The best pet shop?

I have an absolutely adorable kitten from Paradise Pets....*purss* I recommend it!

You know, this seems like as good a place to talk about this as any, because these are a couple of issues I am faced with every day. I get two questions asked constantly -- 1) Will it roam around on its own, and 2) Will my animal attack.

First, the attack issue. I know some people are making animals that do attack, but I decided early into the building and scripting process that I never wanted my animals to be used to annoy, harass or grief another avatar. I just don't want to be associated with that in any way, shape or form. I get asked about my wolves...will they attack. No, they don't. I don't like compromising the integrity of the the animal. In Real Life, wolves are shy retiring creatures, not the slavering monsters of fairy tales and Transylvanian folklore. I don't want to contribute to misinformation even in something as fickle as Second Life.

Secondly, the roaming issue. I would LOVE to script my animals to stroll about on their own. But I have never had a script yet that was trustworthy enough to work with my present movement script. I have a great, wandering script for dolphins, seals, and otters, but its just a swimming script. It can't be used in conjunction with any other motion script. I had a Foraging Bear about a year ago. I put him out for sale at my Depoz location, and kept an eye on him for several weeks. Then one day, I went over to check the store, and he was gone. He had just wandered right on off world...but the big bugger was still giving me his coordinates. Lying, he was because he wasn't there, but he was giving them! Now, I don't mean to whine, but I replace a lot of lost and broken animals without signing on to replace runaways too!

I do like some other people's animal creations. I don't think anyone makes birds as adorable as Mickey Heaney does over at Feather My Nest and Owl Demina makes some of the most fantastic owls I have seen and they are at his Owl Emporium -- his texturing is marvelous. At my personal residence, I have two of Owl's owls and Mickey's birds...I have a little hummingbird that has been with me since I first rented a little beachhouse in SL. Recently, I discovered the work of Jon Haskell. He's doing wonders with sculpture prims, and has a cheeky little parrot that is utterly precious.

I have enough cats, they are among my favorite animals. What I am considering now is another dog. I have one, but he only works if I tell him to do something. My cats wander, and I really like that. One thing that I have not found anywhere is a pet with the ability to get into your lap and sit there. My Kittenz can be pet, and when I do, they stay near to me and move around my feet, but they can not sit in my lap.
I am not too fond of pets that can just be carried, but I have a cat like that, and I have always considered getting a rabbit too.
ANother pet that I would like is a parrot that will stay on his perch in my house, but also move around sometimes.
I did have a pet rat, but he disappeared one day and I never saw him again.

I have lots of animals in the ocean next to my house. THey are also nice and they tend to come near me when I go into the water.

THen, there is the hummingbird that knocks into everyone, he is great. I think I got him from Animania, which has lots of interesting things, the next of which for me will be the dragonfly.

bt

I like Mickey's hummingbird because you place a "hummingfeeder" where you want him to hover and he stays around there. I don't want animals knocking into me, or following me around. Birds don't do that in RL, and I don't want mine doing that in SL! LOL My little hummingbird makes his home amid a table of purple flowers and he looks adorable in there.

I went into the pet making business because I thought 40 US dollars was a little pricey for a custom made pet. I asked one of the pet makers in here about a Golden Retriever, and that was their price which I thought was utterly ridiculous. My custom orders, and custom texturing (I can make a pet look like a photo if the photo is clear enough) are no more expensive than my regular dogs. I think in my notecard about custom pets I say they are more expensive, but I am yet to ask that price from a resident. I don't think residents deserve to be shaken down just because they want something personal.

I can make the hummingbird stop bumping, but I kind of get a kick out of it. He also has a flower that he stays around, I got him from Animania. I know what you mean about custom orders. I asked someone to make a custom sculpture for me and she wanted 250,000 L, and there was no way that I could do that. I wanted the UV Map as well, but I still found that way too high for my blood.

BT

250,000L FOR A CUSTOM SCULPTURE?? Were you asking them to recreate the Sistine Chapel or something??? I don't think I have even charged 3K for a custom build, and I will even put your own animal's sounds into it. For instance, someone asked me about making a Basenji dog for her. She gave me a picture of her dog so I could make its markings like she wanted, and she also uploaded assorted Basenji barks, cries, yowls, and howls and I put those in the dog for her too as Basenjis don't have a conventional bark.

No, it was a 3d statue of the Hindu God Krishna. I also wanted the uv map so that I could decorate Him in the manner that I can make tee shirts for my AV. I was willing to pay, but not quite that much!
BT

Wow! i'm really shocked. Custom sculptures can take *weeks* to perfect...
I'm not familiar with your products Penny but if you do custom pets, i can think of several friends to send your way right now! Doesn't everyone want a digital recreation of their animals? I also have to say that sculpted animals are to me, the best. The fluidity of their shapes makes up for some texture stretch IMO. Timmi Allen's animals are pretty good examples of this.

Has anyone ever found cave bats that perch and hang upside down until someone comes along to 'shoo' them out?
Does anyone do good crawling geckos or lizards? (not snakes, shudder)

I have virutally every type of sea critter there is but have never found playing seaotters, or albino/phosphorescent deep sea/cave dwelling fish.

Let's see...here are a few of the things I have made special lately...I made a cerberus (apparently there was a Cerberus for sale, but it had a darker side to it than my customer wanted) and I made this thing for someone...I can't remember the name, but it was the pet Mr. Spock had as a child in the Star Trek series, I made a pair of giraffes with their necks entwinned, and I made an idol for the Greek sim.

and I didn't charge 250,000 for all of them combined, plus 200K! LOL

i have some beavers that swim and splash around. they are so cute. i can't remember the name of the vendor offhand tho.

i have a couple of Kittenz. pretty cute, and they interact with the toys/food and avatars, and they are scripted to roam freely doing whatever suits them... eat, play, sleep, purr, etc.

Subversive, I guess its all what you like to focus on. You like the fluidity, I like the eyes. I've seen some people do amazing things with sculpture prims...Wynx Whiplash being one of them. Her grizzly bears have to be seen to believed as they are so darned cute, and she's currently working on a black bear that is utterly adorable.

And I know what you mean about the pet. When I joined a couple years ago, one of the first things I sought out was a dog and wanted a Golden because I have one in RL. When I couldn't find what i wanted, I started working on making one. Its been a long journey.

Splash Aquatics has some beavers and they are cute, cute, cute. He's also got some baby ducks that follow you and they are precious, too.

I have the beavers!!! i loooove them )))

list of my pets: beavers, ducks, swans, frogs, all types of fish, sharks, orcas, whales, dog, cat, monkeys, mantas, crabs, turtles, several horses, dolphins, manatees, cows, reindeer, gulls and various birds, and the list goes on and on!

Here are the pets and animals I have around -- I have three dogs -- Murphy the Golden, Angus the Scottie and Chili the Shorty Jack in my living room. I have a perched toucan sitting on my deck. I have my hummingbird out in the flowers, an owl sitting on my tree, a flock of starlings buzzing around the yard, and then in the forest are assorted wolves, bears, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, foxes, deer and beaver. I love horses and I have three of Zephyr Pennell's Lone Star horses -- the Saddlebred, the Native Pony and the Vanner -- they are all different, all gorgeous.

If anyone hasn't seen the Friesian horses by both Poppet McGimsie and Fiona Branagh, they are gorrrrrgeous!!! They do the little skin twitch that horses do when a fly lands on them (hee!) and when not being ridden they have a groom/pet pose for you to sit on.
I ride mine often and have displayed them at all of my properties. The textures are just to die for, as well as the features.

I almost forgot my Zooby Panther, dozens of collected penguins, elephant that juggles fireballs you can ride and giant oversized cricket! like i said, too many to name

Penny,
Can we talk sometime? Either email or inworld...maybe you can help me get the 3d that I want?

Bhakta Thor

Sure Bhakta, give me a shout when you're in world, and I will look at what you need. If I can do it I will, and the only reason I won't is if I think I can't do it justice -- people, or features are very hard for me to do. But I'm sure willing to take a look.

Sehlat. They're described as big teddy bears with six-inch fangs.

THATS IT! And there's one in my inventory!