Shiftwork bad, Hobkin good

So today I get to come in late (yay) and work until ten (massive boo!) so that we can stagger the time we’re on the server to maximize our testing window. Stupid environment. Who ever heard of a system where if more than one person runs a job it crashes everyone? Fiasco city!

But I took some cute pictures of Hobkin:

Here’s Hobkin’s tummy, showing off his swirl and chip markings.


He’s now as big as Matthew’s foot!


Hobkin’s introduction to eggplant:




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15 Responses to Shiftwork bad, Hobkin good

  1. omg you have a skunk???
    that is… AWESOME.
    Is he de-smelled lol?

    • Eugie Foster says:

      We’ve had Hobkin for two weeks now. He’s still a baby, only nine weeks old, but he’s already housebroken and comes to his name!

      If you want to see more pix of Hobkin, I’ve got some posted on my website Musta-lay-day Grove as well.

      And he’s definitely descented. Skunks are way cool pets, but not with intact musk glands. Yikes. We’re eccentric, not insane. 🙂

      • that is like.. the cutest thing ever 😀
        Where did you manage to get a skunk? do people breed them?

        • Eugie Foster says:

          We had to drive to Iowa to pick him up. Twenty hours one way! The breeder would have shipped him, but I don’t like the idea of an animal in the unheated, unpressurized cargo of an airplane so we decided to do the road trip thang. It was grueling but worth it.

          The main breeder of pet skunks is a mill and they also sell their unsold stock to fur markets. We don’t believe in giving money to shit companies who engage in atrocities. So we had to hunt for a reputable breeder. Got a referral from a newsgroup/skunk club (skunk club!) for a small breeder who doesn’t sell to either pet stores or the fur market. We were very lucky to get Hobkin. If we’d waited a little longer to contact the breeder, we wouldn’t missed the season and had to wait until next year. I think I would’ve popped if that’d happened. I need a four-legged fur critter in the house like other women need children. (Btw, children, ewww.)

  2. mery_bast says:

    He is the cutest little fuzzy creature I’ve ever seen!!!!! Hug him for me, please!

    • Eugie Foster says:

      He really has cute down, doesn’t he? He gets much hugging. He’s going to be so spoiled! Currently he’s asleep in my lap, clinging to me so I have to type one-handed. Awww!

  3. elttobretaw says:

    AAAAACK!!!!
    Ok, there. *whew* I was browsing my friendsfriends list and passed by the skunk pictures and had to comment. 🙂

    Good luck with yours! I had a skunk once, but he was crazy in the head and very sick (he’s with a good home now, participated in the National Skunk show and everything :)). I’m sure you know about all the Skunks as Pets sites and such around the web, but in case you don’t…
    http://www.skunksaspets.com/

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Thanks! Yah, we did our research before getting Hobkin. We went to a skunk show in Florida and talked with all the skunk people and spent quite a bit of time interacting with the critters. And yah, we’re quite familiar with all the info about skunks on the Internet.

      They’re such uncommon pets, people are still learning about them, what they eat, what makes them tick, etc. It seems that a lot of health issues can be headed off by a good diet (a mostly, or in our case, completely vegetarian one).

      Here’s to hoping that Hobkin stays healthy and happy. I’ve done my share of nursing sick and dying animals. I could do without that sort of heartache and anxiety again in my life.

      • elttobretaw says:

        Ah, very cool! Have you talked to Ginny? She’s the one who has Kafka, formerly mine. He was around 12 weeks when we got him and the pet store hadn’t taken great care of him – he had a lot of seizures and digestive problems, even with the proper diet. He was also extremely mean, which was what we couldn’t seem to fix or even remotely lessen.
        Last time I saw him he was doing MUCH better and I think enjoyed having the company of other skunks. 🙂 He really liked jalepeno peppers, grapes, and cucumbers – but the tastes would change all the time – a finicky eater he was. 🙂

        • Eugie Foster says:

          Ginny rocks!

          Actually, Ginny’s the one who referred us to the breeder that Hobkin came from. He’s the same breeder she gets her baby skunks from. Heh. It’s a small world, this little skunk-owner community.

          Ginny’s a wonder woman when it comes to skunks, and animals of all kinds, actually. I greatly respect her. And she was one of the few people who could help us out when we said we wanted to find a reputable breeder who didn’t sell to the fur market and wasn’t a mill. The seizures are getting more common in the mill-bred babies, I hear.

          Hobkin’s a finicky eater as well. He loves cucumbers and sugar snap peas, but he turns his nose up at squash and mushrooms. Silly animal. And one day he’s all about bell peppers and the next he’s all “What’s this bell pepper thing? You can’t possibly expect me to eat it?” Snarf.

  4. Aww!!!
    Though I am more of a cat person, Hobkin is lovely. 🙂

    • Eugie Foster says:

      I love cats too, but I’m terribly allergic to them. It’s disgustingly ironic. I adore animals and I’m allergic to so many of them–cats, dogs, horses. But strangely, and happily, I haven’t shown any allergic reactions at all to the Mustilidae family. We kept ferrets for something like eight years with nary a sneeze, and now we’ve got Hobkin and I’m still symptom free. Huzzah.

  5. missktty05 says:

    how cute

    aww, Hobkin is so cute! 🙂

    xoxo-
    ashley

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Re: how cute

      Ain’t he though? I coo and make “kootchie coo” noises at him all the time. I wonder what animals think of being fawned over like that. Probably “Aw crap, there she goes again . . .” Heh.

      • missktty05 says:

        Re: how cute

        lol..yeah i’ve wondered what they think about that too, i love animals, especially cuddly one’s ;D. they’re just so soft, i have a chihuahua named Mocha and she is so precious ;] now i wanna skunk so they can play together! haha. i wonder how a skunk and a puppy would act like together? lol well g2g..bye~

        xoxo-
        ashley

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