Dashurie's Road Trip

With Ashinator in Arizona visiting her daddy Dashurie's been sulking around.  She definitely missed her mommy, so I decided that I'd take her up the hill with me today.  Unbelievably, Mom and Bill hadn't met Dashurie in real life.  When Ashinator got Dash, it was too cold up at the lodge to take her up there.  But now that it's a million degrees down here, it's only a half a million degrees up the hill and thus warm enough for Dash to take a road trip.

I put her in her new hobo sling carrier from CSN Stores, which she loves.  I was pleasantly surprised when the bag came, because I was worried about the vents not being able to provide enough air flow.  The pictures on the site don't show the vents, but when I saw the bag, I noticed that there are two fairly large vents in each side panel of the bag.  The bag also came with a removable fleece bottom, which I took a picture of, but little Miss Dashurie had - ahem - soiled the fleece.

The bag may be a bit big for her, since it is really a dog carrier, but she's not complaining.  She's got room to move around and arrange things the way she likes (she's very particular) and play with her toys.

Of course, we had to put her up on a saddle and get pics, but she's a quick little critter an only one of them turned out...

She got to spend her day in Scooter's house (Scooter is the lodge turtle who is currently living with Nebalee) and had a grand time.  I haven't seen her so active in a long time.  She spent a good half an hour exploring her new digs and arranging her "blanket" just so before she settled down.  When I saw her try to eat the gravel I ran to get her some cat food instead.  She was just beside herself when she got to eat "good" cat food - Science Diet - instead of whatever is on sale that we buy.

She looks kind of scary in this picture, but she was gobbling up the Science Diet so fast I couldn't get a good picture.

Order from CSN Stores

Before I get to the CSN Store order - I want to wish Not A GunDiva a happy birthday.  She and I may be polar opposites in some ways, but I think I'll finally quit asking Mom to take her back to the hospital.  Happy birthday - hope you have a great day.  Love you.

I finally decided what I was going to order from CSN Stores to review.  When we brought Dashurie home, Ash had talked about wanting a carrier for her so that Dash can go where Ash goes.  We couldn't find a carrier we liked, so whenever Dash wanted to go somewhere, we had to borrow Scamp's cat carrier.  Well, wouldn't you know that when I looked in the pet section of CSN, I found a carrier that I think will be perfect for Dashurie.

Isn't it cute?  My only issue is that this is the only view offered; I would have liked to see what the inside looks like and see about the venting - I can't have my grand-hedgehog suffocating now, can I?

It's scheduled to ship to me sometime next week (holiday weekends always mess up shipping) and I expect that it will be here the following week.  I'll be sure to post pics of Dash in her new carrier and Scamp will be relieved to have his back.

True Story Tuesday: Scamp's Very Bad Day

Thanks again, Rachel and Mr. Daddy, for hosting.  Got a TST yourself?  Head on over and link up for a good Tuesday laugh.

Scamp's Very Bad Day

Sometimes, a good day just goes bad.  I love my mommy and my daddy.  Sometimes I like to follow Mommy around the house.  She usually doesn't mind, so I do it a lot.

Mommy took the big white bag of good smelling stuff out from under the kitchen sink.  It smelled so good, like maybe there was something in there I might want to eat.  Mostly, though, I can't get into it because she keeps the door closed and I can't get to it.  So she takes the white bag of goodness out from under the sink and I was sniffing and following, sniffing and following, sniffing and following, not paying attention to where Mommy was going.

We went down a stair and I took a break from sniffing and following and looked up.  We weren't in the house anymore!  I looked up and up and up and there was no ending, just big blue stuff way up there!  There was wet brown stuff under my paws, not soft carpet.  What?!  Where's home?  I spun around madly, looking for home.  Oh, whew, there it is!  I recognized the black thing that keeps me from going outside and just above it, a clear place where I could just jump back into my house.  It was going to be a big jump, so I settled onto my haunces and jumped as hard as I could.

WHACK! 

I hit an invisible force field or something!  I should have been in my house and something smacked me in the face.  Hard!  I landed back on the hard white stuff, Mommy calls it cement, and shook my head.  Why couldn't I get back in the house?  What happened?  Where's Mommy?

I couldn't think, I was so scared.  I ran for the closest thing that looked like I could hide in.  It was green and pokey and there were probably spiders, but at least I had walls and a ceiling again.  This was so much worse than when I spent the night in the guh-raj 'cause I was too scared to follow Gizmo back into the house.  I think I heard Mommy and Daddy calling my name, but I was too scared to come out of the pokey green room.  Even Gizmo came out to look for me, but I just couldn't face the big blue, no walls, no ceiling place again, so I stayed put.

I don't know how long I stayed in the pokey green room, but it was a long time.  Every once in a while, Mommy or Daddy or Digger would come out and call for me.  They even rattled my favorite jar of treats, but it was too scary to leave the pokey green room.  Gizmo came and visited me a couple of times and tried to talk me into following her back into the house, but the minute I left my pokey green room, I saw the black thing and remembered that it smacked me in the head.  Hard! 

So I scurried back to the pokey green room.

Finally, I got sad about being all by myself and wanted to go back in my house, but I was so scared.  Digger held the black thing out of the way and Daddy shook my jar of treats from inside the house and Gizmo helped herd me in the house.

I was so happy to be in the house again!  I ran all around and made sure nothing had changed.  It still had walls and rooms and ceilings.  I can't tell you how relieved I was to be back home and out of the pokey green room.  I don't think I'll ever go back out there to the big blue, no walls, no ceiling place again.

I cuddled up next to Mommy on the couch and she gave me a big hug and then I heard a *snap* and felt something tight around my neck.  I tried to shake it off, but it just made an awful jingle.  The harder I tried to shake it, the louder the jingle got.  I was choking!  It wouldn't come off!  Why, Mommy?  Why would you put this chokey, jingly thing on me?

She tried to calm me down, but this was too much!  First the big blue, no walls, no ceiling place and then a chokey, jingly thing?  What did I do to deserve this?  I thought you loved me Mommy!  She tried to tell me something stupid, like it was for my own good and that if I was going to go "outside" (ah, the big blue, no walls, no ceiling place has a name) I had to have a collar (Is that what this chokey, jingly thing is?) on.  I don't like it at all!  The jingle won't stop!  I gotta get away from it!  I gotta!  So I started running and running and running; up the stairs, up on the bed, back off the bed, down the hall, down the stairs, through the eating place and the TV place and back up the stairs.  Around and around I went and I couldn't out run the chokey, jingly thing that Mommy put on my neck.  I was so tired and I had a really bad day already and this choky, jingly thing wouldn't shut up, so I kept running and running.  Finally, I just couldn't run anymore and I laid down.  Guess what?  The jingling shut up.  It was quiet.  If I didn't move, it didn't jingle.  Whew!

What an awful day.

Ashinator Riled Up The Animal Rights Folk

That daughter of mine...
Prank involving goldfish cruel coloradoan.com The Coloradoan

Be sure to read the comments; they're priceless.

For the record, I've spoken to some of the employees at the high school and they've given me an update on the status of the fish.  Most of them were rescued and "rehomed"; those poor, poor goldfish whose lives were saved by not being fed to carnivorous animals are either living at home with a student or growing up in the science lab until they are big enough to be released into the school's pond.  Many staff members have also adopted the fish and have them living on their desks.

Too Cute For Words

Uncle Scamp, the babies, Gizmo

Not A GunDiva and Niece #2

Niece #2

CJ, Ashinator, Niece #1, Not A GunDiva

Niece #1

Not A GunDiva, Nephew, Mom

K. Told Me So (A Zoo Update)

I have to start with an apology to K. Erickson over at Preachers and Horse Thieves (even if he did get to spend the day blowing shit up without me, never mind that I'm in Colorado and he's in Texas).  When I first posted the pictures of the brand new kittens, he told me that the white lab rat-looking ones would probably turn out cute.  To say I was skeptical would be an understatement.

Guess what?

No Name, Paleface, Little Grey Kitten

He's right.  They're kinda cute. 

So, K., I apologize.

They're now three weeks old and all look to be long-hairs.  Ashee-butt is set on keeping Little Grey Kitten and the other two are spoken for, so the kinda cute lab rat-ish kittens have good homes in five weeks.

Dashurie took her first bath today.  We were told just to fill a sink with baby shampoo and warm water and turn 'er loose.  So we did.  It became quickly apparent that the bathroom sink was too small for her, so for her rinse cycle, she got moved to the tub where she did lap after lap.

Who would have thought a hedgehog would turn out to be such a great pet?  In fact, Dashurie's part of this week's True Story Tuesday.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.

Prince Charming Found His Soul Mate

Well, actually, Amanda bought him a little soul mate.  Her name's Lillie and she's beautiful.  A vibrant green with little yellow freckles (wow, she kind of sounds like Princess Fiona). 

Look closely, she's hiding on a leaf in plain sight.

We had to replace Prince's resin tree stump with a real log, which Lillie promptly claimed as her own.

Prince Charming is finally over being mad at me and allowed me to get a picture of his cute little face.

Unfortunately, not all was happy in froggy world.  I think they've got their differences worked out, but, well, let me tell you about it.

Lillie is soooooo little compared to Prince Charming.  I mean, she's approximately the size of his head.  On Monday afternoon, I dropped some crickets into their cozy little love nest.  I was afraid that the crickets were too big for Lillie, so I dropped a few more little crickets in.  She zoomed in on one and had a radar lock on one.  Just as she was ready to pounce, Fat Ass Prince Charming snatched up her cricket. 

She spied another cricket and was making her move when Prince Charming snatched the second cricket, literally, out from under her nose. 

So she double bitch slapped him.

I kid you not.

She leapt at Prince, landed a right across his big, fat mouth and followed with a left.

There was no doubt that she was *pissed* and put him in his place.

I don't think he's touched any more of her crickets since.

It may look like she's kissing his a**, but she's really just re-claiming "her" stump.

They've got their differences worked out and he's been very contrite ever since.

True Story Tuesday - Get 'Em Scamp!

Again, thanks to Rachel and Mr. Daddy at Once Upon a Miracle for hosting this little party.

One night, I was stretched out in bed on my tummy, just settling down to sleep when I felt a little gas bubble shift.  Not a big deal, RockCrawlinChef and I had breached the fart barrier long before we got married, and besides it was just a little gas bubble.  Heck, he'd never even know (not that it really mattered).  So, I let loose, expecting a little pfffft.

What I got instead was a full-on butt belch.

Scamp had been playing with Allie at the foot of the bed, pouncing on Allie's wagging tail.  But at the sound of my not-at-all-little-pfffft, he changed directions...

...and landed with both paws right in between my cheeks.  I could almost hear him thinking, "I got it!"

RockCrawlinChef disagrees.  He swears Scamp was thinking, "Good Lord, cork it up!"

New Toys And A New Team Member

Getting new equipment (not new-to-us, which has been the standard) last week was like Christmas to me.  Corporate has been putting a lot of money into the Education Department recently and I have to say, I'm not at all upset about that, especially since in the past few weeks, we've received three new microscopes, a new autoclave (the one I've been drooling over for years) and a new EKG machine (which I haven't had a chance yet to play with, but will with my class next week).  Each new "present" from Corporate makes me happy, but the newest arrivals 'bout had me peeing my pants in joy.  The delivery guy laughed his ass off at me, because I was literally jumping up and down clapping my hands in delight.

This is what our old exam tables looked like:

They weren't horrible by any means.  They were "gently used" by a local family practice and were perfectly functional.  We have used them for the last three years and had nary a complaint.  I was happy to have them, as I think the students need to learn to use the equipment they're going to see in an office.

The new exam tables, however, are amazing!  They make my lab look so much more professional.  The lab now looks like how I'd envisioned it when I started piecing it together a few years ago.

We can do pretty much anything in this lab now.  Okay, we could before, I made sure of that, but it's like getting your first "grown up" furniture after living with your college cast-off furniture.  (You can see the new microscopes lined up proudly on the back counter.)

In addition to the new medical equiment, we have a new Education team member.  We've anxiously been awaiting his arrival.  His office has been arranged and waiting for him for two weeks. 

Finally, on Thursday afternoon, Prince Charming arrived at his new office in the Education Department.

On Friday, Prince Charming was a very naughty boy and got stuck in his resin tree stump.  Our IT God and I had to destroy his resin tree stump to get him out and he was *pissed*!  That's why I can't get a good picture of his cute little face.  Every time I tried to get into his office to take a picture, he'd turn his back on me.

When he's less pissed off at me, I'll see if I can't get a better picture.  He actually belongs to our Academic Advisor, Amanda, but we all love him to pieces.  He honestly has helped to bridge the distance between a few of the Education team members as we all pulled together to get his office built and ready for his arrival.  Who would have thought that a cute little tree frog could pull together a slightly fractured team?

New Family Members

After a short delay (okay, so it's been a week), I can finally post about the new additions to our family.  Gizmo finally popped last Friday, the same day as my brother's 30th birthday.  D'ya think I can off-load one or two on him as custom birthday presents?

In the past, Gizmo's had some absolutely beautiful babies.  I mean b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.  I was expecting more of the same.  What we got was this...

Yes, they're ugly.  I think the grey and white one will be cute as it gets older, but the two cream colored ones?

U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, yeah, yeah, you ugly.

I keep waiting for them to get cute, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  They looked like white lab rats when they were born and they still look like white lab rats.  There might be some hope, though, it looks like they're both going to have darker ears, which would be adorable.

Gizmo did the funniest thing Friday night after she'd finished giving birth.  She's always, and I mean always, has a litter of four.  Until this litter, which was only three.  Not a big deal to us two-leggeds, but apparently a very big deal to her.

She began meowing at Scamp and trying to bite at him.  At first I couldn't figure out what the heck she was trying to do.  She kept going in and out of the kennel, meowing at Scamp, trying to bite at him.  Over and over.  I really had no clue what the heck she was doing.

RockCrawlinChef figured it out after watching her for a few minutes.  She was trying to get ahold of the scruff of his neck to drag him into the kennel with the rest of the babies!  The three she birthed plus Scamp made four babies and she always had four babies.

After about an hour, her raging mommy hormones calmed down and so did she, but the image of her trying to drag Scamp, who is half her size, into the kennel still cracks me up.

The thing is, Scamp might have gone along with it if he wasn't already madly in love with Allie.

Allie is Scamp's dog and Scamp can't stand to be any place that Allie isn't.  Poor Allie doesn't get a break from Scamp, but tolerates him pretty well.

This Is Our Idea Of A Good Time

All it takes for entertainment in our household is a curious cat. 

Dashurie got a new exercise ball so that she can join the family during our TV time.  She's a surprisingly social critter and pretty much goes everywhere with Ashee-butt.  When we put her in her ball the first time, Scamp couldn't hardly stand it...



Of course, being the creative folk of the GunDiva/RockCrawlinChef household, we thought, "If Scamp's so interested, what would happen if we put him in the ball?"  So we did...



If you watch closely, you can see Scamp just spinning madly in the ball.

At least the two-legged critters got a kick out of it.  God, we're so evil.

The Zoo That Is My Home

Today, I finally did something I've been meaning to do since Dashurie and Scamp came to live with us...I introduced them to each other.  I was expecting fun fireworks.  You know, Dash hissing and balling up and Scamp jumping in the air.  I could almost feel the check from America's Funniest Videos.  Instead, I got this cute little awwww moment.



They were so cute nose-to-nose.  Cute enough that I let go of my AFV dreams.  Allie-bird came over to see what that walking pincushion on the couch was and they gave me another awwww moment...



And then they all got in on it and it was so sweet...



They were good, heart warming moments to end the week from hell.  Well, the sweet animals and a good glass of wine were a good way to end this gawdawful week.

P.S. My camera turned up.  Of course, it turned up after I ordered a new one from Woot.com yesterday.  I knew it would happen, but I've decided that the "old" camera will go live in my horn bag and the new one will live with me.  Since I finally rescued my camera from Scamp, I had to get a picture of the "innocent" kitten who would never steal my camera.

Ain't Life A Bitch?

RockCrawlinChef brought home a "boyfriend" for our female cat, Gizmo, on MLK Day.  Scamp's a cutie and has definitely warmed up to our house.  Gizmo, on the other hand, has no interest in Scamp; not that I can blame her, he's only about ten weeks old, a little young for her interest.

Gizmo throws beautiful babies and her last two "boyfriends" met untimely deaths, probably coyote or Goodyear food, within just a few weeks of each other, so we'll be keeping a much closer eye on Scamp.  He won't be an indoor/outdoor cat like the others.  Gizmo comes and goes, but never strays far from home.  If she goes out in the morning, she's always back by late afternoon.

She's a bit of a slut, but a good mommy, and we've never had problems placing all of her babies in good homes.  We were a little sad that she wouldn't have any more kittens, which I'm sure is RockCrawlinChef's reason for bringing home Scamp. 

Except that Karma bit us in the butt.  Just when we were sure that Gizmo wouldn't have any more kittens, got her a new boyfriend, and got him settled in, she turns up pregnant.  Yep, no doubt about it, she is with kittens, which I'm sure will make their appearance in a month or so.  Shortly we will have a two and a half month old kitten and a litter of newborns.  That'll teach us.

New Family Members

I've been so busy that I forgot to mention our new family members!

On MLK Day, RockCrawlinChef brought home a cute little kitten, who he promptly named Scamp.  Scamp is part Ocecat, which makes him so very cute, and part Siamese, which makes him very mouthy.  The damn kitten has an opinion about everything and will get in your face to tell you about it.  He also thinks that pets are damn near orgasmic and just can't contain himself when he's being petted...


...you should see him when he gets petted with two hands - he starts to look like a Chuckle Buddy, rolling, rolling, he just can't help himself.

A month or so ago, Ashee-butt and I had a knock-down, drag-out fight about whether or not I'd allow her to get a dog.  After a day of her not speaking to me, her boyfriend suggested to her that maybe I'd let her get a hedgehog.  Can I just say that CJ is my hero?  'Cause he saved us both more very ugly fighting.  I think she thought that I'd tell her no to the hedgehog and allow her to get a dog instead.  Yeah, not so much.  She had her heart set on a hedgehog and was willing to pay for it (at least that's what her arguement was), so I said yes.  She spent a couple of weeks finding a breeder and researching them before we found a local breeder.  So, on Thursday, Dashurie (which Ashee-butt says means "love", but I'm pretty sure means "cuddle with a hay bale") joined the household.




She looks cuddly, but it really is like cuddling with a hay bale.  While I'm really loving Dash, I always feel like I've been stacking hay when I put her down.  I'm constantly checking my hands for the hay cuts I just know have to be there.