| My Blog Entries 31 Aug 2008 10:19 Thanks to everyone who sent messages regarding our loss of Strudel. Dave and I still miss her every day and think about her but we are feeling better. A lot of people have asked if we are going to get another dog but we´re not ready yet; and we´re worried Ellie would find it difficult to adjust.
Everyone else is just fine!
Laura xxx 0 Comments 07 Aug 2008 09:59 Strudel was unexpectedly diagnosed with liver cancer yesterday after a steady decline in health and comfort. After much soul searching and tears we decided the kindest thing to do was to out her to sleep as she´s already suffering. I always think people are being a bit dramatic when they say, "it was the hardest thing I´ve ever done" about something but this was the literally the hardest decision I´ve ever made.
Strudel has been with us for 14 years. I can’t imagine life without her.
5 Comments 24 Jun 2007 00:05
I hope you enjoy this story from back in the days when we first had the ferrets and were still trying to escape-proof everything!
Actually the escape wasn’t really great but it sounds more exciting than ‘the mediocre escape‘. But here goes. On Saturday morning the other half went up the garden to our ferret shed, to wake up the little darlings and feed/water them etc. He must have been half asleep (easily done, he’s not a morning person) because he neglected to fasten one of the padlocks on the wire panels on the door. In the day the ferrets have fresh air and tantalising glimpses of freedom, as the shed door is open and fenced off with said wire panels. At night we close up the she door and put them to ferret beddie-byes. To stop them escaping their huge shed (housing it’s double hutch and numerous toys, a dirt box, climbing frames and tunnels - they don’t know how lucky they are; I could be milking them daily in cramped cages and selling the produce to schools à la the Simpsons) there is a security system rivalling Fort Knox. Clasps, locks, panels, bolts and catches, all very necessary as ferrets are great escape artists. They are slim and slinky and smart enough to find any weakness, and they are disobedient little sods!
So this missing padlock provided a gap large enough for the ladies to escape from, small as they are sliding through the gap and into freedom. When Saturday night ferret bedtime came we realised at the body count we were three ferrets down. Now, I wasn’t worried about them running off because they know which side their bread is buttered, they just like to go a-wandering and return when they feel like it. They also tend to get a bit uppity at being returned home before they want to. But what I was bothered about was that it was getting dark and most importantly next door have a huge loft full of racing pigeons. Ferrets like pigeons. Only too well. And my neighbour has been round to see me previously asking why my ferrets were skulking around his rockery worrying his pigeons at 5am one morning (a previous escape).
When I hastily named my ferrets all those weeks ago, I never considered that I would have to hunt round the hedgerows in the garden yelling these names out in public. The problem is, that when you’re shouting “Mum, Mum, come here Mum” while crouching down in your garden your neighbours think you're crackers. They think you’ve either got a very small Mum, or she’s recently escaped from the nearest lunatic asylum - or that you have). And we’ve only just moved here so the jury’s still out on whether the neighbours think we’re bonkers or not.
At this point introductions may be in order. Meet my ferrets:
Mum, small, bossy, spends considerable time trying to escape her five naughty, boisterous, demanding, violent kids.
Dad: a gentle soul who spends most of his time hiding from said kids. (OK, the names aren’t original but we felt they should be honoured for giving birth to such monsters).
Topsy and Turvy - the two boys. Grown to be three times the size of everyone else (even Dad), constantly rough-housing and knocking the considerably smaller girls unconscious in their goofy like enthusiasm
Mustard - they sweetest, gentlest young lady ferret, loves a cuddle and so well-behaved. Must be adopted.
Pepper and Bitey - the final two girls - truly evil. Small with big teeth. Like to get their own way. Bitey was named after a possum in the Simpsons episode ’Marge versus the monorail’ - it couldn’t be more apt. Pepper is usually shy of humans - unless she’s tasting their flesh. These two are ALWAYS the first to escape.
Mum and Dad tend to come in the house every now and again to escape the kids and at some point will become house ferrets so they don’t have to spend their twilight years haunted by outcome of that one night of passion.
So back to Saturday; Mum, Pepper and Bitey had made their escape. Mum was found quickly, digging near the shed. Off to bed she went without much bother. Bitey and Pepper proved more difficult. Minutes of hunting the garden and shouting their name went past (shouting quietly, I didn’t want the neighbours to know they were out again), Bitey finally r 0 Comments 23 Jun 2007 12:39 Hello!
A friend of mine recently invited me to join www.facebook.com and I've been addicted to the site ever since. Catching up with friends and sharing news, photos etc is so easy but something was missing...there was plenty of pictures of boozy nights out with mates (don't get me wrong, I love a bit of that too)...........but no-one talked about their pets! My pets are my joy and so something needed to be done!
That's when I discovered PetStreet....I picked up a free magazine from the pet shop and was flicking through it when an article on PetStreet jumped out at me. It sounded fantastic - a social network for people and their pets! I checked it out straight away...and here I am.
My menagerie consists of dogs, ferrets and a mouse at the moment but we have had all sorts, like most animal lovers! I'm always on the lookout for more waifs to rescue too. No doubt I'll be boring on about it all on here.
I hope to meet you and your pets soon!
Laura 0 Comments |
