Would you be willing to do another “Leader Dex” entry? Perhaps on Kanto-Johto’s Elite Four?

Well, I haven’t yet been beaten into the ground by certain gym leaders’ pokémon, so certainly.

That is still a terrible reason for doing these. —LH

Lorelei
The Queen of Ice
Type: Ice
Position: Kanto—First Point
Entry: A highly skilled strategic mastermind originally from Four Island. Her demeanor on the battlefield is fearsome and focused, and her command of her water- and ice-types—most notably jynx, dewgong, and lapras—is virtually unrivaled. For these reasons, it is a remarkably terrible idea to threaten her idyllic home village … or to bring up her love for collecting soft pokémon dolls. Incidentally, this entry also describes the blog’s editor, which is why the author is occasionally terrified of her too.

Bruno
The Fist of Fury
Type: Fighting
Position: Kanto—Second Point; Johto—Third Point
Entry: A black belt in multiple branches of martial arts, this man is fully capable of breaking the average human being in half, never mind the capabilities of his highly trained elite force of fighting- and ground-type pokémon. Yet despite this, he is still less terrifying than Lorelei.

Agatha
The Gray Lady
Type: Ghost
Position: Kanto—Third Point
Entry: A veteran trainer and master of the ghost and poison types. Renowned for her toughness but also for her temper, she famously was once a rival to Professor Oak himself, shortly before his retirement from training. Evidently, this was decades ago, but the exact circumstances of his retirement have left Agatha so bitter that any mention of Oak—especially words of reverence—in her presence may provoke her volcanic anger. One would think the author would find her more fearsome than Lorelei and thus hesitate to write this entry (or refer to her as “the Gray Lady”), but luckily, Lorelei agrees with him, and Agatha herself is a technophobe and thus is unlikely to read this.

Lance
The Dragon Master
Type: Dragon
Position: Kanto—Fourth Point
Entry: Thankfully, the far more amicable cousin of Clair, and a far better conversationalist at that. He can still very likely break you with not one but two dragonite, but at the very least, he’s far less likely to do so.

Will
The Psychic Wonder
Type: Psychic
Position: Johto—First Point
Entry: The youngest inductee to the Elite Four and a master of psychic pokémon. From a young age, this formidable psychic-type specialist trained under the best minds of his field from all over the world until he became strong and skilled enough to develop his abilities into his own, unique battling style. As the youngest member of the Elite Four, Will has a habit of forgoing his own well-being in favor of training under the assumption that this is the only way he can maintain his lofty position, but at the same time, he’s well-known among his peer group for having a rather … odd sense of humor that relies heavily on puns, sarcasm, and morbidity. For all of these reasons, the editor of this blog has asked me to note that this individual reminds her of a certain other workaholic Johtonian prodigy with confidence issues, a terrible sense of humor, and a kadabra, but unfortunately, she never told the author who this could be. (What if I know them, Lanette?)

Koga
The Poisonous Ninja Master
Type: Poison
Position: Johto—Second Point
Entry: You are still not allowed to go anywhere near this man’s daughter. Also, you are not allowed to ask when he got promoted to the Elite Four. He just did.

Karen
The Mistress of Shadows
Type: Dark
Position: Johto—Fourth Point
Entry: A talented mistress of the dark type and lover of all pokémon. Also beautiful, intelligent, wise, fantastically powerful, passionate, elegant, determined, emotionally strong, and—for the numbers of you who have sent fanmail to both the Pokémon League HQ or, inexplicably, the Pokémon Association HQ—flattered but still aromantic and asexual.

I had a bad experience with a Mr. Mime as a child and as an adult am still terrified of them. My boyfriend had a mime jr, who I love to bits but I’m terrified of him evolving :( what do I do?

First and foremost, it’s extremely important for you to communicate with your boyfriend about this. That way, he knows about your condition, and he can (assuming he wishes to prolong your relationship with him) take steps to safeguard your mental well-being. This may even include discussing things with his mime jr. to see if it wishes to evolve in the first place—and, if it doesn’t, what it wishes to do to avoid evolution. You see, mime jr. can only evolve if it’s taught a certain move. Thus, staying in its base form would actually take no effort at all, save for the paltry amount it would take to resist learning Mimic. As you’ve said, you’re comfortable with your boyfriend’s mime jr. as it is, so if mime jr. is comfortable with its form, then your solution is easier than you might think.

However, if mime jr. wishes to evolve, then there are a few options that you could exercise. You could see about perhaps reaching a compromise, where your boyfriend trains his mime jr. up to be the strongest mime jr. that has ever existed, or it could evolve and simply keep its distance. Alternatively, there’s also exposure therapy, which tends to be the easiest and most effective way of treating most pokémon-related phobias, and thus, it may be the most ideal option you have, as it allows mime jr. to assume the form it most wishes to be while at the same time helping you to maintain your relationship with it past its evolution. If you wish to try this method, it’s important for you to find and talk to a certified therapist, as this is, of course, what’s technically a medical treatment (meaning I can’t in good conscience offer detailed advice on how to administer it).

Still, I can’t emphasize this enough: your most important task right now is talking to your boyfriend and making it clear to both him and his mime jr. your concerns. Let them know that it’s not his mime jr. specifically but rather a fear instilled in you by prior experiences that you would be willing to resolve if necessary. In addition to working out possible solutions (the aforementioned compromises), your boyfriend and his mime jr. will likely be your biggest form of support, should you wish to undergo exposure therapy.

Good luck, anonymous.

Bill, my vaporeon just had its litter, 5 healthy little eevee babies. The only problem is, one of the babies is shiny and the mother is rejecting it! What do I do to ensure my silver baby stays healthy and alive?

As a warning, Bill, “donate it to me” is not an appropriate answer.—LH

You wound me, Lanette. You wound me. —Bill

Unfortunately, this means you’ll need to care for the puppy yourself. It’s very rare (and difficult) to get the mother to adopt her pup after she’s rejected it, and in some cases, she may even attack the puppy if you try to reintroduce it.

That having been said, there are three things you need to monitor for immediately after birth if you haven’t figure it out already: hypothermia, low blood sugar, and dehydration. If your puppy is shivering, that’s a good thing. If it isn’t and if its nose is losing color, that would be hypothermia. If your puppy’s nose and gums are wet, then it’s fine, but if you feel a sticky, mucous membrane in its mouth, then dehydration is setting in. Finally, if your puppy is more lethargic than usual or if it’s convulsing, then its blood sugar is dangerously low. The latter two conditions warrant a trip to your local pokémon center, but it’s important to know that there are ways to prevent your eevee from getting to this state.

First, heat. It’s important to stabilize your eevee’s body temperature within the first week. Use heat lamps and hot water bottles to keep your eevee warm; blankets shouldn’t be used in addition to this, as it’s very easy to induce heat stress in your puppy (which is just as bad as hypothermia … just less difficult to achieve). Try to keep your eevee’s environment at around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) on the first two days, then drop the temperature down by a degree each day after that until your eevee can survive on its own body heat.

Feeding, meanwhile, is a bit more difficult to resolve, but it’s vital for not only the other two issues I’ve mentioned above but also the development of your eevee’s immune system. If you have another female mammalian pokémon that’s of breeding age, try to get it to nurse from her. If not, try to find a breeder or a friend with one such pokémon and ask them for milk, or purchase raw miltank milk or specially crafted eevee formula. The latter may be the easiest option, actually, as it’s readily available at all pokémarts and contains all the vitamins, minerals, and sugars a growing eevee needs. It just doesn’t quite provide the biological component that helps with a young eevee’s immune system, so some trainers prefer the more organic method if they can find it.

All young eevee need to be fed about once every two to three hours. (If it’s healthy, it will cry to let you know when it’s time.) If not feeding from another pokémon, you’ll need to give it its milk or formula from a bottle. Be sure to sterilize the bottle before loading by boiling it for five to ten minutes in water. Dry thoroughly, then fill it. Finally, warm the bottle gently until it reaches a temperature of 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (35 to 37.8 degrees Celsius)—or human body temperature, in other words. If a drop of it applied to the back of your wrist is too hot for you, then it’s too hot for your eevee.

Once your eevee reaches about two to three weeks, you can begin to wean it. Feed it milk in a flat dish to teach it how to eat from a bowl for the first two weeks, then give it specially made eevee puppy kibble (available at any pokémart) in addition to the milk for the next two. Decrease the amount of milk you give it each day after you begin feeding it solid foods. After a month, you can switch completely to the kibble and water. (Do not feed it anything but kibble until about two months.)

Finally, one last thing not that many people think of: getting it to relieve itself. Eevee don’t really know this at birth; rather, their mothers lick their stomachs to get them to go. You can simulate this behavior by rubbing your eevee’s stomach after feeding. Do this for two to three weeks after birth (or, in other words, as you feed it milk or formula), or it simply won’t relieve itself.

Make it past a couple of months, and your eevee should be able to survive on its own, just like any other eevee. But it’s important to remember that until then, it’s a good idea to avoid reintroducing this one to its mother. You may be able to expose it to its brothers and sisters, but the mother may attack your shiny eevee on sight. It’s a leftover instinct from the wild—behavior designed to discourage a shiny from coming back and putting the rest of the litter in danger by drawing in a predator, basically. After the eevee can survive on its own and begins mastering its attacks, the mother may take an ambivalent stance towards her puppy, but it’s unlikely that she’ll ever see it as hers. It’s up to you to give that hatchling the love and affection it needs to grow.

Best of luck, anonymous.

Happy Halloween! I hope that there aren’t any Rotoms possessing PC Boxes so you guys can have fun today.

Thank you, anonymous! Thankfully, no, we haven’t had any incidents of rotom infestations—or porygon-z infestations, for that matter. It has, by and large, been rather quiet.

We apologize for the lack of responses tonight, by the way. I’m not one for holidays myself, but my editor insists that I take breaks on them … for some reason. Normally, I would protest, but when else do I get to spend an evening watching horror movies she would consider to be offensive to her artistic sensibilities? (Honestly, Lanette, Chateau isn’t that terrible.)

In any case, we wish all of you a happy Halloween as well!

Hey I’m the anon who had their mismagius circling the bed. I noted all my dreams had actually been really good. So I dug a little deeper and found something more sinister in the works. So it turns out a drowzee had been stalking me! I got up one of the nights she was circling me and noticed very sinister eyes at my window. I thanked her for all her hard work and gave her treats. Our relationship has gotten even better, I guess she was distant because she was so sleepy from protecting me at night

Poor mismagius. I’m very glad it worked out, anonymous, and it’s good that you thanked her for her hard work.

In the meantime, to avoid this problem in the future, I would suggest either putting up cleanse tags around your property or obtaining a guard houndoom or mightyena that you keep primarily outside. Either method should keep your drowzee “friend” from coming back.

Good luck, anonymous!

My pumpkaboo is nocturnal and likes waking me up at 2-4 am every night by laying on my chest and letting its glowing eyes wake me. When I do wake up she squeals and snuggles me. I love her but why does she do this and how do I get her to understand mommy needs sleep

Well, a lot of it has to do with pumpkaboo’s nocturnal nature. They’re most active at night, which means their 2 to 4 am is your 2 to 4 pm. As such, they simply get bored, especially if you’re not awake to give them affection. For this reason, some pumpkaboo owners like to give their pokémon plenty of toys—especially complex ones or sturdy ones that can endure heavy use—to keep their pumpkaboo occupied until they’re awake. Given that yours is sitting on your chest, waiting for you to wake up, I have no doubt it’s just that your pumpkaboo needs more stimulation during her most active hours, and this may be your solution.

Alternatively, wild pumpkaboo take it upon themselves to lead lost souls to the spirit world. In Kalos, they’re even considered an equivalent to the Grim Reaper. This, of course, shouldn’t be any cause of alarm. Rather, what I’m saying is that your pumpkaboo may also be worried that you’ve died, and it’s observing you breathe as you sleep while watching your spirit. You can reassure her that you’ll wake up in the morning by establishing a routine with her: wishing her good night every night, then wishing her good morning at a set time every day, just before feeding her breakfast. If she gets used to such a routine, she’ll come to rely on its dependency, rather than on her own observations, which will allow her to leave you alone at night.

I would recommend doing both (giving her toys and establishing a routine), as it can’t hurt to do both at once, and, if anything, it will be more of a comfort to her.

Best of luck, anonymous.

I suppose my question is a bit more on the technology side of things than the pokemon side, but why is it that Dusk Balls work better in the dark?

Dusk balls are actually part of a line of environmental/circumstantial capture devices that also include dive and net balls. While dusk balls were released to the public much later than the other three, they work essentially the same way. For example, have you ever wondered why dive balls work better underwater or in the vicinity of a large body of water? It’s because the ball is built in with sensors that gather information on the wetness of a certain area. Even when surfing, you’re bound to get a bit wet, and the dive ball understands this and increases the strength of its capture net. In the same way, dusk balls have sensors calibrated to detect light. The less light detected when you expand the ball, the stronger the ball’s capture net will be. In both cases, there is always a baseline; dusk and dive balls work just as well as basic poké balls when not in their respective environments. It’s just that their capture systems are designed in such a way that when certain conditions are met, their internal batteries give them a power boost when used on a pokémon.

As for why, specifically, these balls are designed to do such a thing, it’s because this specific line of poké balls was designed to capture very specific pokémon. Whereas dive and net balls were designed to capture ocean- and river-dwelling pokémon (and bug-types, in the case of the net ball), the dusk ball was originally meant to capture cave-dwelling and nocturnal pokémon.

After many long weeks I finally found out what my growlithe was barking at. My neighbour had a gengar which he kept secret as the apartments we live in don’t allow ghost pokemon. It kept sneaking in my flat at night and my growlithe was simply trying to keep it out. Just wanted to update!

Excellent to hear … that you found out what the source is, anyway. It’s not quite as exciting to know that you’re being haunted by your neighbor’s gengar, and I wish you the best of luck at resolving that particular issue. (Unfortunately, I have no advice when it comes to dealing with inconsiderate neighbors. Terribly sorry, anonymous!)

Since it’s almost Halloween, I decided to give my female Pikachu a bunch of cute costumes to possibly wear! But a strange thing I notice is that she seem to get “too” into character and even learn a random move that she didn’t have originally. For example, she just suddenly learned flying press in her wrestling costume (and tries to get me into a sleeper hold but that besides the point) and in her rockstar outfit, she gets Metor Mash instead. Is this normal for female Pikachus or what?

Yes, and it’s an interesting phenomenon, really. My partner first observed it in the contest halls in Hoenn, but apparently, female pikachu adore performing so much that certain costumes allow them to adopt certain personas and unlock specific dormant abilities. She theorizes that it’s similar to how all pikachu can learn Fly or Surf but can only do so under very specific circumstances.

In any case, it only seems to happen with five specific costumes, typically available in contest halls under the Angelic Beauty label—or, well, knock-offs thereof. No other costume combination seems to trigger latent moves, I’m afraid, although most pikachu will enjoy dressing up all the same.

I caught a Hydreigon recently and since I brought him home he’s been bringing me… presents in the form of killed pokemon… why is he doing this? He seems excited to show me these presents. He’s been mostly staying away from my other Pokémon, so no fights have been happening. I’m really concerned that one of my Pokémon could become these bloody presents at my door though

Unfortunately, hydreigon are also like cats in a way. As fearsome, bestial pokémon, they take pride in their ability to hunt … but they also expect their young to do the same. Technically, there are actually two possibilities at work here, but both of them are very, very similar. Either your hydreigon is trying to show you his catch because he’s expecting praise for it, or he’s showing you his catch because he’s trying to teach you how to hunt. You’ll be able to figure out which by observing his body language when he brings you his kill. If he sits back and cranes his main neck or if he lies down and rolls over, craning his neck at the same time, then he’s searching for praise. (Both positions are signs of submission among the hydreigon.) However, if he’s pawing at the corpse and looking at you expectantly, then he’s trying to teach you that this is what a kill looks like.

In both cases, thank him for the offering, give him a treat, and dispose of the body (perhaps by burning it, if it’s large) whenever he’s not looking. If he’s trying to show you how to hunt, tell him politely that you appreciate his efforts but that it’s not necessary for you to hunt the way he’s trying to show you. You may even want to let him watch you cook and eat to show him that you’re perfectly fine without hunting. (Sometimes, this method remedies the other motivation behind displaying a kill, but usually, otherwise, that behavior will simply continue until your hydreigon realizes on his own that he doesn’t need to show off a kill to get affection out of you.)

As for your other pokémon, luckily, you don’t need to worry. It’s not so much because your hydreigon recognizes them as teammates as it is because your hydreigon recognizes them as tamed pokémon. Wild pokémon are much more of a challenge to catch and kill (as they more often run or congregate in large groups), and thus, your hydreigon will always go after them instead. Even when faced of a shortage of wild prey, hydreigon would rather go without killing anything at all than killing something owned by a trainer. I’m not sure how comforting that statement is, but at the very least, the point is that your pokémon are safe.