The weekend book 7 came out

I picked up my book yesterday at 10:30. I had to finish up a load of laundry, so that ate into my reading time. Why yesterday and not my usual laundry day(Tuesday)? Because Raffles has not been doing good. He had gotten so weak that he couldn't make it out of the bedding without help, then it got so bad we just changed the bedding instead of stressing him. At this point he hadn't eaten in 4 or 5 days either and wasn't drinking much. So we were running out of bedding.

I held him most of the day while Techpriest was at work. For the 12th day in a row by the way. I knew from Tika's passing that Techpriest would have to realize that it was time to put him to sleep. As a former CNA(nurse aide) at a nursing home, I have seen death a lot more than he has. Makes it easier to realize when the time has come. By the time Techpriest came home Raffles was twitching, shuddering, when ever he breathed. He knew it was time to say goodbye then. I did fairly well, Techpriest was a mess.


We will bury him beside Tika. Just like what happens to many married couples, these two life long companions passed away very close together. Of the two, Raffles was always the more sedate one, relatively speaking of course. He was more likely to stop to sniff something or let you hold him while he napped. For more pictures and stories about Raffles visit ourlair.



I was hoping for more time to get used to the idea of not having any pets. We are thinking about finding a new place and that is so much easier without pets, but we have both had pets for most of our lives. The last time I did not have a pet was about 8 years ago for 2-3 months between moving out of chelle and Dan's place and moving in with Techpriest. That is also the only time I've lived alone in all my life. Boy was I lonely.

Anyway, last night about 11 I decided to not stay up all night reading, so I did get a good nights sleep, but got up today and stayed in my jammies until I finished reading Deathly Hallows. Didn't even brush my teeth or shower till then. I do have my priorities straight, don't I? Called chelle, she was done too, so we dissected the book for awhile. Called Karla, she wasn't done, so I got off the phone before I let something slip. I doubt Miranda is done so I'll leave her alone for now. And all I'm saying here is that I enjoyed the book.

Since I had been ignoring the dishes for almost 2 straight days I thought maybe I should tackle them before they got to out of hand. Then I started picking up ferret stuff. It was hard to look at, but even harder to deal with. I kept coming across something else. They had several different boxes to hide stuff in, a couple of napping spots plus the cage and accessories, supplements and health stuff. Plus, lots and lots of bedding(we had started adding old tshirts).Oh, and the clear dryer hose. Techpriest was out auto cross racing, so I spent all day alone with no weasels to keep me company, the first of many.

I am doing ok, just a little sad.

Warning: Random Post Ahead

Hello, I know it has been a while, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Last Saturday we celebrated DH's 34th birthday with his mom and nephew(she is his guardian) by eating at Cracker Barrel, good food. We had fun.

Earlier we had bought me and her new cell phones. I had been using an old brick that was a few years old. DH is a computer tech and is fairly savvy about any electronic gadgets so mil wanted his help too. We both ended up getting a motorazr, so we can use it as an mp3 player as well. Pretty neat phone, I spent all of an evening downloading pictures and adding them to everyone's contact info. Haven't quite worked out how to convert songs into ringtones, but working on it.

Speaking of DH, I'll probably start calling him by his online handle, Techpriest, because he fixes it and prays it works. He has been going by that now for longer than I've know him. Actually, I've been going by Faren online for longer than I've known him too. While reading Robert Jordan's Eye of the World I came across the mention of a farmer who had my last name (maiden), his first name was Faren, loved the sound of it and decided it use it.

The place seems quieter without Tika around, even though she hadn't been able to get into trouble in quite a while. Raffles is doing good, still sleeping all the time, just wakes up to eat and poop seems like. It will be really quiet when he is gone.

Marianne had asked a couple of days ago whether it had rained much here lately. I told her no. It seems as soon as I said that it started raining. Yesterday it poured down. Hard enough to flood the apartment. Again. This has apparently been the wettest spring in thirteen years here. All the rivers are still very high from the last series of rains. Everyone's basements have flooded, I just happen to live in one. Hutchinson has flooded even worse, two of my friends have had two and four feet of water in their basement. Both lost their water heater and one lost the blower to the central heating unit, which means no air conditioning. So I suppose I could have had it much worse, but it is hard to remember that when all the rooms in the apt. have water in them and you have to keep going from one to the other to keep up with it. Yesterday I was ready to move, but we really can't. The rent is cheap, we are in a good neighborhood, the neighbors in the other apartments are nice, and we can keep Raffles here. It is a pain to find somewhere that will let you keep pets. And we are hoping next spring isn't quite so bad.

It is also very cool down here, I've seen it be 10 degrees cooler than it is outside. But sometimes I swear everything is just slightly damp it is so humid. That has been getting on my nerves too, but Techpriest borrowed a dehumidifier today and it has already made such a huge difference! I'm amazed. So yeah, I feel better about the place than I did yesterday, what a difference a day makes. There really are many pluses to this place.

Sunday I cleaned off the sewing cabinet, one set of crafting shelves, the computer room closet, and a set of shelves in the kitchen. These spots just collect junk that don't belong there. So I got them under control for a while.

Techpriest bought me a couple of Red Dwarf books, so I've been reading them. They are good, but I think I like the TV show better. If anyone is interested, let my know and I'll let you have them for what he paid for them.

Not much knitting going on. I finished using the leftover yarn from Nathan's sweater for squares for Greensburg, and I just haven't moved on to anything else. I found some different instructions for short row heels, but just haven't sat down and got it done. I'm going to have to really pay attention, and all I've really wanted was mindless knitting while watching tv. I plan on doing it tomorrow, but we shall see.

Gratuitous Nathan Picture of the Day!

I love this picture of Nathan with his Daddy(my big brother)

Tika

Tika just passed away. I thought she was going to go sometime in the night, but she was still here when DH got up at 5 to check on her. She was still hanging on before he left for work at 8:30. After I finally talk him into putting her to sleep, she is gone when I check on her before calling the vet.

I feel guilty because I wasn't holding her, but I was getting ready to take her to the vet. Yesterday she wasn't eating or drinking at all, she would move her head away from it. When we got back from the circus, she had somehow managed to crawl on top of the blankets(without disturbing them at all, I found it very strange) and was so cold and unresponsive. If we had been gone a little longer she might have died then. She finally warmed by after using the rice pack over and over. We did hold her all last evening. She was so unresponsive DH thought she was in a coma, she might have been. He figured if she wasn't in pain not to put her to sleep, but I just hated to see her that way.

We certainly will miss her. To see more pictures and read more stories about her go here.

Weasels

Here is the promised post about the ferrets. A month or so after we moved to Nickerson (so after Feb. '01) we bought the two ferrets from a women in Enid, OK. She had just had a baby and having the ferrets run off with diapers(clean, I think) and other supplies was driving her crazy. She said they were two years old.

We renamed them Tika(me) for a frying pan wielding barmaid in the Dragonlance Chronicles, and Raffles(DH) for a gentleman thief. I'll have to ask him the author, I have seen the BBC series though.


Tika(female) is the first picture, Raffles(male) the second. Ferrets are a lot like kittens, they play constantly when they are awake and sleep like the dead when they aren't. And they don't grow out of it. Not until they are so old they can't move like they used to.

Sleeping like the dead.

Playing hard.
They are 8 years old now, ferrets usually live about 6 to 7 years. These guys are old. I don't have a current picture of Raffles(and I don't feel like taking one), but he looks the same as Tika.

Yeah, ewww, huh? You get used to it. But then again, we had a hairless rat too, looked just about the same. They are both hairless, losing control of their back legs, have arthritis in their jaws(they squeak) and Tika is also blind. And just in case any of you do know anything about ferrets, yes, we did have the adrenal surgery done on Tika. Her hair came back for about a year, then gone again. They have gotten even worse here lately. Raffles occasionally has trouble breathing and Tika's body temperature is low. She always has gotten cold easily, but now you pick her up and she feels cold to the touch. So, we started putting rice packs in bed with her. Never too hot, and we put a towel between it and her. She only comes out of the box to go to the bathroom anymore. I've started bringing food and water to her in bed, is she spoiled or what? I think she will be the first to go. But they have been good pets, and they have had a full life.

Here are some pictures of them in Miranda's afghan she made us for Christmas and the ferrets took over. I really don't think we could have enjoyed it any more than they have.



Yes, that is Tika's nose you see, that is her usual spot, she buries herself as much as she can.