Sugar Glider Cage Sets

The market for cage sets must be down as well because I'm not getting as much attention to my cage sets as I'm used to. I think it may be the fleece I'm using, or maybe it's because the sets are $55 and no one wants to pay that much at the moment. I think I need to order some more throws from Joann's and do the $40 sets for a while. Maybe that will appeal to more people.

Anyways, here's a set that I sewed today if anyone is interested in seeing it.

-Megan

Here's the beautiful 8 piece fleece sugar glider cage set I made.

It's a beautiful (hot and humid) day in the neighborhood...

It was such an amazingly stunning day out today, if only the weather had cooperated. The sky, lighting, scenery and all of that we're aligned perfectly, but the heat and humidity were way off. I managed to hang around outside for close to 20 minutes to capture some images around the yard. Mainly of the cats, but I did squeeze some chickens in there as well. It was too hard to breath after that, so I quickly retreated inside.

I've been wanting to capture some images of Clementine, our new kitten, since she's started feeling better. I definitely don't want to have any regrets like I do with Hamilton. It's safe to say I took well over two dozen pictures of her today. Of course, I got some of Cersei as well -- can't leave one of the most gorgeous cats hanging in the wind. I don't know what it is about her, she's just stunning.

Back to Clems for a moment, those of you who know what Bart looked like will really see a resemblance in these pictures of her. It's uncanny. I could just be a crazy cat lady, but seeing how LaVaughn sees the resemblance more than I do, I kind of believe it.

I suppose that's all for now. I mainly wanted to share some pictures, considering I haven't done so in ages. Until next time...

-Megan

Here's Clementine:








Chickens:



Camille!

Ash!

Here's Cersei:







My fave!

And a few more of Camille:



Welcome to the world, Douglas...

I know it's not like me to blog on a Sunday night, but since I've been slacking lately -- and since this will be short -- I thought I would go ahead and share. 

Kira and Logan have blessed us with a gorgeous little Black Beauty boy! He's a hefty little guy, weighing in at 14 grams. He's also very, very dark. His hands are nearly black and his stripe is super duper wide. It's very common for Kira and Logan's joeys to look like this, but this guys stripe seems to be a tad darker than normal. Lets just hope the rest of him continues to be as dark! 

-Megan




What's been going on...

So, lots has taken place over the last 10 days since I've blogged. I've had some time to blog, but I'm keeping my mind pre-occupied with other things lately, things I actually enjoy more than writing. So, let me start with the most exciting news (to me).

We found a kitten. I know, I know, we do NOT need more cats, nor do we want more, but some jerk dropped a kitten off (maybe more) next to our mailbox. We were driving home I want to say Thursday before last and there she was. LaVaughn got out of the car and chased her down, then we brought her down to the house.

She's young, probably no older than 3 months and was super skinny. She had some eye irritation going on and started sneezing quite a bit over the weekend, so I called Monday and made her vet appointment for Thursday. Her check-up went good, aside from being a tad on the sickly side, but Heather said she really didn't even look that bad. Her lungs sounded good, so she was almost certain she had a viral infection which resulted in a URI. She's on 10 (I think) days of Clavamox now.

LaVaughn and I both swear up and down that she's Bart's kitten. She looks identical to him, even when he was a kitten. I would almost put money on the fact that she's one of his babies, which warms my heart. I miss Bart so much and think of him often. Even more now, but it doesn't make me as sad as my memories of him. We've decided to name her Clementine, which fits her so well.

Cersei isn't too keen on the idea of having another kitten around, but she does seem to be warming up to her. Too bad Clementine wants absolutely nothing to do with poor Cersei.

Crappy picture, but isn't she cute??

I've actually (slowly) started getting back into sewing lately. I sewed not one, but TWO cage sets last week! It was so much fun and such a warm welcome back into the world of vending when my cage set sold literally two minutes after I posted it. She even bought another, but has yet to pay for it. I cut out a set today that I'll hopefully get around to sewing tomorrow.

Sewing and coffee go hand in hand.

This is the second set I did. It's one of my all time favorites. 

In gaming news -- not sure if you know this or not, but Resident Evil 5 was released at the end of June. JUNE!! Do you realize how long we could have been playing this game?? It's only one of the best RE co-op games out there. As soon as I found out, I ordered it. Resident Evil 4 comes out at the end of this month. I'm dying...


Day before yesterday I had to drive my aunt to The Laser Spine Institute in Saint Louis. Boy what a day! The drive was effortless, but the waiting, that was the hardest part. I think LaVaughn and I sat out in the waiting area for over 3 hours! We watched what seemed like dozens of episodes of Like It or List is (not sure if that's the name) while we waiting on her to come out. 

They had a dining area with free food -- mainly some creepy chips, chopped salad, half sandwiches and several different beverages (mainly hot teas and coffee). I got a coffee at one point, but had to throw it away due to its raunchiness. We left with a couple things of apple juice which we had yesterday. 

My aunt got all of her day one testing done and thankfully she didn't have to go back until today to do the rest. Now all we can do is hope that they'll be able to help her out with a VERY minimal surgery.


Since we were in the neighborhood, we asked Christina if she would meet us and pick up the boys that had to be shipped. Since I haven't really talked about the gliders any, I'm referring to Nanook and Gendry. They'll be shipped to Florida and Maryland this Friday to meet their new mommies. #nervous

I guess that about sums up the past couple weeks. I live a very boring life, so not much can be expected in the way of thrills and excitement when I blog. Hopefully it's enough to keep you interested. Until next time...

-Megan

Remembering Hamilton...

You may find yourself wondering just who Hamilton is, well he was a cat that showed up here a couple months ago out of nowhere. He was very skittish and afraid for the first couple weeks, but he soon warmed up. He was sneezy when he first arrived, so we took extra precaution when coming back in the house around Zoe. We refrained from holding him and couldn't let him rub on our legs, which was rough. Zoe had just had her surgery and is FIV positive, so we couldn't risk cross-contaminating.

He stopped sneezing after a few days, but we continued our same routine of washing after being around him, just to be on the safe side. He was so, so friendly and just wanted to be loved on and rubbed. He wouldn't even eat if we were around to touch him, which breaks my heart to think about. He purred very loud and chased us all over the yard. He would stop to roll every 5 feet and would jump and lunge before doing so, it was the cutest thing.

He was a black and white cat and had one solid white front leg and one solid black one. He had a big black splotch on his nose, along with a lot of white and some other black splotches. He had a nose that would remind you of a spuds dog and just the sweetest little face. This is so hard to write, as it breaks my heart that I didn't take one picture of him.

Hamilton didn't act like himself Monday the 25th (last month), so we gave him some medicine that we had left over -- perfectly safe, I might add. The vet approved. He barely ate anything that evening, which worried me, but it didn't make me think anything serious was going on. I sat down by the boat and held him in my arms for the first time. He didn't feel well and I felt he needed comforting. The next day he was no better, Wouldn't eat, just kind of stood around and stared at me. I held him again and stood down by the boat in the rain and rubbed on him. A vet visit was in order the next day before we left for Cape, but he was nowhere to be found when I got up. I looked and looked and called him, but nothing.

We asked my aunt to keep an eye out for him and asked if she would feed him and give him his medicine, which she did late that night. We got the unfortunate news Thursday morning that he had passed away. My heart broke as the tears filled my eyes. I was so upset and felt abusive and neglectful. I felt like I didn't do my job as a pet owner and love, I let him down. I should have taken him to the vet Monday and I'll never ever let myself forget that. I'll also never forgive myself for not taking one picture of him -- I hate myself for not doing so.

I'm so sorry your life with us was so short lived, Hamilton. I'm sorry we didn't take better care of you and take you to the vet sooner. I'll never forget you for as long as I live and I hope that you don't hate us for not doing so. You were loved while you were here and will never, ever be forgotten...

RIP Hamilton
? - July 28th 2016 

What I'm up to...

My blogs have been few and far between lately and I apologize. I'm not joking at all when I say this -- after the ordeal with Zoe, I haven't wanted to do anything that I used to do. Nothing else mattered, only her and her health. And just when I thought things would settle down some, Pip died, then Sadie. It's been non-stop for a while and I basically didn't have the energy for anything.

I've gotten extremely lazy. For example, I've sewn TWO cage sets since May.. TWO! That's so unreal and sickens me.

I'm trying to get back into my old groove, but it's not working out well. Blogging has very slowly gotten better over the last month, but barely! I usually post blogs 3 weeks later than what they should be and just back-date. Sewing is also terrible. I just do not want to sew anymore. I don't know why, but I just don't. I'm trying to rejuvenate my passion by ordering new fleece, which I did a couple days ago. Since Hancock went out of business I've had to resort to Fabric.com for all of my fleece needs. They never have any type of coupons or promotions, just free shipping when you spend $50 or more. I ordered 18 yards of fleece last week for just over $100, which wasn't too bad. All of that arrived Monday, but I didn't get around to sewing any of it this week. I have to work the next 3 days, so I definitely wont be sewing then.

Speaking of work, it's about the same. Nothing new or exciting, just the same old meth heads and late season campers that travel to Sam A. Baker state part. Do you have any idea how tiring it is to tell people how to get there? And 9 times out of 10 they come from the direction of the part. The road goes straight through it, I have absolutely no idea how they miss it!

Oh, I've completely given up on project 365 this year. I was trying to take a picture with my camera every day, but after a while I was taking pictures of the most ignorant stuff. I finally called it quits a few weeks ago. I have still been taking pictures of my phone practically every day, but I'm not planing on doing a project 365. It's just one less thing to have to worry about doing and it's honestly a big relief.

Lets see, what else has been going on... We've watched so many new movies lately, I can't even begin to name them all. We've also started watching Hemlock Grove (which is awesome) and catching up on Once Upon A Time, which is amazing. I wish I could think of everything we've watched lately, but I can't. I list all of the movies we've been watching on The Spoiling Dead Forum HERE for those that are interested. You'll just have to skim through them to find my posts.

Speaking of, I've become quite the active TSDF member since March. I love it there. They're normal, not PG like Glider Central was and they talk about what I love most, The Walking Dead! But there's so much more to that forum than TWD and spoilers, we talk about any and everything! And they're so much more understanding than most people, I love it.

I know, I'm a forum nerd.

I can't really think of anything else, so I guess I'm going to go. Until next time...

-Megan

Sugar glider joey pictures (from yesterday)!

I got sidetracked with my rattlesnake post and completely forgot to post about the joey pictures that I took yesterday. They're nothing special, as both of the boys are older now and do not like to cooperate. Since they'll both be leaving in a couple weeks, I had to get one more photo session in before it was too late.

Without further adieu...

Gendry




Nanook




Random picture of our hanging plants. I think they're gorgeous:



Rattlesnake infestation...

Well Thursday when LaVaughn and I got home, there was a 3ft rattlesnake stretched across the driveway less than 5ft from our garage! Here's where I'm going to apologize to all the snake lovers out there-- we killed it. We live in the country and just can't risk it. We have our dog that goes outside to potty and an outside cat. Plus we have chickens, ducks and geese.

We kind of thought that's what bit Milla, but we weren't sure. So while I'm at work Saturday, I get a frantic call from LaVaughn saying that she killed ANOTHER rattlesnake! This one was 3 1/2 ft long and had like 11 rattles. It was huge! I didn't get to see it until after 8 when I got home from work, so it was kind of dark, but I could still see how big it was.

Lets fast forward to today. Cersei was on our picnic table looking down at something -- she looked super freaked, I might add. Sure enough, another damn rattlesnake! This one was even bigger than the last at just over 4ft. This one was pissed for no reason and in striking position.

Do you have any idea how terrified I am to go outside? It's so sad thatwe literally have to walk around with a gun on our shoulders every time we have to go outside.

We're thinking there a den in an abandoned trailer close to our house. The conservationist said that it all sounds really bad and that we shouldn't go near the trailer. He suggested getting professionals to come in if there's anything inside and that it basically needs to be burned down. He said that seeing that many that big within a few days is not good news.

So yeah, I'm almost certain that's what bit Milla. Now, WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?

Here are pictures of the 3 snakes that we've recently come into contact with:

Rattlesnake #1


Rattlesnake #2


Rattlesnake #3


Milla update!

So, I didn't blog about Milla at all yesterday, but that's because I was too busy/worried, so it didn't cross my mind.

Tuesday night Milla's leg swelled up even more, it continued to do this into Wednesday. Her entire leg started to swell after a while, even her poor little toes. This was like a hard swelling, like rock hard. After a while it started turning a deep red/purple color and looked awful. Even the back of her leg looked awful. Her flank started to swell last night, but it was retaining water, as was the back of her elbow area. So overall the swelling and coloration have gotten worse.

With that being said, her temperature has gone down to the 101 range, which is perfectly normal for a dog. She's also started eating more -- even canned food! After Tuesday, she started putting more pressure on her foot with each day. Today she's almost walking completely normal with just a slight limp.

I had to tell all of this to the vet today when I called. His reaction? "Well it's not what we were thinking, bring her on in and lets see if we can get some more fluid out of it." So off we went.

We were taken back nearly as soon as we walked in the door, which was such a huge relief. It didn't take him long to confirm Milla has "pitting edema", which most likely occurred from snake bite. He said to achieve bruising that severe, it would have to be from some type of bite or trauma. He even said that it almost has to be a bite, he just can't find the actual bite mark.

With that being said, Milla received a cortisone shot in the rump, an extra week of her two antibiotics and a weeks worth of a steroid/pain reliever combo. It was such a relief to hear him say that! Man, the stress and worry from the past few days was some how lifted in an instant. This drive home was much, much less tense than the drive home Monday.

In other news, I ran in Walmart to grab a few things on the way home while LaVaughn and Milla stayed in the car. While I was in there I saw a bunch of things on the clearance table, a few things in particular really stood out to me. One of those things being Jimmy Choo perfume for $10! I got two of those, two tubes of roll-on Flower perfume, some One Direction spray and some Aveeno face cream. I got ALL of that for under $35, can you believe it? I love when I'm able to find amazing bargains like that.

I guess that's all for now...

-Megan






Dogs mysterious leg swelling...

So last night around 3:30 am when LaVaughn and I normally feed the cats and Milla, something went awry. When LaVaughn tried to get Milla to stand, she wouldn't! It was almost like she was paralyzed - it was absolutely terrifying! A panicked LaVaughn ran to the glider room where I was and told me. I quickly made my way to the living room where she was. After much coaxing, we were finally able to get Milla to the kitchen where we discovered she was favoring her right read leg. We were slightly relieved when we saw that she could walk on one of her legs and wasn't completely crippled.

Since Milla's on the hefty side, we just chalked it up to her pulling something and didn't think too much into it - she's stepped wrong before and hurt her leg, we figured it was something like that. We went to bed around 5 am and was up in a panic just after 7 am because Milla wouln't stand again. That's when we decided to head to the vet.

We got blankets down in the car and headed towards Fredericktown. I mentioned before we left the house that we should probably all before we go, just to be on the safe side. We stopped just at the start of C hwy and called. Just as I suspected, all of the vets were in surgery and the only opening they had was 3 pm. I called our other vet in Poplar Bluff and it was the same thing. The only difference is that they didn't have an opening slot and would have just had to work us in sometime after 1:30. We kept the guaranteed appointment and went back home.

We both went back to bed until just after noon, which I'm so grateful for.

It didn't take us long to make it to the vet and, of course, they were packed. Milla wasn't feeling good at all, so she slept almost the entire time in the waiting room, which is not her usual thing. We got Dr. Swinford and he recommended x-rays before anything. We were sent back to the waiting room while they took Milla to the back.

It was nearly 35 minutes before he came out and spoke to us. He told us that there was no breaks or fractures that he could see. I don't think I mentioned this, but her knee area was really swollen at this time. He aspirated some fluid from her leg and said that he honestly didn't know what it was. He said there were no white blood cells in it, which was odd. We was upfront with being unsure and recommended we take her to a specialist, She was also running a 105 degree temperature, which was super high. He ended up sending us home with two different antibiotics and some Metacam.

As of right now, her temperate has gone down to 102.6 -- it was 103 earlier, but it's gone back down. It actually went down some last night, which is amazing. She didn't feel well at all yesterday evening. She didn't eat her burgers from McDonald's, all she wanted to do was drink water and sleep. She wouldn't eat anything yesterday evening, but I did get her to eat some ham last night and super early this morning -- it's all she'll eat, so she's getting it.

She seems a little better today. Like I said, her temp is down, but her swelling isn't. The swelling got worse last night, which worries me. But, she does seem to feel better. I'm just hoping and praying that her antibiotics kick in soon and she's on the road to recovery. I have to call the vet tomorrow and give him an update. He's out today, which is why I can't call him today.

So there's that. Another hellish week of being on the brink of a nervous breakdown! Please keep Milla in your thoughts, prayers, meditations, or ANYthing that you do. It'll be much appreciated.

-Megan

Milla at the vet yesterday:



This is her leg today: