Berry might bite one of his own kind, but with people he’s very well-behaved, and anyone can handle him and carry him around. He doesn’t smell, and he even keeps his cage clean by using his lavatory, which is a jam jar turned on its side.
One thing to remember about hamsters is that they are nocturnal animals; they sleep through a lot of the day. Berry starts to become lively in the evening, and that’s the best time to feed him.
Now this is where hamsters are quite different from an animal like Chiquita the guinea pig. Berry doesn’t take long to finish off his bowl of food, but when it’s empty, he still hasn’t swallowed a mouthful! He’s done what hamsters do in the wild. They don’t want to hang about in a cornfield, where they are in danger from enemies like stoats and owls; they want to eat in the safety of their burrows, and they manage this in a very clever way. Each of Berry’s cheeks is really a kind of pouch or purse which can hold a lot of food. So he quickly stuffs his cheeks – they bulge so much he looks as though he’s got mumps – and then off he goes to his nest and empties them out. Now he can take his time and have a nice leisurely supper in bed.
Make sure your hamster has a drinking bottle. It doesn’t need to be big, but whatever size your pet’s water bottle is – a large one like Frank’s, a middle-sized one like Chiquita’s, or a small one like George and Georgina’s or Milly and Mollie’s – clean it regularly with a wire brush. You wouldn’t like to drink out of a glass that was green and slimy.
Any pet shop will sell you a good mixture of grains and cereals for hamsters, but you may find that yours has particular likes. Berry is mad about almonds. You wouldn’t believe how quickly he can cram them into his pouches. I don’t know if this is peculiar to Berry. Perhaps all hamsters love almonds. Try them. Yours may be a nutcase too.
Donkey
This particular donkey has always just been called ‘Donkey’. He could have been named ‘Neddy’, or any one of a hundred nice names. But he wasn’t.
Donkey is ordinary-sized (though you can get miniature donkeys), and the commonest colour, which is grey (though they vary from a pale oatmeal to a chocolate so dark that it’s difficult to see the black cross that all donkeys carry on their back).
He is different from his cousin the horse in several ways. His head and ears are very big, his backside is higher than his shoulders, and he has no hair on his lower legs. His hoofs are much narrower and more tilted, as though he’s wearing high-heeled shoes.
Donkey is just a pet. He doesn’t actually do any work, like carrying a rider or pulling a donkey cart. If he did, he would have to have shoes like a pony, but as it is there’s no need, though his hoofs need paring and trimming now and again.
Donkeys only came to Britain about a thousand years ago, but abroad they had long been used to carry people and loads, and they still are. Often, I’m afraid, those loads are much too heavy for them, but they’re very patient and uncomplaining animals. They’re also very intelligent, and in rough country a donkey would be put at the head of a column of packhorses and mules to pick out the best route.
Donkey is no trouble to keep. He has a properly fenced paddock, with a shed for shelter in the worst weather, but like all donkeys he could, if he had to, live on very little – even on thistles like Eeyore. When there’s not enough grass, he gets some hay and perhaps a few roots, and a double handful of pony nuts every day. His other needs are clean water to drink (he’s fussy about that) and a salt lick. And, of course, lots of talk and affection.
Donkey does most things you ask him to – if you ask him nicely. But if you try to force him to do something he thinks is stupid, he can be very stubborn.
Aren’t you just the same?
Ha’penny
You measure the height of a horse at its withers (the top of the shoulder) in ‘hands’. A ‘hand’ is the width of a man’s hand – four inches – and the divide between horses and ponies is 15½ hands. Smaller than that: a pony; bigger: a horse.
There’s no doubt which Ha’penny is, because he’s only 10 hands high. He’s a Shetland pony, twenty-five years old, and for every one of those years he’s mostly pleased himself. Talk about Donkey being stubborn – he’s not a patch on Ha’penny.
Ha’penny doesn’t do a lot of work now; he’s just a pet, which is why I’ve chosen him rather than a riding pony to show you. Mind you, he’s carried a good few children in his time (and nipped a good few bottoms too – that’s one of his tricks). Shetland ponies are very useful for getting a child used to being on horseback. Their backs are so broad that small children have to sit with their legs sticking out like a dancer doing the splits!
Now, if you’re lucky enough to have a riding pony of your own, then you’ll know that it needs a lot more attention than a rabbit or a hamster, and a lot more housing too. It needs a roomy loose box where it has space to walk about and have a good roll. And you must muck that box out every day.
Next there’s the grooming. It’s important that you groom your pony – for three reasons: it’s good for its health, it keeps it clean and it makes it look its best. And you must take care of its teeth and, of course, its feet. There’s an old saying, ‘No foot, no horse,’ and feet need looking at every day to make sure they’re clean and healthy. Every six weeks or so the farrier will need to come and shoe your pony.
Nowadays Ha’penny isn’t shod because he doesn’t go out on the roads, but he often has a little girl sitting on his fat old back so he needs his feet looking at regularly.
During his long life Ha’penny has given a lot of pleasure to a lot of children, and you can’t ask more than that of any pet, can you?
Manette
Some pets are more useful than others. Nobody could say that lazy old Frank does very much, and animals like Berry and Chiquita and Goliath don’t actually work for their living. Dodo and Maggie do, of course – they’re house dogs – and Lupin keeps the mice away, and Ha’penny has done his fair share.
Manette is another useful pet. She’s a goat, and she gives milk – to drink and to make lovely cheese from – and though you could keep a pet cow to do those things, that would mean a lot more trouble and expense. She doesn’t give as much milk as a cow would, but then she doesn’t eat as much, and a lot of what she eats doesn’t cost a penny.
Goats are browsers. That means they feed by reaching up and pulling down the tasty green leaves of bushes and trees, and in spring and summer there are masses of these about.
Manette has a shed for shelter in the winter, and extra food like hay and goat nuts, but most of the year she is tethered.
All you need for tethering your goat is a collar and a length of chain with a catch at one end and a ring at the other through which you can drive an iron spike into the ground. Then, when it’s eaten everything it can reach in that circle, grass included, just move it to another place and start again. That way you don’t need fencing, as you do for a cow or a pony. Only be careful not to tether your goat too near the washing line – you’d be surprised what funny things goats eat.
Every year Manette’s milk dries up, and then she has a new kid or, more often than not, twins, and a fresh supply of milk to feed them and you. I don’t know many baby animals that are prettier than very young kids. They’re all legs, and they bounce about as though they are on springs. No need to tether them when they’re small – they don’t go far from Mum and the milk bar.
But even if you don’t want a goat as a milker, it makes a lovely pet. Nobody could be easier to handle, or more intelligent, or friendlier than Manette.
Just remember one thing: get a female – a nanny goat. Billy goats stink!
Sam
There are two sorts of pet – those that don’t need any training and those that do. It’s not much use trying to change an animal like Frank. He’s too lazy to get out of bed. And it’s a waste of time shouting ‘Sit!’ at Goliath the tortoise.
On the other hand, Claude has to be trained to talk, and Donkey and Ha’penny to carry riders, and Maggie the
terrier to look after the house.
But one animal that must be really properly trained is Sam the German shepherd – or Alsatian, as most people call them.
This breed has a bad name, but this is quite wrong and unfair. If powerful dogs are vicious or dangerous, it’s the fault of the people who bred them or own them. Breed from bad-tempered dogs, and you’ll get more like them. Tie up your guard dog all day long and encourage it to be fierce, and it will be; you’re teaching it to be.
If you’re ever lucky enough to own a beautiful animal like Sam, then it must be well trained. German shepherds are very intelligent and learn quickly, but they are also big and strong, and however good-tempered yours may be, it must still be taught how to behave.
Though he’s very large, Sam is still a young dog and has to go to school. He has special training, together with lots of other dogs. He’s taught how to get on with them, and how to do things like walk at heel, and sit, and lie down, and stay where he is until he’s told to move, and a whole lot more. Training is especially important for a dog like Sam – he’s so big and bouncy and friendly. Dogs like this often become very obedient because they’re anxious to please their owners.
Of all the pets he breeds, man has changed the dog most, and sometimes he’s made an awful mess of things. He’s bred dogs with noses so pushed in they can’t breathe properly, dogs of such a shape or size that it’s difficult for them to have puppies, dogs with eye trouble and knee trouble and hip trouble, and even dogs that struggle to walk, let alone run.
Some breeds, thank goodness, have been allowed to remain looking natural, with good eyes to see, big ears to hear, a nose that works, a proper tail to wag and to balance with, and a strong body with a warm coat and a sensible leg at each corner. And plenty of brains.
That’s what German shepherd dogs are like. Especially Sam.
Dodo has the Last Word
So there are some pets that I’ve chosen – thirteen of them, not counting Dodo. An unlucky number, she would say – unlucky not to be dachshunds.
There are so many different pets that you can enjoy keeping, and I’ve only put a few in this guide. There’s only one bird, for example, and no fish or snakes or insects. I’ve just done what we all do with a big box of chocolates – pick out the ones we like best.
I’m not sure what Dodo thinks of the others, but I do know that she is absolutely sure who is the very best pet of all!
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This collection first published 2017
This collection copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 2017
Illustrations by John Eastwood, Peter Kavanagh and Ann Kronheimer
Dick and Dodo’s Book of Pets is published in this collection for the first time.
Text copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 2017
Illustrations copyright © Ann Kronheimer, 2017
The other stories were originally published as follows:
Funny Frank first published in 2001 by Doubleday; text copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 2001; illustrations copyright © John Eastwood, 2001
Happy Mouseday first published in 1994 by Doubleday; text copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 1994; illustrations copyright © Peter Kavanagh, 1994
The Jenius first published in 1988 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, published with new illustrations in Puffin Books 2004; text copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 1988; illustrations copyright © Ann Kronheimer, 2004
Titus Rules OK first published in 2002 by Doubleday; text copyright © Fox Busters Ltd, 2002; illustrations copyright © John Eastwood, 2002
The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted
Cover illustration by Stephanie Laberis
ISBN: 978–0–141–38809–0
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Dick King-Smith's Book of Pets Page 11
