jesirose

Yesterday was the annual block party for my street. Most of the people on the street have dogs so I was excited to take Sadie and see how she did. At first I took her out on her 30′ leash, and let her play. After a while I took it off so she could run around with the other dogs and she did wonderful. She stayed in the yard most of the time, and came to anyone who called her.

They also had a kiddie pool out for the dogs to play in. Sadie has never liked going in our pool, but I put her in the little wading pool and she finally realized what she was missing! She splashed all over the place, tried to eat the water, and then got back in several times on her own! I was so excited.

We had a great time with everyone too. I had helped organize a tie-dye area for people to do shirts and the kids had a good time with that. I got to go swimming with a few of my neighbors, who then spent about an hour trying to launch water balloons over a house, and only got about 2 over

All in all, a great day!

I was sad to see them go but I am so happy they found a good home! I know they will have a great life and I am going to be expecting photos!

On a positive note, when I was showing their new owner Katie, she (Katie) let me pick her up 3 times in a row without spazzing out. It was actually very cool. It was almost as if she was saying “Oh heck, you’re not that bad. I’ll stay here.”

Also, little baby Addie? NOT SO LITTLE. She looks HUGE compared to those ratlets! She’s actually 250g now. Hard to imagine she started out as small as those girls when I got her

Sadie - definitely living up to the girl dog name. She played with her friend next door for a while then decided to pee on the floor 3 times and “forget” the kennel command.

Yesterday I took the new ratties to the vet’s office, and had perfect timing! Another rat owner was leaving with her rat and she was very interested in the black one, “Emma”. I think she would offer a perfect home - she has 3 girls now, has an FN, feeds Harlan, and obviously loves her girls. She was very enamored with Emma. After we got to talking, I mentioned my other rats and how I have been considering rehoming Katie, since she does not seem to like my husband or me. She was also interested in meeting Katie, so that might work out perfectly. I love my girls but I just feel so sad for Katie, it’s like no matter how much trust training I do, and whatever, she just doesn’t like me. I was hoping maybe she needs a change, and someone else might get her to come out of her shell. So if this works out I will probably keep the beige girl (much to my husbands dismay), who now desperately needs a name. Her paperwork says Name: — ! Any ideas?

The vet checked them out - Emma had no signs of a concussion (from the fall she took), no neurological damage (no tilting or staggering) and she is climbing all over the place. They are both eating well and have no signs of any respiratory problems. They are still at 108 and 125, but it’s only been a day They slept cuddled up on the ride home.

Mine was pretty INSANE. First, a box of 4 week old Siamese kittens was abandoned and turned in at the vet’s office. There was one little boy who wouldn’t stop crying and then I help him and he was happy. I took a photo of him but I knew we couldn’t take him. I told the vet’s office if they needed any help finding homes or fostering I would help out but I just couldn’t adopt him.

Then I took Sadie to the Petsmart for grooming. There was a woman there with a basket of puppies. She was begging people to take them - she had 11 of them. They were a mix, and she said she didn’t know what to do with them. So I talked to her for a while, told her where to get good food and what to try for them, and how to start training them. I gave her my phone number and I’m going to help her find them homes. They were little black and brown babies. So cute. But still, I said, I can’t take one but I am going to help.

Then I made the mistake of going to PetCo.

Now, I try to stay away from PetCo. I disapprove of a lot of stuff they do, like selling the rats by size, and selling male and female, plus they sell a lot of exotics that don’t get proper care. Well, I’d heard that they’d be switching to single-sex stores, so I went over to check it out.

I ended up leaving with two girls. I am going to find them homes, but I couldn’t leave them there. The employee tried to pick them up by their tails, chasing them around the cage. (I don’t encourage buying from pet stores, as they just replace them with more, but this was a special occasion. Also - they did not have me do ANY paperwork. I thought PetCo still did pet contracts but they just handed me the box and I paid. I’ve emailed PetCo through their website with several questions about what exactly they are doing here.)

They are very healthy and sweet. They both have soft shiny coats, and clean eyes and noses. One was “small”, she weighs 108g, and is a beige mismarked hoodie with ruby eyes. The other was “medium”, she’s 125g and a black berkie. I’ve named the hoodie Emma. She’s more adventurous and calm. The other one is a bit more shy and it took her a while to start exploring the cage, but she’s getting there. They’re in the Rat Manor right now.

I decided today it was finally time to get some of this pet stuff in order!

I got Bear and Felix microchipped a while ago and still hadn’t activated them, plus Sadie got hers when she got spayed. I had been putting off having Felix & Bear chipped because they never showed any interest in going outside, and Colin wanted to save the money. But when I got Sadie, and started going in and out ten times a day, Bear started trying to dart out the door. So I decided it was worth it and had them done.

So first I had to find the packets for each pet with the chip info. We used HomeAgain. It took me about 45 minutes to do all the pets. It costs $15 a year for each too. I had to fill in their info and find some good photos of them. I have lots of cute cat photos but none that are really good for identifying the cat.

When I entered in the first chip, I accidentally put Sadie’s name instead of Felix, but it was his chip number. I realized as soon as I hit the submit and thought Oh crap. But it let me change it on the pet profile to Felix’s info easily, so no big deal.

So then I had to figure out this city license stuff. The last time I looked I couldn’t find info but today when I went to the Plano Animal Services website it was right there! “Does your pet have a license? Click here for information on pet registration!” So now I just need to mail over the rabies stuff!

Whew! Took about an hour for all this stuff and costs 67.47 per year for these three! Whew whew whew.

Sadie and I went with a friend to a walk this morning to protest the Mandatory Spay and Neuter law that Dallas will likely be adopting. While this is a very serious issue, we managed to have fun Sadie did really well with all the new dogs and I was very proud of her. We took a lap around the building, then hung out with all her new friends and Lizzie too. There were a lot of people and a reporter for a newspaper showed up and took some notes.

Sadie, Lizzie and a doberman (wearing a pro-choice sign and carting a wagon)

This is an Irish Wolfhound that we met. The neat thing about this is that a few months ago I would have been scared at the sight of this huge dog. Today, I thought “What a handsome boy” and was excited to get to pet him.

Sadie and Lizzie took a break to play in the grass and spill their bowl of water. I love this shot because Sadie looks so evil! She’s a sweetie, really! Lizzie started it! (She’s a sweetie too)

(Photos by Cait, re-posted with permission)

The girls got to share some sweet potato baby food the other day. What a mess!!

Addie, Cameron and Sophie!

Today Sadie finally responded to the Kennel command. She BOLTED into the bedroom and into her kennel and stared at me. It was awesome. She repeated for me and Colin. The golden training tool? The clicker and a carton of 100% Freeze Dried Liver Treats by Gimborn

It’s a bit pricey but the carton is pretty big and if you have sharp fingernails or a serrated kitchen knife, it’s easy enough to cut them up and double or triple your treats. They are huge.

Sadly, she’s still not relearned “Sit”. Her down is awesome and it’s become her default behavior, but every time I try to capture sit, it becomes a down right as I click! A bit frustrating.

She is also learning “Go to bed!” thanks to Lizzie’s mom’s suggestion. She has learned if I point at the bed she should run into it, but then she just gets back out Silly dog!

In general I had a pretty bad day, but I did pick up the new fabrics for my next quilt. This is a surprise for my grandparent’s 50th anniversary.

Silly me, when I chose this pattern I didn’t read the cutting instructions. The squares are 1.5″ x 1.5″ - holy mole! I have to cut over 1000 squares for this. I lost my rotary cutting grid so I am going to pick a new one up tomorrow as I cannot cut all of these without it. I’ll go nuts.

Pretty, isn’t it?! I tried to get some accurately colored photos of the fabric to share, but if the colors look weird - they look better in person. I had help from experienced quilters They didn’t have enough neutrals so I went for green and gold too. They look awesome in person.

And here is the one I made for Mom and Dad’s 9th anniversary. This is just the top before I quilted and bound (binded? adding the binding? hmmm.) it.

Yesterday Sadie got to spend some time with the cutest little German Spitz named Lizzie!

Sadie was a bit shy at first.

Then they had a great time wrestling and playing chase.

Yay! It was getting dark so most of the pictures didn’t turn out

After a few days in the Rat Manor, I decided it really was too small, and thought it wouldn’t really be that hard to modify the Ferret Nation. So I called around. After about an hour on the phone I located one at a Petsmart two towns over. They agreed to price match Ferret.com (After I told them other stores had done it for my friends - a little white lie, but I know other stores HAVE done it for people on GooseMoose).

I considered looking for the SP Exotics cage and waiting for the Critter Nation but really, I was so tired of messing with cages I wanted to get it over. I thought the mod would be easier - I was slightly off. But it’s done now, and sitting pretty in my office! I decided to rotate my desk so now I face out from the wall instead of facing it, and put the FN behind me. I have to turn around to see the girls but this was the best way to fit everything in here.

I managed to get it done with only 5 cuts on my hands and a nice bump on my nose from hitting myself with a pliers. Yeah, it’s black and blue. I was tightening a zip tie with the pliers and pulled hard - the tie broke and I whacked myself right between the eyes and down a bit. I feel pretty lucky I didn’t hit my eye, and that I hit it straight on, because I think if I’d hit it at an angle, I’d have broken my nose. It’s sore but not broken as far as I can tell.

(It’s hard to tell in these pics, but you can see the bruising and the red spot where I hit it. Ow!)

I needed 4 rolls of the 3′x5′ hardware cloth and about 450 zip ties. It took about 6 hours - seriously. I did it myself until after I hit myself my husband tightened the last row of ties for me. Then we assembled it. I did the hardware cloth before assembly, and this is what my living room looked like when I was done. I ended up picking up each zip tie leftover by hand and vacuuming each little wire piece with the hose one at a time. Should have done it on a hard floor and swept! See all those tiny green dots? Hardware cloth wire.

When you do it, it’s important to put the curve of the wire INTO the bars. This way the cloth doesn’t bend into the cage and you get the best fit. So it looks like this with a few ties on:

I haven’t finished decorating it, but here is what I’ve got so far:

The ball in the corner wasn’t as big a hit as I’d hoped - they’ve taken the fleece out and are just laying in it now!

And a final cute hammock shot: