Crafty Weasels

Rainy Monday Morning

2009-10-05T10:10:00.002-04:00

I had this past weekend off of work and still managed to be quite unproductive. I woke up sick Saturday morning, crammed tons of meds down my throat in hopes that I would be fine on Sunday...as is normal for me...Here it is Monday morning, and I'm still sick! I have to be at work in about 2 hours and I don't really want to go. My ears are stopped up, my throat is sore, and my head just feels like it's going to explode! And for some reason, I have some weird muscle aches, I'm very stiff in my legs and back.

On a good note, it's raining...and I love the rain! I do prefer to stay at home and listen to it rain, but I only work for 6 hours and I can come home and hopefully enjoy more rain :) It's supposed to be somewhat rainy for the next few days.

Adrian just had a birthday, so he's an OLD man now :) He's only a year older than me for 15 days, then he'll be young again when I turn 28 on the 16th of October :) Onyx is now officially 12 years old, that's somewhere around 80-85 in dog years, depending on which scale you go on. He sure doesn't act like he's that old.

Hope everyone has a blessed day and enjoy whatever weather you may be having in your area :)

Dooks & Dances

New Site

2009-09-22T17:36:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know...it's been forever! Well, here I am, trying to get you up to date. A lot has happened since February. I am now working at Four Paws with a bunch of animals (and no, I'm not referring to my co-workers^.^). It's a good job.

We lost our Lupi in May and Taitou in June. But on a good note, we took in a little girl who we've named Zantalalia. Her name comes from the movie The Songspinner...it's a good one, go rent it if you can.

We have not attended many sew days at all...or any other ferret gatherings for that matter. I did, however, sign on to Facebook this year and found some old friends. Jessica was pregnant when I found her...could you believe how shocked I was??!! So I did attend her baby shower and am looking forward to meeting her son, Brandon, when he gets here. This is the first baby since my nephews & neices that I am actually excited to see.

I've recently updated my website...finally...and the Ferret Dreams store and my personal site are now combined into one site that I can finally call my own ^.^ I'm thrilled to finally have it up...even though the database and all that still isn't done...but it's fine, really :) You can find me at www.FerretDreamsUSA.com It's my little side business.

Speaking of side businesses, my dad is trying to start one of his own as well. He's gotten real into the wood working in the last couple of years and is hoping to continue that after retirement. He wants to start now while he's still got a full time job. He has kind of sort of enlisted my help in the advertising department. Basically, I'm going to try to get his items listed on Ebay and Etsy and get them sold. He said he will give me some of the profits...which is cool. I'd settle for not having to pay any listing fees, but profit is good too. All the extra money from the side businesses will go toward the care of our babies.

Onyx and Shadow both had their teeth cleaned this year and their senior blood panel run. Bloodwork came back perfect and all teeth polished up nicely (exact words from the doctors by the way). Shadow had 2 lumps on her hip and back leg which were removed during the dentistry. Histopath came back clean...just fatty tumors. So the dogs are happy and healthy inside and out. I constantly get compliments about how young Onyx looks (at age 12) and how nice their coats look. I do like to hear those kinds of things.

Adrian got a new grill this year...it's been great for the 2 times we've used it. We hope to use it more now that the weather is getting bearable. We've done steak and pork chops and boy were they ever yummy! Looking forward to having many more great meals from that grill.

Adrian is working out now, 3 days a week. He's really enjoying it, he looks forward to going. And, it's starting to show *wink* His arms are looking more muscular every week. One of these days he's going to start bringing the workout home to me so that I can lose a little more weight and gain a little more muscle (trim up mostly).

That's pretty much it for the updates. I'll try to post again before another 7 months goes by. Enjoy your families and friends...you'll miss them when they're gone.

Dooks & Dances

Mini Sew Days

2009-02-22T17:39:00.004-05:00

Adrian and I have had our own mini sew days this year. We have been unable to attend the CW sew days and have personally sent bedding to shelters. We sent to Asti's Ferret Haven in January and Ferret City Shelter and Rescue in February. We have also used Crafty Weasels fabric to send bedding (from the CW's) to Asti's Ferret Haven again as they had to discard some of theirs and needed replacements ASAP.

We sent Asti's Ferret Haven about 9 pieces in January, and total from the CW in February was 20 pieces (Adrian and I did 8 of those this weekend). We also sent them 6 crochet fish eggs. Ferret City Shelter received 23 pieces of bedding from Adrian and myself along with 12 crochet eggs. Ferret City Shelter is the same one that flooded at the beginning of January. They had to rebuild the shelter and needed all the help they could get.

Adrian and I work well together making ferret bedding, I really enjoy spending time with him like this. Below is a picture of the stack we sent to Ferret City Shelter and a link to other pictures of the bedding we made so far this year.

To view more pictures, go to Bedding

I look forward to continuing this effort of helping shelters. If you would like to help but are not sure how, please feel free to email me at ann@haager.net Shelters continue to provide homes for ferrets only by the love and generosity of volunteers...every little bit helps!

Dooks & Dances

Lupi Update - Questions Answered

2009-02-22T17:03:00.002-05:00

I know this is kind of late, but at least it's finally here. We are still working on solutions for Lupi, but at least now we know a little more and are getting somewhere. Since I did receive so many responses to my questions, I'm just going to give the synopsis.

First of all, I'd like to say that insulin levels do not determine whether a ferret has insulinoma or not. Out of hundreds of people, only one that I know of thinks it does, and that would be our local vet. Sadly, I'm very upset with them and have seriously been thinking of moving back to Atlanta...or better yet, Texas where Dr. Jerry Murray lives.

Dr Jerry Murray, DVM practices at the Animal Clinic of Farmers Branch in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is a frequent contributer to Ferrets magazine, Ferrets USA magazine, and the online Ferret Health List. He has also written ferret related articles for several veterinary magazines. As a pioneer in the treatment of endocrine issues in ferrets, he has lots of experience dealing with adrenal gland disease and insulinomas.

In 2005, Dr Murray was presented with a Special Achievements Award for his outstanding contribution to the ferret community. He is a former ferret breeder and has been working with pet ferrets for the past 17 years. He currently has 3 pet ferrets. His hobbies include traveling, wildlife photography, and working with the endangered black-footed ferrets.

In other words, he's trustworthy.

I emailed him with our concerns, even sent him a copy of Lupi's test results, and this was his response:

Hi Ann
Yes, a glucose of 44 with clinical signs sure sounds like
a case of insulinoma. Disregard the insulin level as it is
not an accurate test to determine insulinoma in ferrets.
Yes, Lupi has mild anemia which could be from the adrenal
gland disease or from just having a chronic disease.
His "prostate infection" needs to be treated aggressively
with Lupron monthly, Propecia 1mg once a day for 1 to 2
months then you can reduce to just 0.1mg for the rest of his life,
and Baytril (or Zeniquin) for 6+ weeks. Plus continue
with the melatonin implants every 3 to 4 months.
His alk phos (a liver enzyme) is elevated but maybe elevated
if he is not eating well.
1) I would still go with a high protein food (ie Natural Gold, Totally Ferret
Baby version) because his kidney values (BUN) are still normal.
2)Yes Alph Trak is very accurate for ferrets when using the dog code.
3) I would suggest using 0.15 ml of pred if it is 3mg/ml.
Hope that helps,
Jerry

So, I have ordered a glucose test meter. I was originally going to order a human version, the FreeStyle Lite, then I heard that they make one for dogs and cats that can be used for ferrets. So I ordered it through our local vet. Well, turns out they don't know how to order anything either as they got the wrong thing and tried to get me to buy it anyway. I told them to send it back, I would get one from somewhere else. So I'm back to the human version and it has been ordered and I will hopefully get it this week.

Once we get our meter, I am making an appointment with a vet in Atlanta to have them give Lupi a lupron injection as well as supervise me on my first glucose test of him. I will have tested myself first too just to say that I've been there ^.^ I also plan to stop by the ferret shelter or the hospice care to have them put in a melatonin implant.

And as a side note, we plan to make a day of it by also stopping at OCHO's for some fabric sales!

I have also asked for information recently on electrolyte replacers, vitamins and foods. I still haven't been able to find a good electrolyte replacer that does not contain some form of sugar, so if it comes down to him needing fluids, he will get the sub-q. So far, we haven't needed it, even though we thought we did one night. As far as the vitamins go, we're looking into Totally Ferret Vivify for oils as we already give Nupro which has other vitamins and minerals. So we're covered there too. And we'll be switching to feeding Lupi only Innova EVO and Totally Ferret for a while as well as the occasional 8n1 Moist as a treat.

Oh yeah, and we're still treating for ear mites, so I don't have any more news about that. I will, however, get Lupi and possibly one other ferret tested again to be sure they are actually gone. They do seem to be scratching their ears less...but I don't want to leave any little bugger in there to come back ten-fold.

I'll try to stay on top of these Lupi updates, but have patience because our lives have become very hectic because of this disease. Lupi gets gravy 4-5 times a day, he goes to work with me, which also means that I cannot stay out of the house for more than 5 hours at a time unless I have Lupi, gravy and a microwave with me. He's also getting a lot of meds (herbal and prescribed) as well as separate run time. And this all on top of our normal cleaning and playtime...it takes a very long time each night to get things done around the house.

So, I'll do my best, that's all I can do.

In the meantime, I have pictures and videos you can check out at
http://www.youtube.com/user/FerretMommio
http://picasaweb.google.com/craftyweasels
http://gallery.haager.net/v/aahaager/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferretmommio/

And you can always order crochet eggs toys at http://www.ferretdreamsusa.com The sales help to pay for Lupi's meds and office visits right now. I'm hoping to add some bedding and crochet ferrets soon, so check back often.

Dooks & Dances

Lupi's Test Results - part 2

2009-02-13T21:08:00.003-05:00

So I don't know much more than I did the last time I posted. However, I have more questions. I just posted to the Ferret Health List and will post that up later along with responses. But for now, I have the results and you can see them at Lupi's Test Results Feb 2009. I'm a little upset right now because the vet told us that Lupi does NOT have insulinoma. According to the results, Lupi's glucose is at 44. The norm is 90-120 with 70-80 being worrisome. So his levels are extremely low which indicates insulinoma. Hopefully I will have more answers for you tomorrow.

Sluggish Dooks & Dances *sigh*

Lupi's test results - part 1

2009-02-11T15:39:00.003-05:00

We got back most of Lupi's test results today. I will get a copy of the results to share tomorrow (hopefully) but until then, this is what the vet told me.

Lupi's glucose is low, not extremely low, but low nonetheless. However, the vet said his insulinoma results weren't back yet. I guess I thought the glucose levels were the test for this, but apparently I was wrong. So I should get that info tomorrow (hence the part 1 in the title). We are to keep light karo syrup in the house for times when Lupi seems to be crashing or dazing out. I've always heard this, but never needed it. From now on, our house will have both karo syrup and honey.

Lupi had his left adrenal gland removed back in April of last year. Well, apparently, it MIGHT be necessary to remove the right as well. I knew we should have done them at the same time, but I let the vet bully me into not having it done. Now I know better. But, we'll decide whether that's an urgent issue once we find out the result of the insulinoma test.

The vet also did a urinalysis. Lupi has RODS (not sure exactly what that is however) but I believe it's a UTI (urinary tract infection). If they're not the same, he's got them both. I'll find out more tomorrow. Lupi had a UTI back around the time he had his surgery. He "dribbles" urine all the time, and this is what we believe is causing the recurring UTIs. We're going to put him on Baytril again starting tomorrow for 10-14 days. We are probably going to have to try to have him on some sort of antibiotic for this every month or so according to the vet. Aside from surgery, he doesn't know of any drug that will cure the dribbling.

Also, the vet said his Alphos (sp?) is HIGH. I'm not sure what this is either or the spelling of it as you can tell, but again, I'll try to find out more tomorrow. Anyway, the norm is less than 45 and Lupi's level is 310! So yeah, even though I'm not 100% on what it is, I still know it's bad.

So, for now we wait for more test results and start him on the Baytril. I will post again tomorrow to give more information.

Dooks & Dances

Lupi Update

2009-02-10T10:57:00.004-05:00

Lupi has been keeping steady...well, not too steady. We have not had another episode where he can't potty. So that's good news. We did have a little scare the other night when I went into the ferret room and he was kind of dazed with his head on the floor and his butt in the air. We pulled him out of the room and him and his daddy lay on the kitchen floor on a 'bed' that I made for them. They cuddled for a minute and off Lupi went. He was out of the ferret room, he had things to explore.

So after gravy and playtime, he seemed fine and we didn't worry too much. I woke one morning with my mind made up. It was time for some basic tests to get things checked out to see how he was really doing. So Lupi went to the vet this morning. But first, he had to get a bath...

Everything is better with ferretone!

The vet took what urine he could and blood. He's basically getting the works. They're going to be testing for whatever they can; urinalysis, bg, insulinoma, etc. We should get those results back in a week if I remember correctly.

We also had the vet check Lupi's ears for ear mites. We've had a couple of ferrets that had earmites before, Lupi was one of them. We use Revolution which is supposed to help prevent ear mites. However, we don't use it monthly, so we still got the mites. Adrian and I got to look through the microscope at the little bugger and came home with some meds to give to all the ferts. If you haven't guessed, Lupi has ear mites. *sigh*

So we have to put this ear stuff in all 14 of our ferrets ears twice a week for 4 weeks. We have to do all the ferrets because if we do just one, the other ferrets may have them and spread them back to Lupi....so they all get treated. The joys of owning multiple animals.

Lupi will stay on the Fenpecia and herbs for now. Once the test results come back, we'll see where we need to go from there.

Dooks & Dances

Hikari's tooth picture (After)

2009-02-10T10:51:00.002-05:00

Hikari did very well having her tooth removed this past Friday. The doctor said it just kind of fell out. Well, not really, but it came out very easy. The root had already started to rot a little, so it came out in time to keep it from reaching the other teeth. Here's a picture the day after the extraction.

Hikari was wide awake by the time we got her home. She'll be on her antibiotics through this Friday. So she's back to her "terrible two" self.

Dooks & Dances

Hikari's tooth picture

2009-02-05T13:35:00.005-05:00

Here's the before picture of Hikari's tooth. I'll get another picture after the vet does his thing and she's feeling better. The pictures don't actually do the gums justice as she really is missing a large area around the tooth that is coming out. But hopefully you get the idea. The second picture is just a closer area cropped out of the first picture.

Ugly Cars #2

2009-02-04T11:56:00.007-05:00

Wow, the title of this one says it all! This car really does remind me of "#2" ICK!

Just a quick note: So everyone understands that I'm not thinking myself better than others, I think our personal cars are pretty ugly too. The paint is either fading or peeling, the weather stripping is cracking, Adrian's car leaks rain water, and both cars have a lot of mechanical issues. But please don't tell that to our cars as they need to last us another year or more ^.^

Back to the ugly car of the week...We were outside working on my car (the breaks needed replacing) and this car comes "thumping" down the street in slow motion. It's like he's telling the world to look at his car! So I'm outside with 3 men and we're all looking at this car as it drives in slow motion around the cul-de-sac, all 4 of us thinking the same thing "If my car was that ugly, I wouldn't be drawing attention to it" And I know we were all thinking it, because we all started laughing and someone actually said this statement out loud, which made us all just laugh harder.

And, as if the first time around wasn't humiliating enough, the dude came back less than 20 minutes later doing the same thing. That's actually how I got these pictures, because I couldn't get my camera fast enough the first time...we were all in shock!

A

Ferret Teeth

2009-02-04T08:27:00.003-05:00

Hikari went to the vet yesterday afternoon because the gums around one of her upper incisors was receding. It looks to be a little infected and possibly even starting to rot a little. We had not noticed anything until the day before yesterday when we were clipping nails. Fortunately, we caught it before it infected the other teeth. The vet has put her on some antibiotics to help the infection. She goes back this Friday at 10:40 am to have the tooth removed. She will be on the antibiotics until next Friday.

Ferrets' teeth are extremely small, but the incisors are the smallest teeth. There are 6 tiny teeth between their canines, totalling a span of MAYBE half an inch. So yeah, they're teeny tiny. I'm going to try to get some before and after shots of her tooth, so you can see what I'm talking about when I post up the pics.

Friday is not going to be a full surgery thing. The vet said it's a quick thing that can be done while we wait. He'll have to give her some gas and numb the area and pull the tooth. The reason he wants her on the antibiotics before the extraction is so that if there is an infection, it doesn't get worse or spread.

Hikari will be just fine without this tooth. These teeth are used mainly for cleaning and she's got 5 more on the top and 6 more on the bottom. Plus, Lupi had one of his canines removed and he's doing fine. They just have to get used to the difference.

Dooks & Dances

Shadow's Big 10

2009-01-31T13:52:00.005-05:00

January 24, 2008 was Shadow's 10th birthday. She's been with me all her life. It did take me 3 months to convince my parents to let me bring her home, but my brother and I knew that they would cave so he let her stay at his house until my parents agreed. I taught her to sit and fetch before she even came home with me. And she got her name because, while still a pup, she was afraid of the woods and would literally stay in your shadow whenever you'd get close to them. And she'd whine until you came back. Now, however, it's quite difficult to even get her to come OUT of the woods. She's a natural hunter...we just never taught her how to hunt human style :)

Anyway, so on her birthday, we bought her a biscuit bone that said Happy Birthday on it, written in some kind of yogurt icing. She was very happy. Onyx had to have something too, so he got some cheesy empanada type things. Here is a picture of them enjoying their goodies.

You'll notice there are no other doggie friends around. That's because Shadow is anti-social with other animals. It's amazing that she even took to Onyx, but I guess that just means it was meant to be. So, Shadow only socializes with other animals under CLOSE supervision or through fences. But I think she likes Onyx's company.

Dooks & Dances

Worn out and tired

2009-01-25T15:01:00.003-05:00

You'll notice that I'm making a couple of different posts today. I have run out of free time to do things like this so have to cram it all into the same day.

On top of trying to post to my blog and update the 3 webpages I keep up, I also am having to clean house, wash tons of laundry and worry about not getting enough sleep. I feel like a new mom with no time to myself. (No comments please about me not having skin kids as I don't see them in my future and I don't need or want to hear it anymore.)

I had been working 3 days a week, 9 am to 6:30 pm. This week I worked 6 days and hit some good overtime. We had to fire one of the guys at work because he wasn't reliable and that means that now I have to pick up some major slack. This really is fine because Adrian and I plan to have our credit cards paid off this year and the extra money will be extremely helpful. So I'm really not complaining. So, I now cram 4 days of work and play into 2 days.

Also, our cars are getting pretty old and are not handling long drives very well anymore. My car needs a new transmission ($2000) and front struts, brakes and other things that go along with that ($1400). Fortunately, a friend of ours is going to get the brake parts handled for about $200 less than the mechanics wanted to charge us. Thank God for small miracles and wonderful friends. This still means our monthly trips to Atlanta are cancelled until further notice. So I will not get to see my friends as much and will have to stick to communicating via phone and email.

Adrian's car is still working okay. We've had 3 flat tires in less than 6 months, one of them was the spare. So we have 2 tires that are less than 3 years old, 2 tires less than 6 months old, and no spare at the moment. His car also burns oil and constantly is thirsty. Most of the dash lights and gauges are out, so we have to be very careful.

We could use a few more miracles this year as our house seems to also need new windows. Fortunately, we have lots of blankets and the kids have lots of fur to keep warm. And when it warms up, hopefully our air conditioner will still work.

Lupi is an old man of 8 years. For a ferret, that's awesome. He's having some issues, but seems to be handling them okay. He gets his daily meds and twice daily gravy. He also has to get frequent baths as he tends to poop everywhere.

Shadow is getting old too. She just had her 10th birthday yesterday. Shadow is our female dog for anyone who doesn't know. She's been with me all her life. We had to work yesterday, so we stopped at Fetch Dog Treats and got her a birthday biscuit bone. Onyx got some treats too, but we only really fussed over Shadow. Don't worry, we did the same for Onyx on his birthday :) Onyx didn't seem to mind though because he got some cheddar biscuits. Onyx turned 11 back in October.

I am hoping to get a job working part time at a dog kennel. I actually applied on December 31st. I knew no one would be hiring as it is the slow time for kennels, but it's a good idea to get the application in before anyone else. Also, they all seemed very excited to find out info about me such as my experience in a kennel previously as well as all the animals I currently live with. One place even gave me a tour of the kennel and introduced me to everyone. They said they'd call me in February, but I plan to call them by the end of the first week in February if I haven't heard back. I would be taking care of the animals (dogs and cats mainly, but they board anything that anyone brings to them including snakes and other critters). I would be giving baths and cleaning cages and runs. That may not sound like much fun to anyone, but I really enjoyed it. I do it everyday at home anyway, why not get paid for it? I'm a glorified pooper scooper LOL Plus, I get to play with all the different dogs. It's a perfect job for me.

I will still work part time at ComputerOne as there are a few things that only I know how to do and no one sticks around long enough to learn them (except Adrian). So I'll stick around there for a little while.

Dooks & Dances

Marley & Me

2009-01-25T14:48:00.003-05:00

I'm sure by now, most everyone has at least heard of 'Marley & Me'. I read the book first then watched the movie. I cried during both.

The book was better. The movie left out some very important parts from the book that really gave background to the entire story. So, as good as the movie was, the book is way better...read the book.

4 things the movie left out that they should not have left out:
1. John's childhood dog, the dog he compared every future dog to because his first dog was the world's best dog. This also includes how he chose his first dog, and how they made sure Marley was the right dog.
2. How Marley got his name. John and Jenny named him at the same time while arguing and listening to Bob Marley music. Big thing in my book.
3. John and Marley's toboggan ride...very important!
4. Marley's illness and death, including the monument that John built for him.

There were lots of other little things, and even a few more big ones, but these really upset me that they were left out. These were very important in the life and death of Marley, and the relationship he had with John and his family.

I'm just going to say one more thing...

READ THE BOOK!

Dooks & Dances

Ugly Cars

2009-01-25T14:42:00.004-05:00

Not sure why, but I wanted to share my idea of ugly cars. This is only my opinion and may not be shared by others...but this is my blog and I'll post what I want. If you don't like it, please read someone else's blog.

Adrian and I went on a bike ride up to the corner and while he was buying a newspaper, I was waiting outside. I literally felt this car roll closer and closer. I mean, the crappy music they were playing was thumping so loud that I could literally feel it vibrating through the ground. This picture was actually taken from 3 lanes and a parking lot away (I had to zoom in as best I could, I only had my phone).

Now, I hate it when I pull up to a red light and someone pulls up anywhere next to me and their music is so loud that my windows rattle. That is just ridiculous, rude and inappropriate. It's especially annoying when they have small children in the car...no wonder no one can hear anymore.

And it's amazing what people think is cool when it comes to cars. This car, in my opinion, is not cool, not pretty, and should be scrapped for parts!

A

Knitting Know How

2008-10-05T12:14:00.004-04:00

Yep! You guessed it, I can knit!!!! Woohoo!

I found some very helpful video tutorials online and I know how to cast on, knit and purl. I've done a few rows and hopefully it will actually make something :) I think I'm going to make a ferret toy out of it, but it's going to be something weird and just thrown together. I've just been making a square thing. So anyway. My very first knitting project...

More knitting adventures to come soon.

Dooks & Dances

Very long sabbatical

2008-10-02T15:18:00.006-04:00

I had hoped to use this space for my crafts and creatures updates...but sadly, I stopped posting back in April! I'm so sorry to have kept you on edge for so long.

Well, I'm back now and I can't even remember all the things that have happened since my last post. We had been having some various problems with our fur kids, but nothing much to report now except they are all doing well. We're at 2 dogs, 1 cat and 14 ferrets.

We did rescue a wild baby bunny in our backyard. It had a broken leg and we found a great ranch that takes in animals and rehabilitates them. The animals then stay on the ranch (which covers about 500 acres of land and 20 acres of that is water). The animals are well cared for and visited by many people. The ranch has a petting zoo as well as many other activities that helps them to raise the money to care for all the animals. You can read all about the ranch at http://www.graystoneranch.com

We have a sew day coming up this Saturday (only 2 days away) and we'll be taking Lupi to a vet out that way to get a Lupron injection. We have done melatonin, and surgery, and he's losing his fur again and so we're going to try one more thing to get him healthy. He's doing very well, but we don't like the fur loss and have been told that Lupron and Melatonin work better together...so we're going to give it a try.

We're also going to be bringing a couple of ferrets home with us for 2 weeks as well. A friend of ours is going to take their baby out to meet the family and needed a ferret sitter. So we'll have them for about 2 weeks. We're looking forward to it and are getting excited.

On a sad note, our cars are not doing all that great. My car needs a transmission, but so far it's still truckin' so we're waiting until we REALLY need it. And Adrian's a/c is acting up again...it keeps changing to the defrost setting. Fortunately, we've been having some better weather and should hopefully start having even more nice "window-down-while-driving" weather...so we won't need the a/c for much longer this year. We'll eventually get it all fixed, but it's slow going.

The house changes are slow, but always for the better. We've recently taken down a whole bunch of trees in the front yard. You can see pictures at my blog photo gallery The house in the pictures is actually our neighbors house. The trees were actually just on our neighbors property line, but we cleared it with them before we took them down. We'll be digging out the stumps in the next couple of weeks and then we'll get the ground ready for grass seed. Hopefully spring of next year the grass will be growing good and we'll add some low growing azaleas and gardenia bushes.

Speaking of growing things, I'm hoping to start a new inside herb garden, so if anyone has any suggestions on what or how, I'd really appreciate it. I'm going to start researching, but I know I want to try mint, rosemary and basil. There are a few others, but those are the ones that are coming to mind. I have a double window that I want to build a window box/shelf all the way across, so it will probably hold quite a few little plants.

Lots of updates with the Crafty Weasels, you can visit their site at http://www.craftyweasels.com and I'm having a special sale on crochet eggs and you can read all about that at http://www.adrianhaager.com/ann/toys.cfm We're getting a domain name for the toys, it's going to be http://www.ferretdreamsusa.com but it may not work for you just yet. We used to own the ferretdreams.com domain, but that was 5 years ago and now someone else has it...but I like it with the USA at the end of it anyway, so it's all good. We've got a great little logo with Lupi sleeping. Check back later and it might be posted up ^.^

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...I'm going to learn how to knit! :) I tried once so far, and it ended in tears. It was getting late in the day and I was already frustrated. So I put it down and will try again another day. But I will learn it, the same thing happened with crochet, and look at me now :) I'm the "crochet egg lady" hehe (so named by a few friends)

So that's about it for now. I will try to stay on course and keep you updated on things.

Dooks & Dances

PS. Adrian just had his 27th birthday and mine is coming up in 2 weeks!

Onyx and life

2008-04-22T18:41:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-14T16:21:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-14T09:43:00.005-04:00

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

2008-04-04T12:16:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-04T11:02:00.001-04:00

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

2008-04-03T19:47:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-01T17:53:00.005-04:00

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

2008-04-01T17:21:00.004-04:00

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