Well we're moved into the new house. It was pretty crazy, but I'm glad we did it. It's worth it just to have the woods out back for Melly (the dog) to play in and the room to put the rabbits back outside. Hucks doing fine with it, even though I am fretting for no reason over him. He's a hardy little guy. Star knows the routine, and is even bitchier than ever.  I think the outside world brought her spunk back or something. This morning when I was feeding them, she lunged at me and made me spill pellets all over the place. I got pretty aggrivated, talk about biting the hand that feeds you. She is beyond territorial, she a killer. VERY cage aggressive. Always has been. I could kick myself for not spaying her, but hell, when I first got her severeal years ago, I wasn't privvy to the idea of fixing rabbits.  Shes such a meanie. 
The rats are doing good, but my beloved Elsa has developed a mammary tumour. I am so upset, and so is John. She is such a great animal. We let it go on until she started losing nutrients to it. Shes losing weight now, so its about time to take care of the problem and have her put down. I would have had it taken out, but I know how this works. They just come right back. Wasted stress and money. 
The cats are loving it. Though Hobbes and Magpie both stressed out pretty bad at first. Hobbes loves going to new places, but he didn't expect or like all the changes with the furniture and other surounding stuff. That freaked him out enough to pee on the floor a couple times, which he never does. And magpie lost a bunch of weight and developed some diarrhea. We took care of dehydration and other issues though, and got some special food for her at the vets, and shes doing better now. 
I actually got a new cat as well. We named him Milo. He had a pretty bad cold at first, but he got over it jsut fine. Hes gained his weight back (from being a stressed out shelter cat) and gotten rid of some scabs he had on his backside from what I think was stressful compulsive scratching and over-grooming. Hes an awesome cat. We think hes maybe around 2 or 3 years old. Hes a creamy off white color, with orange ears and face. And awesome blue eyes. Hes beautiful.

Oliver had to find a new home where he could go outside. He was refusing to use the litter boxes no matter what, and as I hated to do that, I have to find a middle ground right now with m lifestyle. The cats have to stay inside, so they also must find a middle ground. I hated losing him, but sometimes that just has to happen for everyones sake. 

One of my goldfish, Syd, the long-finned orange and white oranda, got stuck between the tank heater and the wall of the tank about 4 days ago. I found him there in the morning. What had happened was the bubbles from the airstone had gotten pushed right at that spot, probably by the oversized pleco in there, and they had pushed him up into that cramped spot form where he couldn't escape. I felt so terrible, and pushed the heater to the middle of the tank. They like to play in those bubbles, and get lifted up to the surface, so I'm sure thats what he was doing. He looks terrible, and I feel so bad because Im sure hes in all kinds of pain. His scales are gone on almost half of his body, his wens a mess, and his dorsal find is in tatters. I put him in his own tank and am treating him with daily doses of melafix and immune system boosting food. He is improving slowly but surely. He's eating enthusiasticly now, and starting to swim up some while at first he wouldn't leave the bottom. I feel so terrible for the little guy, because they don't make pain relievers for fish. That I know of anyway. But at least he's improving. John thought we should put him down, but I want to try to save him. I think he will pull through, but he will probably never look the same. But who cares as long as hes happy. 
It was interesting too, because I dropped the tank's morning feeding in there as I always do, and the other three goldfish wouldn't come to eat. Which, if anyone has ever had holdfish, knows thats completely wack. They are ravenous little shits. They were all acting weird, as if to get me to investigate. So I did, and didn't see Syd, until I found him stuck where he was. When I took him out into his own tank, they started eating. That's pretty neat I thought. Who knows?
Well I need to go let Melly in, she's probably out there chasing all the deer away.

So, long time no post I know. And as usual, there have been a lot of changed with the animals here. I decided to find the ferrets a new home. With work, school and housekeeping they were definately not getting out as much as they needed to be and I was way too guilty to keep them if I couldn't give them what they needed. Plus, Lilly was going through that teenage stage of ferret mayhem, and I think she is much happier now. Her new home, with her buddy Flower, includes a 13 year old who will have the time and energy to play and romp with them as much as they need. I feel really good about it. 

We still have Star the bitchy rabbit, though we have once again come to terms with eachother. She has decided that it really isn't worth it to lunge at us every time we go to feed her, and we just leave her in her hutch to her own devices as she pleases. The door is always open should she ever choose to come out and get some exercise.  She gets rub downs and she still sits still and likes that. Nail clipping is tolerated, she mainly just gets scared instead of homocidal now. She is really starting to get older, and mainly just wants her peace and quiet. Thats fine by me, do I ever feel that request! She gets her pellets and hay every day and has a new big rug to rip at and lay on, so she is content. Here soon we are going to build her a new bigger hutch, as our new rabbit Huck will be moving into her hutch. 

Huck is awesome. He's a mini rex buck, otter coat variety. We at first thought he was blue, but now I am thinking he is opal in color. I will just have to wait until he molts a couple times. His dam is castor in color and his sire his a broken black, both really handsome colors though not two that idealy should have been matched. But that's OK. The lady I bought him from raises several different breeds of rabbits, and she lives right down the road from me! Its awesome to finnally meet somebody else who is a big geek about raising rabbits like I am. She rescues as well, and has lal kinds of sweet friendly rabbits who need good homes. She had bred standard chinchilla rabbits with new zealands, and wow, what an interesting looking rabbit that made. Very beautiful if you ask me, and a nice meat rabbit if thats what your into. Me personally, yeah right lol. 

But anyway, Huck is around 7 or 8 weeks old now. Hes growing and eating great, and has the best personality of any rabbit I have had in a long time. He is super friendly and inquisitive. He is active and hyper if he doesn't get his daily run arounds in the bedroom, and who wouldn't be. I just love him. It is very intersting to note the automatic differences in a pure bred rabbits bred for meat, show and pet quality, compared to a mixed breed. Huck is just so much more friendly and willing to accept people into his life. It is refreshing and fun for me. But also, I admire those mixed breed mogrels who are high spirited and independent. They are strong and free, that's for sure. But Huck is a sweetie, and sure is making the best out of his domestication. He is loving life. I plan to breed mini rex on a very small scale soon, once Huck is old enough. They are just great rabbits and I am really falling in love with them. I have to wait and see what color he is going to turn out to be first lol. 

Another new addition, at least since I have written, is Melly. She was going to be put to sleep at the shelter, and of course I caved. She is the most loving, docile creature I have ever met. She is a small, about 25 lb basset hound mix. She looks like she has bloodhound, beagle, basset and maybe dauchound in her. Who knows, shes a pure mutt. But she loves kittens and baby bunnies and is very well trained allready. Housebreaking set in smoothly, and she walks great on a leash. She isn't hyper, even though she isn't quite a year old. She was easy as hell to train. I almost wanted more of a challenge lol. The only issues she has is eating cat shit and chewing up the little cat toys - those little furry mice that cats freak out over. Well, Melly can't resist them. Hand her one and she looks at the ground like shes about to get in big trouble, she understands they are off limits. But man, you leave the room and shes in a good mood, that mouse is history. But she has to be in a good hapy go lucky mood or she won't do it. She has brain farts we think. She knows better, but doesn't think of it when she is bored and alone. I think this stuff will improve when she mentally matures and her attention span widens a little. She's still only around 7 months old. 

Now on to the cats. Magpie, or as John and I call her: Maggiepie. She is a dark calico/tortioseshell kitten who cam e to us. A friend found a litter of four and pleaded with me to raise two of them up so she wouldn't have all four. Of course I agreed. I took Magpie and her sister Queenie, who now owns my dad. Magpie has always been a really agreeable, more quiet kitten. She is outgoing however, and as playful as any other kitten. Shes really sweet and fun, and we just had to keep her. Shes very beautiful, she has long fur and its mainly black with orange stripes and blotches in it, and her chest and feet are white. She's pretty unique looking. A reall sweetie. Just had her first vet visit the other day. She was so pretrified she did everything wonderfully for them lol.


Oh. And Remy. Remy is the biggest, fattest rat I have ever seen. But hes really friendly. My friend needed to find a new home for her rat, so I took him, assuming I could just put him in the huge community rat cage (old ferret cage) where our other three males, Newton, Guapo, and Jackson live. But no. Remy has been alone all his life, and he has no idea how to socialize correctly with his own species. He jumps them in firght when they mean no harm, and if they try to make peace by rolling onto their backs, he bites their feet. They are cautious around him but not aggressive. They understand how to act, and after a few days of initial pecking order work all would be fine. But Remy can't hack it. Hes in his own small cage right now, placed beside the other boys. I am hoping he will learn more as time goes by so I can dich his cage and he can have more room with them. Plus I don't want another odd cage sitting around. If he refuses to cooperate and cannot learn, then I am going to find a home for him. There are plenty of people out there who only want one rat, and they could have Remy who prefers being alone instead of buying an innocent baby who will go through months of depression from being left all alone. I've done it. People just don't understand how social rats are. It is really inhumane to house them seperately unless the themselves will it that way. 

Oh, and Pat. Pat is a pigeon. A wild rock dove, yes. As far as I can tell he was hit by a car. Melly noticed him on the side of the road one night when we were walking her. We took him in, did all we could for his bum wing, and waited. Trust me, he would have gone to the vet, but nobody will see an invasive species. It took him a few days to get his head on straight and remember to be scared of us humans, and when he did, his wing was no good. He is totally unreleasable. I have tried to find him a bird person, and still am. In the meantime, he will be safe with us. He is housed in a large pet carrier right now, but is going outside in a coop soon, because we are moving up the road to a real house with a back yard and a front porch. I am also going to build Star a new, larger hutch and her and Huck will be residing in the back yard. I know she will be happier to be back outside with the fresh air, sounds and smells and natural light. She was a changed rabbit when we had to move her indoors at this apartment. 
A couple friends are coming with us to share the rent. We are very excited, and I will posting again after the move to talk about how Hobbes and the other animals take it. I am sure they will freakin love it, I know I will.

So I got a new female ferret yesterday. My old buddy Ender recently had to be put down due to pancreatic cancer, he was 5 years old. 
This new female ferret is really cool, shes silver and white and is really big. Only thing is, she seems to have some kind of slight spinal deformity, shes had no injuries (according to her previous owner) but she was in a rescue facility before that, so who knows. It doesn't pain her though, and the rest of her bones and muscles feel normal. The problem area is at the base of her spine, above the hips. Instead of sloping upward to make that characteristic hump curve in ferrets back, her turns slightly downward, like an S shape. SHe moves around just fine, and everything else is normal. I don't know much about this though, and Im having trouble finding info on it online. Anybody ever had a ferret with something like this? It seems like a birth defect. 

So Cleo has been cycling her weirdness and coolness. One week she is totally out of it weird, poor girl, high strung and paranoid. The next she is layed back and calm. And this is the unbelievable part: Two mornings ago she allowd Doc to clean her! It was such a breakthrough! He licked her head and she was cool with it. Her last owners won't believe it. 
I talked to my vet about it the other day when we had Doc in for his monthly shot, and he said to bring Cleo in for blood work. I want to rule out medical problems before I blame all of her problems on psychology, though I think that is whats going on.

Everyone else is doing good. I found out lately that aquarium snails are almost illegal in all 50 states because idiotic people out there are letting them go outside and they are eating important crops. God people, come on. So I have been thinking about getting another 10 gallon and keeping a bunch of snails in it to breed for my own aquariums. I love them! And they're good cleaners. I got a new apple snail today for the 20 gallon. If its a female I'm going to try and get her to breed with the male in the 10 gallon. If she will have him that is lol. They breed like a million rabbits though, so I will probably be letting the two orandas have some babies for treats. Sounds terrible.
I also got Lilly a new coller, her third one. This one better not get lost. (Doc?)

So I found out about yesterday about a camp for homeless children near here in WV. They emphasize on outdoors experiences, have over 300 acres of land, and several farm animals. It sounds like a wonderful place. www.Scottiesplace.org. They have student volunteers too. I was thinking of going there for next summer and helping out with their animals and hopefully incorporating some neat arts and crafts projects for the kids.  That is if for some reason my plans with the Three Rivers Avian Society don't work out. We shall wait and see I suppose. Both equally good causes.

CHRIST ABOVE! The ferrets are being such shits! Its not their fault though...they're getting bored with the living room. I don't let them in the kitchen because omg, theres a million places to squirm into and too many large appliances to hide under. I don't let them in the bedroom because Star 100% flips out. I mean FLIPS OUT. Of course rabbits and weasels are natural enemies, number one enemies. God she hates them. The other day Lilly got in there and started trying to climb up the front of Star's hutch. good god, you would've though the world was ending. I have never seen Star to pissed, and shes a pissy rabbit. She wouldn't let anyone get near her the rest of the day. Lilly was just like "Oh WOW LETS PLAY!" She would've got her intestines ripped out if Star was out. Poor Star lol, her and her damned hormones. I can't wait to get her spayed. I think I will haveenough extra money to do it soon. I can do it now, But I don't want to go bankrupt. John and I just opened a joined savings account, god help me, so once its got 200$ in it we're good. I need to go pick up my pay check actually....
So Here are some recent changes: We went back to the fish store that we found Arthur (the piggy) at and guess what, his brother was there this time. I smaller black piggy with shorter hair. Of course we got him, and they love eachother. Poor Arthur was so lonely. I think they have now realized that humping eachother will do no good, bu they still have guinea pig purring competitions. They're such little weirdos.
I moved the two cherry barbs into the ten gallon with the betta, man hes the most layed back betta ever. My mom fed him till he was fat, which he still is. Hes probably too lazy to try and kill anything. I also put the teeny african dwarf frog in there, because really 20 gallons is too big for him. I couldn't find the other one though...I htink the pictus catfish made a meal of him. :(
Cleo: what a bitch. We have been extensively working through her mental instability, and trust me thats what it is. Shes had such a fucked up past, shes so weird. Ever since Doc came in, she started trying to pee on rugs instead of the litter box that GOD FORBID he would use. Well we have since added other litter boxes and trained her, and she has been doing SO GOOD for weeks now, then the other day she peed on my grandmothers blanket. I walked in the living room, and there was the blanket on the chair, and he squatted over it. I took off afer her and she leaped for cover, but I was the faster one! She always knows shes doing wrong, but she just cant bring herself to pee int he litter box. 
One day I was in the bathroom, and she was staring into the litter box (which was clean by the way) like it was a cess pond. She made this pathetic little meow, like "oh my god how can I actually step into this disgusting cess pong, oh god help me!"  She is the ultimate priss, thinks she should be treated like a queen. God its hallarious but so insufferable.
 When we keep her in the bathroom, she does ok. And sometimes now she will go back and use it. Shes improving but GODDAMN!!!! She is so lucky she is with us, very tolerant and understanding pet owners, and not some ass hole. She would have been put to sleep months ago, garanteed. 
She dashes around the apartment like a stalker is always chasing her. If something spooks her, she hides behind the radiaters for DAYS. She is as sweet and loving to people as can be, but she is really unstable. Like she would probably be living at some kind of institution if she were human. She has had a hard past, as I said before. But now, we're going to keep things clean here, no peeing around the house! 
Hmm, anything else....the ferrets are getting a bath, ear cleaning, and nail clipping today. Woohoo I cant wait. At least theyre arent cats. I would probably be dead now if they were. They are actually very behaved in the bath, but the ear cleaning is another story. It takes four hands. 
The rats are doing fine. Clover, the former feeder rat, is totally different. Besides her terrible sight and thus nipping habit, she is fine. Elsa is her crazy hyper self, always trying to come out and run a muck. Shes almost a year now, almost a year since I got Clover and she gave birth in my drom room lol, to eight little black babies. One of Elsa's brothers is at Joe's, and that is the fattest laziest rat I have EVER freaking seen. Hes even lazier then Blue was. Male rats are so funny, I really miss having one. There was this enormous one I saw at Petland AKA HELL FOR ANIMALS. I wanted to get him so bad, but of course cannot give those ass holes money. They treat their rats terrible. Oh god I hate petland. 

Oh god, lol. Ender and Lilly are dancing to Queen's Don't Stop Now. They might as well be singing the lyrics. They're havin a such a good time, shootin star leaping through the sky like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity.  Super Sonic!  Queen cracks me up. 
Ok its bath time. More later.

So yeah, I have had a crazy and hectic summer, to say the least. I won't even go into that, that's left to my written private journal. But John and I are totally settled in our apartment and doing great. I really need to update on our pet situation. Unfortunately, my first update must be about Cheech the chinchilla. He died totally unexpectadly a couple of months ago. We found him one night with labored breathing, half concious. He had seizures for about an hour as I talked on the phone with our vet, and nothing we did helped. He died that night, not suffering long. It was really traumatic and weird...we think he had a heart condition and was a lot older then we previously thought.

Everyone else on the other hand is doing great. Star the rabbit is a changed bunny, she is so sweet and social now that she gets a daily run around and interacts with us all the time. She hardley ever snorts at us anymore, and she is trained to use the bathroom on a puppy pad while shes out.

Cleo and Doc, our two cats, are doing good. Doc was a pathetic stray we adopted who is luekemia positive, but healthy as of now. He's a growing boy, really affectionate, and a joy to have around. Cleo is her old lady bitchy spoiled self, the perfect example of a self-absorbed cat. She a big sweetie though, and having good-natured Doc around has really taught Cleo to tolerate cats a lot more. She is beginning to realize that she isn't human now.

The ferrets are doing fine, though I had a really good scare with Ender. He is now four and a half, and he started losing hair on his tail and losing a lot of weight. I ravenously looked up possibilities, and among other harmless posibilities, was adrenal gland cancer. AND I found a liable cause for this was unnatural exposure to excessive light. Ferrets need a balanced light and dark intake that they don't get while living inhuman captivity. So now their cage is totally covered with heavy blankets so many hours of the day, and go figure Ender is gaining weight back and his hair grew back. I was so shocked it worked so good...Im going to try as hard as I can to not let anythingl ike that happen to Lilly, who isn't even a year old yet. 

AND we adopted a new guinea pig whom John named Arthur for reasons unknown to me : ). He has come along great and isn't the typical skittish piggy anymore. We are looking for a buddy for him as he desperately wants to play with Star but she won't have anything to do with him. 

Ah, and the fish. I am officially a fish hobbyist now, if thats what it must be called. I have a 20 gallon that my dad gave me, and two fat baby Oranda goldfish. I never thought I would like goldfish, but theyre relaly neat fish with all kinds of varieties. These two are hallarious to watch and a lot of fun. I also have in there a large pleco, (getting too big), two teeny cherry barbs, two albino cory's, and two tiny dwarf frogs in there somwhere. Once I have somewhere else to put them I am going to find them and take them out. I have a two gallon at home I think would work good.

I also have a ten gallon in the living room that houses my betta and his mates, a small pleco and a big apple snail. They're doing good. We tried to keep three dward puffers in there with no success, they all got sick within a week. I give up on them anyway, I want to be able to keep more then one kind of fish together, and they're mean little shits. 

I have another five gallon at home too, trying to resist bringing it here as well. I don't know what I would put in there though, perhaps another betta, probably two or three females. Maybe my old guy can get it on with one of them lol. 

There is a breif update for now, I plan to keep up better now!

Heres Lilly inher usual bizarre sleeping position...





Waking up...





what a cutie...

Sothe coolest thing happened the other night...I was in a really bad mood. I had a long night at work and Grandma recently died (its been awhile since I have updated) and john and charlie and steve were all at the apartment being loud and playing video games, so I left to take a walk. I had Doc (our new no-longer-stray-cat) in my arms walking outside, and the minute I opened our front door, there was what I thought at first to be an enourmous cat sitting RIGHT there on the walk. I soon saw that it was an unnusually large grey fox. He sat there and we watched eachother, then he piked up his meal (I think some kind of rodent) and trotted calmly away. And then I saw that It was No-Tail. I was so excited, it really made my bad emotions melt away. Never been that close to a fox before, and hes so nice and big! Probably from all of that college waste lol. Then I barely walked across the street onto campus and saw a deer right beside. I really love where I live, I couldnt see that kind of wildlife at many other campuses.

Things have been going pretty good though this summer. Besides the death of my grandmother, which I am however thankful for because she is no longer suffering. She is free, whatever happens afterwards.
John and I are taking our summer classes, and I got a job at texas steakhouse, ironically enough. Its a good-paying job though, and the atmosphere is fun and I love the people I work with. My good friend Beth got me the job. Our apartment is awsome, and the best thign about it is getting to spend so much time with my animals...FINALLY. Ender and Lilly are best buds now, Star the rabbit is as sweet as she can be. She comes and go out of her hutch as she pleases, is litter box trained, and plays with a big bouncy ball we got her. The rats got a new big cage and are happy, and we adopted a cat named Cleo from my friend who has like 13 cats. Then this sweet little stray turns up, a mangy little thing named Doc. We took him in lol, and he has a vet apointment next week to get nuetered and all vaccinations. Cleo is a solitary cat, and was always bullied by other cats, so its taking her some effort to get used to Doc. But he is a total sweetie, and pays no attention to her, so hes a perfect candidate for rehabilitating Cleo's fear.
Ill update more later, gotta drink some tea and go to bed now.

John and I got a new ferret! Her owner thought she was a male the entire 4 months hes had her, but at first inspection I saw that she was certainly penis-free. I wanted a female anyway. The guy who had her was moving and needed to get rid of some of his pets. She was so sweet I could not say no. We were planning on finding Ender a companion anyway. We named her Lilly, and she is the sweetest ferret I have ever been around. Really lovable and cuddly, contrary to usual ferret behaivor, but still as playful as any mischeivious weasel. She gets a little annoyed with Ender when he wants to play for too long, and he cant understand why. Shes had a lot put on her in like 3 days, moving, being at beth and joays and now my parents house, and then all of a sudden a new ferret who keeps jumping on her. She will adjust in good time.
We move into the apartment monday, and when we are settled with all the animals with us, Im going to post pictures of them all.

Well today is thebig critique for watercolor class. I have five pieces to show, and I am very satisfied with them. I probably won't post pics until we get into the apartment since my stuff is all packed and ready to store. I wish we could move in now, my grandma really wants to make a trip down to see it, and she probably won't live much longer. Im so sad about it. She gets a kind of blunt determination when mom and I talk about the apartment to her. We were wondering if she'd be strong enough to make the trip or not, and she get a firm face and says something like "Oh I'm going, thats all there is to it." The one thing she told me she regrets about not living much longer is not being able to see me and my brother John grow up more. But she did pretty good. She is 80, almost 81, John is 18 an I am 20. I am about to get my first apartment, and John is about to start college. But I do wish she could live to see my children, because I knew her mother, even if just briefly. But it will be ok.
I havent seen the two foxes for several days. But then i am not in my room much at all lately, and the spring blooms have covered up much of their den sight. I will have to sneak down there and take a peak sometime and see if they still live there.
Well Im off to get ready for the critique, and then biology final.