h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't know whether you've ever thought about it, but canines are used to help PTSD sufferers here. They are absolutely loyal to their peeps and bring down peoples blood pressure. R's hypervigilance is exhausting both to herself and you and having a constant presence of some being who is completely in her corner all the time might be helpful to you both. It of course is an investment and you both need not to be allergic or afraid of dogs ---but it might be worth looking into. Just trying to think outside the box here.

That's by no means a bad idea, and I can entirely see your logic. In a sense we are already there, in that we have pets, but not a dog. A dog would be expensive to look after and need space and walking time/energy that we don't have. But R has had hamsters since we was little, and we have since had rats, gerbils, dwarf hamsters and, currently, mice, a rabbit and a hare. They don't quite provide the safety net you envisaged but they do give Raven invaluable solace, companionship and a mutual bond of love and trust she struggles to form with most humans.

Well, little dogs are possible---and after experiencing the joy of a shih-tsu who loved being in our presence and did not require much excercise other than following you around all day---very neat for non-excercising and low energy owners. They are very loving and happy with cats so that they wouldn't endanger hamsters or gerbils the way a terrier might. Just a thought.

We can't really have another floor based animal, the rabbit and the hare would get territorial. But thank you for the thought, it's a nice idea and I'm sure would help lots of other people.

Yes bunnies are fairly territorial and would have scared our late shih tzu for sure. He was more a lover than a fighter. Just a thought.

Some friends of ours had a bunny named Maxi. Maxi was really brave - he scred the German police. They came to the door, canvassing the neighbourhood about a noise complaint, and Maxi put up his ears and thumped at them...

Eclipse, our rabbit, is not brave, but Luna, the hare, once huffed at an Alsatian and made him run away. That said, Eclipse has been territorial with me until we figured out a way around it, so I have no doubt he would see another animal as encroaching and get aggressive.

Rabbits can surprise you.

What did you do to work around the territoriality? This is fascinating.

Hi DG. Sorry my reply took so long. We did various things- for a while he and I both had separate territory, which the other could only enter by permission. I can only use his stuff if I ask and, for a time, could only approach Luna (our hare) if I asked Eclipse first. We still do safety checks every night- the two of us go round the house and check all the doors and windows to make sure they are secure. This seems to establish boundaries he is happy with.

<biggrin. Wow. You have established your creds as an ethologist with me, buddy. You've got the bunny moves.

I would love to claim the credit but R is the real genius when it comes to animals. She has a couple of EG entries on the subject of keeping hamsters as pets, too.

I'll have to check those out. Did she use Raven as a screen name?

No she didn't. First entry is here
http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/classic/A24833342

I links to the other two, naturally.

Thanks for that. DG and I kept hamsters and guinea pigs for a time and the hamsters scared the pigs to death cause they are much feistier. We had a teddy hamster called Spike and a grey one called Zaphod. We also had a cute pygmy hedgehog and fostered a regular European one in Germany for the winter. Best wishes to your household and thanks for sharing your adventures with the bureaucracy with us.

Hey Ben, tell your wife that her series on hamsters was wonderful and really comprehensive. Excellent guide entries, interesting and full of useful information. The only problem with hamsters is that they are too short-lived, but maybe we didn't give them a well balanced diet. But it was sad to lose the little buggers! European field hamsters are huge and provided good famine food they had kilograms of grain in their burrows.