For anyone who knows me, they’re quite familiar with the fact that I never use my oven. And when I say never, I really mean never.
Up until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t turned that thing on in almost five-ish years. That’s a pretty long time to not use an oven, right?
A good friend of mine helped me get the oven racks back into the oven which was a real game-changer (haha). Since then, I’ve baked blueberry muffins on three different occasions, including the batch in the picture below.
Seriously, had you told me a month ago that I’d enjoy making these as much as I do, (and using an oven, at that!) I would have never believed you.
My, how things can change. And so quickly, too!
The third batch of organic muffins I’ve made. Everything in these are organic, with the exception of the table salt used.
So, instead of a gym membership, I purchased a seasons pass to the Zoo. I’ve totally gotten my money’s worth and have been here several times since last July.
What I love about the Zoo is, not only that I can clock about 4000 steps on my FitBit, but also that I get to check out the animals while I’m at it.
I never fully understood why they’re called the “King of the Jungle”. I never really understood the term, “Heart of a Lion”. I never fully comprehended what the big deal was about a lion’s roar…until today.
While at the zoo, I heard their roar in person for the first time. All I have to say is, “Wow!” I was amazed at how loud it was and how far it travelled – I heard it what must have been about a kilometre away! And their heads! Have you seen the size of a lion’s head??? It’s massive!
Today I learnt what all the fuss is about. They are utterly beautiful creatures – one of God’s many works of art. Simply magnificent.
Although the weather has been a bit wonky of late, earlier today wasn’t too bad. I decided to make my way over to our City’s Pioneer Village and enjoy a bit of the sun while it lasted.
Here’s a five-month old Dave. Dave is a Dumeril’s Boa. Dave is extremely strong for his size, much stronger than my ball pythons. Maybe it’s just more noticeable because Dave constricts. I like Dave. Dave is cool.
Love’s as strong as death my love
Unyielding as the grave
Relentless as the desert sun
And rivers cannot wash my love away
And many waters cannot quench love
– Rich Mullins
All of the above have been rescued before maximum damage could occur.
Not pictured: Wires; cables; any technology, but computer keyboards being a favourite; any cloth material; toys (of course); popsicle sticks; tissues; boxes; door frames; anything unattended, ever; anything you’re using. There is a parrot’s creed, which also applies closely to toddlers:
1. If you like it, it’s mine.
2. If I can reach it, it’s mine.
3. If it’s in my beak or foot, it’s mine.
4. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
5. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
6. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
7. If I’m chewing something, all the pieces are mine.
I’ve been through at least two different themes and I still am not able to decide on one I like.
Yes, I’m a cheap-skate, because the ones I like, I don’t want to pay for. I’m after the free themes :-P.
I was using Choco – it was nice, but I got a bit tired of the brown colour, so I’ve now changed it to “Chunk”. I’ll play around with it and see if I can customize it a bit more to my liking.
Am I ever going to be satisfied with the way my blog looks????
I was at Big Al’s the other day, and I loved this indoor pool set up. I can, however, safely say, that this is one animal-related thing I would not be interested in having in my house. 🙂 I’m content with just watching the video lol.
Don’t you love it when your dog’s poop comes out like a string of attached sausages cause he swallowed a really long hair or blade of grass and you have to *eh hem* “assist” him by leveraging that oh so versatile plastic poop bag in your pocket cause by this time the people across the street in the bus shelter are starting to whisper and point and it looks like your dog was born deformed with a permanently hunched back and you kinda just feel sorry for the little bugger as he looks apologetically back at you as if to say, “Listen, I know you’re mortified right now cause I’ve been doing the walking squat for over three and a half minutes, but, could I trouble you to give my poop a little tug? We should be good from there….” The joys, I tell ya. The joys.
This blog entry is dedicated to my sweet little hamster Peaches.
I know what you’re thinking – a grown woman dedicating a blog post to a hamster – how ridiculous. A while back, I would have thought the same thing too. Now, a few days after she’s left, I’m finding I’m missing her more than I thought I ever could, so here’s a bit about my little hammy.
Last year after coming back from vacation, I was getting pet supplies at PetSmart when these cute little baby hamsters caught my eye. Always a sucker for cute little animals, I asked the salesperson about them. She happened to bring up that she had a previously injured older hamster whose leg had since healed after being broken and was looking for a good home. Apparently, she loved to climb the walls of the PetSmart hamster enclosures and broke her leg after a fall. The vet had seen her and her broken leg had healed nicely and they were rehoming her free of cost.
The salesgirl brought her out and I knew I had to take that cute little hamster home. She was five months at the time.
From the very start I could see why she had broken her leg – she loved to climb and was very active. I tried to tell her she was supposed to run on the inside of the wheel, but she decided she wanted to figure that one out on her own 😛
My dogs were cool around her, as with all my other animals. Since I sometimes let my dogs have a couple of hamster Extrusion pellets every now and then when I’m feeding the hamsters, they knew the smell and loved it. Peachie would sleep beside her “stashed” pellets. It was hilarious to watch Bruce lick his lips every time she was out of her cage and he had a chance to sniff her.
Just as an FYI – Syrian hamsters can easily climb over the walls of these hamster exercise pens:
She ended up growing so large I had to go and purchase her a really large wheel since she couldn’t fit into the one that had come with her cage. Here’s a few pictures of her:
Peachie never “climbed” down the bars from the cage platform, nor did she take the intended tunnel down to ground level. She liked to just “step” off the platform and greet the ground when she got there:
Actually, these pictures were taken about a week before she died. I noticed the day I took the pictures that she was looking a little thin even though she was still eating and drinking normally. You can see in this picture she looks a bit drawn – at least I can tell she was:
A few nights later, I discovered her stuck in her food bowl. She was stuck in such an odd way, though. Her head was curled under in her bowl, with her left arm under her face – the rest of her limbs and body outside of the bowl. I thought she was dead. When I looked closer, however, I could see, very faintly, that she was still breathing :-S I swear she was breathing every thirty seconds or more. I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that hamsters can hibernate if their environment gets too chilly. My place had been kind of cold at that time. I kept her in my hand to warm her up for over two hours. She seemed to be in a really deep sleep and didn’t want to wake up. When I found her, her paws were so icy – they warmed up a bit after two hours but she was still on the cold side. I gave her a few drops of water with a dropper, and she eventually woke up enough to swallow and then fell back to sleep. In my heart I knew she was going to die, and that she wasn’t just hibernating – she had lost so much weight 😦
I put her in a little temporary cage that night and wrapped her up in a lot of towels to keep her warm. The next morning, I checked on her expecting to see her dead; she hadn’t moved a bit since the night prior. The only sign that she was alive were her little pink feet. I waited for quite a while watching her, but I didn’t even see her breathing. I picked her up and I finally saw her take a breath. I held her for a few minutes and she opened her eyes all the way. I got happy thinking maybe she was coming around and would get better. I wanted to keep her warm in my hand but I had to get ready for work, so I did both at the same time.
Encouraged by the fact that her eyes were fully open, I tried to give her some water from the dropper again. She choked on it 😦 I had given it to her the same way the night prior being careful to hold her at an angle so she could swallow, but it seemed she was shutting down and just couldn’t swallow it anymore.
It was so sad – holding her in my palm watching and hearing her gasp for air :’-(
I finally put her back into her little bed lined with towels from the night before. I left her for literally sixty seconds, and I came back to find her dying :’-( She had foam coming out of her nose and she was contorting her little body in a very unusual way. She exhaled – it was literally like her little life was leaving her. After that, she looked so flat, like a deflated beach ball.
I stayed there for quite a while afterward to ensure she was really gone – I had thought she had died a few times over the past few hours – it had been hard to tell the difference and I didn’t want to leave her if she was still alive. But she was really gone that time.
I feel so badly that she suffered the last few hours. I still can’t believe I got so attached to such a small little thing.
Good-bye Peachie. You were such a cutie pie. I’ll miss you.
I met Tucker’s breeder today at noon to pick him up. This cute little munchkin was passed out cold in this crate when I got him. He successfully slept the entire way home.
What’s going to be challenging is introducing him to Zoe. I had planned to have my best friend meet me with Zoe on neutral territory a couple blocks from my home, let them get acquainted, and then walk them home together (or as far as Tucker could go without getting tired). Well, of course it has to be rainy and cold today *pout* lol.
Soooo, since Tucker is still passed out in the car, I ran inside, warmed up his food and got his honey water, and ran back to the car with it. I’m now sitting in my car waiting for my best friend to get here so we can begin the intros.
I snapped this shot of Tucker’s butt. I think this is his butt lol. I can’t believe how small he is!!!! I knew he was small, but man, he looks smaller than I remember!!!
Today Bob and I took a trip up to Tweed to see the puppy. We’ve decided to name him Tucker. I can’t believe how small he is. I met his parents and his little friend from a separate litter. He’s soooo laid back! I can’t wait to bring him home – the dates been tentatively moved from April 15 to April 8.
On and off for the past while, I’ve been cruising Kijiji with the intent of adding a second dog to my single dog “pack”.
I’m still not quite sure how I lucked out and landed on Zoe. She came perfectly trained when I adopted her, so for me, the work of raising a puppy was non-existent – it was already done for me.
Since Zoe came into the picture in November of 2008, I’ve learnt a lot more about how to properly care for a dog, and what it takes to continue to have a well-trained canine companion. I’ve read a couple of Cesar Millan books, I watch his show every chance I get, and I try to keep Zoe as well-socialized to as many varying situations as possible.
A couple of weeks ago I came across an ad on Kijiji for a nine month old female ready to be rehomed. In correspondence with the breeder, I found out she had a little eight week old puppy. Apparently he was really laid back (like me and Zoe) and was the tiniest one in his litter. He wasn’t expected to reach three pounds.
Last Tuesday, my best friend and I took a nice drive north of Belleville to visit the puppy. He was really small and really laid back. Now, the laid-back part might have been due to the fact that I came in the middle of his nap time lol. Either way, I left putting a deposit down on him.
The breeder – Kimberley (www.thefairydogmothers.ca) has been very helpful and open thus far, and was kind enough to send me some videos and pictures of my prospective new little monkey.
Bob and I made our way down to the Art Gallery of Ontario today to see the King Tut exhibit.
Unfortunately, while we had a really great time together, I’m not in a real talkative mood right now, so I’m not going to say any more about the outting right now. Sorry :-P.
Just know that Swarovski crystals glued onto the end of black pencils looks really nice.
I had a really great time this past Saturday. I took Zoe and she had the time of her life hanging out with the other dogs. My family showed up as well – I couldn’t ask for a better day.
Here’s some pics taken with my BlackBerry of the Small Dog Meetup. The white “horse” wasn’t allowed into this particular off-leash event lol.
FidgetRoom 