I HAD A ROBOROVSKI DONKEY-DERBY last night... Round and round they ran, around 2-storeys (that is robo storeys ~ 5 inches high the lot) of wandering tubes from toilet-rolls, clingfilms, tunnels from toothpaste boxes and secret underground bases fashioned from Italian Grated Cheese containers... all this concealed within their gigantic (to human-scale) house-sized nest which is 6 robo-feet deep (no wonder they like nothing better than lazing in there seemingly 18 hours a day...)... replete with multiple food-stashes in bizarre places. Everywhere I looked was a Disneyfied perky-eared "mouse" nibbling seeds, emerging from a tunnel looking surprised or trotting 21 to the dozen on the wheel. They looked so cute I really wanted to give them a good poke them with their chopstick.All the robbies do to that chopstick is nibble at it in a vaguely interested way: when I had Russian or Siberian hamsters, one Campbells, one "winter-white", my Campbells seized upon it with such alacrity you could pick up said stick and have him dangling 50 Campbells-feet in the air... If he was a dog he'd have been growling and slavering away... It's such a shame that was before the days of Youtube as I could have got hilarious film out of Naughty's antics...
BABY ITCHY ROBOROVSKI smells of frankincense... Robbies are so cute and furry and tiny and I always bring them to my face when I hold them... they've always had a perfumey smell (not a rank mousey stale smell like... well: mice...) Itchy does indeed smell of frankincense. You might think you don't know it but you do: it's in "church incense", a sweet, calming aroma... Their we-wee is again full of perfumey "notes" (as perfumiers like to say) and nowhere near as rank as ordinary rodent pee-pee... My old Russian hamsters used to smell a bit mousey, but then they were boys and boys' urine's always yukkier than girls as girls of all species will tell you in various barks, yelps, chirrups and squeaks of their own... Or plain English, when they're not getting their nails done... Ordinary Syrian or golden hamsters don't smell at all, except when they need cleaning, and then their wee smells quite horrid and sour.
I don't know why, because they'are hardly underfed, but Itchy and Bashful, seem tiny even as roborovskis go. Only Spherical is truly as tubby eg. as the furry porn-stars of my video Roborovski Luurve..!
A lot of my blog-readers seem to lose scale of how very tiny my roborovski hamsters are. Robbies are the tiniest of all dwarf hamsters so I'll try and give you an illustration: an ordinary Syrian hamster curled up is about the size of a tennis-ball; a Russian dwarf hamster would be about satsuma-size ~ but robos, the tiniest of the lot are barely any bigger than pingpong balls!
And with that thought I'll love you and leave you. I have to fly and get a roast beef dinner in giant Yorkshire pudding £1 meal from "chavtastic" Iceland... the feeding the "white trash" frozen superstore...
Illustrations: to the right ~ a tiny furry dur roborovskis; to the left no not some dodgy smoker's middle-eastern drugs ~ that's frankincense being used as incense...
Poem of the Day: Read Experience, Strength & Hope at Storm Before the Calm...
EFTERKLANG MIRADOR
Now we're walking up strange-street...
Visually very funky and musically a little bit: what oddness! I purloined this from Let Nature Be blog...
THE PRICE IS RIGHT 1ST EVER SHOW 1984
Hosted by the original Alan Partridge ~ yes Leslie Crowther, this is the classic opening British show of that gold-plated American gameshow THE PRICE IS RIGHT: starring NORMA STUPID
The woman made such an impression on all of us that years later "Norma Stupid" is still a family catchphrase at home...
This you have to watch: you couldn't mock-up something this retro if you tried all year...
Been reading back over your posts. I am very impressed with your shorthand! Can you type properly? I want to be able to do it without looking. (But can never be bothered to practise.)
ReplyDeleteBy the way I don't dress like that to go to prison. Only when on the town!!!
I was trying to visualise how tiny your robbies are. And smelling of incense! How sweet.
Oh yes, and I had one of those Internet explorer can't open the page on your gabby thing. I'll try again tonight and see if you are there!
ReplyDeleteFunny little hamsters. They are interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to see the roborovskis donkey-derby! Even smell the roborovskis pee. With fairly warm weather here and the front door open for Alex, all the pet experience I’m having is the furball running in and out of the house pretending (I think) he is chasing something. Or, maybe something outside is really chasing him.
ReplyDeleteGod I remember Leslie Crowther from being a kid and i left England when I was 11! 41 years ago! Erm interesting observations on the wee of Robbies et al ...of course the girls smell better . . .we always do!
ReplyDeleteYou always post the coolest vids etc on your blog. I'm jealous! I'm so computer retarded I can barely manage. Blogger and Myspace are about as complicated as I get.
ReplyDeleteYour robos smell of incense? I love the smell of incense!
ReplyDeleteIf I had robbies I would carry them around in my pocket to keep me company when I am lonely. Just read you previous post on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which is one of my favorite films, I cry everytime I get to the scene when they are back at the beach house trying to remain together and the memory fragments and they slip away from it. Ugh, now I am getting all teary eyed again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the plug!
ReplyDeleteI must say - this is the first time I have ever read someone describe the smell of their hamster - much less their pee! Maybe people should discuss it more often, because I was quite entertained. Thanks!
Your robo-derby sounds very exciting!
ReplyDeleteLiz: It took years to get shorthand anywhere half decent and that was by intermittently going at it obsessively for a couple of weeks, then dropping it for another couple of years or so...
ReplyDeleteYes I wonder where the incense smell comes from but it is just them I suppose... Gabbly often misbehaves like that I will log my name in in a sec it is 11:05pm
Syd: Best pets I ever had and petshops tried to put me off buying them saying they're too fast and don't like being picked up ~ they're for watching not handling
Nick: playing "scaredy-cat"? and they do love to run from the wind...
Baino: What on earth Leslie Crowther was famous for before the Price is Right I've no idea... he was some sort of child star?
You're dead right about girls...
Melody: well you're one up from me if you've got Myspace sorted. Maybe because I don't like giving out details only telling stories blogger is for me...
ReplyDelete... it took me an entire day from deciding to start posting vids to actually figuring out how to "embed" one and realizing you do NOT need a Youtube account to do this...
Akelamalu: yes they smell of the kind of heavy incense you get from aromatic woods and resins like frankincense, benzoin and sandalwood...
Eileen/Reeny: I used to sleep with a hamster up my sleep but would nearly always wake with him having escaped and running wild around the room and it always seemed to take half an hour to catch him...
Storm: probably people don't smell their pets like they should~haha! Roborovskis do smell more wondrous than any pets I've ever had...
Welshcakes: really funny to watch! The big Disney-mice with big Disney-eyes ;->...
Eileen: up my sleeve I was sposed to say ~ dur!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your visits and comments about the Victorian bushfires, they are still burning and creating heartbreak.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the weather's changing and I hope they go out soon
ReplyDeletethank you so much for leaving such a kind comment =]
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeletehey you're welcome
ReplyDeletei used to lap up certain style magazines like the (now out of print) Face magazine in the 90s... I can't imagine how cool it would be to get published somewhere like that...
You do find the cutest Robo pics to post. I did think about you and your Paddington Pigeons when that one landed here ... you better watch out full moon and all that, better get on home *!*
ReplyDeleteGledwood, yes, Alex could have been playing scaredy-cat! Or, he might not being playing. The furball loves to harass the dog next dog—and the do was quite a bit while Alex was outside.
ReplyDeleteThose robos sound really cute and it's nice that they smell so sweet. Mice are terrible! However, robos wouldn't do too well here with a couple of cats who would think they make lovely snacks...after a game of chasey of course...
ReplyDeleteHi Gledwood and Melody:
ReplyDeleteI'm a bigger 'Tard than both of you - took me half the night yesterday to figure out how to create G acct just to comment on that guy Noah's blog...which led me to you guys' blogs. Hope you don't mind if i join in on the fun.
Bimbimbie: I got home and couldn't sleep (properly) all night: is that full moon..??
ReplyDeleteNick: as I think it was my old English teacher once said ANY cat worth its salt can get the better of a dog, either by full-on attack or by kitty-wiles...
Puss-in-Boots: last time Itchy escaped I had little choice but to capture her by WHAM under a teatowel. Already her head was halfway out, eyes protruding as if they'd break free any second like black streams of toothpaste (what an ukky image) but that might describe how utterly desperate she looked, and it took her a full five minutes, after I wrapped her up and dumped her directly in the tank, to behave anything like normally again.
The other 2 couldn't stop sniffing at her like where have YOU been!!??!
SmackHappy: the fun is open to all. I can never comment there as the "adult content" filter never comes down, letting me in the blog, but not filling the page... all my fault for logging into blogger first so beware of that I have had endless trouble
ps how did you find all these junk blogs? it always intrigues me as I went for months on end thinking NOBODY ever posted and used
and the folks from junky life except Naomi were always FAR too uppity to deign to speak to me with my... ooo furry hamsters and ooo semblance of personality left ooo dear
Bimbimbie: I got home and couldn't sleep (properly) all night: is that full moon..??
ReplyDeleteNick: as I think it was my old English teacher once said ANY cat worth its salt can get the better of a dog, either by full-on attack or by kitty-wiles...
Puss-in-Boots: last time Itchy escaped I had little choice but to capture her by WHAM under a teatowel. Already her head was halfway out, eyes protruding as if they'd break free any second like black streams of toothpaste (what an ukky image) but that might describe how utterly desperate she looked, and it took her a full five minutes, after I wrapped her up and dumped her directly in the tank, to behave anything like normally again.
The other 2 couldn't stop sniffing at her like where have YOU been!!??!
SmackHappy: the fun is open to all. I can never comment there as the "adult content" filter never comes down, letting me in the blog, but not filling the page... all my fault for logging into blogger first so beware of that I have had endless trouble
ps how did you find all these junk blogs? it always intrigues me as I went for months on end thinking NOBODY ever posted and used
and the folks from junky life except Naomi were always FAR too uppity to deign to speak to me with my... ooo furry hamsters and ooo semblance of personality left ooo dear
Hi Gled: Thanks for the visualization of an American roadtrip. I'm sending out healing thoughts your way all along the trip!
ReplyDeletewhen I finally manage to go! It might have to be a European rail trip...
ReplyDelete... American road trips always appear to be (in the movies) along what we call "dual carriageways" ie 1 lane each direction... and those battered middle o' nowhere gas stations and diners
I bet in actuality you take the "interstate" which is probably what I know a long journey in Europe by road would involve: hours and hours on autobahn, autostrada, motorway and whatever les francais call une "motorwaye"
hence the romance of the train, in which stakes Europe beats America hands down...
(I don't know that I'd even get a visa for America they hate reprobates...)
Your old English teacher was wise!
ReplyDeleteSometimes I worry about the dog next door because of the tricks Alex plays on her, even though the dog out weights Alex by about 90 pounds.
Hi..came via Lime...greetings from across the pond. Not a big fan of roddies...but, like the smell of frankencense. So, I would probably like your critters. Will have to look back on some of your older posts. time permitting...:)
ReplyDeleteYou know Gleds...you're absolutely right, I think my pee smells perfumey good too! :)
ReplyDeleteThat one robo getting a lick on the ear looks like he/she is grinning.
ReplyDeleteSweet.
Janice~
Nick: that dog sounds thick!
ReplyDelete90lbs sounds like a huge wobbling bag of lard... oh! i thought you meant 90 STONE hahaha!!
Luida: enjoy!
MDA: and most perfume is golden yellow!~ those manufacturers might be onto something!!
Janice: aye that's true!