General > Except for the Pig
Small Animal News
Sindobook:
All right I got a lot of PMs this morning, suddenly this is an issue again, I'm honestly not sure why. Late last year Mikey and friends, who basically decide whether an animal can take residence in the local area, or whether they'll end up run out of town, last year they turned away the cow and told her to go back home. Naturally the cow has roughly one to two thousand fans so they got all up in arms about it. They were all demanding to know why the cow was turned away, assuming we hated the cow, and so on. And seriously I will say that yeah, we're not too find of the cow really. But when it comes down to it, the answer is simple, it's resources. And it's not any different today than it was back then. A single cow consumes as much in terms of grass and everything else as hundreds of bunnies. Mikey did the math and the numbers came out that we just can't afford a cow in the local area. There's just not enough resources, the bunnies and everyone else would be starving now if they had let her in. It's that simple. It's not that they hate the cow or don't like the cow.
Sindobook:
New Staff
Due to an increase in snake sightings that typically comes with the changing seasons, Mikey has increased the peripheral anti-snake patrols. Samantha, a black striped Dutch rabbit, has taken over as the head of the Bunny Brigade. Also please welcome Jessie, a small Indian mongoose (aka. small Asian Mongoose, "Herpestes javanicus") who is currently employed by Mikey and will be participating in the anti-snake patrols.
_S_
Yes she is fine as always, please no more PMs about this. If you have questions for her, you need to PM her, not me. If you don't know how to get a hold of her, ask _R_, not me.
Sindobook:
All right I have been getting PMs about the anti-snake patrols. There is no way the anti-snake patrols will affect nonpredatory snakes that aren't a danger to small animals. A typical anti-snake patrol looks like this.
B
XXX
B
Direction of travel is to the left. There are one or two 'bait bunnies' (B) in forward picket positions who hop around in front of the group. They move slowly and are given special training to 'look clueless'. Most of the group (X) stays behind and out of sight, but keeps a close eye on different areas around the 'bait bunnies'. If a snake is sighted, the main force will move forward to surround and engage the snake.
The snake can attack a bunny but it is a losing proposition. It may kill that bunny but the bunnies are trained (even in death) to bite down and not let go. Even if this alone doesn't kill the snake, it will hold him in place and allow the rest of the group (which outnumbers him) to close in. The only chance the snake really has is to try to escape and bypass the bunnies and other animals in the main force.
A nonpredatory snake that leaves the bait bunnies (and the rest of the force) alone is simply ignored. The only way a snake will be attacked is if it starts to go after the bait bunnies, or if it's stupid enough to try to go against the main group. The latter case is extremely rare b'cos the force is always moving with the bait bunnies in front.
I know some people are probably going to question the tactic of using live bunnies as bait but frankly it gets the job done, and the casualty rate of these specialized patrols is generally lower than other field combat units.
Sindobook:
In response the question about the lack of any 'small animal meet and greet' panel at either of the big cons (ie. AX, Otakon, Famine, etc.)
A 'small animal meet and greet' was held at some of the smaller, more local cons this year. As for the larger cons:
There is no 'one reason' and anyone who says there is 'one reason' is overstating it. Sometimes I get PMs from people who seem like they are trying to 'make a statement'. Really the purpose of this board is not that, it's a Q&A board. If you ask your question in a straightforward way, you will get a good and straightforward answer.
Otakon is fan-friendly but they are far away and the small animals are rather busy this year, there wasn't the will to travel that far. Not being at Otakon has nothing to do with any problems with the Otakon staff, leadership, or Otakon in general. They just didn't feel any compelling reason to be there. I guess you could say the pig was the main driving force behind getting the rest of the small animals motivated to show up at Otakon in prior years. Famine is the same way -- too far away. I know people will say that it is much closer than Otakon, but as far as small animals are concerned, they're both 'very far away'.
AX is more local and I know some people might have thought they were going to do a panel 'for sure' this year. So that wasn't really a problem, but apparently AX is having their own budgetary problems this year. At least that's the idea you'd get if you asked Mikey to elaborate. Mikey was very insistent that the convention provided fresh fruits and vegetables from a local store and that there was no way that local food provided by convention stands or 'fast food' restaurants would suffice. This should come as common knowledge to anyone who keeps small animals, that it's always important to have a good supply of fresh, edible food on hand. But Bobby, the staff member assigned to coordinate the event with Mikey was apparently not listening and kept passing over the food issue. He kept dismissing Mikey with "Yeah we'll figure something out" and other messages like that. As if this wasn't enough, when Mikey finally did pin Bobby down and get him to agree on a small budget that could be used to buy carrots, romaine lettuce, and mini peppers from a nearby supermarket, and provide the small animals with a volunteer to actually make the purchase, transport them, and wash them on-site - Bobby did agree to this but the next day Bobby was gone and replaced another staff member, Chris. Now this Chris guy was totally clueless, it was obvious he'd never done a small animal event before and he kept asking Mikey things like "Exactly what do you guys do...?" Mikey would patiently answer each question and explain the event to him in detail but then the issue of food came up again. When Mikey explained that Bobby had already agreed to budget for food and agreed to provide a volunteer, Chris balked and said unfortunately that wouldn't be possible (apparently there's also a shortage of volunteers). Not too long after that, Chris informed Mikey the panel had been moved to a smaller room, that only one podium with a fixed mike would be provided and that he (Mikey) would have to bring his own tables for the small animals to stand on. This was just too much for Mikey and Mikey said no, that the small animals were pulling out and no longer wanted to do the panel.
Afterwards Mikey did hear of Chris trying to ask some of the individual small animals (that Mikey normally answers for) if they wanted to be part of the event and that individually they all answered no. So that was pretty much the end of that.
As for when the next "small animal meet and greet" panel will be, I would personally guess ALA which is typically in the first half of January.
Oh one more thing that is absolutely not true. A number of people kept asking me if Mikey was the third 'mystery musical guest' who was going to be at the concert with Megumi Nakajima and May'n on Friday in the Nokia Theatre. In fact I was asked this by four seperate people in multiple PMs. I think it's safe to say that the answer is a big NO, and I wish people would get off this rumor. No idea where that one came from, you know the old saying about rumors, the more 'patently ridiculous' they are, the farther they go. That one needs to stop here.
Sindobook:
I have been getting people calling up to ask about which small animals are attending AX this year.
Mikey runs his own photo business. You can sign up for a photo session, the charge is 40 baby carrots for a one hour session with 1-2 people. For 3 or more people, add 10 more baby carrots. You can skype him if you want to reserve a time. Satisfaction is guaranteed, if you are unhappy with the results, your carrots will be returned to you in lieu of the final deliverables. Which is basically a CD with unprocessed and processed, printable versions of the photos he took, along with rights to use them as you choose.
Tuan Tuan (not exactly a small animal but news nonetheless) will be hosting his regular "Panda Comedy" panel. Time TBA, check the AX site and event schedule for details when they are available. If there is enough interest, he will make himself available at the Funimation booth for an autograph signing.
And you'll be able to find Mr. Sparkles in Artists Alley, just look for the solid gray Netherland Dwarf bunny. Hard to miss him really.
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