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A Day in the Life

CGC Test

Well, I did it. Only 5 yrs in the making mom says. Hey, I know I'm not perfect but I'm as close as it comes, right? And this will prove it even more so.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I wouldn't lay down for them but the floor was cold and my arthritis was acting up. Cut me some slack, I'm 11 for pete's sake!

Mom says now I should be able to do some therapy work, which she wanted to do with me when we lived in Ca, but it just didn't work out. Hopefully here mom will have more time.

Gunther's supposed to take his test on Sun. I bet I get a higher score than him. After all, how can you beat a perfect score?

Goodbye Tater.............RIP 1/07---2/6/09

Mom is sad. This is a late entry, but last Fri mom had to put to sleep one of her pet rats, Spud (Tater). He had cancer and had lost the use of both rear legs and at that point mom said it was time.

I could really care less. Heck, I could have put him out of his misery, he would have made a good snack (shhhhhh.......don't tell mom).

I think Posey is missing him though. She used to play "hide and seek" with him. They would poke each other thru the cage bars. Sunny doesn't do that with her.

Mom brought his body home so we could all smell him and understand. Sunny, his brother, mom thinks he already knew Tater was dying so he didn't really react to his body. Gunther, Nigel and Posey though were very interested in him. I say, if you've seen one dead body, you've seen them all. :P

Mom will bury him in the spring, along with his brother, as Sunny also has cancer and will probably be needing to be put to sleep in another few months as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All! Many updates.

Yo!

Thought I should say what a nice holiday season it has been here. I love Minnesota so. I wish I could stay here but we are moving to Illinois. Yup, we're still not there yet after 1.5 yrs.

Mom and dad did finally find a house and buy it in Oct. Took them a long time to find a town that would allow 4 doggies to live there, be liveable (you should have seen some of the houses) and still be an okay commute to work for dad. Which probably doesn't matter now b/c dad lost his job last month.

We have several new additions to the family since I last posted. Mom got a job working at Petsmart in Aug '05. It was only supposed to be temporary b/c we were supposed to be moving to Illinois shortly but that didn't happen. It was hard for mom to adjust b/c she doesn't like selling animals to people.............especially since most people are stupid and shouldn't own animals to begin with. Mom did her best to steer them in the right direction and give them as much info as she could on whatever they were purchasing. Most of the time they didn't want to listen. *sigh* poor mom.

Anyway, back to the new additions. One guy purchased a female rat from the store last Dec. He then returned it in Jan with a litter of 8 pups saying it had gotten pregnant at the store. Impossible b/c they only sell females there, and that particular rat had been there quite some time (and apparently the guy had recently purchased a male rat). So 8 babies had to find good homes. When brought to the store, they were only the size of jelly beans. As they matured and got fur, mom saw that 3 of them were different than the ordinary colors of a rex rat (breed of rat). 2 males and 1 female. Mom wanted the one male and female but after speaking with her vet and finding out that it would cost $80 for a neuter, she decided to go with the 2 males. One blonde one named Sundance (Sunny) and a black tuxedo named Spud (Tater). They lived in a 20 gallon long aquariumm for awhile, but mom got them a brand new giant ferret cage for Christmas so we may be getting more rat brothers after the move.

In the spring, a shipment of reptiles came in. Mom loves reptiles, so she always takes special care of them. One little chinese water dragon though didnt do so well. He didn't eat much, was lethargic, started getting ulcers and later started open mouthed breathing. Mom finally convinced them to let her adopt him this Oct. Mom immediately took him to her vet in Sioux Falls (Dr. Dayton Williams, you rock!) and he was diagnosed with a bacterial infection causing respiratory distress as well as having coccidia. First we treated him for the bacterial infection. After we were done with that he went back for a recheck and we treated him for the coccidia. He also has calcium deficiency which we may have to treat later. He just started perking up last week and is now eating fairly regularly. He will probably be dwarfed and a bit sickly his whole life but he appears much happier now. We named him Francis (we're still not sure if he's a boy or girl, although mom suspects a male). He is enjoying his new Christmas present of a 20 long aquarium (not the same one the rats were in, that was moms' sisters and she wanted it back) with a brand new waterfall fountain and adjustable temp heat lamp.

Earlier this month we adopted 2 red factor canaries from a fellow employee who needed to rehome them. They are with dad right now, along with Pasta (our cockatiel). Mom figures birds are fairly easy to care for so dad can handle them. She named them Edgar and Elliot.

Last Oct, mom also set up a small 5 gallon aquarium in her bedroom. She really got into fish after working at Petsmart and has learned alot. Right now, it is full of live plants, has 1 betta (Simon II........first Simon got bloat and died after 10 months), 1 albino cory catfish (Albert........resembles Einstein with his whiskers), 1 rubber lipped plecostomus, 1 japanese algae eating shrimp, 2 glowlight tetras, 1 cardinal tetra, and 1 fancy guppy. In the past there was a sunburst wag platy, 2 other glowlights, 2 other cardinals, and numerous otocinclus (mom loves them but they just didn't fare well) and when the guppy passes mom will get more cardinals. The guppy currently picks onthe one there is.

Next summer we are hoping to add a russian or some other kind of tortoise. There is also a sick lizard at work right now and mom left her email with them in case they want to adopt him out. He ha a special place in her heart as well. He came in the same shipment as Francis. She also for sure wants to add one more cockatiel and possibly some finches or a small parrot............or both.........lol.

Over the next few weeks, mom will be moving our stuff from here out to Oswego where our new house is. Hopefully it won't take more than 2 or 3 more trips. Still need to make another trip to Sioux Falls so Francis can have a recheck, I can get my annual blood workup and Nigel can have his anal glands checked.

Check out Gunther, Nigels and Posey's page for how our holidays went.