New Rainforest Exhibit at Penny’s Pets & Wildlife

If you’re wondering why we haven’t been making many posts lately at the blog, there’s a very good reason.  Penny and I have been hard at work making a new exhibit.  We moved the wolves back to Beech Tree Forest where they were happier with the other woodland creatures, and cleared out space for a Rainforest Exhibit complete with an ocelot, a tapir, a capybara, a sloth, a caiman, an anaconda, two new macaws, a squirrel monkey and a big green tail twitching iguana who I plan to chase very soon!

Penny decided she wanted to make a rainforest exhibit after an associate contacted her about adding some animals to his sim.  Milo Itano, co-owner of September Rain, a beautifully landscaped and decorated rainforest sim wanted some animals to finish off decorating his sim, so Penny asked him what rainforest he was depicting — Africa, South American, or Australian.  He thought South American, so she started researching the animals, birds and reptiles of the Amazon.  The ones she decided to make are amongst the most unique and amazing of all the Amazon animals.

The most beautiful addition is the Hyacinth Macaw, which is a deep sapphire blue in color.  None of the other birds at Penny’s Pets can rival his brilliant plummage.  Anyone who likes exotic birds will want to see him.

Dogs and The Second Life Kennel Club Dog Show

One of the coolest things about Penny’s Pets is the Second Life Kennel Club Dog Show.  Penny has her 75 breeds of dogs displayed in an out door arena, with the dogs standing on platforms as if to be judged.  People can walk in and amongst the dogs to get a very good look at them.  At the center of the arena is a winner’s stand with the blue ribbon winner, the second place and the third place dog all standing on them showing their ribbons.  Trophies are on either side of the winner’s stand, and seasonal flowers decorate the venue.  You’ll notice the Golden Retriever is the winner, because we ARE the best dogs in all the world.

All of the dogs displayed are arranged according to American Kennel Club groupings — Herding Dogs,

The Second Life Kennel Club Dog Show Winners

Toys, Terriers, Working Dogs, Non-Sporting and Sporting Dogs.  There are several dogs of each category for people to choose from, and each one is created to American Kennel Club breed standards with a close attention to detail.  That is to say, a wolfhound looks like a wolfhound and a beagle looks like a beagle.

Penny’s dogs are all scripted with artificial intelligence.  She worked with a very talented scripter to bring these dogs to life.  They will get hungry and tired and when their hunger and tiredness reaches 100% will go to their dishes and beds and you set those locations.  They all come with a set of dishes and a little bed, but you can make their sleeping place your bed, a chair, a rug, or the sofa.  In Penny’s Cabin, I live with Angus the Scottie and Chili the Shorty Jack and we sleep on Penny’s rug in the living room. 

Anyway, in addition to the AI aspect, Penny had her scripter add a Random feature to the dogs.  When in Random Mode, they will go through their animations in a random manner, so its pretty cute to look over and see your dog sitting, laying down, sleeping, offering his paw, playing dead, barking, wagging his tail and sitting up.  If you touch him and choose follow, he will follow at your side til you tell them to stay.  They are not bad about running away, either.  Penny’s dogs are scripted to be companions, and don’t roam or wander away on their own.  They want to be by their owners because that’s where I like to be…right with Penny.  I get very sad when I can’t come with her, and I try to use guilt to get my way.  Most times it works, but sometimes she has to leave me all alone.  Thankfully I have Chili and Angus to keep me company so I don’t get too lonely.  We usually just flop down and take a nap til Penny comes back for us and takes us for a walk.

In addition to the 75 breeds of dogs, Penny will also get requests to do custom dogs for people and for color changing.  Penny always does these when she can.  If the residents can get her a good enough picture, Penny will work very hard to get them looking like their real life counterparts.  Sometimes people ask for rare dogs, or dogs not recognized by the AKC, like the Kelpie.  Recently someone asked Penny to do a Kelpie and she did and he turned out to be a very popular breed.  One of the most fun project for Penny was the lady who wanted a Basenji, and wanted it to be scripted with real Basenji sounds and since these dogs don’t bark or howl like the rest of us, the lady uploaded sounds from her own Basenjis and Penny loaded them into the Basenji’s script.  Wasn’t that nice of her?

Well, I think its about time for my mid afternoon nap, so I am going to get back to the dog’s business of napping.  Be sure and check out the Second Life Kennel Club in the center of the Papercut sim…you can’t miss it.  Its all blue and white and scenic.  Come look at the dogs and see if you can find your favorite…of course, if you’re a true dog lover, look no further than the Golden Retriever.

Hello again from Murphy

The Black Panther Exhibit in the Big Cat House

Hello everyone. I was out taking a walk this morning on the Penny’s Pets sim, and stopped to admire once again the Big Cat House.  This was Penny’s first zoo like exhibit, really.  She based it on the Big Cat House at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo.  There are nine big cats on display and for sale.  She is exhibiting a Siberian tiger, a Bengal Tiger, a White Bengal Tiger, a Black Panther, a Leopard, a Jaguar, a Mountain Lion and a Snow Leopard.  Each of them is enclosed in a setting natural to his species. 

The building was inspired by a friend of Penny’s who works at a zoo in Florida and she went to her friend Marc Thurston to make her a building.  Penny can make buildings, but she doesn’t think she’s very good at it, so she will often ask someone better than she is to do the structures.  Marc looked at some pictures of the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Big Cat House and whipped out this structure in about an hour.  Penny was very happy because it allowed her to showcase her big cats, and lots and lots of people want an exotic pet in Second Life.  Recently, Penny did enlarge the structure as Marc had originally built it to hold 5 exhibits.  She pulled everything out and made room for her Jaguar and Mountain Lion so now it displays 7 exhibits with the 2 Bengal Tigers in the same exhibit.  If you’re interested in big cats, come on down and take a look at this exhibit.  And if you’re interested in having a tiger or a leopard or a jaguar as your pet, take one home with you today.

Murphy Checks Out the Special Exhibit Building

Across from the Big Cat House is another pretty new exhibit at Penny’s Pets sim.  Penny had the idea to make a Special Exhibits Building and her good friend Keera Woyseck stepped up to make this building for her.  Made of sleek black and frosty white marble, this building will feature a different theme of animals each month.  The first month it was constructed, she displayed Australian Animals and her exhibit included a wombat, a kangaroo, an emu, a dingo and a pair of koalas.  The month of August the theme was Bears and Penny created habitats for a grizzly, a black bear, a sun bear, a spectacled bear and a polar bear. The month of September hasn’t quite been decided, but Penny is thinking a lot about doing animals of the Rocky mountains.  We’ll have to wait and see what she decides, though.

Visiting my Wild Brothers

One of the new exhibits at Penny’s Pets is an enclosure for her wolves.  Penny’s Pets has several color wolves for those people interested in my wild brothers.  Recently, Penny did some research and looked around on line at how real life zoos exhibit their wolves.  That’s one thing Penny often does.  She looks at how real life zoos house and exhibit various species.  The wolves she has are in an open enclosure with massive rocks on the sides and back, and with a small stream of water running along the front.  There is an observation area where people can walk in closer to see the wolves. Once they get in close, they will see an entire pack of wolves plus a newly animated Alpha Male and several little wolf pups.  All of the plants and trees contribute to the natural setting ideal to show off these gorgeous animals.  As you are standing there watching them, you will hear a ghostly howl arise from one howling on the rock, and the Alpha female, who is glossy white, lays patiently with her young. 

Of course it being Second Life, you are free to fly in very close to see the wolves, but for those folks out on a jaunt with their families or partners and want to pretend they are in a real life zoo, they can stand and watch, sit on the benches, or linger in the observation platform.  So, after you stroll through the Papercut Forest, look for the signs pointing to the wolves.  If you love wolves, you need to come see how these are exhibited.  And if you want your own wolf pack, they are animated to both function as a wild animal or as an exotic pet.

Hi there! I’m Murphy

Murphy (that's me)

I’m just probably the smartest dog in the entire world, so its only natural that I contribute to this blog Pens has started. Pens is the creator of Penny’s Pets and probably next to my mama, my best friend in the world.  She’s sort of made me her mascot at Penny’s Pets and I get to do a lot of fabulous things.  When she’s busy making a new animal or coming up with new ideas to entertain and educate, I think I will fill in for her.

Let me tell you about me first. My name is Murphy and I am a 3 year old Golden Retriever.  I was named after one of the brothers in The Boondock Saints.  I’m incredibly smart and know all sorts of words, phrases and commands and I am gorgeous too.  My coat is a beautiful series of shades ranging from gold to silver to bronze.  In addition to being gorgeous and smart, I am also one of the sweetest dogs you would ever know, except when I am dreaming and then I remind Pens and Mama of a timber wolf, and I don’t care much for cats.  I would chase them if Mama and Pens would let me, but they don’t.

Right now at Papercut, which is the sim that houses Penny’s Pets, Pens and my Mama Carla are working hard getting ready for a Harvest Dance.  They are still trying to decide on a good name for it.  They will hire a musician to come and sing and all sorts of people will come to the stage at Papercut and dance.  The Harvest Dance is meant to kick off the Halloween season and Pens is going to debut her Halloween animals.  She’s got some nice pets at a reduced price and she also has a few creepy things ’cause it is Halloween.

Hello From Me to You

Hello there. I’m PennyWhistle Cameron, the owner and creator of Penny’s Pets in Second Life.  I started this blog to keep people updated about the pet store, the sim, my satellite stores and what’s going on with us down there.  We’re always mixing it up and changing things, so we needed a way to let people know about the changes, special features and new items for sale.  This is my first entry and I have a lot of things to tell you folks initially and then I will send out messages and notifications as they occur.

Carla and Murphy in repose

First, I would like to give you a little background into Penny’s Pets.  The whole thing sort of steamrolled me, but it all started when I was looking for a Golden Retriever to give to my Real Life sister Carla who is also in the game and is my assistant, my touchstone, and my inspiration on many, many ventures.  She has a glorious three-year old Golden Retriever named Murphy who is a constant source of amusement to us both and I wanted her to have in Second Life what she has in Real Life.  I went to the only Pet Store I could find at the time and they didn’t have a Golden, so I went directly home and began crafting a dog.

I wish you could have seen my first effort.  He looked like a cross between Marmaduke and Clifford the Big Red Dog, was textured with brown leather, and was about the size of a Clydesdale.  But I kept working until I made something mostly resembling a Labrador.  A black lab easily became a yellow and a chocolate lab and then I just started making more and more breeds. My friend Keera Woyseck of Peace Haven Comunities encouraged me to open a store and offered me room in a little mall she had called Annabelle’s Emporium.  Thus began my secondlifelong battle with vendors.  It wasn’t long til I was making enough sales to have a free standing store which Keera built to perfection for me.

Then, not long after that Mash Mandala of Depoz came to see me to ask me to sell my dogs and cats at Depoz.  He wanted pets sold at Depoz and I happily complied and soon after Susan and XTrojan Ramos invited me to come sell my animals on their sims and I was thrilled to do so.  The last step was moving to a full sized sim and that is what we have on Papercut.  Penny’s Pets at Papercut is a full sim devoted to our love of animals.  Most are displayed in their natural setting, and lately we’ve taken on a whole zoo-like appearance.  We recreated the Big Cat House at Chicago’s Lincoln Park zoo to house our large cats, and recently added a Special Exhibits building along with an Endangered Species Building.  These two exhibits change monthly with a theme of animals in our Special Exhibit — right now, its Bears and we are displaying a Grizzly, a Black Bear, a Polar Bear, a Sun Bear and a Spectacled Bear.  The Endangered Species building is housing a pair of Cheetahs in their natural habitat.  These will both change in the next few days, and like I said before, change each month. In addition to being a commerical sim, we take great pride in making it visually pleasing with lots of pathways, trees, ponds and a complete North American Forest. 

Trophies and ribbons for the Best in Show!

At the center of it all is our Second Life Kennel Club Dog Show displaying our dogs in a dog show like tableau. Each breed is crafted to the specifications of the American Kennel Club breed standard, and is shown standing on an exhibit table as if he is being judged — and he is, by his prospective owner.  Our dogs are scripted with Artificial Intelligence, which means they have the capability to think for themselves.  You set their eating and sleeping locations and when they are hungry and tired they go to their beds to sleep and dishes to eat.  They are also animated to the max.  The dogs sit, lie down, sleep and close their eyes, sit up and beg, roll over and play dead, speak, offer their paws, throw their heads back to howl, pounce playfully and growl with menace.  They are created to be your companion and to follow their owner so they don’t roam, wander or forage on their own.  They also don’t end up on your neighbor’s roof, wander off world or fall out of skyboxes.  They stay where you put them!

Anyway, thats a little rundown, and I have run on and now must go for a bit, but I will be checking back in from time to time to updated the goings on at Penny’s Pets.