MEET THE CAVE CRITTERS!
Mordecai the Gunkcat, a senior grimalkin who smells like the juice at the bottom of a garbage can mixed with rotting tuna. He's a kitten at heart who loves to lick things in the kitchen he shouldn't and play with his stinky banana toy.
He loves a lap until he doesn't - constantly having mood swings - though when he's relaxed you can guarantee concentrated butt stench! His favorite things to do (other than licking cabinets!) are looking out the window at all the corvids, softly punching his hissing cockroach cousins and snuggling his Goblin papa. If you scritch him in the right place, you can find his 'crumple zone'! He used to love food, though nowadays with his CKD he tends to eat much less, opting to drink tons from his fountain.
His life has come a long way from when he was found slithering around the back alley of our old town where we rescued him all those moons ago. Now he lives a happy (stinky) life! Mordy Nicknames: Spoothead, Grimalkin, GarbageBaby, GreaterDemon and TrashTribble.
Gizmo is a onebraincell orange sphynx cat - he has small tufts of ginger fur on his nose and ears! His favorite things are suckling his own nipples (loudly...) and falling off of things. He is a big sweetheart and wants nothing more than to cuddle Mordecai, who honestly wants nothing to do with him. Gizmo spends a lot of time in his Pumpkin bed with Goblin, or aimlessly following Mordecai around and getting cat-slapped. Gizmo also smells like mushrooms and soil between his weekly bath. He loves wearing his little sweaters and when spooped will often crab-sideways and force out a broken mewl!
His Nicknames are: Scrotum, Meatsack, Skinwalker, Stimpy and LesserDemon.
Goblin is a naked elf-cat, but elf isn't quite the word to describe her - she is more of a trash gremlin. She loves to run around the house screaming, often with a toy mouse in her mouth - she will hide said mouse in strange places or bring them to us as little smelly gifts. Her breath wreaks of garbage juice and rotten fish. She's a greasy little imp. She has a love of beards and will smear her face into one all day if she could - luckily for her one of her dads has a healthy face of fuzz which seems to please her. Goblin can be found in her fave pumpkin bed or running around the house like a bearded dragon whilst holding toy mice in her stinky maw. She smells like soil and mushrooms between baths too.
Her nicknames are: ChickenLizard, Mushroom-Rat, Reptile, MantisCat, bugcat, Brundlecat and demon.
Oblina is a dominant little ball of rage, constantly plotting the demize of all the other critters but never following through with any of it (and she's been caught grooming the rats lovingly on occasion).
Oblina loves chicken hearts, scratching things and cuddles - she especially loves hunting and stalks basically everything all the time.
Her long fur means she leaves most of her physical form all over the bed and sofa, but that just means more 'Blee to love.
Oblina's hobbies include bringing live frogs, toads, and rats back to our cave - this is either her showing affection or trying to tell us we're incompetent hunters in her perspective. Oblina Nicknams: Blee, HamNose, SelfMess, OmegaDemon and Horrifica.
Due to unforseen lifestuff/change in circumstance/relationship Oblina no longer lives with us. Oblina was with me between years 2009-2016 and has been living with her other dad ever since - thanks to said other dad for keeping in touch so I know how she's doing!
My swampy flora - Venus Fly Traps and Pitcher Plants! They live their best life on my kitchen windowsil - loving the humidity, bright hot sunlight and plenty of bugs that fly their way. I consider these critter companions as I feed them and have had these particular plants for years. My lil snap snaps.
Yolandi and Dizzle the ratty sisters - favorite things are puzzle toys, corn, egg biscuits, frozen pea bobbing in the summer and being fed locusts as a treat!
I've been keeping a steady colony of Madagascar Hissing Roaches, Peppered Roaches, Porcelain Ghost Roaches, Skunk Roaches, Harlequin Roaches, Banana Roaches, Discoids, Dubias, Orangeheads, Deathheads and Domino Roaches for over two decades! Some call me a cockroach farmer! The pic of my peppered cockroach (archimandrita tessellata) moulting is one of my favorite snaps I ever caught!
This is Sir Moldy-Splorch Marbilington or Splorch for short. He is my marbled newt, his colors change depending on temperature/time of year! He loves nothing more than to bury himself in Sphagnum moss and nom on small pinkies and crickets. He also loves nightcrawlers as a treat!
Spindle, Wheatley and Ida - Ida always loved sitting in her favorite T-cup!
RIP IDA
Never forgotten...
My Millipede Ronka having a walk - feeling him crawl along my arm is one of my favorite things!
Klepto and Backpack the hermit crabs - Klepto got that name because he couldn't stop stealing Backpack's shells when moulting - despite there always being an adequate amount of shells all over their tank!
Skankum the fire-bellied toad! He loves crickets and blood worms and especially juicy wax worms!
My three dumpy tree frogs - Dettol, Harpic and Domestos - named because of their antibacterial secretions!
These little puddle monsters are triops! Fun little critters to observe and keep. Triops have survived for millions of years despite laying eggs in ponds that completely dry up and may not see water again for decades. The Triops eggs are in what scientists call a "diapause" state, meaning the eggs can survive in a 99.99% dried out state for decades! True little extremophiles!
My little colony of Sun Beetles (Pachnoda Marginata) - this image shows them in their 'conga line' state, a strange behaviour I have observed in them a plethora of times! When they're not lining up like little coleoptera bureaucrats, they're busy eating their rotting leaves, bullying the small tropical isopods in their tank (clean-up crew!) or running around looking pretty.
Wild caught leeches - they like to eat small snails and tiny inverts (these aren't the blood sucking kind!) They spend a lot of time slithering around their tank - they're masters of escape so tanks have to be sealed tight when keeping these lil critter companions!
The skull/remains of my Egyptian Mau Temujin - he passed away back in 2016 - he was 17 years old and I raised him from sickly kitten to one-brain-cell adult. He was my first ever cat companion and my forever-fang.
This is Barlow, my preserved/mummified greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx) - the coffin he resides in was made specifically for him! He's lived in that coffin for his entire afterlife. (as with all my taxidermy pieces, this was sourced ethically, and he was
not killed for the purpose of art!
ALL of my taxidermy pieces were either roadkill or natural deaths, no exceptions.)
The diaphonized skeleton of my rat Ebola, she passed away in 2008 from old age, she was 4 years old! She loved nothing more than to sit on my shoulder and chew yogurt drops whilst watching Law & Order: SVU with me!
My little embryo Drazzle, he's lived on so many of my desks over the years always there to make me smile!
*COMING SOON*
Video clips of critter companions
Here is a list of past/present critters of the Goblinkin family!
Penn and Teller (Terrapins) 1992-2000
Magic, Spit, Shimmer and Sparkle (cockatiels) 1992-2005
Norbert, Dagget, Rimmer, Lister, Baron Von Steam Beak and all their fledgling babies (Zebra Finches) 2002-2010
Beavis and Butthead (Bengal Finches) 2002-2010
Fido (speckled carpet shark) 2000-2010
Colony of Triops 2003-2010
Assorted nameless albino clawed salt water frogs 2000-2005
Phlegm, Sputum, Skankum, Cough and Vomit (Fire Bellied toads) 2000-2006
Dettol, Domestos, Harpic and Shovelhead (Giant whites dumpy tree frogs) 2001-2015
Klepto & Backpack (hermit crabs) 2001-2007
Nickadeemus (rat) 2000-2004
Bubonic, Ebola and Malaria (rats) 2004-2008
Jacoby (rat) 2004-2010
Peabody and Atlus (rats) 2011-2015
Yolandi and Dizzle (rats) 2015-2019
Fizzle and Rizzle (Gerbils) 2001-2005
Hamtaro, Hickling, Beistle and Voldo (Russian dwarf hamsters) 2001-2003
Skuttelina (Giant African train millipede) 2005-2010
Gregory (Chocolate millipede) 2010-2015
Ronka (Giant African train millipede) 2021-2023
Rothgar (Vietnam Giant Centipede) 2024-Present
Mantarok and Dagon (Italian Crested Newts) 2001-2017
Splorch (Marbled newt) 2021-Present
Temujin (Egyptian Mau) 1999-2016
Oblina (Norweigan Forest Cat) 2009-Present
Mordecai (mog cat) 2017-Present
Buford (Cane toad) 2005-2011
Gunky, Lumpy and Stitch (Giant African land snails) 2005-2015
Leech colony 2010-2017
Madagascan hissing cockroach colony 2007-Present
Giant Pepper cockroach colony 2009-Present
Harlequin Cockroach colony 2005-2020
Banana cockroach colony 2005-2020
Deaths head cockroach colony 2006-Present
Turkistan cockroach colony 2006-Present
Dubia cockroach colony 2006-Present
Sun Beetle colony 2017-2020
Kratos (Goliath beetle) 2006-2007
Spindle (Rose hair tarantula) 2006-2021
Shao Kahn (Mexican red rump tarantula) 2007-2022
Wheatley (Western desert blond tarantula) 2011-2022
Ida (Rose hair tarantula) 2007-2024
Pataki (Singapore blue tarantula) 2009-2016
Hallow and Ween (stick insects) 2006-2008
Assorted nameless leopard slug colony 2006-2016
Assorted colony of nameless Skin beetles 2007-2010
Jenkins, Lovecraft, Acid and Tango (Poison Dart Frogs) 2004-2010
Colony of Clown Isopods (Armadillidium Klugii) 2024-Present
Klyden, Yaphit, Bortus and Isaac four spotted flower beetles (stephanorrhina guttata) 2024-Present
Gizmo (Sphynx cat) 2024-Present
Goblin (elf-cat) 2024-Present