. We are no longer in the pet trade. We will not be working for another pet store. We can no longer board birds or make recommendations or pass on messages. That phase of our lives is over, and we are on to new things. We have maintained friendships with some of you – you know who you are – but we can no longer provide the advice we used to give when the store was open.

Several people have also asked us where Jack and Lily are. They are both in new homes, where they’re very happy. Further than that we will not say, to protect the privacy of the people who now have them. It’s not fair to them to tell everyone that they have Jack or Lily and open them to the demands of people who want to visit. We understand that many people loved both birds – we loved them ourselves and were simply not able to keep them. It’s best to let them have their new homes in peace.

We know we’ll be missed – we’ve been told many times, and we appreciate knowing that. We’d like to think that Animalia made a difference for people, that we gave good information and provided good products and service. We enjoyed it while we were there; now we need to move on. Thanks for understanding that.

David and Elizabeth

Some good news for reptile owners

It’s still going to be possible to get live rodents for your snakes and lizards.

Roxanne provided our live mice and, I believe, frozen ones too, for the last few years. You can contact her at:

liverodents@gmail.com

or

705-260-0011

She’s working at increasing her stock to meet demand, and is adding rats to the – um – menu. Support your local rodent raiser!

Thank you all

We’re closed and gone now. There’s still a bit of stuff to move out of the store, but Animalia is over. We just want to thank everyone for six and a half years of your business. It’s time for us to get on with our lives and do other things. We will not, as far as we know, be going back into the pet trade, either independently or working for others.

To our anonymous benefactor – thank you! That was very kind of you.

Thanks again to our customers, and to our volunteers. Our volunteers were so much a part of the store, right from the beginning, and we saw many of you grow up and turn from kids into young women and men. We’ll miss you guys a lot. If any of you need a letter of reference, you can contact us by commenting here.

All the best,

David, Elizabeth, Jack, Lily and Sky.

Last two days

We still have some baby budgies and robo hamsters, as well as terrariums and aquariums at great prices. After Sunday at 5:00 pm, the doors at Animalia will be closed for good.

Great deals, last week for Animalia

David has 10-gallon tanks on for $5.00 each.
Atasuki terrariums are below cost, same for any cages or dog crates left.
There are still some cat carriers available, and lots of collars and leashes.
Everything in the store, including the fish and the tortoises, is 50% off.

We’re closing

It’s sad but true – Animalia is closing. Everything is 50% off, and the last business day is Sunday, November 20th, 2011.

Thank you to all our customers for the last six years.

Jack and Lily will be going to new homes.

Chinchillas

We have a couple of very cute chinchillas in the store, about three months old. They’re less than full adult size, but still large enough to handle fairly easily. Yes, they’re “poppy” – they do tend to pop out of your hands if you don’t keep good hold of them – but they’re pretty good about being held and they’re not hard to catch, so we can see that they’re taming down all the time.

Chinchillas are fairly quiet pets. They’re nocturnal, so they’re going to spend most of the day sleeping, and be active at night. A large cage is important, and it’s better if it’s tall rather than long. Chinchillas like to bounce and climb from level to level, and they’re happier in an enclosure that allows them to do that.

Chinchillas can live twenty years or so in captivity with good care.

Bunnies! Bunnies!

We have three five-week-old bunnies in the store. They’re fairly calm and easy to handle, and, of course, cute as a button.


It’s also close to the end of pond season. David will be taking down the pond section out at the back of the store. Some of the larger fish will be coming in. The Tiger Shovelnose, Dr. Wellfish, has had a happy summer out in the large pool. There are a few other large fish still available.

Little sweethearts

That’s how David describes the three lutino cockatiels he got in a couple of days ago. They’re about a year old, hand tame and very friendly. They’re talkative, too, at least in cockatiel – you can hear them “fweep”-ing all over the store!

Here are a couple of photos.

One of our guests

Dudley is back at the Hotel Animalia. He’s a blue-fronted Amazon, and a regular boarder at the store. He gets along well with Jack, and really loves Jack’s outdoor cage.

Dudley’s a gorgeous bird, friendly with Jack, but not so friendly with people. He’s bitten David once or twice; if customers are interested in petting him, he warns them off in no uncertain terms.

So why have a bird like this? Well, because most of the time a bird like Dudley is with his family, the people he’s bonded to. In his home he’s probably quite different, in part because he’s much more relaxed. When he’s boarding with us, he’s in a new place, surrounded by unfamiliar people. Some of those people have no experience with birds and don’t know how to approach them. He’s on his guard.

Dudley is a very good boarder; he doesn’t kick up a fuss about everything, he doesn’t attack strangers or pine for his people. He eats and takes an interest in his surroundings, and while he’s not the easiest bird for a stranger to deal with, he lets David put him away at night in his cage.

A few years ago we boarded an African Grey named Cato. We liked Cato, and he seemed all right with us. One day, however, he did something that made me think he was probably smarter than I gave him credit for. We had a customer in the store who was afraid of birds. She was at the cash register paying for her purchase when she noticed Cato sitting on Jack’s perch in the middle of the store.

“Oh, I’m afraid of birds,” she said. “Will he fly at me?”
“No, he’s never flown at anyone,” I said. In fact, I’d never seen Cato take wing at all.

You can guess what happened, of course. Cato immediately did a perfect flight right over her head, just brushing her hair, and slid to a stop on the counter. I thought I was going to have to call 911 for the poor woman.

I bet people hotels don’t have to put up with stuff like that!