my two new degus

My vet played on my sorrow. She called me to tell me she knew how much I was missing all my little pets. She also mentioned that someone had dropped of a pair of degus at the front door of her office. She knew I loved pocket pets and wanted to give me first dibs on them. I didn't really want them but I went and had a look . . . and fell in love.

They are to male degus and I named them Rosencratz and Gildenstern or Rosie and Gildie for short. I've had to do a lot of research because I knew nothing about degus. What I did find out that is very important is that they should be kept in pairs or better. Lone degus develop behavioural issues. They can become less tame and even vicious without a companion. Keep two male or two females to keep from having unwanted pets.

I put two wheels in their home because they didn't want to share it. Two degus going in two different directions in one wheel makes for a lot of squeeking! Once in a while one will be on the outside of the wheel and the other inside and that works out fairly well. But the second wheel has solved all our problems.

Notice how I attach the wheel to the top of the cage. This allows for more room on the floor and keeps the wheel very stable while they run.

We are also in the process of getting another dog. A friend is bording dogs for her friend whose marriage ended. She cannot keep her dogs so they are splitting them up. We have decided on getting the pittieX. I will have her next week.

"You become responsible forever for what you have tamed."

~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Good-bye Q-Tip

Q-Tip died in my arms last night at 4:00 am. He was not quite four years old and I was told he was a year when I got him. Of all my pocket pets, I loved him the most. He used to sit on the desk with me while I typed. Good-bye little piggy. Thanks for being a part of my life.

Goodbye Dr. Livingstone

Last night when we went to feed him is supper, Paul and I found our little gerbil Dr. Livingstone has passed away. I am heartbroken yet again for another loss. Tiny as he was, he provided great entertainment for me as he was housed in a 20 gallon low boy aquarium on my computer desk.

Paul and Alex found him outside one evening three years ago, walking down the edge of someone's driveway. They caught him and brought him home to me, knowing I would love him and also that he wouldn't have survived a cold Canadian winter. Or worse, ended up as some cat's dinner.

Gerbils are amazing pets. We bought play sand for him and gave him shredded paper. He made the rest of his bedding himself with toilet paper rolls, paper cup holders and whatever else we tossed in his home.

He is already sadly missed.

Thank you Dr. Livingstone, my little explorer, for the three years of companionship you gave to me.

Goodbye Sweet Dexter

Today I am sad. Q-Tip is being treated for an absess in his foot. I thought it wasn't healing and the vet suggested perhaps it was a mass and surgery would be the best option. She also told me the guinea pigs don't do well coming out of surgery and we might lose him while he was under. Feeling like I was trapped between a rock and a hard place, I opted for the surgery. I cuddled Q-Tip last night and gave him some extra love.

I took Q-Tip to the vet and went home to await a call which I believed would be bad news. When I got home, I noticed Dexter's breathing was very laboured. I called the vet and the reciptionist said to bring him in when I came to get Q-Tip as the vet saw noticed improvement in his foot and decided not to operate.

Michelle checked Dex over and told me he had pneumonia. She gave him a shot to try and releave his congestion and put him on meds. She also told me the GP's get this virus and usually pass within the next couple of months never really coming off the meds totally. I was happy to try anything but was sent him with my sickly Dexter knowing the next twenty-four hours were going to tell if he survived. He didn't. He passed about an hour after seeing the vet.

It always seems to work this way for me. When I'm so busy watching out of one thing, something else quietly slips out the back door. Dexter would have been lost without Q-Tip because he cried everytime I took Q out of the cage. Q-Tip doesn't seem to be grieving too much because Dex used to pick on him a bit. I on the other hand, am grieving deeply.

There has been so much loss in my life these past nine month. The size or genus of a creature has little bearing on how much I mourn. I miss my little Dex who gave me so much in the three short years I had of his four year life.

Goodbye Dexter, my sweetie boy.

guinea pigs

How wonderful to finally have fair weather. The guinea pigs are really enjoying it. After being cooped up all winter eating dried hay the fresh air, sweet grass and sunshine are just the thing! I put my piggies in a tent to guard them against birds etc. It also keeps the bugs off of them.

This is Q-Tip in his spring sweater. He's a skinny pig (hairless) so he needs a sweater to keep warm. Also he has to be protected from sunburn.


Dexter is never fair from Q-Tip. Here he is chillin' out enjoying the day.

If all the beasts were gone,

men would die from a great loneliness of spirit,

for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man.

All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.

~Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe

Both my piggies are rescues. Q-Tip lived the first year of his life in a cage so small he could barely turn around. Just twice as long as he was. Dexter's cage was even smaller. Now they enjoy 6'x2' cage and are a pair of spoiled boys.

Lots of people talk to animals....

Not very many listen, though....

That's the problem.

~Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

window rabbits and a guilty cat

These cute bunnies came from an antique shop in Brighton, a little town just ten minutes east of Colborne. It's an excellect shop because they mix old with new. These bunnies are sold separately but they look like such a nice pair that I bought both. They are in my Easter window display. I need to sew a lace curtain for behind the window because I'm not fond of the wall paper the previous owners had in the kitchen. It's a navy blue plaid and while it's nice enough paper, it's not kitcheny enough for me. I've got so much to do in the house and the kitchen is on the bottom of the list.







Paul's cat Jasmine decided to join us for dinner the other day. Sadly for her, I don't dine with my pets so she had to make a hasty exit from the table but not before I got a picture of her eyeing the last chick'n nugget in the pan. Both Paul and I are Flexitarians so I doubt she would have eaten it even if it were offered.

After scolding one's cat one looks into its face

and is seized by the ugly suspicion that it understood every word.

And has filed it for reference.

~Charlotte Gray

At Lotsa Stuff, Leslie the proprietess had this chicken pulling a wagon of chicks. I loved it so much and when I was tidying the other day, I found a bag on the dining table and they were in it.

I love Paul so much. He never makes a show of gift giving. Something could sit there for days and he wouldn't say a word. I on the other hand hate keeping secrets and would do something famboyant in order to get the recipient of the gift to notice it sitting there.

Winter is more than half over

We're being soaked with rain at the moment but that's not going to last for long. I actually prefer snow because it's dry and cold rather than wet and cold. Here are a few pictures I took in my backyard during the last big snowfall.



The screenroom was becoming less like a screen and more like a wall.



This is a picture of one of my favourite things about winter. Nature's balancing act. This twig is about the size of a pencil lead yet it can balance a fair amount of snow even in the blowing wind.



There is a huge old pine out in the yard. It served as a sort of umbrella while I was playing fetch with Brady. This picture was taken with me leaning against the trunk and looking straight up.



Check out the grin on Brady's face. This dog is not happy unless he's herding or fetching.



Here is a picture of the yard. It's so pretty. The barn in the background is not ours but belongs to our neighbour. That twisty looking bush to the left is a very old lilac. I imagine a nice reading bench parked right under it in the spring.

The end of January

This month has raced by so quickly. It's hard to believe that my mother has been gone for four weeks now. But at the same time, I feel like it was forever ago since I saw her last. Between trying to get a B&B up and running so quickly and tending to my Mom's estate, my days melt into each other.

On a brighter note, my youngest son Alex just got a new, "second chance" dog from the Toronto Humane Society. His name is Baxter and I am thrilled to have a new 'granddog'. I haven't met him yet but will this Sunday when both my sons come to visit. My eldest son Jay is visiting from Victoria BC for a week.

A promise to keep

I did promise my mother many times that I would always move forward and never cling to grief. That's a tough promise to keep. But I am ready to try. I know I will never get past losing her because I still mourn for my father and brother after twenty+ years. But it is a kind of loving grief that I feel for them now. I know they're gone but they are still both so much a part of who I am.
My remaining dog Brady is lost. We moved here in July and my youngest son went back to the city after two months. A couple of months later, Brady's constant companion Beulah, my dog of almost 13 years, left us. Than a couple months after that, Mom passed. I can tell you, Brady is sticking pretty close to Paul and I. That's okay though, what's life without a dog to spoil?

If I don't shake a few things up in this house I will begin to believe it's a sad house and I know that's not true. It is one of those houses that you feel at home in the moment you walk through the door. I don't want to cast a gloomy shadow on a house that radiates love. So for Beulah, my mom, the former residents of this house and for Paul and myself, I am ready to live in love with life again.

This is a little off topic but I just can't resist. Here is a picture of Amos (A. Mouse) the rat. He is gardening in a plant arrangement I have on a side table. He just digs a hole in the center and chills out while Paul and I watch some television.

We are going to turn this big house into a B&B I think. We've got lots of work to do and I know it will be an on going hobbie. The bathroom on the second floor is completely off white. Clean and tidy enough but boring. I have picked my colour scheme for the room based on a teddy bear, cream and sugar set, from two of my collections and a button wreath I made several years ago. I just hot glued white and off-white buttons to a styrofoam wreath. Paul has to do a bit of repairs in the room but then it's mine. I am moving furniture around but I need to put my personal stamp on the bathroom quickly. I also found an old chandelier at a place called Beyond the Blue Box. You buy stuff by the pound there. I got the chandelier for a dollar and I plan to give it a facelift and put it in the bathroom. Hopefully I'll add a pic tomorrow.

Pondering Christmas

I was hoping to get some more Christmas crafts posted but life has a way of getting in the way of blogging. My mother has cancer and is not doing well. Yesterday we made palliative care arrangements and it has left me crushed. The chemo is knocking the stuffing out of her. It's her fear that is the worst part of all this. She is confident in her faith but she's not ready to go. We bought this house just this past summer with wonderful plans for some great adventure. Now it seems she will not be a part of that adventure and it no longer seems that important.

Just last month, I had to say goodbye to my most beautiful dog of almost 13 years, Beulah. We were eating homemade cookies and after she scored a bite of mine she turned to my husband for a share of his. Before he was done, she was in a grand mal seizure. The doctors tried to stablize her but 34 hours later, we had to say goodbye. There was no way the doctors could bring her back to her former self. It was the right decision but I can't stop crying. Our other dog, Brady is moping and looking for his best friend. That just adds to my sadness.

Above is Beulah looking beautiful and to the right is her upside down on the couch. That was her favourite position. Below to the right is Brady waiting to fetch something, , , anything, , , please? No, he's not morphed. He really looks like that.

One thing I am finding in the midst of all this upheaval is that Christmas has very little to do with presents, glitter and feasting. Those are holiday festivities. Fun things we have created to give a festive air to a much more important message. The birth of Christ was supposed to be the birth of peace on earth and goodwill towards all men.

I'm sure next year I will be more into the festive side of the holidays but this year I am more focused on the deeper meaning of Christmas. After all, what gift could even begin to compare with the precious time I have left with my mother, the happiness given to me by my dog of almost thirteen years and the joy my remaining dog faithfully offers to me or seeing/hearing from my kids?

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas or joyous celebration of whatever path you follow. Remember to take a moment and look past the gifts and into the eyes of our loved ones, both two legged and four. I wish you might find the kind of love that was born to us over 2000 years ago.