So, back to our little critters for a brief moment. After Pyrite and Patron came home I became totally obsessed with Degu and finding some blue Degus. I was on facebook one day and came across a post from an individual that had a few litters unexpectedly and several were blue in color! I contacted the owner and he had a male and a female he believed would be perfect. The catch? They were all the way in Iowa and we would have to pick them up. I wasn't sure if my husband would go for it but I asked him if he would consider taking a road trip with me to pick up the two blues. His face actually lit up, he said that we could only go to Iowa to get them if we could stop at The Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. 

DEAL!

We decide to turn our road trip into a mini vacation, rented a van, and took Koda and the oldest 4 kids with us. Before our deal was made, I had NO idea that there was a REAL Field of Dreams, I had seen the movie several times as a child but never knew that the place still existed. I was curious to see an actual place from a movie, myself.

The Field of Dreams was our first stop, before we picked up the Degus. It was a great place to visit and I actually had tears in my eyes watching from the bleachers as my husband and his oldest son threw a baseball back and forth from the pitcher's mount to home plate. It was just perfect. The site also had a nice giftshop as well as a tour you could take through the house that was part of the movie set. My husband and the kids went through the tour while I hung out with Koda outside. Across the field you could see construction in the background, they were in the process of building more fields and planned on hosting a Major League Baseball game in the future. Since our visit, those fields were complete and they did in fact host a game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees on August 12, 2021. 

We had to travel a bit further into Iowa to pick up the Degus. When we met with the owner we all became instant friends and it was just such a pleasure to meet him and his family. The little Degus were exactly what I was looking for and I couldn't get over how tiny they seemed. They were the youngest Degus we had bought to date, old enough to be weaned from their mother but still so tiny. We briefly lost the male in the car at one of our stops, one of the kids left the door to their travel cage loose. Thank goodness they were both friendly, he was easy to find and easy to catch eventually. 

When we finally arrived home, we decided to think of names for our new babies. We settled on Rosemary for the female and Pepper for the male, keeping up with the R names for our females and P names for our males.

Rosemary was always the more skittish of the two and still is. She isn't afraid of people, she just prefers to be seen and now touched. She isn't mean and is not a biter, she just tends to be a little more work to catch if you want to take her out of the cage. When she arrived home she and Pepper were so small that they escaped their cages a few times. We aren't sure if Rosemary was left with males too long when she was with her previous owner or if her escape here was the culprit, but a few months after her arrival, she had a litter of 3 pups. I'll get to that story at another time.

Pepper is another of our very friendly males. He doesn't mind being out of his cage and held at all, he is just weird about trying to figure our how to climb into our hands. You kind of just have to grab him and then he is content with being in your hand. He is very chill and I believe our most "Go with the Flow" Degus. He and Patron currently share a cage together and get along famously.

I hope you have a fabulous day dear followers!

 After the first two girls came home, I never stopped doing research about degus. I found out that they came in a variety of other colors and I knew I needed MORE! I searched the internet for breeders to see what other colored degus were available. I found a breeder in Kansas that had male sand and blue colored degus and decided I would get a pair and have them shipped to us. Unfortunately, the blue I wanted was claimed before I had a chance to contact the breeder so, I decided on his brother which was a natural colored degu like the girls and an unrelated sand male. I didn't want the sand male to get lonely or sad being transported by himself and I didn't want him to have to live in a new home by himself when he came home with us.

The breeders used a new transport company and my husband and I met them about 30 minutes from our home. I'm not exactly wild about strangers showing up at my house, so we met at a Wal-Mart parking lot to collect our new boys. When we pulled up I didn't expect a pick up truck hauling a very long stock trailer. We were getting small critters, what else could these guys possible have in the trailer? The driver had gone inside to grab a bite and his passenger found our critters in the back seat for us, handed them over, then ask if we wanted to check out their other passengers. Out of curiosity my husband and I said we would love to! In the large area of the stock trailer, there were beautiful golden colored Highland cows. I had never seen them up close before, only on TV and the internet. They Were BEAUTIFUL! The fluffy floppy top knots are so sticking cute, if I could have pinched their little cheeks like a crazy old auntie, I totally would have. The guy smiled at our delight and motioned for us to follow him to the storage compartment/dressing room in the front nose of the trailer. We walked in and there were three very LARGE dog crates with adult Bob Cats lounging within. Both of our jaws dropped, they were stunning and intense to watch. The male wasn't a big fan of visitors so we took our quick peek and then exited the trailer to give him his peace back. I'm sure the passenger thought we were goof balls by the giddy school girl grins we had on our faces. 

We said our good byes and thanked him for sharing his passengers with us and headed down the road. On the way home I quickly began inspecting our new charges and trying to decide on NAMES! My husband and I bounced names back and fourth before we finally settled on Pyrite for out sand colored male and Patron for our new natural colored male.

Patron quickly became my new best friend, he seemed to take to me right away. Most days though, I affectionately call him "P". He is by far our most friendly degu and our Go To if anyone comes to the house and wants to see our degus up close or hold one. He always rushed to the front of his cage and is ready to jump into your hand the instant you call his name and open the door to the cage. He loved everything and everybody. He isn't particular about snacks, he will literally eat anything that I hand him. 

Pyrite was also pretty friendly from the day we got him and will also come right to the front of the cage to visit with whomever wants to hold him. He is a lot more picky about what he eats and we have had to really try out a bunch of things to see that he likes. Up until recently, Pyrite was our most vocal degu. If he wants attention he will tell you about it and will chirp and chip and chirp. 

The only problems we had when our newbies came home, was the fact that they could escape their cage. The width between the bars of their cage was entirely too large for youngsters. It never occurred to me that our little guys would be so little. Patron was a little older, by about a month, so he didn't fit through the bars very well at all. Pyrite on the other hand, was about 10 weeks old and just small enough to escape. We ended up modifying their cage and put chicken wire around the while thing so that we wouldn't loose our sweet new guy.

I hope you keep coming back to learn more about our degus, we have 9 total currently!

Have a great day dear followers,

I've decided to do the Pet Profiles for the Degus in pairs, since we acquired them in pairs. Ruby and margaRita, arrived on December 12, 2019. A week or so earlier, my husband (fiancé at the time), had been talking to a coworker at work when he asked if we might be interested in a pair of Degus because they just didn't have time for them. When he came to me asking if the girls would like these little critters as pets, I immediately thought... What is a Degu? I don't even know what they are let alone how to care for them! He briefly described them to me and then I went to the good ol' world wide web to research them. I instantly became intrigued and thought, they don't seem too difficult, let's give them a try. 

When the girls arrived, they were skittish and not really used to much contact. The cage they were in had very little enrichment and the exercise wheel was was too small for them. I immediately went into decorator mode and searched the web high and low for things I thought would help them become happier little critters. I also changed their diet up, they were being fed Guinea Pig feed, and while it was ok for them, it wasn't really meant for Degu. We did a little research and discovered that Degu are food motivated and finding their favorite snack would be the best way to tame our new girls.

Peanuts, lots and lots of peanuts... those were their snack of choice. I'm pretty sure ALL Degu will do ANYTHING for a peanut. Ours have started to recognize the sound of the peanut container when you tilt it and they come running to the front of their cages even before we ask if they want one. It is literally like crack for Degus. We did go through a time period where we fed too many peanuts and the girls got REALLY fat, we slowed it down and they got back to a more reasonable weight for Degu. 

Rita, is our fat girl, she eats a lot and isn't as active our other. We can tell the difference between her and Ruby by her left ear. We aren't sure what happened to her, but at some point before we got her she had a chunk taken out of her ear. Rita is usually boss lady of the females, she is the one in charge, but she also doesn't fight much at all. 

Ruby has always been a little more laid back and friendly. She was totally enamored by Rosemary's babies when they were little. She would frequently take on the role of beloved Auntie and snuggle with them regularly. Both Rita and Ruby took to Rosemary right away and I'm pretty sure its because she was super young as well when she arrived. I'm almost positive that if I had a large enough cage I could house SO many more females with them and they would just take care of them because they love babies so much.

The more research I did and the more time we spent playing with Ruby and Rita, they more I wanted more Degus. I learned quickly that they came in other colors and that led me to our next to Degus, Patron and Pyrite, and Rosemary and Pepper.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit about our first two Degus!

Have a wonderful day dear followers,

My husband had been shooting ideas to me about wanting a German Shepherd for a couple of months prior to Bones living with us. I kept telling him "No, they are too big" and "Our house is too small for a big dog right now." I had hoped that this would be some motivation to work towards getting a bigger house, maybe something out in the country. When the idea of Bones coming to stay with us came up, I figured it would he the perfect opportunity for him to see just how small our house was for a big dog.  He took a little getting used to, a few of us got knocked down, cups swiped off the coffee table by a tail, food at nose level on the counter stolen, and the trash has been raided several times. All of these issues weren't even on our radar because Koda was so short and so little, but Bones, has brought EVERY possible thing to light that a BIG dog could.

After a few months, Bones' owner asked us if there was any way we would be able to keep him. My husband and I decided that there was absolutely no way that we could tell him no. My plan had BACKFIRED! Everyone in my house, including me fell in love with the BIG dog. He has his own fluffy Doggie Bed that he lays on at night, he's been Vet checked, new food to help him gain more weight, new toys, and a whole BIG family that adores him. 

 

Koda aka Your Majesty Kodalicious is my AKC Registered Male "Black" Toy Poodle, although with age he is sprouting some grey in his top knot and around his mouth. He was born in March 2018 and I was able to pick him up and bring him home in June that same year. I almost didn't make it to Ohio to pick him up as one of my tires blew on the way there. A kind man stopped when he saw me on the side of the road and changed the tire for me so I could make it to a tire repair shop. I called and let the breeder know I would be late but was still determined to make it after a new tire was put on my vehicle. Thankfully, we (ALL THREE KIDS AND I) made it safely and uneventfully there and back after our tire fiasco. 

 I used to joke that I should have named him Tax Refund, because I was able to purchase him with part of my refund that year. He is still intact and I am ever so hopeful that one day I can find a Female Phantom Toy Poodle to be his mate. Probably pipe dreams, but never the less a dream. Koda isn't my first Toy Poodle, I had another Black Toy Poodle years ago in my twenties. His name was Razi and the reason I fell in love with Toy Poodles. Sadly one day I let him out to potty and he never came back to the door. I want to assume maybe someone saw this pretty poodle by the road and scooped him up, however my worst fear was that either a hawk, owl, or coyote snatched him up. 

Home just doesn't feel like home without a Toy Poodle around now. 

Koda came to me at a time in my life where I was learning to be on my own, where I was truly lonely and trying to find my way. He was the perfect little companion and has continued to be just that every day since he arrived home. Because I was in an emotional state when I brought him home, especially the next few months afterwards, he naturally seemed to pick up on the role of a comforter. Believe it or not he can sense if someone is upset, whether its anger, anxiety, or depression and is drawn to that person and wants to be there for them. I didn't realize he was like this until my husband and his daughter moved in. He knows he is MY dog, but he is perfectly happy sharing his comforting skills with whomever needs him the most at any given time. And for that, I am SO thankful. He has definitely outdone any expectations I had of him.

For a "little dog" he isn't too yappy, snappy, annoying or mean. Little dogs tend to get a bad wrap, but he is pretty chill and friendly with both humans and other dogs for the most part. He does tend to be a pickier eater and it has been a real struggle finding a food and treats that he really likes. He doesn't know many tricks, but will sit when asked. He LOVES balls and will fetch and bring back a ball, but once he is tired, he is done and the ball means nothing to him any longer. He loves to sleep on fluffy things and prefers to sleep in bed with me whenever possible.

I tend to take a lot of photos with Koda, as you will notice on my instagram account. He is the perfect little model and seems to love to have his photo taken. Dog brands seem to admire him as well and I was contacted by Buddy Bandana a while back to have us try our their products. Koda loves his bandana, this is the first one he hasn't tried to chew off. The photo above displays our matching bandana and scrunchie from @officialbuddybandana!  To get your very own matching pet bandana and scrunchie or headband visit http://www.thebuddybandana.com and enter discount code Newcomer to get 40% off and free US shipping!

I hope you have enjoyed learning about my little guy and have a great day dear followers!

 

Patron, one of our male Degu.

Oxford Dictionaries defines a Degu as

If you have read through my blog or even made it over to my instagram account, you have noticed I'm a little bit of an animal lover. Okay, maybe little is an understatement. Currently, our pet family includes a Toy Poodle (Koda), a German Shepherd (Bones), a Chicken (Survivor), a Duck (Samuel L. Quackson), a Beta Fish (Winston #2), a Syrian Hamster (Pocahontas), and 9 Degus (Ruby, Rita, Rosemary, Patron, Pyrite, Pepper, Phantom, Pascal, and Pharaoh). 

I am currently waiting on mail for our dogs and degus. (I know, I know FAQ, What is a Degu? ) Our dogs, Koda and Bones were asked to be brand ambassadors for Pack Leashes and I am SO excited to get their new collars in the mail! Maybe it's cheesy, maybe it's not, but I couldn't help but get them matching Bow Tie Collars and a Lead with Carabiner. I'm going to keep it our color/pattern selections hush hush until the box comes in! 

While I'm waiting to unPack our new goods, you can jump on over to Pack Leashes and scope out all the cute accessories that they have available for the furball in your life! AND before you get sticker shock, if you choose to make a purchase use our special discount code RURALPUP20 to get 20% OFF your order! Supporting a company like Pack Leashes is a no brainer for us! Pack Leashes is a great company that provides quality products with a 30 days money back guarantee, no questions asked! They ALSO donate 2 MEALS for hungry shelter animals for every order! 

Come back soon dear followers, as we reveal our Pack products!