My Pets

Yup, I have real life petz too! A whole bunch of them, in fact! Prepare to meet the creatures that control my life ;) I currently have...quite a bunch of pets OO;
This page might take long to load due to a large number of photos!

Nellie
Nellie is my first dog ever, and my oldest pet (well, besides Pip, but I gave him to my brother, so he doesn't really count). Nellie turned 8 in march 2003, so she's an older lady dog now! She's an english cocker spaniel, black and white in colour, and undocked, of course! (docking tails and cropping ears is illegal in Sweden). She is very stubborn, but also sweet and loyal. She often sleeps by my feet, and follows me around wherever I go. 
Nellie got really sick a while ago. She went through a big operation, removing 9 tumours, and got spayed in the process! Luckily, she's okay now! 

Nellie is not as fast as before (not that she has ever been all that fast!) but we still train agility when the weather allows us to. Nellie loves agility, and has placed 1st place once in a small competition. I've also been training obedience all winter, and hopefully I will be able to compete with her during 2003. I hope so, but she still doesn't quite see the point of obeying unless you get a treat for your trouble! But we'll see :)
Nellie hates dog shows, and she's not a beauty, so I don't compete much in shows with her. Besides, I've cut her fur so that she's all smooth now, so she's not really in showing-shape anyway ;)

Tina
Tina is my second, and younger dog. She's turning 5 in may 2003, and is a blenheim (red/white) cavalier king charles spaniel. She is almost disgustingly sweet, and she has never tried to snarl at me or any other human. She does protect her food with claws and teeth from other animals, but not from people!
I bought Tina to be a show dog, and she was more expensive than her siblings. What happened? Well, when Tina was about 4 months old, she ate a poisonous mushroom, which just about killed her. She got better, but 2 weeks later her lungs were infected with something. Poor dog had to eat special food and we missed out a lot of her early training. But it doesn't end there! No sir!
The next year, 1999, Tina was bitten by a snake, and after that, she got a really ugly boil on her neck, which has to be removed by surgery. So poor Tina's been really sick! Because of everything that has happened to her, she never reached full growth, and is the size of a 6 months old cavalier pup! So when we go to dog shows, we are basically told that she looks great - but she's too small! The funny thing there, however, is that the cavalier breed standard says that a small dog is preferred! And the weight of a cavalier should be 5,5 - 8,5 kg. Tina weighs 6,3 kg. So how the heck could she be too small?!

Tina is a good agility dog! She is fast and nimble (unlike me, so I better work on that!) and I'm hoping to compete with her next year. If I can over my nervousness, that is! Tina has competer a few times in agility, and she has done okay, I suppose. Not very great results, perhaps, but she's never been disqualified, at least!

Lucky
Meet Lucky. The biggest, fattest and friendliest cat in the neighboorhod! He's been called "lion", "king of the hill" and "one big cat". And he was the supreme ruler, until his ebil owner (that's me!) had him neutered... 
Lucky is the friendliest cat I've ever met. He has never hissed or snarled at a person (except once, when the ebil vet who was gonna neuter him lifted him by the scruff of the neck, hey, can't blame him!). When a child pull his tail, he does nothing to defend himself. When the smaller children fall over him, he doesn't even move! He is a very friendly, a very large (weighs about 7 kg, more than Tina!) and very sweet tomcat :) 

The rabbits
As you can probably guess, I'm quite fond of rabbits! I have 5 at the moment, you can see them below :)

Leo. Leo is my only non-lop ear. He's a leonhead rabbit, but he doesn't look like one, since he doesn't have a mane! He is blackish brown in colour. I'm not sure what to call it.. black with lighter underside... Weird! He is friendly and sweet, but not THAT tame. He has never done anything to hurt me or anyone else, though!

Merak, my youngest rabbit. He's a holland lop ear. I believe his colour is called japanese or something similar. It's yellow with black patches. He is very sweet and friendly. Probably my calmest rabbit, and likes to be petted. He doesn't fancy being carried around, though.
Merak's gonna be a daddy!

Nina. She was given to me, and is my oldest rabbit (about 4 years old). She's a holland lop ear rabbit, with pedigree and all, and coloured like a wild rabbit. I have never met such a hungry rabbit before! No matter how much food you give her, she wants more!

Nova. Yup, this is where from I got my internet name! Nova is 2 years old, a blue holland lop ear rabbit. See? Nova Blue :)
Nova has had two litters. One with 13 babies (all died, common among rabbits) and one with 5 babies (all survived). She is sweet, but can nibble on occassion.

Polaris. Polaris was named after Stella Polaris, the north star. She isn't tame at all and doesn't like to be petted, but she's not scared. So it's "See, not touch" around her!

My fish
I currently have a fish tank that can hold 112 liter, and as this was written, I had 18 fish. As fish owners know, fish tend to come and go, but this will hopefully give you an okay description of my current fish ;)
Oh, and if you wonder where I get my names from... They are from the trilogy His Dark Materials, written by Phillip Pullman. It's my fave book (-s), I really recommend it!

Platy
Platys? Platies? Either way, I own 4 of these ;) 
They have been known to produce offsprings with swords.
I have never owned this particular species before, so I'm curious to see what they will turn out like.

Swords
Swords are very famous in the "aquarium world". The males have long tailfins that look like swords, and they are about 12 cm long. I have 3 at the moment. They are very active fish.
The photo above shows my black female sword, Sayan Kötör, and the fighting fish Lyra.
Swords are actually related to both the platy and the guppy. All three of them give birth to living young, they don't lay eggs.

 
Guppy
The first fish I got when I got my first own fish tank (my family also had fish long ago, when I was a lot younger). Guppies come in many shapes and colours. I've had up to 40 at one time (about 30 of them were babies though) but my oldest couple that I currently own do not seem to want to breed. The blonde (reddish) male Oden disappeared one day, I have no idea what happened to him, but I suspect that he died and was eaten by the eels...
I recently bought 6 new guppies, three young females and three adult males. The males are very eager - they even try to mate with a male platy...

Siamese fighting fish
I love these, they are so beautiful! Just look at them above! They are also proud, gentle and calm fish, but if two males see each other, they rip their fins to shreds and might even kill each other. As you might be able to see, my male, Iorek, has had his ripped, but it was actually done by the females. They didn't like him at first, but they get along without problems now.
Because they are so calm (and curious!) the fighting fish are the easiest to photograph.

Algea eater
I bought a special fish that eats algea. I have no idea what it's called in english, and I don't have a photo yet either, but it's long, brownish yellow with a dark stripe. It's probably somewhere along 7 - 10 cm long, quite shy and with a very funny-looking mouth ;) I've decided to name it Iofur.

Kuhlii loach
I'm not sure of the spelling! *lol* It's a kind of eel that can grow to about 12 cm length. They are orange and brown (striped) with a tiny "beard" and are incredibly quick when needed. They are nocturnal and hide during the day, but when I turn off the lamp, I can see them come out and scavenge for food. They are very pretty, and I really hope that they will reach full size!
My two pretties are named Balthamos and Baruch, after two angels that were in love with each other in His Dark Materials. Balthamos was one of my very favourite characters! I felt so sorry for him after Baruch died...

Pip and Spirit
Pip is our oldest pet - a 12 year old budgie (parakeet). He's green with a yellow head (and blue spots on it) and his wings and tail are mainly black/green. Being the old man he is, he spends most of his time sleeping or just looking tired. He's not what you'd call tame, but he likes to whistle. He could also sound like our old phone, which confused us more than once, lemme tell you! In the summer, he sits on the outside, watching the magpies. As a result, he sounds like one! Meet the magpie budgie! Oh yeah, and his name is pronounced like peep!

Spirit is our younger budgie, about 2 months old! He's very tame and loves to chat! *lol* We've only had him for a few weeks. He's mainly blue, with some grey and white. I named him, but he's mainly my sister's pet. 

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