I won an Animal Audience Award! 3rd Place!

It was too late already. I was trapped.

Yesterday was Friday the 13^th. Like all capybaras, I’m not superstitious, but I still should have known something bad would happen on that day. I never would have guessed just how bad it would be.

The morning started out normally enough. I got my usual ..7:00 am.. yogurt. Delicious, as always. Afterward, I went to my bed in the dinning room (my owner calls this area “Caplin’s Corner.”) Through my sleepy ears, I listened to my owner’s normal morning routine: take a shower, feed the horses, get her stuff and go out to the car.

I heard her car pull out of the garage but it didn’t drive off. Instead, my owner got out and came back in the house. She got my harness and leash and came after me! She dragged me out to the car and off we went.

A few minutes later we stopped in a strip mall. Sheldon met us there and he got me out of the car. We went into a building that was vaguely familiar. I weighed in at 98.7 lbs. Then they took me to a little room. There was a bench in the room and I jumped up on that and sat with my owner while we waited for something to happen.

Eventually the vet and her helper came in. The vet checked my eyes and ears and listened to my heart and my breathing. Then came the bad part. She tried to grab my feet! My owner held me really tightly while the vet grabbed my hind paw and used some weird instrument on it. I squirmed and struggled and jerked my foot until I got away. My little heart pounded in my chest and--I’m embarrassed to say this--I urinated all over the floor. They wiped it up with towels and then got me a clean blanket to stand on.

After a while, they tried again. The noise hurt my sensitive little ears. I could feel my foot vibrating. I kept imagining a serrated electric knife or a chain saw hacking away at my toenail, with only a matter of time until it reached my toe and then my foot! I eeped as loudly as I could but my owner only hugged me tighter. Finally I managed to struggle free. I stood panting on the blanket thinking the worst was over.

But it wasn’t! A few minutes later, the vet came back! This time she tried to cut off my toenails--or was it my toes? I broke free again and at least got them to give up on the clipper. One small error and there goes my toe! But did they care?

After that, Sheldon held me down and the vet worked on my toenails with the mechanical grinder. Sheldon is strong and I couldn’t get away but I sure made it hard for the vet to use that “instrument” on me.

I do have to admit that my toenails do look nicer now. And they were getting a bit in my way with how long they were. Still, I’m never going back!

You can view a video of this at www.YouTube.com/CaplinCapybara.
There are more photos in my album.

One day in late December, my owner was at work, minding her own business...I mean, working...when she got an email through YouTube. The YouTube email said that it came from a television production company in New York and that they were doing a series on animals and their owners. They stumbled across my (adorable) YouTube videos and wanted to learn more about me.

Well, my owner was a little leery. She wrote back and said she might be interested as long as they weren’t planning on making capybaras look mean or vicious--not that we’re not! Then they called her and told her it wasn’t finalized yet but it was for a cable TV channel that specialized in animals. My owner is pretty smart and she figured that out right away. She said it all sounded good, they could let her know when they knew more.

Then we got a call saying the show deal was finalized and I, Caplin Rous, would be one of the unusual animals. My owner asked what the other unusual animals were and they told her the largest dog, the smallest dog, the ugliest dog, the smallest pigs, and long-haired Peruvian guinea pigs. This somewhat surprised my owner since I think I am a bit more “unusual” than that.

The date was set for January 18^th but the moved it up to January 13^th on short notice. Everyone scrambled to get our house and property clean and presentable. I did my part by terrorizing Coral and, to a lesser extent, Carl. When the big day arrived, the house was clean and I was on my best behavior. My owner, Rick, Coral, Carl, Sheldon and Neptune were all on hand to cheer me on.

The first thing they did was an interview segment. Through most of that I sat on my owner’s lap while she talked about what a wonderful pet I am. Then they took a bunch of shots of me on a white sheet. We had a little accident there. I stepped on the curved part of the sheet and the whole thing came tumbling down! A metal stand hit me right on the head. Luckily, my head is pretty hard. Once everything was back in place, I went right back on the sheet and did my job. The show must go on, after all.

Neptune got to spend some time with me on the sheet. They wanted a way for people to judge how big I am. Also we look good together. Neptune is pretty good on camera, but then he tried to run off and the humans had trouble catching him.

We went outside, it wasn’t too cold. Me owner fed me some yogurt, which I got all over my face. People thought that was cute. Then I took a quick swim to wash off. Animal Planet was surprised at how graceful I am in the water.

After the swim, we went down to the hike and bike trail along Ladybird Lake. The Animal Planet people wanted to get public reaction to my adorableness. We caused a major stir! Everyone wanted to see me. I was surrounded by thirty or so people but I really kept my cool and didn’t bite any people or dogs.

The last thing they did was film me getting in and out of the car. I am very good about this and I can jump better than most people think. Then, for the coup-de-gras, they filmed me pooping in my water bowl. You humans are a strange lot.

We still don’t know the official name of the show or exactly when it will air. I am on one episode of a six episode series on pets, pet contests and pet hotels. My episode is on unusual pets. I will have about five minutes of air time. It should air some time in the spring or early summer. I will blog to let everyone know when I know more!

You can see photos of the shoot in my Animal Planet photo folder.

This morning my owner took me for a long walk. We went into the Back 18 and I walked all the way to the fence at the far end of the property. I had never been so far before. At one point I almost stepped on a snake! It was a racer, which my owner says isn’t anything to worry about. In fact, she saw it well before I did and she didn’t even say anything to me about it. Too bad she didn’t bring her camera ‘cause that snake was pretty.

A little farther on the walk, we came to a hole in the ground in the middle of the trail. It smelled really funny and I didn’t want to go near it. Just a few human footsteps later--about ten minutes because capys don’t walk very fast--we came to another hole. Now I knew what the smell was! A cute brown rat with a tan belly gazed up at us. As soon as my owner moved, the rat disappeared down the hole.

Altogether, our walk took about 90 minutes and was really fun and good exercise for me. The weather was perfect, mostly sunny with a high of 80 degrees. You can’t ask for better than that on December 20^th!

When we got back, I got to see my old friends Coral and Carl. They are staying with us. That makes me happy but it also drives me crazy. I’m not sure I like other people on my territory. This causes me to sometimes act sweet and loving toward them and sometimes I try to attack them. It’s giving us all a case of nerves. But I think I’m starting to get used to it.

We all--Coral, Carl, my owner and me--got in the car and went for a drive. First we went to Schlotzsky’s, which is a sandwich shop. Coral craved those sandwiches the whole time she was off in Asia, almost a year. She shared her chips with me.

Coral sharing her chips with me.

Me, Coral and Carl at Schlotzsky’s.

Then we headed off to PetCo, which is in the same parking lot. We caused a traffic jam because all the drivers wanted to stop and look at me.

she got. Everyone wanted to take my photo, my owner too because she was
documenting our day. Then an employee came and said store policy is no photos. We don’t believe it. We think that guy was dumb.

Checking out my new bed. Actually, we got a slightly different one.

Our day wasn’t over yet. We drove a short distance to Herpeton, which is a local reptile and exotic animal pet store. You can imagine what a splash I made there! One of the Herpeton workers told us they sell Patagonian cavys there periodically. I’m pretty closely related to them but they look more like a cross between a deer and a rabbit. That’s a confused animal.

Checking out the products in Herpeton. Nothing for me.

The weirdest thing happened in Herpeton though. Coral and Carl bought a rodent! No, not a Patagonian cavy but another of my relatives, a guinea pig! They named her ..Neptune.. and said they’re going to pretend she is a  he because Neptune is supposed to be a boy g. pig. They are weird.

Here we are setting up Neptune’s cage.

Neptune is about the cutest piggie ever. He’s almost all black but he has a white chin and white on his feet and an orange spot in the back. Totally cute and really outgoing and friendly. Everyone said he/she is very soft but they wouldn’t let me pet him/her.

Carl putting Neptune in his new cage.

This is me with Neptune. Because we’re such different sizes, it’s hard to get us both in a photo.

Oh my gosh, that Neptune is cute. Why don’t capybaras come in more colors?

You can tell we’re related when you look at our faces. We both have really big noses.