Nala and Gaz

[Chrisdoc]

Hahaha I agree, dusting is my big hate as well and over here, it accumulates from one day to the next and when the sun shines through the window, it looks as though I NEVER dust. I also wish the hay and straw would stay where it's supposed to and not stick to everything. I was out the other day and my friend pulled a piece out of my hair, uuuuuuhhhh.

 

[Imbrium]

I've found hay in my underwear more than once, heh. found an oat in there the other day... wtf??

 

[whitelop]

lmao. I find hay all over the place too. I just put a scoop of cat food in the bowl and it had hay in it. My son just picked up a piece of hay the other day and was rubbing it on his face. It was the furry end of the timothy. hahah. I guess it was stuck to my pants or something, because he isn't allowed in the kitchen. The plus to that is, I now know he isn't allergic to hay.
There was a period of time when Foo's cage was up on a counter thing, and I had to scoop pellets from the cabinet she was above. I always wear hoodies in the winter and it was winter time. I went into a store one night and pulled out my card and handful of pellets from feeding Foo. That happened on multiple occasions. I went to a friends house and I was getting my phone out of my pocket and some pellets fell out. haha. People look at you strange when things like that happen. Or the corn I feed my chickens, I wore my boots to my friends house not to long ago and there was something in there the whole time I was driving. So I got there and took my boot off to get whatever it was out. It was a whole kernel of corn from feeding my chickens earlier that day. They just looked at me like I was nuts.

 

[Chrisdoc]

Do I laugh at all this. Yes, it just gets everywhere. I found some oat hay in the sleeve of my jumper last week, it was scratching my arm like mad and I couldn't understand how so much had got up there. Hay is my pet hate right now as I seem to be forever sweeping it up, they are such messy boys, I'm sure they do it on purpose some times cos they know I hate it...little devils

 

[Imbrium]

after the dozenth time a weird crabbing noise comes out of your chest in the middle of the store and someone nearby gives you the weirdest look as you sheepishly explain "sugar gliders", you learn to get used to people looking at you like you're nuts, lol.

 

[Imbrium]

I'm on a break right now, but I'm going a bit nuts on my house tonight. we have these HUGE trash bins in my neighborhood and mine's stuffed full, so I'm about to go annex my next-door-neighbor's half full trash bin, lol. I've thrown out so much crap... just going through, "don't need that, don't need that, don't need that..." and tossing it. de-clutterfying the whole house is a seemingly insurmountable ordeal, but I'm putting a pretty good dent in it! I found canned goods and stuff in the pantry (which is off in the laundry room) that were mom's, heh... meaning over 7 years old.

I rediscovered the little craft room that's been "dead to me" for years and realized it wouldn't actually be *that* big of a ***** to clean out and organize (after the trash has been picked up and I can work on filling the can again, hehe) - that's a lot of space to stuff things so they won't be in the main part of the house! I put my kitty's ginormous 3-story tower thingy that's taller than I am in there and disassembled/tossed a little kitty gym that was too dusty to bother repurposing into a rabbit toy - both were in a corner by the back door, which is now a nifty hay-storage spot near the "back" entrance to the bunny pen (there's two playpens, so two built-in doors - one by my bedroom, the other on the opposite corner near the kitchen).

I'm about half-done cleaning out the breakfast nook... there's a LOT of space there now. I think when I go to redo the floors, I'll start by the back door and move into the breakfast nook - once that area is finished, I can cram a bunch of hammy cages in there while I do the other floors. heck, I might move some of the hammies there permanently to open up my dining room/parlor area more.

 

[whitelop]

Thats really awesome! Doesn't it feel SO good to let all that crap go and feel the openness of your own house?! I love throwing crap away. But I also love collecting crap too, lol. And then once the piano goes to Joe, you'll have a lot more space. Its so exciting!

 

[ldoerr]

I wish that I could do that but I have a hard time getting rid of junk. I always think that I will use it again for something. Like I have an old tiny beanbag chair that I want to just throw away, but my mom wants me to donate it. I might just toss it out when I go back to my apt next year.

 

[Chrisdoc]

I'm always clearing stuff away or trying to anyway. Easier since I got the bunnies as my living room has to be minimal. However, why, when people ask you if you want something that you don't really need do you always say yes and then clutter up what you've just cleared, I think sometimes we have this instinct to hoard things and not be able to let somethings go.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, there's tons of stuff that I don't really need but know I won't actually get rid of "just in case"... but there's also a lot of stuff in the house that I'm bringing myself to part with. I ended up annexing the half-full trash bins of my neighbors on BOTH sides, lol, then called it a night. I've got a little more work to do to finish up, but my breakfast nook is almost done being "dead to me" which is really exciting! the only thing I don't know how to deal with to get the room done is that the light burned out a long time back >< I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with the socket 'cause when it first went out, I tried a new bulb with no luck.

oh, and I remembered why I hate trying to get the stupid house in order. the garbage disposal isn't working (pretty sure I need a new one) and the light by the front door was flickering really weird so I turned it off, then the next time I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't come on at all. I *hope* it's just the bulb, though I'm not looking forward to trying to change it 'cause it's a weird PITA fixture and I'm scared there's gonna be creepy dead bugs in it. why is it always when I try to get my act together that extra stuff breaks and sets me back??

on a pet-related note, I slept with the gliders again yesterday... didn't have the air mattress fixed, so I just put the tent on my bed, lol. it stays fairly warm in there, but I did get a little bit chilly so I had a little fleece blankie pulled up to my waist. I went to bed 2-3h before Hurricane usually does and just left her playing around in there... fell asleep on my side. when she decided it was sleepy time, she crawled under the blankie, climbed up onto the top of my hip, curled up in a little ball with just her face sticking into the pocket of my pajama pants and went to sleep! it was SO FREAKING CUTE!

I usually wake up and roll over onto my stomach or my other side 2-4x by the time I'm done sleeping but every time I woke up, she was still on my hip and I couldn't bring myself to move her so I just stayed put, lol. she slept like that for a good 10h. I LOVE that she chose to cuddle with me instead of sleeping with bitchy little Trouble!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Oh that is so cool. I´d be terrified of rolling over and squashing her but I´m sure I´d have stayed put just not to disturb her. It´s great that they feel comfortable enough with you to do this.

I hate lights and light switches. The bulb went on the security light at the entrance to my friend´s house so I bought a new on (she never has spares) and got the ladders out, tool box to get it apart, fitted the bulb and had to wait until it got dark to try it out. When I got back that night, it didn´t work.....aaaarrrrgghhhhh. I wasn´t going to mess about looking at it again so I just left it. Last night when I got home, it worked....what is the matter with these things ??? Do they they just go on the blink to annoy us, it really bugs me.:grumpy::tantrum:

 

[Imbrium]

good news!! I've got someone coming by around 9 am tomorrow to pick out a hammy baby I'm also talking to someone else right now who I think is gonna buy one of my banded sable babies.

in other exciting news, my wood-looking flooring arrived today (seems silly it arrived before the plastic tiles for the bunny pen and the free samples when I ordered it a day later, but they used different shipping carriers for the two orders). I've already got some of it laid down by the back door and starting into the breakfast nook. they had it divided up into six boxes, making it easy to move around and store.

some of the corners where tiles meet aren't the best design (I've gotta cut a tiny piece to make them fit), and the seams are a little more noticeable than I'd like (kinda worried about debris getting stuck in them), but overall it looks pretty and any minor grumbles I have over it fall into the "you get what you pay for" category - $600 floors aren't going to look the same as 10k floors . my biggest grievance is with the dimensions of the flooring - there's a lot of places where the floor goes 1-2'' past where the last tile ends, so when I'm done I'm going to have to cut apart a tile or two to fill stuff in.

my girls are eating SOOO much hay! I've put a huge handful of hay in their box a bunch of times today. I even spotted Gazzles eating "breakfast pellets" in the afternoon! I've NEVER seen them leave some pellets in the bowl that long while on grass hay.

 

[Imbrium]

hot damn!! the second person I was talking to wants TWO hamsters... without cages, which means I only have three more cages to finish now instead of five, and this solves my problem of being one wheel short due to Lucky's miraculous recovery. I'm going down to the south-side to meet her now... we're meeting at the Chili's at a mall there, so nice and public

 

[ldoerr]

That is GREAT that they are taking 2 hammies. Are you going to bring them all so that she can pick the 2 she wants or are you just going to bring 2 and she does not get to choose? I REALLY wish that I could get one for you but it is not a posibility. My parents say ABSOLUTELY no, + lots of other reasons. I just want one because they are cute.

 

[whitelop]

That is so great that the hammies are going to new homes! YAAY! :bunnydance:

I don't know how you slept with a glider in your pocket. lmao. I would have been paranoid I would smush one. Do they poop on you? hahaha. Is Trouble a ***** to Hurricane too?

I'm so glad your girls are eating hay! Thats so exciting! I'm glad you got the good hay, it must be well worth the money(and I'm so glad it is! Its pricey)

 

[Imbrium]

Trouble's not usually directly a ***** to Hurricane, but she'll crab at her if she gets in the line of fire (Hurricane will come "investigate" when I'm holding Trouble and trying to calm her down.

I guess I'm not paranoid about the gliders because I *was* paranoid when I first started sleeping with the bunnies and I quickly realized how still I stay when I'm sleeping/how conscious I am of what little moving I do. even if I did roll over on a glider, the mattress has a lot of give and they can wiggle through 1/2'' spaces, so I imagine they'd be ok (not that it makes me any less aware of where they're at when I'm sleeping).

I'm officially down to 12 hammies! it was a 20 min drive, about 10 mins outside the chili's at the mall and then a 20 min drive home, but it was worth it to be rid of two of the little buggers. I offered to meet somewhere rather than have her come here because she specifically wanted the female banded sable and female banded golden umbrous for her and her husband/boyfriend/whatever so there was no need for her to look through 'em all to pick someone out. ended up working well that way, since they live near poteet (a small town south of San Antonio) so we were basically meeting at a halfway point.

she was SO excited to see the hammies, lol - I have a feeling they'll be very happy and well cared for in their new home. she was very pleasantly surprised that I included a half-full ziplock baggie of the food I have them on and a little bag of sunflower seeds to go with it so they'd have food to use until they either buy more of what I feed or get the hammies transitioned to new food. I boxed the hammies up in little 6''x6''x6'' sturdy cardboard boxes (with air holes courtesy of the scratch awl) and put carefresh in the bottoms and gave them a couple food blocks, some kale and some willow sticks so they'd have snacks and something to do on the road trip. I also gave 'em one of my care packets which has various info, including a list of hammy-safe fresh/people foods (with asterisks by the foods I've already introduced), what the good hamster forums are, my vet's info, my contact info, etc. and made sure to tell them that if something ever happened and they couldn't keep the hammies, they could bring them back to me.

 

[Imbrium]

I found a major downside to deep-cleaning... with all the dirt and dust and clutter and cobwebs gone, it becomes glaringly apparent that the kitchen wall-paper has, uh, "seen better days" and that all the painted woodwork could *really* stand to be repainted ><

I've got the breakfast nook totally done now... after I tossed all the clutter and cleaned the windowsill, shelf and walls, I moved the table into the kitchen/the chair into the laundry room (dunno WTF happened to the second chair, probably buried under cardboard boxes in the back bedroom, lol) and swept (like 5 times *grumble*) and mopped the floor. it should be dry now, so I'm about to go put down more foam flooring. that should get me to around 20% done... unfortunately, it's the easiest 20% because the area I'm doing first has the least amount of furniture. up next is the fridge area... part of me wants to tile under it so it looks better, but part of me is scared as hell of what might be behind/under the fridge! I can't finish the kitchen until the new dishwasher comes anyway, though, as the foam is soft/easily scratched and I don't want to risk having the dishwasher moved over it. man, I can't wait to have the dishwasher and garbage disposal working again!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Great that you´ve managed to home some of the hammies at last, maybe it´s a sign that they´ll all soon be taken.

Hahaha, yes that´s is downside as once you start cleaning one part, you really have to do it all as it can look as though it´s seen better days.

Flooring sounds really good for the price, wish there was something similar priced here but everything is so expensive.

Wish mine would heat more hay. They do eat a lot but, I don´t think enough but it´s so hard to find something they really like. I was getting so excited when my friend went to Gibraltar and said he´d managed to get two bags of the hay from there. I was so looking forward to collecting it and when I got it from him, it turns out that it was straw instead of hay.....what a bummer i was do gutted but just had to smile and thank him. Anyway, I´ve decided to use it to make their litter trays more comfortable and have also put some in the bottom of their cages and they seem to like it plus they can chew on it if they want. I suppose to everyone else, it all looks the same !!!

 

[Imbrium]

I'm down to 11 hamsters! got rid of my banded sable male just now. the woman was really nice, we talked a LOT by email last night. she came down with her husband and 3-year-old son to pick out a hamster and I spent 30-40 minutes chatting with them, showing off all the animals and answering questions. when she first mentioned her son last night, she immediately commented "don't worry, the hamster's for me, not him" hehe. he seemed to do well with the hamsters, though - he was good with ground rules like "no picking them up". both parents asked a lot of really good questions and it sounds like they'll take great care of him. I couldn't help grinning when her husband commented "see, isn't this so much better than going to a pet store?" as I was going through the care packet and answering their questions about feeding fresh foods/showing them the list I printed out for them of safe/unsafe stuff. they liked my coroplast playpen, too

 

[Chrisdoc]

Isn´t it great when somebody says something really nice that makes you feel good. And yes, definitely better than going to the pet store buying from someone who cares about these little ones and can give loads of useful advice. Hope you are lucky in finding homes for all of them.