President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden have added to their family, and they’ve chosen a shelter dog!
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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden have added to their family, and they’ve chosen a shelter dog!
You know that we’ve been having lots of worries with our newest degu, Gracie. A new degu needs to be integrated into a group carefully, as they are very territorial. If you just put a new degu into a habitat, the result will often be a dead degu, so we separated Candy and Estelle from Gracie by means of a fence between their part of the habitat and Gracie’s. That way they can see, smell and hear each other and get used to each other.
A couple of days after Grace moved in, I found her foot bleeding with what we thought was a torn claw. Our breeder assured us that this was a common injury acquired while playing and no need for worries. A few days later another foot was hurt and I thought “hmmm, maybe the fence has an unsafe place?” and yes, since everything there is made from leftover material, the new fence wasn’t sitting plain, which created a narrowing gap where she could get stuck with her feet. I fixed that by adding another piece of wood in front, and it looked like it worked, but then came another injury. I was both worried as well as puzzled. Was there yet another gap where she could injure herself? Did she maybe hurt herself because she was still not integrated into the group, like we may bite nails? I contacted our breeder again and she didn’t have any more ideas either. I was about to go out and buy another cage and possibly another degu to start a second group for poor Gracie when I finally found out what happened: Whenever her feet had mostly healed, Grace would go to the fence that separates them and climb there. Then Candy would come and bite her feet, and because those incisors are sharp as hell, she’d take off the first knuckle. That way poor Gracie lost several toes. But at least now we knew what was happening and I put up another fence on the other side so Candy cannot reach Grace at all. Whenever Candy and Estelle are out, we have to put a piece of wood in front of Gracie’s door so Candy cannot reach her there.
It looks like Grace is finally healing, and I still love Candy to death (can’t blame a degu for being a degu), but I really could do with some good developments here. I’m still keeping them separated until Grace has fully healed and then we’ll have to see. Currently there seem to be two possibilities: Either they do finally get used to each other, or I’ll have to start a second group. I will also probably have to make the habitat more accessible for Gracie, because I don’t think she’ll be able to climb as well as the others with basically half a front paw missing. I feel bad about her having lost those toes while under our care, but I swear to the Great Degu, I always did my best. Anyway, she’s cute, and active, and curious. She grows and her fur is shiny and sleek, so I think she will grow up a strong degu.
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Gracie, being sneaky
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©Giliell, all rights reserved She’s pretty trusting with us, but the pea chips were not enough to lure her closer
©Giliell, all rights reserved But she found a nut. You can see the missing toe on the hind paw pretty well here. She can still use her front paws to hold food, obviously, and doesn’t seem very bothered by her injuries.
Estelle, btw, is an absolutely chill degu by now. I think she has realised that she has a warm, safe home, always enough food, and doesn’t care at all about her place in the pecking order. Here’s her and Candy running in the running wheel.
Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m very, very stressed out right now. The USA at the brink of a coup, Covid still raging, and the ministry of education deciding to throw us collectively under the bus (the latest brainfart: if there’s a case in a class, they don’t want to quarantine the whole class, but only “immediate contacts”, because as we all know, 10 years old kids are great at never getting close to each other and staying in their seats for 6 times 45 minutes. It is also absolutely no additional work to teach half the class in school and half the class at home, no sir).
With this as my general anxiety level, and the loss of sweet Katja, I’m basically a helicopter pet mum, but to be honest, Gracie really does her best to freak me out. That’s a degu with a sense for Halloween.
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She’s lucky she’s cute!
After she developed soft stool from the stress of being rehomed, I came up there on Sunday to find her whole side caked with blood. I couldn’t even imagine how that had happened, the degus hadn’t been together, and the cage is safe. I caught her and examined her. The little sweetheart apparently tore a claw, which happens, but is no great injury. But of course it bleeds, and since she sits on her hunches, the blood caked the side of her belly. When I returned an hour later, she’d cleaned herself up again and nothing was seen.
On Monday, the little one came down from feeding them and said that Gracie’s toe had apparently bled again, because there was blood in the water. And I was like “I’ll see to it”, because a droplet of blood should be right invisible in a waterdish. I came up and the whole dish was red. There shouldn’t have been any blood left in the degu to turn the water that colour.
But Gracie appeared to be fine. I got closer, took out the dish and inspected it in better light. Now the orange brown colour of blood turned a more scarlet variety and I found a formerly dried beetroot chip in the dish. She’s been repeating that game. Either she hates beetroot, or she likes her water to be flavoured.
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I now moved the water away form the food. Let’s see if it was an accident or mischief.
On the good news, the running wheel finally arrived. Unfortunately the place we want to put it is currently occupied by Gracie, so they can only use it when out, but they very much like it. It was expensive as fuck, but it will sure last a long time.
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Sorry, no better pic possible at that speed.
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Our weather has been fabulous for the past few days, with lots of sunshine and temps hovering around 18ºc. It feels more like September than November, and Jack and I have been spending our days outside. Jack is still having trouble with an arthritic left shoulder, so we haven’t been going very far, but Bubba is content to lie on his bed, basking in the sun while I do yard work. We have the flower beds cut back and tucked in for winter, we’ve gotten rid of most of the carpet of leaves that fall from our 2 red maples ( I like to keep a light protective leaf cover), the hoses are put away, the patio furniture is covered, the annuals have been uprooted and tossed, and I’ve harvested the last of the tomatoes. There really isn’t much left to do outside, but it’s too darn nice to stay inside, so I might just take the day off and find a good book to read in the back garden. Housework can wait. I have a long winter of Covid confinement ahead of me to get caught up on indoor chores. Summer in November is a gift not to be wasted.
The good news is that Jack’s shoulder is improving, and he should be able to resume normal activity soon. He’s been getting bored with just short walks down the street and back, and he’s more than ready for a bit of adventure. Honestly, I am, too. I’ve hardly used my camera since Jack went lame, and short walks around the block are boring for me, too. I have a backlog of photos from the earlier part of autumn, though, and I thought I’d share them over the next few weeks. Both photos today were taken along the Thames River in mid-October.
©voyager, all rights reserved
A health degu group consists of at least three animals, which is why we started out with Candy, Estelle and Katja. After poor little Katja died so early, Candy and Estelle were left alone, which is ok, but not ideal, so we got a third one this Wednesday: please meet Grace, or Gracie as she is affectionately called.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
She is still so tiny, and very shy. Now the degus need to get accustomed to each other, and that takes time, patience and good nerves. Sadly the last element is in short supply right now. We put a fence up between the big part of Degustan and the small adjacent compartment and gave Gracie the small one. They need to get used to each other , so we let them out together yesterday and man, Candy was brutal. She’s the leader of the group and right now, Grace is an intruder who needs to be chased away. Today we didn’t let them out together. they can see each other through the fence, smell each other, and hear each other.
And then I discovered some soft poop in Gracie’s part and nearly freaked out because that was how Katja went. But fortunately our breeder reassured me that for the first few days that’s nothing to worry about. That lady is really how a breeder of pets should be: I can always reach her by mail with my questions, and she’s always happy to receive pics of the degus. She really cares about the animals, not just about some money on the side.
And here’s a bonus pic of Candy, who is lovely, but not the smartest cookie, as she found the jar with the food open, nicked her favourite treat, and then buried it in the jar for later…
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This time I took the proper camera and was rewarded with some cute.
©Giliell, all rights reserved Look at those whiskers
©Giliell, all rights reserved Paddlefootses
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Sadly, what it’s swimming in is white bread. No matter how many signs you put up, telling people that feeding bread to the ducks and fish and muskrats is bad for them, some people always know better, or think that when they do it it’s different. Which explains a lot about the current shit we’re in.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Water in the ear. Happens to the best of us.
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©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s rare for me to like pics of myself. There are hardly any anyway, because I’m usually the camera person, but Candy has gotten me to take selfies. Also, the light in the degu run is pretty flattering, I think, and the degus make me happy, so who cares for the double chin when you got happiness?
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Estelle is definitely getting more trusting. She comes out almost immediately now, puts her tiny feetses on me and takes treats. Oh, and tries whether my thumb is edible… She is also clearly the clumsy one. Where Candy has added the top of the side track to her territory, Estelle just makes it on top of the box next to it, doesn’t manage to get up and then does a half climb, half jump, half fall off it again. Yes, three halves, that’s how clumsy she is.
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They still make me think of Caine and her kingdom of rats a lot. She would be absolutely delighted with the degus.
The above is a German expression to indicate surprise, often with some disapproval: “Mein lieber Schwan, did you see how fast that car was going?”. But there’s absolutely no disapproval for our new swan family. They are pretty relaxed for swans, so far.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
The two youngsters. One of them keeps holding tight to their baby plumage while the other one has been wearing their adult white for a while now.
I call her Cocoa © Voyager, all rights reserved
Jack has been having problems with swelling and pain in his left shoulder. It’s likely arthritic, and it would be good for him to start taking an anti-inflammatory drug called Meloxin. Our first lab Lucy had a lot of joint problems and she took Meloxin for years with good effect and I want Jack to have equal comfort in his senior years. Trouble is, that Jack takes a steroidal allergy tablet every day because he’s allergic to grass, and the two drugs are incompatible so he can’t start it until the grass is dead and he stops the steroids. We see the Vet on Monday to discuss other options, but for now, Jack is limited to one short walk a day. He isn’t very happy about this state of affairs, especially since getting in and out of the car is difficult, and we’ve been sticking close to home. I can’t believe I’m actually saying this out loud, but I hope it snows soon. Sorry folks, but it’s going to come eventually, and the sooner all this lush green October grass goes to bed for the winter, the sooner my Bubba can have some fun again.
The photos are from last week.
Isn’t she beautiful? © Voyager, all rights reserved
This is Cocoa’s best friend, Nugget © Voyager, all rights reserved
Apparently degus and cats share a tendency to climb up things they then have problems getting down again… I’ll have to take some measures to prevent them from breaking their neck, as Estelle managed to get into the “storage” compartment on top of Degustan and then fall most of the way down…
In the first video you can see Candy trying to jump onto the side track of Degustan where the food is kept.
In the second video she managed to get onto it, and up the side of Degustan. We quickly needed to make that top “degusafe” after that.
Here’s a triumphant Candy with a well deserved stolen treat…
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©Giliell, all rights reserved
They’re also trying hard to gnaw their way out of the enclosure. They’ll find out I have more hinges than that…
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And finally, our “latest degu”: Sugar, a giant crochet degu. There’s a distinctive lack of degu plushies on the market, but thankfully somebody on etsy sold a crochet pattern, so I made one for the little one’s birthday (Happy birthday my love!). While this is meant for small amigurumi projects, that wool was just too amazing.
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… Being Human, by William Wegman
From the 2018 exhibit William Wegman: Being Human, The National Gallery of Victoria. Image from Concrete Playground
Today’s photo comes from William of the Bolingbrook Babbler and it’s a gentle sort of picture, titled Cat on a Fall Afternoon. We all know, though, that although even sleepy calico cats are ruthless killers at heart and this one’s dreams may be filled with mayhem and plans for world domination. Meow!
©William Brinkman of the Bolingbrook Babbler, all rights reserved
The town our friends live in has a really nice park, with an amazing playground that even the resident teen is happy to visit, so we declared it our meeting place while the plague is on. Apart from the playground it also has a pond with a muskrat family. Unfortunately I only had my phone with me, I promise to do better the next time. They’re neozoons in Europe, but cute.
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