I have 3 ferrets: Fucifer, Lascivia, and ...Kitty. (I didn't name the 3rd one). Fucifer is a 2 year old gray and white male, Lascivia is a dark chocolate brown female about the same age (she has the traditional brown and tan that you think of when you picture a ferret ..you know, with the masked face). Kitty is another female, almost 5 years old, and grayish white like Fucifer ..but getting more and more white as the months pass.
Don't ask me to do any translating because its been too many years since my last Latin class and most of it has gone out the window ..even after 3 years of studying it. That being said...
Fucifer is Latin for "Thief," Lascivia is Latin for "Mischief" And Kitty is well, Kitty. I was not Kitty's first owner, nor was I Lascivia's. I adopted both of them from other people that could no longer care for them. Kitty was raised with a bunch of cats and thinks she is one, and answer's to her name so I couldn't change it.
Lascivia's original name was *gasp* "Lola Cherry Cola." That name might have been fine for the 7-year-old little boy who owned her originally, but that name, whether she answered to it or not (which she didn't I found out,thank goodness) would not be spoken in my household - it was just too ridiculous. At first I just shortened it to Lola, but that reminded me of her entire name each time I said it. So in the end, I gave her a more fitting name, and the little booger has grown into it quite well; she is VERY mischievous.
The oldest, Kitty, was actually my first ferret - adopted from a local friend. The friend had bought Kitty from the same store Fucifer came from, about 2 years earlier. As time went by my friend realized that she was not giving Kitty enough attention and play time - at least not enough as she deserved. And after a while, the only time Kitty came out of her cage to play was when I came over to visit. Kitty eventually got to know the sound of my voice and immediately showed signs of interest and wanting to play when she saw and heard me. Eventually my friend decided it was best if she found someone who had more time to spend with Kitty and I ended up adopting her. This turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me! I love that little girl!
As a principle, I generally try to adopt pets from the shelters, individuals who can no longer keep them, or rescues. Pet Stores = breeding, and lots of it. There is a huge pet overpopulation problem in the United States and I would like to keep from adding to it (that is a whole other discussion). BUT, yes there is always a but... One day I was in one of our local pet stores to get some ferret food for Kitty and I noticed a new litter of baby ferrets. I had to go over and look at them, they were so adorable. I went over to the pen where they had them and Fucifer (just a few weeks old) walked right over to the side of the cage where I was standing and started to climb my arm as soon as I reached down. I melted and we immediately bonded. I was such a sucker and there was no way he was not coming home with me, so I started examining him and discovered that he had a prolapsed colon (Anal gland/area was sticking outside the body).
I brought this to the attention of the store owner and she immediately put the little guy in isolation so he could be watched, fed a special diet for a couple weeks and taken to the Vet. I told her that after this isolation period and vet visit I would very much like to take him home. His medical isolation was during Christmas break and I in there every day checking on him, holding him and talking to him. They put my name on his cage so they could make sure he would not be sold to anyone else by accident. His colon was fine after a week or so and I was allowed to take him home ..for an extremely reduced cost no less, as a "reward" for discovering his medical problem. Fucifer is now my baby boy and a great ferret.
A year or so later Kitty appeared to take a turn for the worst. She wasn't eating much, she lost a lot of weight and her fur turned extremely lighter than it had been when I first got her. I was worried and took her to the vet several times but they couldn't find anything wrong. I began to worry that Kitty would not be around much longer because she was so lethargic and just not looking well all together. I suspected Adrenal disease and wondered how much time she had left. During the year or so I had had both Kitty and Fucifer, they had bonded VERY well and had become best buddies - always playing together and sleeping together, grooming each other. Having read many ferret magazines, the thought occurred to me that Fucifer might become extremely lonely if Kitty passed on. So, the search started for a 3rd ferret to adopt...someone Fucifer could bond with before Kitty was gone, to make the transition easier for him..
As luck would have it, the perfect Ferret was for adoption from a woman who lived in Austin, about an hour and a half from here. The ferret actually belonged to her seven-year old son, but he was losing interest in her after the recent purchase of their new dog. The mother didn't think it was fair to keep their ferret under these circumstances and placed an add on the Internet (http://www.petfinder.com/ for anyone interested) offering her ferret, Lola Cherry Cola, for adoption. I talked to the woman a few times on the phone and corresponded with her via e-mail. After a week or so we set up a date and time to drive over to Austin to pick up Lola.
Fucifer came with us in his travel cage to meet Lola so we could judge whether or not the two would get along before we brought her home with us. (Us being myself and my boyfriend Jim). He slept the whole way there (Fucifer, not Jim). When we arrived Fucifer went in to meet Lola and the two seemed to hit it off right away, so the adoption was complete! They slept together, snuggled up in the hammock of the travel cage all the way back home. And after a few minutes of sniffing upon arriving at the house, Lola was friends with Kitty too.
A month or two later Kitty had seemingly made a full recovery from ...whatever had been wrong with her. She has been more lively ever since (over three years later). Although she seems to and shed a lot of her hair two or three months out of every year ..but she never seems to notice and it doesn't stop her from playing. The three little rascals are now inseparable and seem to get into more trouble than three two-year old human children, if that is possible. They entertain me with hours of love and hysterical comedy - it is total slap stick. I love them with all my heart, my fuzzy kids :)
Friday, February 04, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Psychology Research
I'm in an experimental psychology class this semester and I'm going to have to do a research study. I get to pick my own topic and I for once my mind is blank.
We had to turn in some bull crap busy work homework the other day ...basically just printing out 5 articles from the University's online journal stacks, letting our TA know that we do in fact know how to find articles. Off the top of my head, I decided I was going to find out if there had been any articles written about a possible correlation between ADHD and OCD. Why? Well I have ADHD and I think I have some tendencies toward OCD. So looking for a possible connection seemed legit. I found a few articles and printed them out and took them to class.
As I sit in class with my articles on the desk in front of me, the girl sitting to my right looks at them and then looks at me, and says "so which one are you?" I looked at her for a few seconds, blinked, and asked, "am I that obvious?" She said something to the effect of ..."well isn't that why we all got into psychology? ... because there is something "wrong" with us and we want to study it to be better able to understand it all?" I thought about this and decided she was right, at least in my case. I told her I was ADHD but had always wondered if I had some degree of OCD as well.
She showed me her articles. One was about anxiety, the other about panic attacks. She said she had been diagnosed with each and we both chuckled. We then had a long discussion about what we wanted to do with our psychology degrees.
I had never thought about it before yesterday but the girl in my class was definitely right. When it comes down to it, I think one of the driving forces behind my deciding to major in psychology was trying to figure out what was really going on in my head. That, and the fact that I had a totally kick-ass psychology teacher for my first two years in college (who is also ADHD). She fostered in me, a love for psychology because she made it fun, she was a lot of fun and she was so extremely open about her own diagnosis of ADHD and struggles with it. The first time I heard Dr. Jones speak was a defining moment for me. In a few seconds, she was somehow able to make me feel a lot less self conscious about having ADHD, and able to talk about it openly with other people without being embarrassed at all. This would later lead the way for me to have similar discussions about other "taboo" topics.
We had to turn in some bull crap busy work homework the other day ...basically just printing out 5 articles from the University's online journal stacks, letting our TA know that we do in fact know how to find articles. Off the top of my head, I decided I was going to find out if there had been any articles written about a possible correlation between ADHD and OCD. Why? Well I have ADHD and I think I have some tendencies toward OCD. So looking for a possible connection seemed legit. I found a few articles and printed them out and took them to class.
As I sit in class with my articles on the desk in front of me, the girl sitting to my right looks at them and then looks at me, and says "so which one are you?" I looked at her for a few seconds, blinked, and asked, "am I that obvious?" She said something to the effect of ..."well isn't that why we all got into psychology? ... because there is something "wrong" with us and we want to study it to be better able to understand it all?" I thought about this and decided she was right, at least in my case. I told her I was ADHD but had always wondered if I had some degree of OCD as well.
She showed me her articles. One was about anxiety, the other about panic attacks. She said she had been diagnosed with each and we both chuckled. We then had a long discussion about what we wanted to do with our psychology degrees.
I had never thought about it before yesterday but the girl in my class was definitely right. When it comes down to it, I think one of the driving forces behind my deciding to major in psychology was trying to figure out what was really going on in my head. That, and the fact that I had a totally kick-ass psychology teacher for my first two years in college (who is also ADHD). She fostered in me, a love for psychology because she made it fun, she was a lot of fun and she was so extremely open about her own diagnosis of ADHD and struggles with it. The first time I heard Dr. Jones speak was a defining moment for me. In a few seconds, she was somehow able to make me feel a lot less self conscious about having ADHD, and able to talk about it openly with other people without being embarrassed at all. This would later lead the way for me to have similar discussions about other "taboo" topics.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Wacked Out Dreams
So I'm at the mall ..not our mall ..some made up mall, with Jim and all of a sudden all I'm wearing nothing but boxer shorts. So my top half is, of course, naked and I start freaking out. Department store, right? Clothes everywhere ..you'd think I'd just grab the nearest shirt and throw it on. Well for some reason it takes me an extremly long time to realise this, and once I do ..I can't find any shirt/coat/whatever big enough. Its like I'm in midgetville. Nothing fits.
A lightbulb goes off in my head and I run over to the men's department thinking they will have larger shirts. They do, but they are all HUGE ..so huge they are falling off me. Finally I find some "army" vest (camo with netting and 10 million pockets/zippers) which fits and throw it on. Woot I'm safe! Then I look at the price tag and its like $40. Retardely, I decide this is too much to spend to save my dignity and take it off. So I'm naked again.
About this time Jim's parents show up with a shirt for me but the sleeves are like 10 feet long, litterly. So I take that off and I'm running around the store (now with him, his parents and a female sales clerk in tow) all trying to find me something...anything I can wear. His parents get fed up waiting for me to decide on something and leave. I end up in this little red lace Victoria Secrets type "teddy" and we buy it, thank the sales clerk and start walking out to our car. At some point my boxer shorts dissapeared and all I'm in now is the teddy.
So we're walking out to the parkinglot and we can't find our car. Then we realise every car in the lot is being "chopped" by this gang of thugs with machine guns. They are taking off the wheels and mirrors and whatever else they can haul back to their chop shop. There are proably 20 of these guys spread out on differnt cars. Then they see us and decide we "have seen too much" and must die. Jim and I take off sprinting across the parkinglot desperatly looking for our car with all these machine gun guys chasing us. We stop at an old whie Toyota Corolla because he thinks its his ..and then we remember thats the car he used to own ..and we keep running. Then we come across a car that looks similar to my current one ...marron Mazda 626 ..but its not mine. So we keep running. Having stopped twice thinking we had reached our cars, the thugs had almost caught up with us.
We were running as fast as I've ever run before and decide to cut across this grass median when shots ring out. Jim is hit ..several times. He falls over, blood everywhere. I stop running and kneel beside him, arms around him and start crying ...and then they shoot me and I fall over. But then I realise I'm not dead and not even hurt. WTF? Somehow, between the department store and running through the parkinglot I had obtained a bullet proof vest >< But I stay fallen over, pretending I'm dead so the thugs will leave us alone...quietly crying because Jim is dead.
Then, suddenly, I feel a small tug at my pinky finger. Its Jim! He's alive! He's just pretending to be dead too so the thugs will go away! Apparently he had also obtained one of these magical bullet proof vests. His even came complete with those little blood splatter pouches to make it look real. So we lay there, and eventually the thugs run off.
Then I think I woke up, rolled over and started another dream :P
Its a Real Life EverQuest dream. ..you know the type. Its actually YOU the person running around in the game, dodging mobs and casting spells. Yeah so I "died" and forgot that I was bound in Permafrost in the lair. Well Vox was up, and she had some little bitty dragon minion with her too named Furly or something. I dunno. So I'm running around her lair trying to find my way out (it looked nothing like how it normally does in game). She's wacking on me and casting on me. I get feared a few times. Its quite annoying. I start running through tunnels and opening doors trying to get away.
Then, all of a sudden, I'm in the biggest movie theater you've ever seen. This theater is located inside Permafrost and is apparently where all movie stars and other famous people go when they die. Every seat in the theater was filled with a deceased famous person. I saw Sigmund Freud and Marilyn Monroe and 100s of others. And I walked up to a couple of them and started some conversations.
Meanwhile Vox had caught up to me and starts chasing me through this "movie theater of stars." She completely ignores all of them and just continues after me. I dive into this crowd of famous people and stay low to the ground hiding, and she walks on by me. HA, fooled her!
Then I woke up.
...........
Yeah those were pretty nuts :P
A lightbulb goes off in my head and I run over to the men's department thinking they will have larger shirts. They do, but they are all HUGE ..so huge they are falling off me. Finally I find some "army" vest (camo with netting and 10 million pockets/zippers) which fits and throw it on. Woot I'm safe! Then I look at the price tag and its like $40. Retardely, I decide this is too much to spend to save my dignity and take it off. So I'm naked again.
About this time Jim's parents show up with a shirt for me but the sleeves are like 10 feet long, litterly. So I take that off and I'm running around the store (now with him, his parents and a female sales clerk in tow) all trying to find me something...anything I can wear. His parents get fed up waiting for me to decide on something and leave. I end up in this little red lace Victoria Secrets type "teddy" and we buy it, thank the sales clerk and start walking out to our car. At some point my boxer shorts dissapeared and all I'm in now is the teddy.
So we're walking out to the parkinglot and we can't find our car. Then we realise every car in the lot is being "chopped" by this gang of thugs with machine guns. They are taking off the wheels and mirrors and whatever else they can haul back to their chop shop. There are proably 20 of these guys spread out on differnt cars. Then they see us and decide we "have seen too much" and must die. Jim and I take off sprinting across the parkinglot desperatly looking for our car with all these machine gun guys chasing us. We stop at an old whie Toyota Corolla because he thinks its his ..and then we remember thats the car he used to own ..and we keep running. Then we come across a car that looks similar to my current one ...marron Mazda 626 ..but its not mine. So we keep running. Having stopped twice thinking we had reached our cars, the thugs had almost caught up with us.
We were running as fast as I've ever run before and decide to cut across this grass median when shots ring out. Jim is hit ..several times. He falls over, blood everywhere. I stop running and kneel beside him, arms around him and start crying ...and then they shoot me and I fall over. But then I realise I'm not dead and not even hurt. WTF? Somehow, between the department store and running through the parkinglot I had obtained a bullet proof vest >< But I stay fallen over, pretending I'm dead so the thugs will leave us alone...quietly crying because Jim is dead.
Then, suddenly, I feel a small tug at my pinky finger. Its Jim! He's alive! He's just pretending to be dead too so the thugs will go away! Apparently he had also obtained one of these magical bullet proof vests. His even came complete with those little blood splatter pouches to make it look real. So we lay there, and eventually the thugs run off.
Then I think I woke up, rolled over and started another dream :P
Its a Real Life EverQuest dream. ..you know the type. Its actually YOU the person running around in the game, dodging mobs and casting spells. Yeah so I "died" and forgot that I was bound in Permafrost in the lair. Well Vox was up, and she had some little bitty dragon minion with her too named Furly or something. I dunno. So I'm running around her lair trying to find my way out (it looked nothing like how it normally does in game). She's wacking on me and casting on me. I get feared a few times. Its quite annoying. I start running through tunnels and opening doors trying to get away.
Then, all of a sudden, I'm in the biggest movie theater you've ever seen. This theater is located inside Permafrost and is apparently where all movie stars and other famous people go when they die. Every seat in the theater was filled with a deceased famous person. I saw Sigmund Freud and Marilyn Monroe and 100s of others. And I walked up to a couple of them and started some conversations.
Meanwhile Vox had caught up to me and starts chasing me through this "movie theater of stars." She completely ignores all of them and just continues after me. I dive into this crowd of famous people and stay low to the ground hiding, and she walks on by me. HA, fooled her!
Then I woke up.
...........
Yeah those were pretty nuts :P
Monday, January 31, 2005
Tucker Baby!
Pictures of tucker, as promised! He is soooooooooooooo cute:) Can you tell he gets into EVERYTHING? He's like a ferret.
Meet our newest kid!
Meet our kitten, Tucker! Tucker wound up on our doorstep about 3-4 months ago, small, skinny and very hungry! (4 months later he still hasn't lost that appetite!) After about 24 hours I had fallen in love with him and it was obvious he was going to stay. He has a great personality ..so full of spunk ... he's..outgoing, playful and what a talker! I hope he never changes :)
A week after we "adopted" him, we had some friends up from Houston stay with us for a couple days. They loved this little guy to death too, and actually helped us name him. At the time he was being very cautious about our new visitors (and still is when we have company over) ..and kept his tail "tucked" between his legs the whole time they were here, so Natalie decided "Tucker" would be an appropriate name. I took one look at him and thought about the name and it seemed to fit very well, so it stuck!
After a couple weeks we took him to the vet to get neutered and take care of all the necessary shots and now he is ours to keep :) If I can just train him NOT to chew on my hair at night while I'm trying to sleep, he'd be the perfect cat.
While our other two cats, Raindrop and Egypt just "tolerate" this new kitten, Tucker has turned into our dog, Stella's, new best friend. They are very often seen together romping around, wrestling and playing. She has totally adopted him as her own. Its very very cute :)
Images soon to follow! Stay tuned!
A week after we "adopted" him, we had some friends up from Houston stay with us for a couple days. They loved this little guy to death too, and actually helped us name him. At the time he was being very cautious about our new visitors (and still is when we have company over) ..and kept his tail "tucked" between his legs the whole time they were here, so Natalie decided "Tucker" would be an appropriate name. I took one look at him and thought about the name and it seemed to fit very well, so it stuck!
After a couple weeks we took him to the vet to get neutered and take care of all the necessary shots and now he is ours to keep :) If I can just train him NOT to chew on my hair at night while I'm trying to sleep, he'd be the perfect cat.
While our other two cats, Raindrop and Egypt just "tolerate" this new kitten, Tucker has turned into our dog, Stella's, new best friend. They are very often seen together romping around, wrestling and playing. She has totally adopted him as her own. Its very very cute :)
Images soon to follow! Stay tuned!
Happy Birthday Me!
I suppose today is as good a day as any to start a blog so here goes...
I turned 24 today. I don't feel different. I don't think I really should though....its not one of those "milestone" birthdays....at 16 you get your driver's license, at 18 you become "legal," at 21 you can buy alcohol and gamble... you know ..the "important ones". But 24? Just another year older and still in college ..I'll get there though.
My best friend IM'ed me first this morning and wished me happy birthday. That made my day :)
I received a nice chunk of change from various family members (thank you!!! you are appreciated!!!) and I'm trying to decide how I want to spend it. I'm sure it will be one of several geek toys from Best Buy but I'm having a hard time deciding. Nice problem to have. I am very lucky.
So, no earth shattering news or interesting stories for my first post - just seeing how this all works. Maybe I'll become an avid writer. Maybe this will be a phase where I post a lot at first and then it gets old. Maybe I'll just post random things every once in a blue moon when the writing bug strikes me. Maybe the posts will be deep thoughts, maybe they will be light commentary. Who knows? We'll see!
I turned 24 today. I don't feel different. I don't think I really should though....its not one of those "milestone" birthdays....at 16 you get your driver's license, at 18 you become "legal," at 21 you can buy alcohol and gamble... you know ..the "important ones". But 24? Just another year older and still in college ..I'll get there though.
My best friend IM'ed me first this morning and wished me happy birthday. That made my day :)
I received a nice chunk of change from various family members (thank you!!! you are appreciated!!!) and I'm trying to decide how I want to spend it. I'm sure it will be one of several geek toys from Best Buy but I'm having a hard time deciding. Nice problem to have. I am very lucky.
So, no earth shattering news or interesting stories for my first post - just seeing how this all works. Maybe I'll become an avid writer. Maybe this will be a phase where I post a lot at first and then it gets old. Maybe I'll just post random things every once in a blue moon when the writing bug strikes me. Maybe the posts will be deep thoughts, maybe they will be light commentary. Who knows? We'll see!
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