All the Creatures

I had a quest today that took me off course and found something quite interesting. Since the weather has been getting cooler, I started my quest for a new horse blanket and of course looked online for a good one on sale. During that process I discovered a book on wholesale horse equipment manufacturers. Since the book didn’t look quite right to me I Googled the ISBN number of the book. My results were quite interesting.

One of the first things I wanted to know about the book, but was unable to find at first, did the book contain wholesalers in the USA or somewhere else? During my ISBN number search, I found that the book, even though it was printed in Ohio, was available in India, England and a few other countries. I only found 2 reviews of the book and one of them mentioned it was a list of manufacturers in India, the other review was that the book was a re-print of a book that was printed years and years ago.

Now I know for a fact that once a book is over 90 years old, it becomes a “public domain” property unless the author’s family had retained right’s to the work. So it is very possible that someone had an original book that was nothing more than a list of wholesale horse equipment manufacturers from the early 1900’s and then re-printed it for sale to today’s market or that the book was indeed a list of saddle makers in India.

Well, that was my interesting side trip for today. Now back to looking at horse blankets.

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As you will recall, in my prior post about the peruvian cavy, I mentioned the patagonian cavy. I would like to introduce you to this most unusual pet. I was at a local feed store when I met one of these little cuties in person. At first I thought it was a baby capybara and the woman holding the baby patagonian said I was the first one to even come close to what it actually was. You see the patagonian cavy and the capybara are relatives. This capybara book tells you more about the world’s largest rodent. The patagonian cavy, the capybara and the guinea pig are all in the same rodent family.

I found out that the patagonian cavy is a very popular pet. I had never heard of it before a few weeks ago and looked more into them. In Oregon they are very legal to own and breed without any permits. They are considered to be the same as rabbits. I also found some large classified forums where breeders list their patagonians for sale. Most of the breeders are located in Texas and the southern states. The average price for one of these pets is around $300. The woman that had the patagonian at the feed store kept hers in the house and it got along well with her dogs. They grow to the size of 35 pounds so they would be the same size as many mid sized dogs.

They are vegetarians and live in small socialized groups. The parents, as a group, take care of the youngsters.

As the owner of the young patagonian and I talked, I asked her how often she was asked if the animal was a jackalope? She said, “all the time.” She often tells them that the animal is a jackalope that just shed its horns…..LOL.

The patagonian cavy - a most unusual pet.

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Have you ever wanted to have an exotic fancy pet but didn’t want to have the expense of getting a special permit or building special housing? Well have I got a suggestion for you. It’s a guinea pig, yes I said a guinea pig. I bet you didn’t know that guinea pigs came in wide varieties did you. To be quite frank about it neither did I until a few days ago. I was doing some research on the patagonian cavy (a relative of the guinea pig) when I came across this photo:

It is a long haired show guinea pig called the Peruvian cavy. There is a breed club that has more information about them at acbaonline.com or check out this book on guinea pigs.

Let’s face it, you will not find this breed for sale at your local pet shop. You will have to find a breeder that specializes in this breed. I would recommend this breed of guinea pig only to people that love to care for long coated animals. This is not a low maintenance pet, but exotics never are. Housing will have to be larger than the average guinea pig is kept in, due to keeping the long coat hairs from breaking off.

I mentioned the patagonian cavy earlier and they also make wonderful pets. I have a special post coming up all about them and how I met one in person that started me on my cavy research. The patagonian would be like having a miniature deer running around the house.

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