Guess what? I was recently nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by Candice Hoff, who writes a very inspiring blog herself, Candice’s Compendium of Curiosities. I cannot tell you how flattered I am! I am really not trying to inspire anyone, just to educate and entertain, which is hard enough. Maybe too hard for a capybara. So I am humbled by the nomination and I thank Candice from the bottom of my capy heart. Please follow the link to her blog and give her a shout-out for me!
Getting nominated for an award comes with a lot of responsibility. Like, if this were an Oscar, I’d have to go to Hollywood, wear a nice harness and sit and listen to other people get awards for hours and hours! Luckily, the requirements for the nomination for VIBA are not nearly so onerous.
The Very Inspiring Blogger Awards requirements:
1. Display the award logo √
2. Link to the person who nominated you √
3. State seven facts about yourself
4. Nominate other bloggers who inspire you
So I still have to do 3 and 4.
3. State seven facts about me
Fact 1. I am a pet capybara! This pretty much sums up everything there is to know about me so it is going to be hard to think of six more things.
Fact 2. I am Melly’s (that’s my “owner”) second capybara. Her first capy was Caplin Rous and she just won’t stop talking about him. He died at 3.5 years old and she mourns him every single day. She started the ROUS Foundation for Capybara Veterinary Medicine (the RF for those in the know) in his honor. I am the RF’s spokescapy, which is a big responsibility.
Fact 3. I do school visits and other charity events, even though I am scared to leave home. It is all part of being Capybara Ambassador, another big responsibility.
Fact 4. I love having my belly scratched and Melly does it the best. My belly is pink and soft and just perfect for scratching.
Fact 5. I have a Facebook friend page even though FB doesn’t allow animals to have pages. My friend page currently has 5,017 friends even though FB has a limit of 5,000 friends because they messed up and let me get up to 5,250 friends about a year ago. Slowly I am losing friends, which makes me sad. On the other hand, I am gaining FB followers and just today I broke 800!
Fact 6. I also have a FB fan page, but fan pages are lame. And not everyone can see it for reasons only FB understands. It’s way too complicated for a capybara. I have almost 6,000 fans but that number is slowly declining, probably because FB lets people follow the friend pages now and that works better.
Fact 7. In spite of being such a famous and popular capybara, I try not to have a big head. However, that is impossible because I am a capybara and it is really unfair of you to hold it against me if my head is big.
Having a big head is part of being a capybara
Whew! Thinking of seven things about me was really hard. Especially after I decided to limit it to things I wanted people to know!
4. Nominate other bloggers who inspire you
1. Dobby the Capybara – Dobby (aka Dobbye) is Caplin Rous’ younger brother. He has kind of taken me under his paw since I came to live with Melly. He and Caplin and I all have very different personalities and that is reflected in our blogs. (Of course, I took over Caplin Rous’ blog after he died.) It is nice to have another capybara blogging so that people can see we are not all peas in a pod.
2. Alfalfa’s Adventures – Subtitled The Adventures of a Guinea Pig with an Attitude, this is a very humorous blog written by Alfalfa’s owner, Kerry Anne. Alfalfa has more personality that a dozen dogs or cats.
3. Guinea Pig Today – This is a great blog about everyday issues with guinea pigs. Sadly, the author, Angela DiMeglio Mitchell, isn’t posting as often as she used to. The blog is still full of great information for guinea pig lovers though.
4. Hero Rats (apopo) – This isn’t exactly a blog but I really want to mention it because it is such a wonderful cause. These amazing rats are great Rodent Ambassadors and they also help humans detect land mines and diagnose tuberculosis! Hero Rats are my heroes!
5. Living with Anteaters – This is a unique blog about pet anteaters. They’re not rodents but they are still cute. I can’t believe I needed Pamela to remind me! (see comments)
If anyone knows of other great rodent blogs, please leave links in the comments. I’d love to hear about them!
The Very Inspiring Blogger Awards requirements:
1. Display the award logo √
2. Link to the person who nominated you √
3. State seven facts about yourself √
4. Nominate other bloggers who inspire you √
Very happy to see that you were nominated Gari. You are such a great Capy ambassador. Ohhhhh you should have included Pua & “Living with Anteaters”….
Thank you for the nomination! Stacy has met Gari and she can verify that we have very different personalities. We also live in very different environments, and I’m talking about weather and neighborhood! It is kind of like the story about the Country Mouse and the City Mouse. We are the same species, and we are both boys, but our lives are very different.
Hi Gari,
Is there a way to vote for you? I followed the link to Candice Hoff’s site. What a great blog! I tried to leave a comment but was not allowed to. I must have to register or something. Your blog brings me a lot of joy. I love your photo with the bales of hay and the tortoise. I also love your big head. It’s all part of your wonderful capy self!
Congratulations!!! I hope you get the award. You won’t get a big head. It’s just not in your nature. While it’s nice to have a number of friends or fans on FB that lets you know that people care about you, FB does such weird things with what they do and don’t let people see in their news feeds,some people just give up trying to keep up with sites FB won’t let them see 🙁 I follow the blogs you listed, yet I only get updates on Pua periodically, as if the FB gods decided I could see it this time, lol!
You are going to be a great blogger. I hope you win the award 🙂 🙂 🙂
If anyone deserves this it’s YOU!
Only blog I read!
I didn’t know you had a turtle co-pet. I see his bum among the your hay steps!
Luv your BIG HEAD — you wouldn’t look right if you had a small head 🙂
Congrats on the VIBA nomimation — you deserve it!
Gari, what is the difference between a facebook friend and a facebook FOLLOWER?!?!?! why does facebook make seeing stuff SO HARD?!?!?!?
i love the tortoise (i forget the name!) in your picture!
Congratulations, you deserves it,hope Your total ok again now, have been busy so i’m not so opdatet,sorry.
Ups, i also want to give you a BIG nose kiss,from the cold DK
Hi Gari. I think you might have forgotten a very good blogger. You know pretty well as the kind lady who comes to scratch you and scratch you some more. She even went swimming with you!! Her name is Liz and she is soooo in love with you! She has a new blog called “Capybara World” and it has lots of useful information about capybaras — just like Y-O-U.!! It is available through World Press or you can get more info from her facebook page Liz Capaldi Capybara. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.
Just a thought about why people may be jumping ship…you often post pix from a science site with the “F” word in the title…caught me a little offguard the first time I saw it…if they are familys with kids, they might not want them exposed to that particular word…just a thought…
Gari, you deserve every honor that comes your way!
Dora, my guinea pig, is happy to see so many piggy blogs listed. She is guessing that Winston Bumblebee Barcode was helping you think of them.