Akemi - Day 6

Birdies!

Despite being house trained after Day 3 at home, the next day Bug told me he never wants to have kids.

What I want to know is why is it that after doing all the research that we've done for nearly 6 months, between books and online, how is it that we did not come across the "Shiba scream" until AFTER we bought the little rat.

I even ran across an entry in Wikipedia a couple days ago. I swear I've read that entry several times, and so did Bug. It's a conspiracy!

From Day 2 - 5, we had to deal with Akemi screeching at the top of her little lungs like a flogged monkey-donkey-parrot. I am not exaggerating. The longest span of torture was 4 hours straight.

I was fortunately able to sleep through half of this, but Bug was kept awake and didn't get but 3 hours of sleep a day.

Even yesterday, when he called me at lunchtime, I could hear her squawking.

Akemi and her best friends looking innocent while sleeping

Last night, it was like an epiphany. Akemi didn't scream once while in her crate, even though we were raiding Black Temple from 19:45 - 23:30. Amazing! The trick? We shuttle her humongous crate back and forth between the living room and bedroom depending on where we will be. As long as she doesn't think she's alone and no one will come back for her, she's fine.

Squeaky the Elephant

She'd roll on her back, sleep, sit cutely, chew on her chewbone, or play with Squeaky, her squeaky rubber elephant companion who is always attached to her head or paw when she's in her crate. We didn't see any of the rabid monkey behavior, where she climbs up along the side of her cage (2' tall), jumps off to slam her head on the top of her cage, and falls to the ground.

...repeatedly

...for hours

Of course, this is while screaming at the top of her lungs.

The only reason Akemi screamed last night, technically this morning (00:30), was because she was fidgeting while I was holding her so Bug could get dressed to take her out to go poopy. She wiggled and kicked off my chest and I couldn't hold on to her so she plunged 4' onto the hardwood floor.

I thought I heard her scream before. Oy.

She screamed louder than I've ever heard her scream. I felt her foot as she laid on the floor, and she cried even louder. Bug ran into the living room, took her to the bedroom, and laid her on the bed.

Akemi hobbled about screaming; the intensity waned. She walked in a circle a few times, then stopped screaming, and began to walk normally.

Bug took her out to the yard, and she ran around like nothing happened, then pooped.

- Cassaendra