On my way to work today, I spotted a large, off-the-leash mongrel that looked something like a black bull terrier cross and its owner, a young woman, walking calmly into the park behind my place of work.
A few seconds after they vanished out of sight, there was a volley of barking and the mongrel quickly reappeared looking rather panicked with a small yappy dog clinging to his throat! The dog looked something like a Lhasa Apso, which are roughly 10-11 inches tall to the shoulders and weigh roughly 14 to 18 pounds.
The owner of the yappy little bastard, a man, managed to separate the two by booting his turd of a dog up the arse a few times and held his two dogs off at a distance as the woman checked her dog over.
His dogs were leashed from the start, but the little yappy dog was still barking away and attempting to get at the larger dog, which was sitting quite quietly as its owner cleaned the bites.
So, who do you reckon caused the problem in this scenario?
I love watching my young’uns when they playfight, it’s so endearing to see them wrestle and box with one another, and ping around their tank looking for another playmate when one runs off!
This is a photo of Pandora and Izzie getting sprightly whilst having playtime!
And I also managed to get a video of them getting bolshy to one another!
Play fighting isn’t all just for fun though; this is how young gerbils establish their pecking order. By watching your gerbils play-fight as pups, and later on, seeing how they interact together when sleeping, grooming etc, you get to know who the dominant male or female in the group is.
Adults will also occasionally play fight but this isn’t as common as pups playing. Never confuse your gerbils fighting for play when it may be serious! A play fight will be easy to interrupt, and often involves the gerbils grooming one another in between boxing bouts, whilst during a serious fight the gerbils will completely ignore you and may bite you in confusion if you attempt to intervene. This is why we always encourage owners to wear or to have handy some thick gloves when introducing gerbils or breaking up a ball fight.
There is a video of a ball fight, as well as more play fighting videos, on eGerbil’s behaviour page.
A public apology to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named aka Oi you
I apoligise for making you wait nine days to watch ‘Gran Torino’ which was indeed a good movie and a good pick aaaaaaand I’ve forgotten what else I should say.
And a general plug for ‘Gran Torino’.
A Gran Torino is a car. A really really old car. (Which is part of why I stalled watching it from christmas )
This is a photo of one said car..
As I said, it’s a really really old car.
Now that’s all cleared up, the film ‘Gran Torino’ is actually pretty good, starring Clint Eastwood (who is still an old man, admittedly a kinda cool-in-a-grouchy-old-man way, but he still isn’t as kickass as Rambo is at 63) who plays Walt Kowalski, a recently windowed retired Korean war veteran (I’m sure you can all just go to imdb and read this but sit down and shut up, I’m wombling).
Surprisingly, the storyline doesn’t completely revolve around the Gran Torino. In fact, it mainly concentrates on the different cultures moving into Walt Kowalski’s neighbourhood, and the gangs and kids that come with it.
One such gang try to recruit one of his new neighbours, ‘Toad’ (aka Thao), and the hapless kid’s initiation is none other than to -drum roll please- steal the gran torino! Of course, he gets caught in the act and flees, but after Walt pulls out his shotgun (“Get off my lawn now!”) and saves Thao from being abducted by the gang, the tradition Hmong family insist Thao pay off his debt and do work for Walt.
I DIDN’T THINK IT’D BE ANY GOOD EITHER! BUT so long as you aren’t put off by racism, or swearing, or guns, or cars, watch this movie and I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it, even if it is just for the funny (and usually racist) remarks Clint Eastwood has to say.
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Some Fave Quotes
Walt: “Relax zipperhead, I’m not going to shoot ya. I’d look down if I was you too. You know, I knew you were a dipshit the first time I ever saw ya but I never thought you were worse with women than you are at stealing cars, Toad.”
Thao: “It’s Thao”
Walt: “What??”
Thao: “It’s not Toad it’s Thao my name is Thao”
Walt: “Yeah well youre blowing it with that girl that was there, not that i give two shits about a toad like you.”
Thao: “You dont know what youre talking about.”
Walt: “You’re wrong eggroll, I know exactly what I’m talking about. I may not be the most pleasant person to be around but Igot the best woman who was ever on this planet to marry me – I worked at it, it was the best thing that ever happened to me, hands down.. but you, you know, you’re letting Click Clack, Ding Dong and Charlie Chan just walk out with miss whats-her-face. She likes you, you know. Though I don’t know why.”
Thao: “Who?”
Walt: “Yumyum, you know, the girl in the purple sweater, she’s been looking at’cha all day, stupid.”
Thao: “.. You mean, Youa.”
Walt: “Yeah, Yumyum, yeah, nice girl, nice girl, very charming girl, I’ve talked with her, yeah, but you, you just let her walk right out with the three stooges, and you know why? cos you’re a big fat pussy. Well. I gotta go. Good day, pusscake.”
_
-Little girl & her grandad approach Walt-
Girl: “Grampa says he wants to know if you can have Thao clear out the big wasp nest under our porch.”
Walt: “Wasp nest?! Well that’s terrible! Yeah, I think he can handle that after lunch.”
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