On making vegetable soup with a blender

When you decide to make soup by first boiling veggies to death and then liquefying them in a blender, remember that you will need about an equal amount of water as boiled veggies, so one crock pot full of boiled veggies will yield two crock pots full of post-blender soup.

Loki the Horrible

Loki just has been getting more and more aggressive. I invited the neighbors over to have some of the giant batch of veggie/ham soup that I made. I let the lady hold him and he was fine. Then as they were leaving, I set him down and he sunk his teeth into the top of my foot and drew blood. I think it must be over-stimulation with other people. He doesn't generally bite me otherwise. After biting me, he went and abused Chaos. Poor little guy...he's just too old for that. I'm not sure what to do about this.

Ferret Joy

I've gotten kisses from all three ferrets today.

Loki always kisses, so from him, it is no surprise.

Chaos has become more and more disinterested in human interaction and almost never kisses, but today, I got a couple of licks.

Enkidu has been too nervous to really be held, I think. I took him out into the hallway of my building this evening and let him bounce around, which he seemed to have really enjoyed. Then I brought him back into the apartment and scritched him behind the shoulders and he gave me some kisses.

It's good to feel loved. :)

Oxymoron of the day.

Today's oxymoron:

Unitarian fundamentalist.

Undecided Voters

It just clicked for me today. There really is no excuse for undecided voters at this point in the campaign! If you haven't figured out the issues yet, go to a couple of candidate matcher sites. They ask you to indicate your position on key issues and how important those issues are to you. Then you can find out which candidate is the best match for you. Granted, no one will be perfect.

If you're not interested in the issues, then maybe voting just isn't for you. Stay home!

No, the 19th century immigrants did not immediately learn English.

And here's an article about a study that proves it!

Ferret Update: Loki is a butt.

Chaos, is still with us, despite looking increasingly like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. Loki is strong as ever. I also have a new 5 year old boy, named Enkidu. He's soft as a bunny, much softer fur than other ferrets I've had.

However, there's a problem. Loki is a butt. He's been incredibly aggressive lately towards both my feet and the other ferrets. I don't think that he's trying to hurt anyone; he never draws blood. However, I'm getting really sick of ferret teeth marks on the tops of my feet and heels - I'm allergic to them and they burn! I've tried spraying my feet with bitter apple, but he bites anyway. I've been scruffing him and carrying him around scruffed for a minute or so afterwards, which seems to help, but not until he's bitten and been scruffed a couple of times.

Loki is current on his melatonin implant, but he's still way too easily excitable. It's gotten to the point that he needs to stay in the cage when I have company over, which was never the case before. He also has been going after Chaos more than he used to, and Chaos is just too old for that! Loki and Enkidu fight all the time, but no one draws blood and they are both healthy, so I'm not as concerned about that combination.

Loki is about 4. Is it likely that his behavior would get better if I had his adrenal tumor surgically removed? The melatonin implants are working fine on his fur, but his behavior is really getting out of hand.

Alternately, are there any training sorts of things that you would recommend?

Thanks for any advice anyone might have!

Frosted Sugar Cookies!

These are my weakness. However, it was a box of these cookies that let me meet my former neighbor (and current friend) James. Basically, I bought a package of them, but knew that I shouldn't eat them all myself, so I knocked on his door and offered him the rest.

At the Pharmacy

I get Chaos' Prednisolone prescription filled at the local Walgreens, which is convenient, because I can get it filled when I am out of town as well.

Anyway, they have a rule that the pharmacist (as opposed to the lab tech or other cashier types) has to speak with the person picking up each prescription to make sure that they don't have any questions. I find this pretty hilarious, since I've yet to meet the Walgreens pharmacist who knows anything about ferrets and their medicational issues.

So, usually the conversation goes something like this:

Pharmacist: Do you have any questions?

Me: Do you know anything about ferrets?

Pharmacist: Nope.

Me: Then no, no questions.

It does sometimes get a bit annoying when I'm in a hurry and still need to wait for the pharmacist to become available to have that inspiring exchange.

*shrugs*

Enkidu is top ferret

I just observed Enkidu drive Loki out of his own little bed and into the litter box (the only other place to be on that level of the cage). Loki cautiously climbed up to the next level after having backed off a couple of times because of Enkidu's hissing. So, it would seem that the hierarchy is thus:

Enkidu
Loki
Chaos.

Chaos' Health

Well, today at the vet, we determined that Chaos' blood sugar level was fine, but he was still shaking. His lymph nodes are huge. The vet thinks that it's probably the lymphoma that's causing the shakes at this point. Poor little guy. He's also down 2 ounces in weight.

He might not live forever, but he's already outlived everyone's expectations.

Bladder Infections; not just for humans.

Enkidu has got himself a bladder infection. I get to crush up pills into powder, mix them with water and force feed him with a syringe for the next 10 days. Lucky me!

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Loki pounced on Enkidu in the vet's waiting room, so Enkidu peed all over the floor. The receptionist was about to clean it up, but I told her that the vet might need the sample. So, she picked it up in a syringe and brought it to the vet, who told her to give it to a vet tech. The vet tech looked at this tiny amount of urine in this tiny syringe, as if to say 'That's all? No more? What am I supposed to do with that?' It really couldn't have been more than a milliliter. Then the vet explained that it was from a ferret and off of the floor and the tech went and did whatever they do with ferret urine samples. It was rather funny to watch.