didn’t I Do this before?

Let me lay out a time line for you…

John and I met online twelve years ago in a B5 chat room.

We met face to face eleven years ago at a Scifi convention. (Why yes, we’re geeks. I make no apologies for that)

Eight years ago we were married.

Got that down? Ok good!

When he moved from New York to Wisconsin to be with me and the kids, he was warned by one of my jaded exes that “It won’t last.” He was told that I would dump him after seven years or so.

As you can see, he’s been living on borrowed time.

John argues that his time reset when we got married, and that his seven years wouldn’t be up until our seventh anniversary. If that were true, he’s still beating the odds. We’re at eight years now, so I’ve already tolerated his company for a year longer than promised.

I remind him of this often, that his seven years are up and he’d better be extra special nice to me or I’ll kick him to the curb. We often plan our divorce when we purchase big ticket items (I still say the TV is mine). Since we know it’s looming we figure we should plan ahead; it will save on lawyer costs down the road.

Our anniversary was last weekend. John and I planned a dinner out on Friday, and then a few games at the pool hall before crashing early so we could get up for our trip to Ohio on Saturday. John received a last minute work request though. Sister Toni needed some help setting up a projector for a chapel fund raiser. If it were ANYONE else, John would have said no. Toni’s a sweet-heart though, so he asked me if it would be alright if we stopped at the chapel on our way to dinner. I said sure, no problem, as long as I could give her crap for crashing my date.

So we went to the chapel and Toni met us in the foyer, thanking us profusely for coming to her aid. However, as we walked into the church it became very clear that I had been set up.

Waiting for us were a few of our close friends (thanks Lisa, for stopping me from swearing at John in the church), there to witness a renewal of our vows.

After I sputtered out a few incoherent things, I turned to John and said “You’re trying to reset your clock and buy more time aren’t you?” He admitted that yes, he was.

This whole thing came as a complete surprise to me. John and I don’t keep secrets from each other. We just can’t. It’s not that we have a transcendent relationship where we’re above lies and deceit, we both just suck at keeping secrets. So I was really shocked and amazed that he’d managed to pull this off without me having a clue that he was up to something.

The rat!

Anyway, John had written me a note summarizing our life together. He said he originally was going to say a little speech, but he figured he’d forget what he wanted to say when the moment came, so he wrote it down instead.

He’d had a friend of his (one of his favorite pinup girls) make a hair piece for me…

and Lisa had a bouquet of seven roses for me to carry down the aisle.

John even found the song that was played at our first wedding for our procession.

Toni officiated, because she was in on it from the beginning.

And I only had to kick John once to get him to vow to forsake all others before me. He’s been faithful for eleven years, he just took a moment to weigh his options.

A big surprise for me was that John had gotten us a new matching wedding set. Apparently my rotten daughter Alexi had helped him pick out the rings and never leaked a word to me about it. I’ve since grounded her out of spite.

The little one there is Lucas, our friend David’s son. He acted as an impromptu ring bearer.

And then John got to kiss me in a church, the highlight of his day.

It was all very sweet, and yes, I was really surprised. John’s like that though, just when I think I have him pegged, he surprises me. That’s probably why I haven’t dumped him yet. Life is always interesting when he’s in the room.

He did give me the option to say no, but I’m crazy not insane. I know how good I have it. I’ll keep him around seven more years… and then we’ll see what happens. :D

Hugs,

Zathras warned Zathras, but Zathras never listened to Zathras.

Guess what I got for Valentines day!

A pincushion with legs?

A walking cactus?

A miniature porcupine?

No, a Hedgehog!

Meet Zathras, the cutest, smartest, hedgehog in the world! (OK, so I’m biased.)

You’re probably wondering how I came to be in possession of this spiky little guy. Frankly, I’m not really sure how it happened myself. Let’s just say that my husband’s mind is a strange and mysterious place. One never knows what one may encounter there, and never questions the wonders to behold.

Basically, here’s how it went down… One day a couple of weeks ago I was reading through my blog feeds, and one of the animal blogs I check out had a hedgehog post (it may have been Cute Overload or it could have been I Can Has Cheezburger?). I was chatting with John on-line while reading, and idly typed to him, “Can I have a hedgehog?”

Now, I ask John for stuff all of the time, usually he laughs at me, but one never knows (see above) so I keep asking anyway.

Much to my surprise he said “Ok, how about for a Valentines present.” Or something along those lines, I’m not going back into my chat log to get his exact wording. Anyway, I just about fell off my chair. Did he say yes?!?!? He later explained to me that I’ve asked for a hedgehog more than once over the years, and since it was a continuing request he figured I wasn’t going to loose interest anytime soon.

So off we went in search of a hedgehog, but it seems that they’re not easy to find in Wisconsin during the middle of winter. None were up for adoption at rescue shelters, no pet stores had any, and all the breeders in a two hour radius had waiting lists that wouldn’t start getting filled until May. I figured I was out of luck.

Then John sends me a link for a breeder in Ohio. Wait, Ohio? That’s three states over, and hedgehogs don’t ship UPS. Is he insane? Apparently he is, but it’s the good kind of crazy so I won’t be pulling out the backwards jacket yet.

On Valentines day we drove four (yes, that’s right 4) hours in one direction to adopt our little ball of quills.

His name is Zathras and did I mention that he’s the cutest, smartest, hedgehog in the world? Oh, right…

He’s just a baby, not even two months old, and just was barely able to leave his mother when we got him. Still, he’s very outgoing and has made a great transition into his new home. As for smart… He was litter box trained in just a couple of days. Not too shabby for a guy who has a brain no bigger than my thumbnail!

We named him Zathras after a character from Babylon 5. John and I met because of that show, so it seemed a fitting tribute on Valentines day. Plus, he just looks like a Zathras.

So from now on you’ll be getting posts on his progress along with my snakes. I think it’s a good addition to the blog, don’t you? :D

Hugs,

Snaky Pics

We’re back, obviously or I wouldn’t be posting. Tiana did great, and is happy to be home healing where she’s most comfortable. I don’t think the cat has left her lap since she parked herself on the couch.

I got home from the hospital Tuesday night and saw that Amaunet had shed. She didn’t get it all off on her own again, so she had to soak for awhile in the bath, but now she looks all pretty in her shiny new skin.

I promised you some updated pictures after her shed, so here they are…

Here she is hanging out in her tank. The metal thing to the left of the picture is her jungle gym. She’s gotten so much use out of her gym, she loves to climb up it and hang out at the top of her tank.

In this picture you can get a good look at her mouth. When I first got her she had two sores right on the edge of her lips. I was a little concerned because mouth rot is something that can be harmful to snakes, but decided that since she was eating well I wasn’t going to borrow trouble. Well, as you can see in this picture, those sores are completely gone! Yay!

Here she is out of the tank and on a pretty background that shows off her colors.

I took a bunch of pictures of her and posted them on a corn snake forum to see if anyone could help me ID what kind of snake morph she is. The general agreement is that she’s a caramel or a normal het for caramel. I was surprised that no one even mentioned hybrid because that usually gets thrown into every ID thread on the forums. I think that after showing her around and getting a vast majority of "”caramel” ID’s that I’m pretty comfortable saying she’s a full blooded corn now, or at least has way more corn blood in her than rat snake.

Does it mean a lot to me if she’s a hybrid or not? No, not really… It’s just nice to know for the sake of knowing.

Here’s the last of them I have to share with you. A close up of her cute little face blowing a raspberry at me. :)

She really is a sweetheart… Kauket is still my girl, but Amaunet is the hands down favorite among the kids. They just adore her. She’s a lot of fun to play with and watch though, so I guess it’s no real surprise.

Speaking of Kauket, she’s currently in shed so we haven’t seen a lot of her. Kek shed a few days before Amaunet, and now it’s Kauket’s turn. It’s funny how they’re all shedding at about the same time now.

I have meals thawing for the two that have new skin, but I’m going to make Kauket wait until she feeds again. The problem isn’t so much that she’s in blue, but because she’s in blue she hasn’t gone to the bathroom, so her belly is still pretty full from the last feeding. I’ll feed her as soon as she sheds and takes care of business. :)

So there you go, pretty pictures of my new baby. You can comment now and tell me how much better she looks! lol

Hugs,

Amaunet

 

I’m in shock… Someone actually reads my blog!  lol

I had a request for an update on Amaunet, my snake rescue.  I was sitting here waiting for my kids to get out of school so that we can head down to Chicago and meet up with John and Tiana at Shriners.  I was thinking about blogging a whiny ‘poor me’ post because I have too much time to think on my hands right now, but blogging about the snake would be much better.

Amaunet is doing really well.  She’s been with us for about three weeks now, and shows no signs of any illness.  We’ll keep her in quarantine for about three months, just to be on the safe side, but so far all looks well.

Last week I weighed all of the snakes to check that they were being fed the correct amount and was shocked to see that my baby Kauket had reached the 200g mark.  That means she’s ready for small adult mice, and will be able to have babies soon.  Chad even asked if I wanted to breed her this year because she’s ready, but I decided I wanted to wait and do some research first so I would have a better handle on what I was doing.  Kek weighed in at 20g, which is exactly where he’s supposed to be, and Amaunet came in low (of course) at 190g.

Amaunet is a year older than Kauket and about nine inches longer, so she should be my heaviest snake.  She’s still catching up to healthy though.

Let me just state for the record here…  She eats like a fiend!  The first time I fed her she had a pitiful, weak strike; not anymore!  As soon as she scents the mouse she goes really still, and then quicker than you can blink she grabs it and starts munching down.  Not only that, she would stuff herself until she exploded if I let her.  Last night she had her first adult mouse in my care, and even though she was obviously quite full, she was still looking for more.  It’s hard to resist her liquid brown eyes staring up at me, but I’m a mean mommy and won’t risk her puking a mouse back up.  ICK!

She’s in blue right now (her eyes are clouded over and have a blue appearance), which means she’s going to shed in the next few days.  Once she does I’ll take some pictures of her in her shiny new skin and post them so you can see for yourself how she’s doing.  She’s still way too skinny, but she’s getting there.  I can’t wait until she fattens up and her outside matches her fantastic personality.

So there’s your update, and here’s a little video I sent to our parents of Jenna with Amaunet.  Jenna is completely in love with her, and they’re best friends now.  :D

Hugs,

Disturbed and Disgusted

And not just from the Disturbed concert we went to this weekend, though it was AWESOME!!! 

It was freezing here on Friday, below freezing actually, –25F here in the tundra.  We knew parking was probably going to be an issue at the Rave, especially since not only was Disturbed playing in the Eagles Ballroom, but Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was also playing downstairs in the Rave.

We did manage to get a decent parking spot about a block away after getting stuck in traffic and driving around for awhile, but it was still too cold to go in without Jackets though we did try to brave the cold.

The concert was fantastic though, worth the very uncomfortable walk to get to the club.  Disturbed sure knows how to put on a good show.  John got me and the girls T-shirts and we all wore them out the next day when we went to get our nails done.

But that’s not why I’m blogging, and not why I’m disgusted…

You guys all know how much I love my cold-blooded friends.  My snakes are my adopted children and I do everything I can to make sure their lives with me are quite comfortable.  I even got them these grid things for their tanks to use as jungle gyms so they can get some exercise.

Kek uses his to wedge himself in the seam of the tank lid to hide from me.

So a year and a half to two years ago a new reptile store went in just down the street from us.  We checked it out when it first opened, but never went back.  A few times we saw the owner when we were out and about.  We’d say “Hi” and chat a bit, then go on with our lives.  He seemed to be an OK guy, but was a touch flakey and liked to smoke an alternate form of tobacco if you get my meaning.  So not really the kind of person we’d choose to spend any time with.

On Friday when John came home from work he told me that he thought something was up at the store down the street.  He said there were three animal control cars there.  We gave each other a raised eyebrow, but didn’t think too much more about it because we were busy getting ready to head up to Milwaukee for the concert.

Well Alexi came home from a friend’s house today and told us that we HAD to read the paper.  The guy down the street got busted in a national news kind of way.

Here are a few excerpts from the local news article:

The owner of an exotic pet store was taken into custody Friday after city officials found dead, malnourished and illegal animals in his store.

“The conditions are filthy, disgusting, you can smell death walking into the building,” said Cindy Steinle, of Small Scale Reptile Rescue in Milwaukee, one of the agencies called in to help.

Police spokesman Sgt. Bernie Kupper said Friday afternoon they had recovered five to six alligators, a boa constrictor, a gaboon viper (which are illegal to be kept as pets), dead fish, iguanas and some geckos.

Many of the reptiles were emaciated and nearly all were dehydrated, Steinle said. Some were kept in Tupperware containers, Kupper said. Some were in the store and others were in the basement of the building, which officers said was about 40 degrees.

An alligator was housed with turtles with its mouth taped, Steinle said. One of the crocodile cages had no water and two dead crocodiles.

Here’s the full article if you’d like to read it: Pet store owner in custody after dead animals found.

I’m beyond upset to know that this was going on just down the street from me and I had no idea.  Not that I could have made any difference if I had known, but I could have at least gone down there and reamed him a new asshole.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people are utterly unconcerned about the ramifications of their actions on others.  Those poor animals… To be caged and then starved/neglected to death.  Thinking about their misery just makes me want to cry.

The surviving animals have gone to shelters and local rescue groups.  There they will do their best to try and give the poor creatures a chance at a better life.  All are malnourished, and many are sick with parasites and other illnesses.  At least they’re in the hands of people who will do the absolute best they can for them.

If you’d like to help out with the rescue efforts you can donate to Countryside Humane Society in Racine Wisconsin and/or Small Scale Reptile Rescue.  Also, if you’re looking for a great pet, consider adopting one from either of these wonderful organizations.  Mistreated, abused, and neglected animals are the ones who need your love most of all!

 

OK, off my soapbox now.  :)  One last note to let you know that Tiana is heading down to Shriners in Chicago tomorrow for another adjustment surgery.  If all goes as planned we should be home by Wednesday, but don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me for a week or two.

As always, we’re so appreciative of all the good thoughts and prayers you’re sending our way for an incident free surgery, and quick recovery.  This would be so much harder for us if we didn’t have the outstanding love support of our friends and families!

Love and Hugs,

Snake Rescue

I guess I’m running a safe house for wayward snakes now.

For those of you who read this blog and aren’t friends with me on Facebook and/or don’t visit the CD forums, I’d like to introduce Amaunet.

We think she’s a Carmel Corn snake, but Chad (our snake breeder) is sending her picture to someone who can confirm that for us.

Here’s her pitiful story…

Snakes are easy pets to own. The smaller species don’t take up a whole lot of space (corns can live out their lives in 20 gallon tanks quite happily), they only eat about once a week and go to the bathroom only after they’ve eaten. Some snakes don’t even like to be handled and are purely eye candy; corns do like human companionship, but are happy with a snuggle once a week before you feed them. They don’t even require that much housekeeping. I scoop out the soiled bedding when I see it, and do full bedding changes every 3-6 months.

Piece of cake right?

Despite the ease of care, there are still people out there who buy or acquire a snake for a pet, and for whatever reason tire of it. In the worst cases these snakes die from neglect. Sometimes they’re freed into the wild; which in some climates is acceptable (snakes aren’t domesticated animals, they can live just fine without human intervention if they’re in the proper climate) but not in Wisconsin. Often they’re dumped at the Humane Society or pet stores where they have a better chance of survival.

This is what happened to Amaunet. She was left at a local pet store, half starved, freezing cold, and stuck in a shed that she was too weak to deal with on her own. Not having a snake expert on staff, they put her up for sale without realizing she was in dire straits.

Lucky for her she was about to meet up with a family who had a clue.

I took CJ to the pet store yesterday to pick up a heating element for his bearded dragon. We’ve been having a heck of a time keeping Roland’s cage warm enough in the frigid Wisconsin winter. So, armed with Christmas money we went in to get a more powerful heat source. His new ceramic heather makes his cage so nice and toasty warm that we all wish we could climb into the tank with him.

As we walked back to the reptile section we passed a cage precariously perched on a stack of boxes. Inside a little hidey hole peeked a cute yellow head watching us walk by. Seeing the familiar lines of a corn snake, I stopped to take a closer look. What I saw made me want to cry.

Her skin was flaking off her in patches (normally when snakes shed their skin it comes off in one continuous piece, but sometimes when it’s too dry it will flake off and the snake needs a good soak to loosen up the dead skin), and she was way too skinny. The sign said she was four years old, and came with all the equipment for a bargain basement price.

I talked to her a little bit while the kids wandered around the store, and saw she was alert and responded to me as I crooned to her though the glass. I was worried about her to say the least. I was really worried that someone without any experience would buy her and not know what they were getting into. She needed special care if she was ever going to flourish again.

As we left the store I picked up my cell phone and called John. Partly to commiserate, partly because I hoped that maybe, even with all of our Christmas spending, there was enough left in our bank account to save her. There wasn’t, which I expected, and after sharing my worry with the guy who understands me I took the kids home to make our own pets more comfy.

I have pictures of her though, so you know it’s not the end of the story. :)

It turns out that John did a side job for someone, and got paid for it shortly after my phone call. When he came home from work he brought with him a new snake baby to add to our family. He knew I’d worry about her, and he has a soft heart too (no matter how obnoxious he gets on the outside), so he made a stop after work.

He’s a good guy.

Right away we pulled her out of the tank to start getting her warmed up. I’ll admit I had a moment’s hesitation as I went to stick my hand in there. In her hungry state should could have made a strike at me, hoping I was food, or she may be holding a grudge against the human’s who cooped her up and then refused to feed her. Willing to take a bite if I had to, I scooped her up and found out quickly what a sweetie she is. She immediately wrapped herself around my arm and settled into the warmth. Her tongue was out, smelling everything around her, but she was happy to snuggle with me as I started to clean out her tank. Once John came and took her, she found the ultimate warmth around his neck and never wanted to leave that spot.

I got her cage cleaned out and disinfected, then I put her to soak in a tub of warm water to get all of the nasty dead skin off of her. The problem with a bad shed is that it will start to suffocate the healthy tissue underneath. Kauket has had a few bad sheds because of the dry air in our house, so I know how to help her remove it so that she doesn’t get injured. I have no idea how long Amaunet sat in her old skin. It came off pretty quickly after a soak, but there was some permanent damage on her tail where the tissue died. In a few weeks the tip of her tail should fall off, and then she’ll be good as new.

The next pressing concern for her was food. I have no idea what she’s been fed in the past, frozen or live, but we feed frozen mice to our snakes. So I crossed my fingers and took out a mouse to thaw for her. A lot of times if corn snakes aren’t raised on frozen mice they’ll refuse them, I hoped that she was hungry enough that she wouldn’t care.

Turns out I was right. She took the mouse and ate it right down. Her initial strike was a little weak, but since it was already dead there was no struggle for her to eat it. If someone had put a live mouse in the cage with her, she probably wouldn’t have been able to take it down in her weakened state. She may have even been fatally injured by the mouse, which can even happen to healthy snakes sometimes.

After a bath and a good meal we put her back into her warm tank and let her settle in. If a snake can look happy she looked radiant!

Above is a picture of her body after her bath but before her meal. Do you see the sharp line of her spine? That’s not supposed to be there. However, once she has a couple of months of eating well, that line should disappear.

As I was typing out this post I got a call from our breeder. He heard back from the guy in Texas with some not so good news. There’s a possibility that she may be suffering from something other than starvation. The other breeder recommended a drastic course of action, that I’m not inclined to take at this point in time.

For now, she’ll be quarantined (away from our other snakes) and watched. Hopefully though, for this poor girl who’s had such a rough life already, the only thing she’s suffering from is neglect.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hugs,

Advent Conspiracy

 

 

If you know me, you know that Christmas isn’t my favorite holiday.  Don’t get me wrong I love the spirit of the holiday, but the stress, the rush, and the never-ending push of consumerism depresses me.

We’ve all seen it and complained about it…  Stores start putting up decorations before Halloween, radio stations switch over to Christmas carols in early November, our kids start their “I want” lists in May.

Somewhere along the line the holiday became less about peace, love, and joy, and more about profit margins, credit card bills, and materialism.  When you think about it, that’s really sad…  Will your kids think you love them more because you got them the newest game system?  Will your husband be more devoted to you because you got him the latest iPhone? 

These material things are fleeting…  They give joy for a day or a week, but they’re not meant to last.  The things that last are those that cannot be purchased, and in our rush to feed the profit margins of companies across the globe we’re destroying the true gifts of the season.

This year, on the day after Thanksgiving, a Wal-Mart employee was killed in the mad rush of people running to buy their Barbie dolls, and Transformers.  A family will have an empty spot at the dinner table on Christmas because to a crowd of holiday shoppers, their gift lists were more important than a human life.

It makes me want to cry.

No matter if you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Yule, or Kwanza, the true meaning of the season is to be with your loved ones, to spread joy and be filled with peace.  Not by the giving of things, but by giving yourself.

Hugs,