Internet Exploration

My boyfriend has a dog that weighs more than me. She's a sweet dog... so sweet she loves to get in between our hugs. My natural reaction is to think she's jealous, but she follows me around, and gives me plenty of kisses to know that she's on Team Nnekay too. Lately, He's been itching to give the princess pooch some company, so we've been passing cute pictures of puppies back and forth through the interwebs. Since his dog is the size of a small adult man, a more moderately sized dog would a better option. We joked about putting it in sweaters, these turned into matching sweater jokes, which of course lead me to this website.

Where I found this photo:

I know, right?! What the hell is that? It looks like a giant bored guinea pig. I sent the picture to my bf and we each went on our own internet journeys with this image.

What I discovered: This humongous rodent who is so clearly over wearing a bandanna, looked familiar... I stared into it's large yet still beady eyeball, then it dawned on me: BILL PEET.
One of my favorite books when I was a kid was The Wump World:

An obvious Dr. Seuss rip off, but as a kid, I liked weird looking things that were vaguely cute... hence my love for this random book. Through further investigation, I found out that Bill Peet owned one of these freaky hamsters, called a Capybara (largest living rodent than can reach 232 lbs.-- yup it's man-rat) and was obviously the inspirations for Wumps and another of his called Capyboppy... which told the true story of the Peet's family pet.

I basically found out that one of my favorite childhood authors probably had something like this roaming through is house:

SIGH...

What the Bf discovered: Capybaras are on the list of Vatican approved meat to eat on Lent.