Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
I hear that it’s the most wonderful time of the year right now but I don’t know what to make of that.
How wonderful can it be when it is so cold outside and there’s almost no fresh grass for me to eat? And then there’s this darned Christmas hat thing. My owner is crazy about taking my photo with my co-pets and all of us wearing hats. Above you see can me, Hello Pineapple and Capycoppy all wearing dumb hats. I was all, “Why am I always the reindeer? I want to be Santa once in a while.”
Capycoppy as the reindeer and me as Santa
I think that worked out better, don’t you? Capycoppy looks good with antlers.
You might think that all of us suffer equally but Capycoppy and HP did not have to go to PetsMart with me to get their photo taken with Santa. That pleasure was mine alone.
Okay, at first I was excited about it. I like going places and PetsMart and PetCo are a couple of places I like the most. Everyone is nice there. The shoppers and the employees are all animal people. They all know me now because I’ve been going there since I was a baby but they still get excited about me. I’m telling you, that kind of reception makes a capy feel pretty warm in the tummy. So I thought my visit with Santa would be fun. At first it was.
"All I really want for Christmas is for it to be summer."
Santa had to get down on the floor with me for the photo because I am too big to fit on his lap. Of course my owner made me wear dumb reindeer antlers again. Santa knew I wasn’t a reindeer though, for one thing those antlers are green.
After a while I got a little spooked. If you’re a capybara, and I’m suspecting a lot of my readers are, then you know that as prey animals we tend to get frightened in unusual circumstances. I don’t remember what scared me but I started to back up. As a capybara, you probably back up when you’re scared too. All rodents do that, I think.
I got a little scared.
What I didn’t expect is that Santa grabbed my harness and tried to stop me! There’s nothing to raise a capy’s fear level like being restrained! I PANICKED!
I panicked!
My owner told Santa to let go of me but for some reason he didn’t do it right away. Do you see how my feet are off the ground in the photo above? I was pulling with all my might. Then my harness started sliding off, my foot went right through the collar part and that scared me even more. Luckily Santa let go then and I calmed right down. A few minutes later, my owner noticed that I had a little bloody scratch on my nose, probably from the harness rubbing against me.
I know Santa didn’t mean to scare me. Afterward he came over and scratched me and was very nice. I felt bad that I got so scared. But he shouldn’t have tried to hold onto me. NEVER restrain a frightened capybara if you don’t absolutely have to. Anyway, I don’t think I’m ever going to have my photo taken with Santa again but you never know, I probably won’t remember any of this by next year.
Oh yeah, one final indignity. One of the PetsMart shoppers took my photo while I was there. That happens all the time. I don’t mind posing for photos at all. But this person posted my photo from PETSMART on PeopleOfWalmart.com. I was not at a Walmart and those photos are not meant to be nice.
The winter solstice, when the days start getting longer instead of shorter, is December 21st. That is a really good day to celebrate.
And don’t forget to watch the total lunar eclipse on the night of December 20th if you are in the western hemisphere.
Aww Caplin, it’s not easy being you my furry friend. I left a comment on that wal-mart site telling that jerk exactly what I thought of him! You’re the best Capy around!
You look wonderful as a reindeer, Santa, or just plain ole Caplin. 🙂 You will love Christmas and get lots of treats, I’m sure!!
Happy Christmas Caplin! You looks furry festiv, but I kwite unnerstand teh indignidy of teh raindeer hat. That wuz rilly skardy wiv Santy Paws an I wud nevar let him tuch mai furz. You wuz rilly brave *smoooch*
Caplin you look ADORABLE!!!! Too bad you got spooked but I understand…
Have a great Christmas!
Cappy, you did a good job, even if you did get scared. I think Santa was kinda stupid for doing that to you. Santas at PetSmart should be better with animals. Happy Holidays to you, cutest capybara in the world.
Love, amber
I’m with you on the Christmas thing, Caplin. It can be fun, but I hate the cold and darkness. I’ve been known to put a Santa hat on a guinea pig or two, though.
I’m sorry that this happened to you. I’ve never fully trusted store Santas. When I was a tiny human and the big humans would make me sit on Santa’s lap, I would just cry when all the other tiny humans would smile. There are several photos in the family album to prove it. So rodents are not the only ones who don’t care for these weird red creatures.
Don’t be too hard on him, though. He’s probably never had any experience with a capybara.
Store Santas are VERY SCARY. I’m sorry that you had a rough time with him! I’m more sorry that your adorable picture ended up on that nasty website. Humans can be awful.
*katiekisses*
I always go backwards when I am scared and then the harness gets twisted and yes, a foot comes out, and then I feel like I am wounded. Did you click at Santa? I hope you didn’t because it is a bad time of year for Santa to get the idea you might be naughty!
It’s too bad you ended up on the People of WalMart site, but it made me happy to see that a lot of people are sticking up for you in the comments. By the way, my three guinea pigs, Roxie, Toffee and Gabby think Santa hats and antlers are dumb, too.
Merry Christmas Caplin! I’m glad you didn’t bite santa! And I posted on FB about that false walmart picture too – I knew it was you!
That wasn’t the real santa. It was a guy in a santa suit. That guy should be on the real santa’s nauty list for giving you a blood scar on your nose.
Merry Christmas to you and your family Caplin!!! I defended your capybara honor on that hateful website!!!
eeee he’s so cute!
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Great blog, the first rodent-authored blog i’ve ever visited.
Thanks for the info on the lunar eclipse, will look out for that.
First Dog on the Moon’s advent calender guided me here. Thanks to you both.
I also was guided by First Dog on the Moon. He is a non-predatory dog, unless you are Tony Abbott’s pet. If you want your Christmas wish to come true, you should visit us here in Australia where it’s currently summer.