Sarah's Zoo (2010)

[avarocks]

The pic of Milo & I seems to have got left out, so here it is now:

 

[avarocks]

We're starting some new techniques to work on Milo's scratching issue. Doing what someone here suggested...I'm not putting him down when he freaks, I'm holding him until he calms, and then releasing him. Here's hoping this eventually works without too many scars on 'mommy'.

 

[avarocks]

Going through some personal difficulties right now and have been in very high stress mode. I was supposed to go for a hygiene appointment with my dentist this morning. My alarm did not go off, and I missed the appointment. I also misplaced my bus pass, my disability pension said at some point today the money would be deposited for me to purchase a new one. So far, no cigar but I keep checking. I have volunteer work and a lot of medical appointments to get to, so this is stressful! I am going through a lot of other, more serious issues that I will leave out of the blog, trust me these few minor things don't even begin to scratch the surface. The person who helps me clean all my cages, guinea pigs and Milo, couldn't come last night. I am going to have a rough afternoon doing it myself, but they need it done.

Genie drank on her own for the first part of yesterday, so water did not have to be force fed until evening. She ate her pellets and her veggies willingly today too...yay! I sound like a wingnut these days every time she drinks or eats I'm all over her telling her what a good girl she is. For anyone that isn't sure what I'm talking about, Genie is my girl guinea pig and she has cancer. Her condition is deteriorating so she's not doing as well these days. She requires close monitoring and sometimes force feeds of water and food. If she eats vegetables, I do not force the pellets I simply put crushed vitamin C on the vegetables to make sure she gets it. As long as she eats something, I'm happy. She's not thrilled about water being forced, but she has to stay hydrated. The same jerk who told me I should euthanise her, well she walks into the room where I'm socializing a cat and actually accuses me of keeping Genie alive because I can't part with her. It angered me more. Genie is not visibly suffering. Yes, she has less energy. Yes, her disease is taking it's toll on her. She's not well, no one is denying that, least of all me. But, she is still alert. She is breathing normally and there are no visible symptoms that are of immediate concern except the eating and drinking. I force feed so she is comfortable. If she is visibly in pain or things go very, very bad then obviously I won't make my girl suffer. I'd never do that. She is still giving kisses, she tries to watch the computer even though she cannot see it. She's still alert, still interacting with Milo, still kissing Charlie. She's not completely herself, I won't deny that but I'm not simply forcing her to suffer because I can't part with her. Eventually there won't be a choice either way, either she will fly to heaven herself or I may have to have it done if it gets bad. No matter when or how it happens it will be hard and nothing can brace me for it. It brings tears to my eyes to think of it. Milo (my bunny) and Charlie (her guinea pig friend) will both grieve. Milo especially will...he lays next to her cage, they play on the floor and she kisses him. He even bows his head and lets her. It's so sweet. Due to fear of pregnancy, I can't allow Genie and Charlie to play on the floor. I tried it once, a few nights ago...he kisses her through the cage bars and I thought it would be nice for them to sort of 'meet' before anything happens. It was precious at first...they were nuzzling and kissing but then it got a bit negative. Charlie decided it was time to get manly, so I kept my hands over Genie's back end as my own form of 'birth control'...lol. So he was getting manly on her face, and so I removed him. He was mad about being removed but she was agitated and he wouldn't stop. We will be sticking to kissing through the cage bars and she will continue to be allowed to play with Milo on the floor. They even sleep with their cages pushed up against each other...they seem to enjoy that. They touch noses & stuff. I can't let them sleep in the same cage, I can't risk Milo hurting her, even accidentally, so they sleep next to each other instead.

 

[Nela]

Hey Sarah! What a cute blog you have! I'm sorry I haven't read it sooner.

I just loooove your pets. I am a big fan of guinea pigs. I've only recently rekindled my love for them after several years of not having any. I have 2 boys now. Do all your boys live together? Charlie and Sam are my favorites :biggrin2:I'm so sorry to hear about your precious girl. You'll know when the time has come. For now, just enjoy the memories you are making each moment. Milo certainly is adorable as well! He looks like a very likeable bunner. :biggrin2:

You know, you did a very good thing calling it in for the cat. Not only did you help the cat, but you might have helped the owner in a way as well. I believe you mentionned the owner being in a wheelchair as well right? From past experience, I have known quite a few disabled people to sort of give up on themselves and just kind of shrug everything off... Maybe it was a well-needed wakeup call. Hopefully, it will work out for all involved.

I'm really sorry to hear about you dealing with so many health and personal issues. I know you don't know me, but if ever you need an ear, someone you can just talk to about anything, feel free to message me alright?

Looking forward to getting to know you and your family better! Take care and best wishes for Genie!

 

[avarocks]

Nela...it's me that's in the wheelchair. There's a picture of me in it above, holding Milo.

 

[avarocks]

It's been a long, long week.

Genie flew to heaven Monday afternoon. Over last weekend she took a drastic turn for the worse. She became much more lethargic. Sunday night I slept out on the couch to be in the same room with her. I would have just brought her into my room with me, but she and Milo liked to have their cages up against each other at night, so I slept out there with them instead. Poor Genie cried all that night. Since I can't afford to have the vet do it, the animal shelter agreed to put her down for me at a reduced price. At the time of bringing her in she was swollen, had black tints on the whites of her eyes, she was lethargic and was in a huge amount of pain. Touching her lightly made her whimper. I couldn't put her through it another minute and so I said goodbye to my sweet baby girl. I miss her...Milo does too. She was Milo's friend. She was Charlie's friend too, who also has shown that he misses her. Unfortunately, it was the very best thing I could do for Genie at the time. I have never had to put an animal down before. Realistically, she was at the end. Her cataracts had worsened to complete blindness but we were working together with that. Staff at the shelter looked her over and agreed on that. It would have been a matter of days until she went on her own, and I did not want her to spend those days crying in pain. I just couldn't put her through it. Rest in peace my sweet girl.

Onto the Milo update. He still lays beside Genie's empty cage but is beginning to do it less. He knows she's gone. It's sad, but I just pet him when it happens and offer comfort and support. I do the same for her guinea pig friend, Charlie. There's nothing else to be done. Milo is up to his usual antics. We continue to work on his training. Thursday night a helper was here cleaning all the cages. He went to pick Milo up and Milo did his usual freakout in the air. He fell...and I absolutely panicked and went straight for him. We saw him hitting a plastic house on the floor. He ran off...I grabbed him and hugged him close until he calmed down. I went over him with a fine tooth comb...several times. He was not injured. It scared him, that is all. Milo is lucky that is all. The boy was not injured or scratched. He felt terrible. It's not his fault though. Milo has to learn he cannot do things like that. Milo and I are working with a goal now. The goal is that when he does not want to be held it's just gentle resistance. If he does that, he is told 'good boy, no scratching' and he is released. If he bites, scratches, or freaks out, he is held tightly until he settles, and then released, teaching him that behaving that way gets him the opposite of what he wants. By my own mistake, I was releasing him when he behaved this way and he has learned to use that to get what he wants. I need to work on reversing that for both his safety and mine. He likes being held...he'll jump right into my lap, or put his paws on the wheels of my chair for attention. He just doesn't like to do it for more than a few minutes but I am winding up with severe scratches that are beginning to leave scars and there is his safety also and so the training continues. We've only been at it about a week and will keep at it as long as necessary. I want him to have control without actually injuring himself or me.

We had record breaking highs this week, for February. On account of that, one afternoon I put Milo in the harness for the first time. His papers said he was harness trained. He clearly is not. He had no idea what to do with himself. The two point harness I was using that day won't do, though. I am going to buy him a collar that a dog or cat would use instead because the harness was far too awkward on him. I loosened it but it still was awkward. It wasn't hurting him or anything. I used a guinea pig leash that he chewed almost all the way through. I plan to purchase a nice thick dog leash to make it harder for him to do that. Temperatures have dropped again so it'll be awhile before Milo goes back out. Other people were outside and Milo received a lot of 'awwwws'. My landlord was laughing pretty good at the sight of a bunny walking out the door on a leash.

He did something one day that cracked me up. I was sitting in my computer chair...stinker jumped THROUGH the arm rest to get onto my lap. I never even saw it coming till it happened. I sat there and laughed away with him looking at me like 'what?'

 

[avarocks]

Nela...I tried to edit the post but it was too late. Yes, the owner is in a wheelchair. Personally, I think he's just lazy. I answered the questions about the guinea pigs but now I'm feeling too frustrated to re-type it lol.

I will say that guinea pigs are my area of expertise, so please feel free to message any time. Of course, it doesn't have to be about guinea pigs! When I'm feeling a little more patient, I will re-write about the guineas and their living arrangements! It wouldn't even let me go back and copy/paste...tried that lol.

 

[Nela]

Aww no worries. I'm so sorry about Genie. I'm glad she's no longer suffering. Poor lil Milo. Ah life is so unfair at times but I am sure you have wonderful memories of her

I'd stick to the harness myself and get him used to it and just act like he's never been in one and take it step by step. It may take a bitlonger buta harness is definitely safer than a collar. If you take a look at my blog, you can see that I cut a fleece sock and put it over the harness to keep it nice and snug against their body. It helps a lot. A collar would oull too much at their fragile necks and they can easily get out of it as well.I use cat harnesses for my rabbits. A few people use vests... I tried the netted vest in the past but was not thrilled with it. You could post in the general section, a lot of people could give you some handy tips.

 

[avarocks]

Someone else said the same thing concerning the harness. It needs length, that's the problem. I am going to try maybe a small puppy harness. I need the length so it's not pressing under his front legs. It looked awkward and uncomfortable on him, so I'd like something that fits him better. I will search the pet store and bring the old harness with me...and ask if they come in anything longer. It goes around fine it's the length. A nice thick strong dog leash for sure, only for the purpose of making it difficult for him to chew through. The guinea pig leash was strong enough to control but he chewed it almost completely off in a matter of seconds...so I will need to find something stronger. I wanted to buy him one of those retractable leashes but not now. Now I know he'll chew it off lol. Not going to waste the money! But I will look at more harnesses, even if it's one for a totally unrelated animal. As long as it works for us, I don't care what animal it's meant for. Our temps are back in the minus and all the snow is back, so it'll be awhile before we venture outdoors again.

 

[avarocks]

Milo and I have been getting into an older routine...that sort of got lost in the shuffle because of personal and health issues. I live in a small apartment. He does get to roam around freely, with certain rooms closed off. He's chewing cardboard as I type...lol...the one cardboard he's not supposed to have! (but it's not worth the battle he won't listen anyway)

At night time when the halls are quieter I have been taking him into the hallway for a run. I live on the second floor, no worries of him going out the door or anything. I just put him down and then follow where he goes. Mostly to give him some decent exercise, and to tire him out so I can put him to bed with less stamping (he hates being put to bed...has a little tantrum like a kid would, some of the time anyway) but, all that aside, he is loving it. I'm going to try and get video of him having his run only because he binkies when we do it. I want to catch it on video, the binkying, so I can share lol. He's such a clown!

 

[charli107]

Your bunny is so cute!!! i love his dark spot.

 

[avarocks]

We had an incident today, unfortunately. Milo was hanging around by the door an awful lot this afternoon, so I gave in to let him have an extra hallway run. Well, some people came off the elevator including a 3 year old child and Milo freaked out. He started running super, super fast and it took myself and 2 others to catch him. When I did catch him he was breathing super hard and obviously stressed right out. I just held him close until his breathing settled. The child wanted to get him a carrot and so I just held him in my lap while they got the carrot. Not surprisingly, Milo was too stressed and would not even touch it. Milo LOVES carrots so I know it was stress. Milo had calmed in my arms, so I took a chance and rested him on the floor with his carrot, hoping he'd accept it. He started to stamp, at which point I scooped him up again. The child then wanted to try to pet him so I assisted him to do so - Milo was alright in my arms and I did not see the harm in the child petting him for a moment. I then returned Milo to my apartment and not a moment too soon. Milo started to become very hyper and wiggly near the door. Now, I realize Milo should have been returned home after we caught him that first time but the child is only 3 and really wanted to give Milo this carrot. The child also has special needs...and I thought maybe in my arms, with a carrot in front of him he'd be ok. He did not act aggressively or anything, the extreme running was as bad as it got. The stamping was the only other sign, and everything was alright. Poor Milo hid under my couch for a good couple of hours. I did not attempt to coax him out, I let him stay there to have his space and calm down. He did come out on his own later to have his food, and did end up eating the carrot the little boy gave him.

I know I may receive some judgements for not returning Milo home sooner so I will offer up a couple more reasons: Milo is not good with meeting new people. When he settled in my arms I wanted to see if he was feeling better after having spent a few minutes in the company of the child and his mother. He often warms to people after a few minutes. I was wrong, in this particular case. I have told the little boy that he may visit Milo in my apartment next time, where Milo is familiar and will be more comfortable...and can run to his various hiding spots if he needs an escape. He also totally loves carrots so I had hoped the carrot would help. And lastly, in the nicer weather I want to take Milo outside. But, I live in an apartment building with other animals, children, and other people. Milo will be harnessed and on a leash outdoors of course, and so I will still have control. But he will be approached by people and by dogs too. I can't stop this, as the backyard here is for the whole building. I will do what I do with the guinea pigs and stay very, very close by and take him indoors if it's too much for him. I can scoop him up into my lap quickly if I have to. But, he has to get used to strangers if he wants to be outdoors there is simply no avoiding it. After all, it's everyone else's backyard too. The little boy started to get upset if I was going to take Milo home and so I just did most of it from my arms...this little boy has social difficulties and he was doing very, very well...I hated to just take Milo away from him and since he was in my arms, well...

The child's mother felt awful for Milo's reaction. But, I did not predict it, and I was the one who took the risk in the middle of the afternoon taking him in the hallway. It's their hallway too and I told her that. Truth be told, all the stress and negative aside, seeing him take off like that was pretty funny. I'm not saying him stressing was funny believe me, I take that quite seriously. But the whole scene, once he was caught, well you couldn't help but laugh.

Moral of the story: We're sticking to late-night hallway adventures! I think it was the hyper child that did it, but he wanted to be friends with Milo too...so, what does a person do? I will allow Milo and the boy to interact again but only in Milo's own home or outside, when he's on a leash. At least in his own home he has his favourite spots to hide away in and he can escape when he wants to. This child has special needs and both his mother and I think it's great how gentle and friendly he is with Milo. It could work out to be great for him so long as it's done with minimal stress to poor Milo. Milo takes comfort in my arms in a situation like that and I used it. He was OK...he did not bite at the boy, nothing, was just afraid. He is too used to the quiet and calm of my apartment...ugh...but he has to get used to kids because, they'll be outside and there is no saying when they'll come out or go in. As soon as they see him, they'll want to touch him. As long as Milo is OK, I'll let them, and take him indoors if he's not OK. I learned a good lesson about Milo today! He's no worse for wear, I can say that.

 

[Nela]

Aww, he got a spook. I think in order to get over it, they need a few spooks and then see that nothing actually bad comes from it. So slowly, like you say, exposing him to those situations should pay off i nthe longrun. I'm sure the kiddo enjoyed it and the mother must have appreciated it too I hope MIlo comes to enjoy it as much soon too :biggrin2:

As for the leash, I see what you mean now. I use retractables as well. Mine were always too distracted to chew at the leash itself so I never had that problem. I don't have a retractable one (yet) this time around so I have been linking 2 leashes together for the length. I use that type of knot that cannot be undone. Not sure what you call it. lol. Same idea as those phone charms one would put on a cell...

Have a good day :biggrin:

 

[avarocks]

We are going to have to take it extremely slow, Nela. Milo is hesitant to leave my side in the hall now so I wheel my chair and get him to chase me. Last night someone's dog barked, from inside their apartment and Milo went running straight for my door. I did not attempt to push him, I just let him back home. He is still hanging out by the door and willingly going out though so I think he'll be ok again soon. He's a little nervous in the halls just now after the other day so I am letting him take his time and we are sticking to later at night again to be sure the hallways are quiet although I cannot do anything about barking dogs. The dog was not in the hall, he was in an apartment but Milo heard the sound.

The idea of two leashes is a good one. Probably get the good thick dog leash for attaching to him (make it harder to chew) and then use a smaller one to add length. I like that better because he'd chew through a retractable in seconds, took him that long to go almost all the way through the guinea pig leash so I know a retractable won't stand up to his teeth lol.

 

[avarocks]

My bunny...grabbed a plastic bag and went running under the couch like he knew I would take it lol. I did. I dove for the floor, and had to wrestle it from him. He never goes running under the couch with something like that, he really bolted with it. He totally knew he should not have that bag! I couldn't let him keep it in case he swallowed any. Little stinker! LOL! Then he went after one of my shoes. Back under the couch I go. I've been out all day so he's been confined. I think this is my punishment! Crazy boy...LMAO! I love him, truly...it made me laugh. I love this blog because I just love telling Milo stories!

 

[avarocks]

For the moment, I still stink at blogging. I've been looking at other blogs though and I'm getting ideas of what make these blogs more interesting, so here's a try. Going to post a pile of photos of just other stuff...not of Milo. Milo is an important part of my life but he's not my whole life. Going to show off all the guinea pigs and other random pics, and I will of course collect more pictures of Milo and share them. Any other tips anyone has would be great! I love when people look at my blog and leave comments so, I am making it a more interesting place to look! Going to take a few days to intro all the guineas...I have lots! Not going to do them all at once I promise!

Here are 2 random pictures I chose to share:

This first one is my main guinea pic enclosure. 3 guinea pigs live on the top deck, 2 are on the bottom. The bottom deck slides in and out and I keep their supplies on the shelf underneath. My dad built this for me!

This is me & one of my guineas, Charlie. Charlie likes to watch the computer:

 

[avarocks]

I have so many things I could talk about and share...going to start with Snickers. Snickers isn't with me anymore. He passed away in June. I adopted him from the humane society with his partner, Charlie. Charlie is still with me. I had Snickers for 16 months and miss him terribly. I know he's gone but I am sharing him anyway. He's still very much alive in my heart. The first is a picture of him on his 'perch' as I used to call it. He used to get up there all the time, look around, look at the TV. He would especially do it if someone else was in the apartment. He would stare that person down the whole time they were here. He would turn his whole body when that person moved and keep staring at them. I used to say he was watching out for his mommy. He's still watching out for his mommy, just from a different place.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I haven't been on the forum for a while and it took me a little while to get caught up on your blog. Very nice blog by the way.

Sorry about Genie, I think you did fine, some people don't understand that it is not a matter of letting go.

Milo sounds like a bunny with a lot of character and your right as he gets used to all the sounds and other animals he will calm down.

I love this picture by the way. I would be careful and hide your credit cards, Charlie might get online when your sleeping and order a bunch of stuff off ebay.

 

[Nela]

Hey Sarah

Me again I went back to check out which one was Sam because I couldn't remember (forgive me, it takes me a while ) and now I remember him. As much as I love my guy, I think Sam is cuter Sam is actually more what I was looking for in terms of looks as he's more of a magpie looking guy than just gray and white. Magpie is my favorite color. I loved Twizzler though and I wouldn't trade him but I do think you have great taste in colors

This might be a dumb question, and forgive me for my silliness but...

How do you see the piggies on top? :confused2:I don't know how much mobility you have but that doesn't give you any trouble? Then again, my ex was almost as tall as me even in his chair. Lol.It looks great though and I also love the picture of Charlie watching the computer with you. :biggrin2:

 

[avarocks]

There's replies to both of you in my 2011 blog