Owner’s blog:

Continuing on my memories of Caplin Rous as we approach what would have been his 5th birthday on July 10th. Don’t forget that if you’d like to buy a Caplin Rous Commemorative Necklace, they are on sale for $15 until his birthday. Supplies are limited.

The photo above shows why the necklace features both a capybara and a popsicle. There is nothing cuter than a capybara eating a popsicle but for some reason Garibaldi Rous will not do it. I guess that’s okay, it makes Caplin more unique.

July 10th is Caplin Day, aka Capybara Appreciation Day. Please have a popsicle in memory of Caplin Rous.

Caplin Rous was pretty good on a leash but not perfect. I’m afraid he is giving Sheldon a lot more trouble than Buzz is. Capybara training makes horse training look easy.

Caplin didn’t have the easy life Garibaldi has for his pool entry and exit strategies. Gari has a table with cinder blocks on it that he more-or-less just climbs in and out on. Caplin had to dive in, which I think he liked. To get out he had to climb a step ladder and jump. The photo above is an underwater shot of him climbing the ladder.

This is what Caplin’s dive into the pool looked like. He had a stack of hay outside the pool to climb up on. Once at the top, he had to dive a bit sideways to avoid the ladder that he used to get out.

This is what the initial phase of a dive looked like from the other side.

This is what the final phase of the dive looked like from the other side. You can see how his back paws are sticking up over the edge of the pool just as they were in Part 1 of the dive. You can also see how he had to dive to avoid the ladder. This never seemed to bother him at all.

I put a ton of work into Caplin’s Halloween costume in 2008. As you can see, he went as a horse. On the day of the event, I painted a white blaze down his face and gave him one white paw. The competition was really tough that year and we didn’t even place at the PetCo Howl’o’ween. I still can’t believe it, just look how cute he is! But the winning dog (all the other contestants were dogs) went as a pirate and he even had a parrot riding on his back.

Sheldon swore we would never get Caplin to pose in the driver’s seat of the car for this photo. He was used to riding in the back and the first few times we got him in the front door, he immediately went back to his familiar station. But with a little coaching we eventually got him to stay in the seat and wear a hat. Later we even put streamers on him. What a good ‘bura!