June Pet of the Month

I'D had an elephant for ages hoping one of the older pets would be POTM, so I was pretty happy about the choice of the elephant.

What I didn't know was what to name it—I either didn't like some of the choices, like Bimbo or Kala Nag or Two Tails, or thought they were a little cliché, like Babar, Trunks, Peanuts, Dumbo, etc. It couldn't be Modoc or Maya because it was an African elephant and a male to boot.

I finally settled on a literary elephant, just not the usual one: Cornelius, one of the wise old elephants in the Babar stories.

In the Cards

ONE of the free pet cards I received in the Series 1 trading cards was a panda, so when they announched that the panda would be the May Pet of the Month, I was inspired to use the card.

I thought hard about a traditional panda name, but gave him a less typical one. Traditional dominos are black and white, and of course the panda looks masked. Back in the days of masked balls, a mask was also called a "domino," so it fit as well.

Dom came with the steam-powered television, which is a funny-looking gadget, and also with another W1000 coin and also a disco ball. I take it from messages that disco balls are highly prized, so it looks like I can trade this one since I already have another.

Ears or Patches?

WEBKINZ Insider, which has been uncannily accurate with ferreting out the Pet of the Month almost since the program began last fall, has told us for over a month that they found out the POTM for May would be a panda. However, when Webkinz announces the present Pet of the Month, they always have the next month's POTM in a little iris underneath.

Now some folks who already went out and purchased pandas are upset because the May critter is announced to be a Lil Kinz cocker spaniel, not a panda.

By accident, I have it covered both ways, but I can see where they'd be upset.

(Maybe it's an April Fools joke? I've already see several of them this morning already.)

A Lucia Dog

SINCE I managed to find a chihuahua that didn't look as if its brains were busting out of the sides of its eyes (the large Webkinz chihuahuas are really bad about this; they have bulges over their eyes that are decidedly unattractive), I adopted one this morning since it is the Pet of the Month.

In deference to her ethnic heritage and also to December holidays, she's named Lucinda after St. Lucia, whose feast day is December 13, and who is celebrated in Scandinavia and also in Sicily. In several countries, Lucia is the gift-giver, not Santa Claus or St. Nicholas.

Unfortunately, I did lousy in the area of POTM adoption special gift: I said before I went into the adoption that the one thing I didn't want was a "Playful Picture." (It's a picture for your wall that moves. Gah.) The next was the candy-striped unicycle and after that was the virtual Newton's cradle and the steam-powered TV. I didn't get the picture, but I got stuck with the dopey unicycle. My top wishes for a POTM item would be a lighthouse or the snow machine, after that the crystalline pond, the star machine, the UFO, or the cuckoo clock. Even the space window, the telescope or the doughnut plant wouldn't be bad.

I stuck the unicycle in my new toy shop, where it will at least fit the decor. Yawn.

I also got the items at right, plus the usual adoption gifts of some food, the chihuahua's special chair, and a halfway decent special prize, the vortex hole.

I really don't plan to buy POTMs that I don't like (so no frogs) or that I already have, so my chances of getting a goody are going to be narrow anyway. Ah, well.

G'Day, Mate!

IN celebration of Daylight Savings Time being over, an event well worth celebrating, IMHO, I adopted my koala today.

He's named after Australian actor Chips Rafferty.

Schuyler seemed fascinated by him. I held him up to the bars of the cage and she nibbled on the black fur of his nose and pecked at the "claws" on his foreleg.

Anyway, as I sat looking at the events for the day, it dawned on me that I OWN a Pet of the Month. I can then do all the POTM activities; I just don't get the cool adoption gifts for adopting in November of this year. Cool as far as I'm concerned.

Special Gifts

YES, truly Googles can stand up! Here's Barney admiring the Monkey and Monkey dummy won on the Wheel of YUM. (No bananas today!)

Incidentally, James adopted the November Pet of the Month tonight, the black bear. He's named "Tupelov." Ganz added two new Pet of the Month gifts, and one was a flying saucer that looked too cool; well, Tupelov's special gift was a flying saucer. He was seen happily flying it around the airfield (the one with two hot-air balloons, an airplane and two flying carpets).