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“Fetch me another bale of alfalfa!” – Chinchilla Thor

When it comes to Halloween costumes for small critters like ferrets, guinea pigs, and hamsters, your options are somewhat limited. As an owner of an adorable bunny (who was featured in Quirk’s craftbook Microcrafts) and a chinchilla (who has yet to make his published book debut, Margaret!) I feel the pain that small animal owners experience around Halloween.

I mean, everyone else gets to dress up their larger pets, their cats and their dogs, in various costumes. I watch them all get posted to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter… all with a rising jealousy in my heart. What about me? What about my need to take pictures of my pets looking adorable?

After fiddling around Etsy for a bit in an attempt to find Halloween costumes for small pets, I found a treasure trove thanks to this blog post. Let me introduce you to Marmota Cafe, an Etsy shop opperating out of Washington, D.C., who seems to specialize in great costume options for tiny, furry friends. All the costumes run from $9 to $18, and are designed with the comfort of your small pets in mind.

Have a look, and prepare to smile.

O HAI THAR

Is your cat adorable and photogenic? Of course it is. Let us take its picture! Quirk is on the prowl for some feline models in the Philadelphia/New Jersey/New York area to be featured in photos for an upcoming book. We’re looking for a variety of colors, coats, and cat types, so don’t be shy!

If you’ve got a cat, and you’d like to participate in a photo shoot at your house, please send a few pictures and your location, availability, and contact info to [email protected] (subject: Cat Photos).

Have you ever tried to hug a cat? I’m talking really hug and squeeze one. It’s damn near impossible. These feline-friendly authors have at the very least attempted to give their kitty a nuzzle.

My cat Milo is a street thug. Well, he isn’t really my cat anymore. Or maybe he never was. Okay, let me go back a bit and explain.

I had the best cat ever in the history of earth for sixteen years. His name was Pooky and he was a cross between a Persian and a Himalayan. So he had Himalayan markings with that beautiful Persian fur, but without his nose being quite so mashed in.

He was the once-in-a-lifetime kitty, the cat no other cat will ever compare to. He went with me to college. He went with me when I got married. He had the most peaceful, Buddha-like energy. He talked to me in this funny little voice that sounded nothing like a cat, but more like a little chirping bird. He hung out sleeping about 23 hours a day, even when he was little, and hunted the smallest bug or ant in the house, and drooled when I patted him. He let me hug him, kiss him and even patiently let me make him dance (albeit with a totally disgusted look on his face). To make it even better, although he was completely docile with me, he hated everyone else, which made him all that more endearing in my mind.

I’m obsessed with my North American Green Tree Frog. His name is Abelard (as in Heloise and Abelard). I rescued him in Salt Lake City from a shipment of trees that came into a Lowe’s Home Improvement all the way from Oklahoma.

I didn’t bring him with me to Philadelphia when I moved here last fall, and I’ve been driving my family crazy asking them almost daily if they’ve remembered to check on him, water him, give him crickets. “Did you spray the frog?” I always ask. Which really means, “Did you use the reptile spray bottle filled with room temperature water and pump it 40 to 50 times into his terrarium to mist the air since he is from a humid climate and Utah is a desert?”

He’s a tough little guy. The people at the pet store said he’s never make it that first day when I bought the terrarium, a soaking pool, and a container of crickets. “He probably won’t last more than four or five days. Frogs just don’t do well transferring from the wild into captivity. Keep the receipt.” Keep the receipt? So I can return the terrarium when he croaks? Abelard has done just fine, going on three years now. Who would think you could be that attached to a frog? Go figure.

So for me, it’s in honor of Abelard, and not Mark Twain, that I’m celebrating National Frog Jumping Day. The roots of this holiday come from Mark Twain’s first short story, the famous “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” It was first published in 1865 as “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” and has also been called “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” In honor of the holiday, you should read the short story.

It’ll take you five minutes flat and you’ll feel very literary. Barring that, I’d say go to your local pet shop and buy yourself a green tree frog. Call her Heloise.