Onyx and life

Yeah, I realize I haven't posted lately...but I've been busy and haven't much to post about anyway.

Lupi is doing fine, nothing new to report except that he's back in the ferret room.

I haven't done any crafting lately...not much time. I've gone back to work 3 days a week and the other days I spend cleaning or going out running errands and visiting family.

Onyx went to the vet today for his yearly checkup. Everything was fine. He's got this spot on his back left leg though like he's been chewing at it too much, but we don't catch him chewing on it often at all. We normally catch him chewing on one of his front paws. Anyway, the vet said it should heal up on it's own as long as Onyx leaves it alone. If it gets worse, we'll try a spray antibiotic.

I'm currently reading The Parting by Beverly Lewis. It's the first novel in The Courtship of Nellie Fisher series. I don't know how many books there will be, probably three from looking at her previous series. The second book came out this month supposedly and I will be looking for it at the stores probably tomorrow or Thursday (I'm almost done with the first book.) It's pretty good. It's about an Amish girl, Nellie Mae Fisher, who is being courted by Caleb Yoder. Caleb's family is strict about the rules of The People where Nellie Mae's family is learning a new Christian faith. Currently, the parents of Nellie Mae have turned to God as their one true savior, and soon hope to show their children the way. They don't come out to the rest of the community for fear of being shunned, but they know it will happen eventually and just hope to bring their immediate family to Christ first. Nellie Mae knows the way Caleb's father is about the faith and hopes that nothing much comes of her parent's new faith in Christ...but this is why the book is all about their courtship...so the story continues....

Dooks & Dances

Crafty Weasels - News

We had a great sew day this past Saturday. We had 7 ladies working on the bedding, 2 men in the garage working on a wooden box for ferret ashes, and 7 ferrets sleeping in the living room. There was a lot of great food, TONS of desserts! We had garlic teriyaki chicken wings, veggie pizza, a fruit tray with 2 awesome dips, lots of cookies, and 3 different types of cakes.

We managed to get out 69 pieces of bedding (36 hammocks, 33 sleep sacks). That's 13 more pieces than we did in April of 2007! It was a great day for everyone!

3-4 shelters will receive the bedding, but the list is not quite finalized yet. You can find out more information at www.CraftyWeasels.com. And keep checking back for updates and new information. We will be having a raffle coming up within the next few months, so that will be exciting!

Dooks & Dances

Lupi's 10 day post surgical recheck

Hello there. It's been a while since my last post. I've been sort of busy. I worked full time 3 days last week and then there was the sew day that we had this past Saturday. I haven't had much time to crochet or anything since my last post. Anyway.

Today, Lupi went back in to see the vet for his 10 day post surgical checkup. Everything looks great, Lupi is doing great and the lab results came back great.

The lab results came back to say that the adrenal tumor was benign (noncancerous) and that what the doctor had suspected was correct. They said that we should have had a very sick ferret on our hands back when the abscess on his spleen ruptured...but we never even suspected anything...so the vet was very shocked.

Lupi is back on track. He's grinding his teeth after he starts eating, but the vet doesn't want to start him on any meds until he's totally healed from surgery and has his red blood cell count back up. I may try to give him some Pepto or something in the meantime, but I will wait until his current meds are finished so they don't interfere with each other.

Lupi is able to go potty, a lot, now and seems very happy that he's not straining to go anymore. He's eating his regular kibble now with a little bit of gravy here and there (mostly for weight gain at this point.) Lupi came out of surgery half the weight he went in with! Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but it's pretty close. So now we have to make up for the weight he did lose from the surgery.

Everything is going great. He's back to his energetic self. He doesn't play with the other ferrets, but he likes to sniff them. He loves to wear us out by having us chase him around the house 5-6 times twice a day while he sniffs EVERYTHING and explores to make sure nothing has changed. Or, as Adrian says, in hopes that something HAS changed.

I have a video that I need to put together that shows just how much sniffing and exploring he does, and I will let everyone know when it is up on the web. I've been a little slow on things lately, but now that Lupi is doing better and Master's Week is over I might be able to get back into my routine.

Edited to add link for video: Lupi's Recovery

Dooks & Dances

Hyperbolic Crochet

Well, I finished my hyperbolic crochet. I bought some yarn that I thought would look good and got to work. I think anything would look good, have you seen the colors of actual coral reef?



I took the picture on my cutting mat so you could get an idea of the size it turned out to be. This was a neat project because you just keep working around and around, not much thinking involved. Seeing as how we've been so preoccupied with Lupi and his surgery, it's a good project for keeping my hands busy without worrying about messing up.

The materials I used were Lion Brand Wool-Ease black and Lion Brand Homespun Windsor. The Wool-Ease is 80% Acrylic and 20% Wool, and the Homespun is 98% Acrylic and 2% Polyester. I believe that the people who gather these hyperbolic crochet and use them to help protect the coral reef actually use all natural fibers, so this guy may never get his 15 minutes of fame, but he will always have a place in our home. I hope to make lots more and put them throughout the house. They are just so appealing to the eye.

The pattern I used was an increase in every 3 stitches. The next one I make will be an increase in every 2 stitches and it will be oblong instead of round, so that will be interesting. I made a total of 13 rounds in this pattern, 12 black and 1 blue. I think it turned out so cute! The picture above is of it laying flat, if you were to hang it, it would be less bunched and more wavy because it would have twice as much room to flair out.

Let me know what you think of this piece by posting a comment below.

Dooks & Dances

Lupi and his morning after update

Hello there. What a long night. I managed to get some sleep once we figured Lupi was going to sleep for a couple of hours. We fed him small amounts of gravy throughout the night, and he's going potty without any straining and in normal amounts..well, better than before anyway. The vet said everything looks okay and that he wants to see him again in 10 days to check the incision area...or sooner if it looks like it's opening up...they used glue instead of sutures. The vet would like him to start eating something more substantial, but he's not interested in dry food yet...he's still so very tired. So he'll continue to get the gravy for today and maybe tomorrow, but we'll try to get him interested in dry food again soon. All our previous surgeries were the same way, they got gravy as their main meal and we slowly weaned them back to dry food. I know I wouldn't want anything besides ice cream after a surgery, wouldn't you??? I mean, why cause more pain by having to chew your food? LOL Anyway, so that's the news for now. Lupi's good, but he's very tired. He's having a hard time getting to the right place to go potty, but at this point, I don't care...just as long as he's going potty. I'll do 3 loads of ferret laundry a day if I have to. In fact, I need to go start a load now ^.^

Dooks & Dances

Lupi details & prayer poem

Okay, so everyone knows that Lupi had surgery today and that he's home and he's awake. As I am typing this, Adrian is feeding a small portion of gravy to Lupi so that he has food in him, but not enough to cause pain. We'll feed him another small portion in a little while. Tomorrow, after the "all-clear" from the vet, we'll put his dry food in the playpen just in case he wants it. He'll continue to get small portions of gravy for the next few days.

Anyway. What happened was....

Lupi has been adrenal for some time, he's been on the melatonin implants for the adrenal. He's been on saw palmetto for his prostate. And we started him yesterday on Vetasyl/Pumpkin. And boy, that's when the s**t hit the fan! We don't think the Vetasyl had any cause in what's happened to him, but it was a coincidence that it happened right after the dose.

Anyway. Lupi had a couple of thin short poopies throughout the day on Wednesday. He's been "piddling" for weeks, but we just didn't think anything of it (stupid us). Last night, around 9 pm, Adrian noticed Lupi was grunting/squeaking in pain when going potty...and nothing was coming out of him (except the noises). So we put him in the dining room, gave him a good dose of Vetasyl/pumpkin thinking we could help push whatever it was out. Little did we know, but he wasn't straining to poop, he was straining to pee. Anyway, his last poopie/pee was at 11 pm. He was constantly running around trying to get something to come out, and after almost 4 hours of fretting and hoping and praying that he could last until morning, I felt his stomach and it was hardening. So, I called up the emergency clinic and told them we were on our way. Our emergency clinic doesn't know much about ferrets, but they knew enough to do some checks, xrays, pokes, prods, and draining.

After more than 2 hours at the emergency clinic (4:30 am) we finally got about 4 cc of urine drained from his bladder along with a lot of poop that he finally pushed out and a great deal of pus from his bladder as well. There was also some blood considering the needle that was poked into his bladder to drain the urine. He was POOPED literally and figuratively. Can you imagine hours of straining to push out poo and pee...oh wait, just imagine having a baby...haha...that's a lot of straining. Anyway, he was wiped out and didn't care much about the vet sticking needles into him and he just lay in my arms while they gave him sub-q fluids. They wanted to give him enough to keep him hydrated, but not enough to fill up his bladder again.

Anyway. The vet was awesome, they did 2 xrays and only charged us for one, as well as not charging us for an antibiotic and some other small things. They saved us $100. They were awesome.

We brought Lupi home and Adrian and I hunkered down and took a 2 hour power nap so we could get up bright and early to take Lupi to our regular vet (who is ferret knowledgeable). The vet looked at the previous xrays and urine samples and all the other vet's notes. Our regular vet then did an ultrasound and saw what looked like a stone in the bladder. He also saw what looked like a cyst in the prostate. The prostate was about 5 times it's normal size, no wonder he couldn't urinate!!!

Now, remember, Lupi is a little over 7 years old and we didn't want to put him through surgery. But at this point, it was either surgery or permanent sleep. So we bit the bullet, told Lupi all about the bridge and that if he needed to leave us, that we would be alright. We told him we loved him and that we hoped to be taking him home that night with us. Gave him kisses and signed him over for surgery.

Well, through an entire day of worry and stress and exhaustion, we finally made it to 5 pm when we went to pick Lupi up. Horray, he made it through surgery splendidly!!! I'm so proud of my old man. Good news all around! The vet took the enlarged left adrenal gland, the enlarged spleen with either a ruptured tumor on it or a, um, okay I forgot the or part of that...but it's not really important. He also got the "stone" out of the bladder which turned out to be a blood clot mixed with um, those crystal thingies you find in stones...not too good with the terminology...guess it would help if I wasn't so dang tired. Anyway, he squeezed out the prostate which was loaded with a pus/infection...so that helped big time in getting rid of the infection...and he squeezed out the urine in his bladder...everything passed through smoothly, nothing causing anymore blocking and straining. He also made a small incision in the bladder just to take a peek inside to make sure there wasn't any other unknown dangers in there. We'll know in 2 weeks the lab results. The spleen and adrenal gland were sent off to them.

So, Lupi has been hollowed out for the most part. I'm sure, even though he's groggy and has been cut open and ripped apart, he sure feels better now that he can potty without pain. Maybe he'll finally stop grinding his teeth now. By the way, the estimate for the surgery was between $400 and $700, but guess what we paid....go on, guess....a whopping $337!!! Holy cow, I was so thrilled and so shocked I had to ask "are you serious?" to the lady at the counter. We did sign up for CareCredit today and used that since our vet accepts it...we'll easily be able to pay that off in less than a year now...especially at zero interest.

Lupi, 7 years old and a good strong little guy, was our very first ferret, he is our oldest ferret, and he is probably our most special ferret. We hope to see a couple more years with him before he has to leave us. And on that note, I wrote a poem today. It's been YEARS since i wrote anything, and Lupi inspired me today. So...

One More Day
A Prayer for Lupi
by: Ann Haager

It's only a moment
This life we have on Earth is only a moment in your time.
Let him stay a little longer, there's so much more for him in life.
Things he hasn't done, words not ready to be said,
Places he wants to go and fun times to be had.

It's only a moment
To enjoy love's gift, the treasure of life.
To forget sorrow and worry, the pain and the strife.
Let him have a few more days, weeks or even years,
To teach us how love can cast away all fear.

Let him truly know bliss, pleasure, passion and fun.
For maybe he'll have his best days yet to come.
For it's eternal with you and everlasting, it's true.
But give us this time, for only a moment, he's mine.

Dooks & Dances

Quick Ferret Update

Just in case you thought I forgot to keep you updated on the kids...

Lupi's lumpy head is still lumpy...but no changes for the worse. Looks like it may just be something he lives with as an old man.

Aithnea's bump that the doctor drained is pretty much gone, she has a little scabbie from where there was a big hole from draining, but no problems there. We kept it clean while it closed up and now the rest is up to her little body.

Shadow (our dog), on the other hand, is limping today. We checked her over thoroughly and can't find anything physically wrong with her except that she's limping. She's so sad and miserable because she can't do any of her favorite things, but she's getting extra attention and treats from mommy and daddy. If it's worse tomorrow, we'll make an appointment with the vet. We think it's just sprained, and there's not much that we can do for it except keep her calm and sleeping for the most part to let it rest and heal. So we'll see how it is tomorrow and make our decision then.

All the ferrets are going to be started on a 3 day treatment of Vetasyl for hairball/blockage prevention. Today was the last day for Aithnea and Aki, both of which passed some unknown materials the first 2 days. Today it was fairly normal, so no more Vetasyl for them for a while. They'll get it again in a month or two as another 3 day treatment. Tomorrow the pest control guy comes, so we won't start any other ferrets on the Vetasyl until Thursday because we put those ferrets in the playpen in the dining room so we can keep an eye on them. Won't go into too many details, but I sure do get excited knowing that those objects are no longer in my babies.

Dooks & Dances

Project Ideas

Happy April Fool's Day! I don't miss the days when my "friends" would play pranks on me. I like it now that we're more mature and don't do the tricks. I know some people will do them their whole lives...but those people are not the type of people I hang around with. No offense to them, I just don't like pranksters.

Anyway, I've got a few project ideas in mind and I wanted to share them with you.

First, the very nice scarf that I have recently posted about. I bought 3 skeins of yarn for another project thinking it was going to take 2 at least. The pattern didn't specify size or materials. Turns out I didn't even use 1 skein. But that's okay by me because the scarf pattern I like calls for 2 skeins. So it works out perfectly! And I do like the gray color. I was thinking of making it for a gift, but I might keep this first one for myself. ^.^



My big project that I'm looking forward to make is a Babette Blanket. You can buy the pattern online at Interweave and that's exactly what I'm doing. I've seen where some people have 8 colors and others have as many as 35 colors...so I will have lots of fun picking out the colors. This will be my first large project ever. All my other projects have been fairly small, craft size (that's what I call it.)



And I found the neatest thing today, hyperbolic crochet. I still don't totally understand it, but it's very neat. You can read all about it at The Institute For Figuring and see more pictures there. Basically, they make 3-d models totally out of crocheting yarn, plastic and other materials in the shapes of coral reef. Their site says "The Institute For Figuring is crocheting a coral reef: a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world." It's very neat, and some of the things look extremely easy to make, especially for beginners. So I'm looking at trying my hand at the 2 types pictured below. After that, we'll see what happens.



Dooks & Dances