Hello !!

Would you like to know more about me ?

My name is Sniffy* and I was born on August 1st 1992, in Rehovot, Israel. My mother cared well for my brothers, sisters and me, and I do not remember much of my first weeks. One day, I was separated from all, put in a cage with my brothers and sisters, till I met my human friends Esther, Arie and Louise. I was about 6 weeks old. Although they were so much bigger than me, I have never been afraid of them. They treated me well, with tasty pellets, oats, hay, and fresh vegetables.

 

When I grew up, I learned to behave quite nicely and learned what I am allowed to do and what not. I wash and groom myself during hours. Since I live free in the apartment when my human friends are home, it is very important for all of us that I use the litter box.

I am very curious, love to investigate all over the apartment, discover new places to hide or to play. Esther has sometimes been looking everywhere before she found me, but that was a nice play. I also like to take part of all the happenings.

After some new adventure, it happened that my fur was a bit dirty. Esther decided that I needed a shower to get clean and smell good. In the begin I did not like it at all, but later, as you can see, I enjoyed it. It is just a hard work afterwards to get all my fur dry again.

Beside my best human friends, I also have some nice animal friends. Grijsje is my best and most patient friend. She was presented to me when I was about 1.5 years old, while she was very sick and weak. I liked her very much from the first moment I saw her and decided to care for her from that day on. We are best friends and cannot miss each other for a long moment.

 

In December 1995, Esther, Grijsje and me traveled by plane to Switzerland. It was not the first time we took the plane, we flew about 60.000 km in total. I always liked to fly, because we got a lot of attention. But now we were going to live in a new house with garden. That was a big change, and Grijsje and me had a lot of new things to discover. Among them was a new garden, where we discovered snow for the first time in our lives... 

In the garden, I have a few non-lagomorph friends. Birds love to come near us, while we take a nap in the garden. Family Squirrel tried to frighten us, but after we realized that we were afraid of each other, we became friends. High up, in the trees, they will inform us about various dangers. They usually share their pinecones with us, after eating half of it themselves. Unfortunately, they seems always in a hurry, and no picture could be taken from us together.

Another friend is Mr. Hedgehog. He walks by from time to time, after having a good meal. I always know when he is coming, his body-smell was not to good. But apart from that, we exchange some news from the surrounding neighborhood, because he wanders from one garden to another, regardless of fences.

We regularly discuss about the dogs in the neighborhood and he explained me why he was not afraid of them. Oh, I am not afraid of them either, dogs make a lot of noise to impress, but I know how to deal with them. Here is the trick: let them approach very close, then you jump up quickly and bite their nose. 100% success !

Sara was however a good pal. She was old, wise and patient and when she came to see me, she knew how to behave not to frighten me. We would get very close to each other and take a nap together or deliberate about a few points. I always wanted to get close to her and lick her big ears... 

After meeting my friends, I am rather tired. It is now time to take a long nap, either in the garden, or at home...

In 1997, Grijsje and me moved to a new apartment, in another city, with a balcony instead of a garden. We missed the garden and our friends a lot, but got a lot of human attention, instead. My health slowly degraded and I was not able to run so much anymore. I enjoyed, however, nap on the balcony or near the heating.

Grijsje and me continued to visit our favorite garden frequently and would enjoy it as always.

BYE !

--------------------------------------------

Sniffy passed away on May

16th, 1998 and has been

buried in her favorite garden.

Flowers around Sniffy's tomb on April 11th 1999