Rest In Peace, Spazz

Well, little buddy, I hear that you were already old when you came to me. All I can say is that I hope you enjoyed your stay, however short it was. I liked you - I liked how when anyone came near you, you'd jump straight up and then run away - tail crooked as could be. You were cute. You had personality. I'm going to miss sitting up late, watching you run, holding your tail funny. Much love, little one.

Who’s that flapping at my door?

A baby bird.

It's insane. I took my dogs out to the pen, I came back in and was checking on my rats, and I heard something at the door. I opened it and a baby bird flopped in. No shit. So I'm trying not to touch it and get it back outside and when I finally do it hops towards the dog pen. I was just like, "Nooo!" But then I noticed the unfortunate soul who was already in there. Yeah - another baby bird. The dogs were of course harassing it... it's missing some feathers, but it has no open wounds. I don't know if it has any broken bones... Anyway, I snatched it up and caught the other little shit who was hopping all over. He was probably headed off to get eaten by a cat. 😳

So now I have two baby birds. I don't know where the hell they came from. They're big enough that they have feathers, but they're not flying yet. Also I'm still really worried about the one who was with the dogs. The vets can't help me, animal control can't help me, and the museum is closed. (And lucky for me this is a long weekend). /sarcasm I don't know what to do. I have them in a warm, dark, quiet place. I hope some rest will do them good while I figure out what to do. Any suggestions?

Rest in Peace, Minuit

So, yeah. *sigh* Whatever took her set in suddenly, kept her suffering for days, and then was gone, along with her. She seemed to be hurting and despite my best efforts I could not help her. Missing her will certainly be easier than seeing her suffer.

I love you, baby girl. I will miss your secrets and your fuzzy nose kisses.

Nursing

Toad (Shadow's gerbil) hasn't been doing so well. I've been going all "nurse" on his ass. I hand feed him. I give him little things to do to keep him from going insane, but don't let him expend too much energy. I give him dust baths. I medicate his wound. I think he has a scent gland tumor and due to his age surgery probably wouldn't be the best idea. He's doing much better over these last few days so he's earned wheel privileges... if he keeps improving, hopefully I can put him back in with the other gerbils. I know they are not supposed to be alone, but they were chewing at his wound so I couldn't leave him with them. Gerbils can't leave anything alone, unfortunately. 😕

Also, Minuit looks like shit. I'm doing all that I can for her, too. I guess she's getting sort of up-there in ratty years. This damn sucks. She's kind of the last piece of Hairy that I feel I have left. Not that I don't love Minuit for who she is... because I do. I love a lot of things about her - one of the most awesome being that she tells me secrets. 😊 She always has. I hope she will be ok.

For Shame...

Y'all don't know every detail of what's been up with me lately. Lucky for you I can fix that. 😜

Two weeks ago I took in a new ferret. His name is Mocha. He's farkin' HUEGE. Yes, HUEGE. I don't have pictures of him yet, but I will soon. I think. He's really neat-looking.

Last Friday I got an IUD. HELLz YEAH for 5 years of not having to worry about producing more offspring! It pretty much hurt, though. Well - it has been 8 years since my cervix opened up to pop out Shadow so I guess it had plenty of time to close back up. The doctor guy was totally prepared for that shit, though. He had this long tapered stick that he proceeded to force into that tiny hole until it was tiny no longer. Yeah. But, let's not forget the clamps he had to use to grab my uterus and point it the right direction so that he could see what he was doing. Let me tell ya - there's nothing quite like having your organs moved around while you're totally aware. 😳

It's cool, though. I felt PRETTY crappy that Friday, but by the next day I was up for walking around all day... you know - like you might at a Renaissance Festival. So that's what we did. Shaun, me, Shadow and Nick went to one in GA. It was pirate weekend which was neat. Nick and Shaun got Didgeridoos. I took a bunch of pictures. Shadow played some drums. Me and Shaun came back with awesome matching SUNBURNS. I might have to dedicate a whole blog to that day.

Me and Shadow had dinner with Jeni on Wednesday. She can cook some chicken! Also, her cats are AWESOME. For serious - Chaucer is beautiful and weird. Poe is a people. What more could you ask for??

Shadow's now out of school for the summer. I'm happy about that. He is, too, of course. He received 3 awards today at school... 'cause he ROCKS!

I ran over a cross-tie and got my car stuck. Nick had to jack it up so that we could pull the tie out from under the car. Yay for dumb things I do that inconvenience people! 😂

So have you heard of "The Cat Empire"? They're awesome and they really remind me of cats. Like, when I listen to the music I think of alley cats singing. Maybe that's weird, but that's what I see in my head. Their voices are very cat-like and so are the things they sing about, kind of...

I have fairy band-aids. I've never seen them before. They came from Big Lots. The only reason I even remember that I do is because I've got one on my head... ja know - because of the giant lump I grew there. 😳 They came with a fairy card... collect all 56!

I feel so energetic tonight. This morning. Whatever. And I have stuff that I could be doing to burn that energy, but I hurt my foot cleaning a rat cage earlier so I don't really want to even stand up. Of course, I will have to unless I decide to sleep in this chair. ... Decisions, decisions...

Puppy Kisses,

Blu

Rest in Peace, Hairy

Oh Hairy. You probably have no idea how much your death tears me up. I so was not ready for this, though your health as of the last few months was a clue that you were not doing so well. I tried, baby girl - I really did. I'm sorry - I feel as though I failed you.

I haven't really put it out there, but me and Hairy have made several trips to the vet's office over the last few months... if it's not her eyes, it's her skin. We put ointment in her eyes for months and kept her on Benadryl to stop her from scratching her skin up, but nothing was helping. We finally put her on some oral antibiotics along with the eye ointment and she looked SO much better. Then here is it a month later and almost overnight she's on her last legs.

It really and truly happened fast... I woke up yesterday morning and her eyes were looking bad again. I called the vet and was instructed to start her back on antibiotics so I did. That evening when I came home she looked so much worse. Really skinny and squinty... it was terrible. My friend Jeni bought her some baby food and Gatorade and she ate pretty well. I put a heat lamp over her because she felt cold to the touch. I stayed up pretty late so that she could rest before I woke her up to get her to eat again. When I got up this morning she was barely moving and her breathing was so shallow that you could barely tell she was alive. She felt so cold.

I stayed home until she passed and then I held her and cried for a good hour or so - so much that I made myself pretty sick. I just didn't want to believe it was over - I kept looking for some sign of life, I guess out of desperation. But I knew better.

In a way I guess it should be a relief... I'd briefly considered having her put to sleep, because I just couldn't keep her healthy. I was just so tired of seeing her sick and since she couldn't voice it I never knew how bad or good she felt.

I've pretty much expected that she would not be as healthy as other hairless rats as they're pretty fragile creatures to begin with. On top of that she wasn't bred to be hairless - she was just sort of a mutant (all of her litter mates were furred). Most good breeders can weed out a lot of health problems over time, but Hairy didn't get that benefit. She didn't have the best start, though she seemed healthy up until lately... Gosh, though, these last few months were pretty brutal on her. From what I've read the life expectancy of a furred rat is 2-3 years... for a hairless it's usually 18-24 months. She was just a few months shy of 18 so I guess she was getting pretty up there in rat years anyway.

Anyway, Hairy, you were my first ratty girl. I really and truly loved you to pieces. I won't be getting over you anytime soon. I just hope that you get to rest, finally, and be free of sickness. Again, I'm really sorry that I couldn't save you. I love you.

R.I.P. Little Girl

I should have posted this weeks ago, but I haven't spent much time near the computer.

This little lady didn't exactly have a name... we just always referred to her and her twin sister as "The Girls." She was very sweet... I watched her grow up from a teeny tiny baby. Her father was my first gerbil, Testiclees, so in a way she was my grand-gerbil.

I've been pretty distraught over the way it happened... those puppies that I took in temporarily got ahold of her somehow... what an awful way to go. 😭 She was still young so I know she had a few good years left in her. I feel completely and utterly responsible for her death... I just wasn't thinking. If I had been I would have known better than to leave puppies alone with my other pets. I was just kind of at a loss as to where else to put those dogs... if I had left them in the streets they would've been hit by a car eventually - probably right in front of my house. I guess that was life's way of telling me that I can't save everyone. Damn if I don't keep trying, though.

Anyway, little darlin' I am SO sorry and you will be missed.