Shawn was handing me things to put up on the shelves that used to hold the billion hamsters we once had. We've moved the two cages the three little ones shared down to the huge head board we have (we have one of those ancient water bed head boards that doubles pretty much as storage/shelves.)



That's when I noticed Wibbles laying on the bottom of the cage right near the tube to go up to the nest and wheel. I knew something was wrong right away because these little guys never lay on the bottom. They come down to run on the wheel, sleep IN the wheel, and occasionally will nap on the shelves, but NEVER directly on the bottom of the cage.

I told Shawn right away I thought something was wrong and opened the cage door. When I opened the cage door I did not get a single reaction. These guys are pretty jumpy, that's when I told Shawn I think he might have died...I was right as I reached in and pet him and he didn't move.

He was still warm.

I won't go into details--it was pretty obvious what had killed him once I lifted him up and out. Or at least, it wasn't as if he laid down and died.

We put him in a lil' box and buried him with the alarming amount of other lil' guys we've had to bury.

It's never easy with rodents, huh?

Night night, Wibbles. You were soft, so amazingly dumb and cute. Sleep well.

We take Raven to the vet again today.

Pretty much for the same reason we took her the last time. She has these odd bumps--they grow, and when they grow from just a bump they end up looking just like little brains. Tightly coiled bundles of spirals and hoops that are her skin, and they begin to loosen and break as they grow larger. If we aren't careful when we pet her, they break apart. We know they're skin because when they break on their own, they bleed and scab.

When we brought her to the vet the last time, they took a sample of a lump on her butt and a sample of one of the 'brains' as I like to call it. The vet seemed completely nonchalant, and when they called us a week later to tell us things were fine--they still were.

So (back then) we brought her in, they shaved nearly her entire back and burned off what they could. She seemed like a different cat after that. More energetic and happy.

We're bringing her back because all the little ones they couldn't get before, have regrown. All the hair they shaved off hasn't grown back. At all. Not a single bit. She's been on a strict diet to lose weight for a year, and I don't think she's losing it.

I don't know about you, but if I were covered in bumps and scabs I'd be a might uncomfortable, and that's what we're worried about. We'd like to see her bump-less, but these things keep cropping up. Again, the Vet seems pretty casual about it, but the comfort of our cat, especially at this age, is most important.

It's a good thing Raven doesn't care what she looks like. I'm pretty sure there's going to be more shaving involved in her future.

That is what my sleeping habits and patterns have become. It is not, however, due to insomnia which has generally been an off and on problem for most of my adult life.

It is due, in many great parts, to a large eighteen pound cat we put on a diet the end of last year.

It can start any time at night, some times it starts as early as midnight, some times we catch a break and it starts around 5am. Most nights, it starts around 1am to 3am, and is constant until one of us says some rather nasty crap and gets out of bed to feed the land beast we call Raven.

The ritual for the cat begins with her claws on the side of our bed which she uses to haul herself up. The edge of the bed she uses is now a mess of pit marks, claw swipes and the california King cotton sheets are plucked from her claws; making smooth look nubbed. Once she manages to haul herself onto the bed, she begins her rounds. These start at the feet.

Since Raven is some how physically unable to retract her seven foot long claws, having her walk over our feet every morning is a study in how well we can stand bleedingdeathpain. See figure A:

Figure A


She used to do this on our heads, but I grew wise to this, so as you can see with Figure A, I scoot down the bed every night I crawl into it. I sacrifice my feet for my head--I figure thinking is just as important as walking.

Once she is thoroughly finished leaving new holes within our ankles, she makes a 3/4 circut around the bed, trundling up the left side and across the head of the bed. The delightful part to remember while picturing this is that she is an old cat, and tends to bring gifts with her when she gets up on the bed: some times litter is clumped on the back of her legs, some times my hair. It's always an adventure in ew, great, now I have to wash the entire bed again. Thanks. While she is doing this, she will often sniff for any random pieces of food that may have mysteriously rained down from heaven and landed on our pillows. The approximate sound I can compare Raven's sniffing too is the sound of an elephants trunk shoved into your ear. See figure B:

Figure B


Now that I am good and wide awake, contemplating honorable suicide or becomming a nun, Raven will gracefully heave herself to the floor, wait anywhere from five to ten minutes and do it all again.

My sleep at night has turned into a series of unfortunate naps. I long the for the days of sleep that lasted two hours or more before some sort of interruption--Flora, get off the ceiling fan. No, Flora, the blinds are not a jungle gym. Flora! Stop knocking the computer on the floor!

For now I guess I'll just have to stock up on really good band aids and get used to curling into a fetal position in the middle of my bed while the demented snuffleupagus that is my cat shark-circles around us and I wonder what it's like to get a full night's sleep.

You're the one!




You make bath time soooo much fun!

Cedar Rapids, Iowa is home to several stranded pups and kittehs, birds and other paws that need your help.

The humane society is doing its best to rescue, treat and save as many animals as possible but they need your help.

If you have it to donate and are interested in helping, please consider donating toward saving some mew's. You can donate here: Disaster Relief Fund 2008

If you can't donate, that's okay. I's poo' folk too. If you want to show your support anyway, why not copy the donate link and pass it along?

Thanks guys and gals for reading! Meow!

I think the world needs to appreciate sunflowers just a little more. Sure, roses are beautiful and delicate and pretty smelling–I agree. But there is something about the sunflower that is just as enchanting. Maybe it is my secret love affair with the color yellow, particularily rich, bright, gold-like shades of it. Or maybe because in a secret past life I was some sort of sun worshipper with a garden full of them. Either way, I think sunflowers rock.

My mother in-law planted two of the giant monsterously huge sunflowers smack daub in the middle of our garden. They grew remarkably fast and bloomed as speedy as they grew. I am sad, however. It seems like as fast as they bloom, turning their little yellow cheery petals to the sun, they begin to whither and wilt.

One of the two is already stuck half way in permanent, cordial half bow to the rising sun, as if saying his good-byes at his final curtain call.

***Upon further investigation, I think the sunflower's demise is being helped by someone.

I just don't know who...

Or: How to know whether or not you are ready for a pet.

--you'd think that I was starving her TO DEATH.

Ah, the sounds of a fat cat an hour before feeding. She does this anywhere from 4-6 until we feed her at 6pm. Which has been her feeding time for nearly as long as Shawn has had her.

Today I went to Turkey Creek Sanctuary after watching Prince Caspian.

Possibly one of the worst ideas yet because it was approximately Satan's asshole hot outside and after twenty minutes in the sun I wished I was dead.

I love Florida in the summer!

I will give one thing to Florida, it's so very, very green when it wants to be. Even in the middle of a fire haphazard where at any moment everything could burst into flames; there's Florida, all cheery and green anyway. "DUDE. WE LOVE HOT!"

At any rate, while we were there Shawn rescued a turtle that was wandering across the road to go eat and forgot to check both ways so we picked it up. While we were carrying it he/she seemed pretty laid back about the whole floating-through-the-air thing and was even doing this lazy ehn-ehn flap of his legs half-heartedly until we set him/her down. Soon as we set him/her down him/her actually moved pretty fast to get out of there.


When we got home we cleaned out hamster cages (which we just finished up) and naturally, the best thing to do with a hamster while cleaning out it's cage is to put it in the safest place in the world.


My rack.

How was your day today?