The GirlAlive Blog

Last December you may recall that we had some issues with our guinea pig, Homer.  He was losing weight and generally a bit unwell.  After visits to the vet we found that it was a combination of things.  He was slightly ill, and he didn't like the brand of food we were serving.  We spent most of December desperately trying to get him to eat.

In the middle of all this trying to get Homer to eat, we found a new treat in the "natural" section of the pet store.  They are called Fenugreek Crunchies.  They're made of fenugreek and corn and nothing else.  The package said "Stimulates appetite", and I read online that fenugreek lowers blood sugar and makes you hungry.  So we bought a bag.

From the time we got Homer, he has been shy, afraid of people, and not overly interested in food.  He also never squeaked.  My brother was shocked and asked if Homer was okay when he met him because he was just so quiet.  His roommate Spike is a neverending squeak machine, but Homer barely uttered a peep.  Until recently.

From the first time we gave him a Fenugreek Crunchie, he snatched it out of our fingers and chomped it down quickly, then came back begging for more.  Anytime he sees anyone in the room get up to walk around, he puts his paws up at the front of the cage, begging for treats.  And late in the day, near dinner time, Homer lets loose the most ear-piercing squeal you've ever heard, letting everyone know that it has been far too long since his last Fenugreek Crunchie, and he's jonesing for a fix.

Last night I went to the guinea pig cages to move a plastic bag that Fudge had decided must be a tasty snack.  After I moved the bag out of Fudgie's reach, I gave Homer a treat.  Then I re-stocked their hay and pellets and by the time I was done with that, Homer was begging for another treat.  Instead of giving him another one, I picked him up to play with him for a minute.  He hates that.  After I put him back in the cage, I offered him another treat.  It was the first time I ever saw him hesitate about a fenugreek treat.  His little brain was saying, "There's a treat, but maybe it's a trick and she's gonna pick me up again.  But I want the treat.  But I don't want to get picked up again.  Uuhhhgggg!  Don't know what to do!"  I left the treat in the food bowl before his little furry head exploded.

The rest of the piggies couldn't care less about the fenugreek treats, but Homer is addicted.  He's a fluffy brown junkie.  I hate to think what will happen if the pet store ever stops stocking those things.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 10:19 AM | Permalink

We bought our hamsters a couple months ago, and we were told that they were boys.  I was looking around the internet yesterday and I found pictures of male Chinese dwarf hamsters.  They all have scrotums the size of their heads.  Not just noticable, but disturbingly huge. 

I looked over at my hamsters.  There is nary a testicle to be found.  They're both pretty well fully grown, and completely nutless.  I looked in my dwarf hamster book and found pictures of hamster genitals.  Ours looked quite a lot like the "female" picture.  

So Nobby and Karot need new names.  They are apparently girls, so we're giving them new girl names.  And we have the difficult pronoun shift of getting used to saying, "she's so cute" instead of "he's so cute".   

Karot, the brown one, will now be known as Drusilla, or Dru.  Nobby, the white one will now be known as Fred, which is short for Winnifred.  So instead of hamster boys named Nobby and Karot we now have hamster girls named Dru and Fred.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 12:54 PM | Permalink

The last few days have been full of rodent urine for me and my husband.  Neil takes care of the guinea pigs because I'm allergic to them.  Just today Elvis peed on him.  I take care of the hamsters, and Nobby pees on me as a hobby.  Several times a week.  I think I have the better deal because hamsters have much smaller bladders.

Have I mentioned that I hate my job?  I requested a temporary reduction in work hours, and my boss had, according to policy, 21 days to respond.  It's been 23 days.  24 on Monday.  So that's one more for the checklist of reasons for filing a grievance when they finally reject my request. 

My job is boring.  I hate maternity coding.  My boss thinks she's a kindergarten teacher.  The person "in charge" of maternity has the IQ of a mushroom.  I very much need a new job.

I've sent in applications and resumes and stuff all over town.  Most of them never even bother replying.  I think I'm unemployable.  I have a history degree.  What can that get me?  You'd think maybe one of the dozens of museum jobs I've applied for.  But no.  I have experience as a software tester and an HTML writer.  But it was a couple years ago so it doesn't count.  I'm forever branded as "medical paperwork girl".  I hate medical paperwork.  I hate working with people who are glad to have worked their way up into medical paperwork.  

The only good news I have at the moment, other than the comedy of my husband being peed on by Elvis, is that I finally got plane tickets to go back to visit my family in the US.  I haven't been in the US in years.  I miss Americans.  I miss people with morals and being able to afford to eat in a restaurant.  I miss root beer.  I want to go home.  Too bad I don't really have one.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 08:02 PM | Permalink

I got some pictures of the new hamsters.  They're not great because they are sneaky and tricksy little guys. 

First, two pictures of Carot in the bowl.  (We've decided to change the spelling of his name to Carot so that all of our pets have 5-letter names.  Yes, we're weird.)

Now a couple pictures of Nobby.  You can see that Nobby has a stumpy tail.  Chinese dwarf hamsters are supposed to have a tail about an inch long, but Nobby either has an old injury or a birth defect, and his tail is all stumpy.  As far as we can tell, it isn't causing him any problems.

We bought some little fleece pocket things and we've been able to put them into the pockets and play with them a little.  They're very sweet, but Nobby is definitely more comfortable with us than Carot.  And Carot can be a little bit bitey.  But we like them both, and they are looking to me like they're both boys, but I'm still only about 80% sure.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 06:34 PM | Permalink

Posted by Alana at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Sadly this afternoon, our beloved hamster, Binkerton J. Hamster, known to his family as Binky, passed away. We hadn't seen him out of his house all day, so we took him out and he was still alive, but not well. He passed away peacefully wrapped in a flannel shirt, in a box with a hot water bottle.

Binky was a king among hamsters. He never bit anyone and in his two years of life he only peed on me once. He loved yogurt treats and banana chips. He never ran in his wheel, yet he still managed to break it. Twice. I will always remember Binkerton hanging from the wires on the top of his cage, begging for treats.

In the last few months of his life we had taken some pictures that I never got around to posting here.  So in memoriam, here is a photo tribute to Binky.  He remains my favorite hamster ever.

Binky will be greatly missed.  The smell of boy hamster will not be missed so much.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I had to work today, on Christmas Eve.  Grr.  I hate working in general and it's even worse on Christmas Eve.

I didn't work for a few days last week because I had bronchitis and mild pneumonia.  I'm mostly okay now.

We brought Homer back to the vet to get him checked and he has gained nearly 100 grams in weight.  Hooray!  We think Homer might just be picky and stubborn, so if he dosen't like the food he's given he just refuses to eat.

Ever since Homer's first vet appointment, the little piggies, Elvis and Fudge have been acting weird.  They've been fighting constantly for about a week.  I'll be sitting watching tv and suddenly hear "squeak thump thump squeak thump WHEEK!" as the two little retards chase each other around the cage and attack each other.  Elvis has a Fudge-inflicted scratch on his little pink nose.  We haven't found any wounds on Fudge yet.  

We don't know why they're behaving like this, and it seems to get a lot worse whenever we take one of them out of the cage, then put him back.  Fudge gets angry if I pet Elvis.  We think that the whole battle is somehow connected to them wanting more attention and battling for dominance at the same time.  

Meanwhile, Homer and Spike have been getting along just fine.  Homer has been happily sitting on top of their little wooden house nibbling on the roof and eating hay.  Spike has been sweet and adorable.  

At least we have two loveable guinea pigs.  And two that I'd like to stick in a sound-proof closet.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 07:19 PM | Permalink

Yay!  I was wrong!  Neil brought Homer to the vet today and found out that he is not diabetic.  He is, however, sick.  We don't know if it's a viral or bacterial thing, but that's probably why he's lost weight.  There's a chance that it is something more serious, like a liver or kidney problem.  But it's not diabetes, so it may not be anything that shortens his life. 

In the meantime, we have some antibiotics from the vet and we know it's okay to give him the cranberry treat sticks he loves.  In fact, the fat and sugar in the treats could be a good thing to put some weight back on him.

In case any of you have guinea pigs, you should know that I have no regrets about spending money to bring Homer to the vet when he seemed sick.  It didn't cost nearly as much as I feared it might, and now hopefully Homer will get better, and I don't feel nearly so worried.   But I don't think Homer enjoyed it much.  Someone stuck him in a box then took him someplace bumpy and noisy and cold (the bus) and then he got sniffed by a bunch of dogs and then some complete stranger squeezed him until he peed and did horrible unspeakable things to his butt.  It is trips to the vet that are responsible for nearly all alien abduction stories among guinea pigs.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 08:10 PM | Permalink

Posted by Alana at 05:54 PM | Permalink

So the award for the best guinea pig ever goes to Homer.  Neil was clipping Homer's nails and Homer has dark brown paws where it is hard to tell how far back the clippable part goes.  He accidentally nicked a blood vessel and Homer was bleeding all over.  But Homer is so sweet and easygoing he didn't even squeak.  Right now we've got him wrapped in towels in half a piggy carrier on the couch enjoying a carrot snack for being such a good boy.  When the bleeding stops we'll put him back in the cage.

People have asked me to go a bit beyond "ehn" to explain the job interview.  It was fine.  I did a good job, but I'm not sure that job is the right match for me.  It would be a lot of talking on the phone and I might just be too naturally introverted for that.  I'm sure something else will come up, and in the meantime, I still have a job and a paycheck.

Back to keeping an eye on Homer.  Not that I really need to.  He's such a good boy he hasn't even tried anything mischevious while he's been on the couch.

If anyone thinks they have a really great guinea pig, it's just because they haven't met Homer.  He's the best.  (Not that I don't love Elvis, Spike and Fudge.  But Homer is still the best.)

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 04:23 PM | Permalink

Yesterday my husband and I went to my husband's sister's house to say adios to his younger sister who is moving to England.  It was also a good chance to see our new little 5-month-old nephew Ruary, or Roo for short.  My husband's sister had Roo's diaper off to change him and air out his junk, cause he was getting a little diaper rash.  So little Roo is sitting on his mom's lap pantsless, and as you could predict, he peed on her.  All down the leg of her jeans. 

Like any brother, my husband was quite amused at the sight of his little sister getting peed on.  He proceeded to mock her and tease her and say how it totally made his day.  Like any normal big brother.

We went home and in the evening I was holding Fudge and Neil was playing with Elvis.  He has been avoiding Fudge because he is quite the incontinent little rodent, and peed on him earlier in the week.  After only about 10 minutes or less, Elvis let loose and peed with more volume and force than I knew a guines pig could muster.  He managed to spray my husband's shirt and trousers and even the arm of the sofa.  Some of it was a good 6 inches from Elvis' little furry butt.  Elvis was a little squeaky fire hose.  

So I think we all know why Elvis peed on my husband.  It was just a little urinary karma because he was so pleased about his sister being peed on.  

Of course, in writing this, I'm setting myself up to get peed on by one of the piggies very soon.  But it was still just too good to pass up.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Posted by Alana at 04:50 PM | Permalink

Here are some pictures of Elvis and Fudge.  They're both very sweet and they're adapting to their new home very well.  Although Elvis spent a great deal of yesterday humping Fudge.  I think he's gotten over it, and they've sorted out their dominance issues.

Here is Fudge:

And here is Elvis:

And here is a lovely picture of Elvis and Fudge together.

We're loving our new piggies.  They haven't met Spike and Homer because they need to be quarantined for a bit first.  Plus, these guys are so tiny Homer could crush them with one godzilla-like stomp of his paw.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 03:00 PM | Permalink

My husband and I went out today to buy an exercise machine, and we accidentally bought 2 more guinea pigs.  We went to the pet store just to see if they had any abyssinians in stock, and they didn't.  But we ended up falling in love with 2 regular smooth-haired guinea pigs and then we bought them.  We've been thinking of getting more piggies for a while.  And we even had the means to build a quick cage.  So now we have two more boys named Fudge and Elvis.  They're still freaked out about the bus ride home and everything, so I can't get pictures yet.  Fudge is 2 different shades of brown and Elvis is white, cream, and agouti.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 04:07 PM | Permalink

So just after I posted the last entry, I heard a strange banging noise from behind me. I thought it was the guinea pigs throwing stuff around their cage (as they love to do). I was just about to yell across the room for them to knock it off, when I turned around and saw that it was Binky. I gave Binky a stick to chew on, and he was trying to drag it into his igloo. The stick was about 9 inches long, and he was trying to pull it through a doorway about an inch and a half wide. He continued to try to get the stick into his house for about 15 minutes before he got tired and went back to bed.

I'm fairly certain that Binky spent most of last night trying to dig under the wall to his old house area. He even got up briefly this morning to get a drink of water and try to dig under the wall. I'm not sure how to convince him that there's plenty of cool stuff that is not on the other side of that wall. I think I may hang some more treats from the ceiling just to try to distract him.

So now we have 3 very interesting rodents. I think Homer has the guinea pig version of autistism. Then Spike has the guinea pig version of ADHD. And now we have Binky, with a case of hamster OCD.

Now that Binky has joined the family, Spike seems a lot more normal and calm. He's still a spaz, but by comparison, he's downright lethargic.

Alana

Posted by Alana at 06:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is my 100th blog entry (counting the previous stuff from diaryland).  I wanted to post something significant here.  But instead, I have stuff about my hamster.

I have reason to believe that Binky may be possessed.  Or at least crazy.  Binky has a cage designed like this:

The food bowl is mounted recessed into a little hole, and Binky's nest is built under the food dish, and he gets to it by going through the doorway under the ramp.  One morning, my husband and I came downstairs to find Binky's cage like this:

He had pulled out the food dish, dragged it to the other side of the platform, and filled the food dish hole with wood chips.  We put everything back, and he did it again a few days later.  He didn't like that we would wake him up by taking the food dish out (usually to fill it).  

We formulated a plan.  We would buy a hamster igloo to give him a new nest, then we'd get a heavy ceramic food dish, and plug up the hole under the food dish and the doorway into the nest area, so that we have better access to him and he can't trash the cage like a rock star in a hotel room every night.  It would look like this:

So I got to work and took the plastic platform out of the cage and left Binky in the cage, all exposed and annoyed that I had woken him up in the middle of the day. I modified the cage, blocked off the openings to his old nest, then went to install the new thing.

I opened the plastic top of the cage, thinking that I'd just grab Binky, put him in his plastic rolling ball thing, and then do what I needed to do with the cage. It didn't work that way. Binky launched himself over the side of the cage, off the coffee table and onto the floor, all on one lightning-fast movement. I found out that flying hamsters make me scream like a girl. Then I chased Binky around the living room until I finally caught the naughty little rodent. He didn't bite me, which was good. He just looked up at me like he was all sweet and innocent.

I put him into the cage with the new igloo and the nest blocked off. He filled his cheeks with most of the contents of the food dish, then tried over and over to get through to his old nest. He tried to dig under the wall. He tried to dig under the other side of the wall. He tried to move the food dish. Finally, I picked him up and put him inside the igloo. After that, he got the hint and made himself a little nest in there. He is currently asleep in his new nest. But I'm still a little afraid to see what he'll do to his cage during the night. He's crazy.

Posted by Alana at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So my guinea pig Homer has developed the nickname "Princess" for various reasons.  (Yes, Homer is a boy, but he's still a little princess.)

First of all, I've never seen a guinea pig that is such a picky eater.  He'll eat cucumbers, but not the squishy part in the middle with the seeds.  He won't touch any fruit.  He'll only eat the center part of carrots.  And he gets mad if we feed him his veggies in the wrong order.

In the morning when I give the guinea pigs their food pellets, Spike is all over the cage, jumping and squeaking for joy.  Guinea pigs do this thing called "popcorning" when they're happy.  Basically, they jump straight up in the air.  So while Spike is popcorning and running around, Homer will be frozen in the corner, trying his hardest not to popcorn.  Eventually, he hops in the air.  Immediately after, he shakes his head, as if to say, "That was undignified."

When we hold Homer, he will basically just sit there and let us pet him and play with him however we want, until he's had enough, and then he grabs a mouthful of our shirt and yanks for all he's worth until we put him back in the cage.

Homer is the most demanding and grumpy little rodent I've ever had, but I like him.  He's snobby and grouchy, but he's also adorable and can be very sweet.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Posted by Alana at 03:13 PM | Permalink

I have finally taken a few pictures of Binky.  Last night (sadly when the camera was out of reach) Binky climbed the treat stick and was stuffing his cheek pouches with anything he could get off of it.  So he had a head three times its normal size and was clinging tenaciously to the treat stick.  Very cute.

So that is our new adorable little hamster Binky. He's justa cute little furry ball of adorable poses.  I never thought I'd like hamsters because I'm totally a guinea pig kind of girl, but he is extremely cute and friendly.

Alana 

Posted by Alana at 12:06 PM | Permalink

Okay, so I was holding Spike again.  I found a small drop of what appeared to be blood on my sweatshirt, and since I was pretty sure I wasn't bleeding, I got concerned about Spike.  As I was trying to check him out, he got freaked out and ran into my hood again.  Then onto the top of my head.  Then down my back and into my sleeve.  I had to take the sweatshirt off to get him out.  I'm still not sure where the blood came from.  His feet all look fine and all the front and rear orifices seemed fine.  I have no idea.  But I'm pretty sure that little rodent is going to drive me insane.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Posted by Alana at 12:44 PM | Permalink

I was just holding my guinea pig, Spike.  When I pick a guinea pig to hold, I have to decide whether I'm looking for a cozy guinea pig or some excitement.  Spike is excitement.  He's quite a spaz.  I usually wear a hooded sweatshirt when I play with the guinea pigs because I'm allergic to them, so it keeps their fur off my skin.  Spike likes to sit on my shoulder.  One of the times that he made a mad dash for my shoulder, he instead launched himself into the hood of my sweatshirt.  So I went looking for my husband to help me fish the guinea pig out of my hood.  He was in the bathroom, so he couldn't help.  I got the little weasel out, but got a rash and some scratches on my neck from the sharp little nails.

This is pretty much a normal day with Spike.  He's a little furry retard, but he is fun.  And today he didn't try to eat my engagement ring or poop on me, so that was nice.

Alana

www.girlalive.com 

Posted by Alana at 02:28 PM | Permalink

diaryland entry 3:19 p.m. - 2005-12-27

Happy birthday to me.

Yesterday I gave my guinea pigs a bath. I started with Spike because that gets the hard one out of the way.

I put him in the tub, inside his little crate. The water started flowing in and he started drinking it. Then as it got higher, he looked confused, then afraid. His face had a look that said, "It's getting kinda high. Is it supposed to do that? What's going on?" But he didn't really freak out until I poured a cupful of water over his back. Then he learned that when properly motivated, he can launch himself completely out of the crate. I shampooed him with baby shampoo and then rinsed him, the whole time, trying to hold him down and keep him from hurting himself. He bit me several times quite hard, but no skin broken.

After I dried Spike, it was Homestar's turn (we've been mostly calling him Homer because he loves watching tv). I put Homer in the crate and started the water. He freaked out immediately, running in circles as if to say, "It's the end of the world! We're all going to die!" But I was able to hold him still and clean him pretty uneventfully.

They both kind of hate me now. But that's okay.

Today is my birthday. My whole house smells like mole chicken, which is cooking in the crockpot.

Alana
www.girlalive.com

Posted by Alana at 08:31 PM | Permalink

diaryland entry 9:05 p.m. - 2005-12-05

Okay, so I finally got some pictures of my new guinea pigs. The pictures aren't great, but that's cause my camera is still not cooperating and so my husband used his cell phone.

Here is a picture of Homestar:

Here is a picture of Spike:

Here is a picture of Homestar and Spike:

Aren't they just the cutest things ever in the whole world?

Alana
www.girlalive.com

Posted by Alana at 08:28 PM | Permalink

diaryland entry 7:20 p.m. - 2005-12-04

Okay, so we got our new guinea pigs, but it didn't entirely go as planned.

We got to the pet shop and they only had male guinea pigs. But they are very young and they've known each other since birth, so it will probably be okay to keep 2 males together. We hope.

We got 2 guinea pigs. One is smooth-haired black with a white spot behind his head and 2 white feet. He is named Spike. (My husband named him after the black Gremlin with the white tuft of hair in the movie "Gremlins".) Our other guinea pig is mottled black and tan with one little rosette on his head (cause he's a crested breed). I named him Homestar Runner. Homestar for short. Although we've been also calling him Homer sometimes because he seems to like watching tv.

We got the odd couple of guinea pigs. Spike is a hyperactive little spaz. He's smaller than Homestar, and always the first to try eating anything. Especially the newspaper lining the cage. Homestar is a little neurotic. For the first 6 hours or so after we got him, he wouldn't move. Even if we poked him. He just sat there playing dead, due to the shock of the bus ride home and everything. But now he's moving around more and eating and everything. He is still much calmer and quieter than Spike. Spike is a constant living soundtrack of squeaking. I've only heard Homestar make noise once or twice. So they are opposite in many ways.

One thing they have in common is that they're both adorable. They also both like eating carrots, dandelions and their own poo.

I'll post a few pictures once I get the pictures off my camera and onto my computer (I don't have the right cable, and my memory card reader is still in a box which isn't being shipped here until later this week).

Alana
www.girlalive.com

Posted by Alana at 08:27 PM | Permalink

diaryland entry 10:43 p.m. - 2005-12-02

Hello.

There are 2 reasons that I'm all hyper today.

First of all, my book got published today. I can legally hold the title of "Cookbook Author" now. How weird is that? Anyway, it's for sale at my store, http://www.girlalive.com/tshirts/. It's pretty exciting.

Then the other reason I'm all excited is that my husband and I will be going to the pet store tomorrow to buy some guinea pigs. I don't know what they will look like, but I know they will be cute. And they will be female. Because we do not want any breeding, and 2 boys will just fight all the time. Boys are like that.

Getting some guinea pigs makes all the wounds from cutting and stapling the chicken wire for the cage worth it. I've still got scratches all over my arms and hands. But now there is a cage, where formerly there was just a coffee table, a toilet seat, and a roll of chicken wire.

Alana
www.girlalive.com

Posted by Alana at 08:27 PM | Permalink

diaryland entry 4:51 p.m. - 2005-11-28

My husband and I are preparing for the arrival of hopefully 2 new additions to our family. No, I am not pregnant. We're getting guinea pigs.

I have never owned a dog and I am allergic to cats. Plus, they seem to require a lot of attention and walking and crap-scooping and stuff like that. I like pets that don't tie you down so much. Plus, guinea pigs are just so darned cute.

We looked into every available type of cage. The most popular guinea pig cages are made of cubes and coroplast. They're very nice, but we couldn't find cubes or coroplast here in the UK. So we got creative.

First we flipped our coffee table upside down and measured the inside dimensions. It is just the right size for a plastic underbed storage bin, which we purchased at Home Base. The only problem was that it was a little short on one end. The legs of the coffee table will be the uprights we attach the wire to in order to make a cage.

We needed a way to block the short end so that the guinea pigs could not climb over the bin and get stuck between the plastic bin and the cage wires. So I was looking around the house and found an old tiolet seat. The lid was exactly the size of the cage. So we cut one edge flat and attached some legs to make a little platform to cover the hole.

So our guinea pigs' cage is made from a coffee table and a toilet seat. I hope that the guinea pigs like it. And I hope that they don't think it smells like butt.

Alana
www.girlalive.com

Posted by Alana at 08:25 PM | Permalink