Really?!

Really????!!!!!

Words that don’t belong to the English language aside– WHAT?!  Should I be offended (Which I’m inclined to believe, yes) that someone stumbled upon MY delicate flower of a blog with “really discustin pictures” as their search topic?

To what “discustin” pictures are they referring to?  My pets?  The odd squeaky toy?  Me?

Will I ever know?

Until then, Ah’ll be lookin’ for really discustin’ vocabelury,

Jaina

~*~EDIT~*~

Some people were interested in seeing what other search terms come up when people do a search for my blog– I thought I’d do an update:

A few if these I can understand and even welcome… I’m not sure about the rest…

Maybe You Can Tell Me…

What in the *everloving* world this is?

I bought the girls some squeakies on Sunday before I left work–  Typically, because no one is happy if they don’t get their own toy, I paw (get it? Haha, I crack myself up) through the clearance bin until I find things I think they’d get a kick out of.  They actually can be quite picky sometimes, so I try to choose wisely.  I saw this thing and had to buy it simply because it’s ridiculous.

I get that it’s supposed to be a camel– But is it a species of camel that has ice cream cones for legs, rather than the regular knobbly-kneed kind?  I have no idea and that’s why I’m coming to you, blogging community.  Any suggestions?  New species name?

"I haz an ice cream legs!"

Of course, it couldn’t be any more strange than this little beauty:

"I don't know what I am either."

It’s a pig.  Sure.  But it looks like it ate a carnival and a Fuzzy Wuzzy flip mop (Google it, I dare you).

Judge me not by my oddly fabric'd face lest ye be judged, sayth the Lord Squeaky

I’m definitely putting more thought into this than is probably healthy.  I’m really glad I went to college– I’m going to do big things, BIG things!

Anyway, thought I’d post a few photos of the new addition and some of the oldies– My room is now completely girls.  Ianto was the unfortunate man out before he passed, but now with Evie here, it’s kind of like having an all girls dorm rather than co-ed.  It’s kind of fun, instant sleep overs, without the pillow fights.  Unless you count Uno CONSTANTLY CHUCKING HER BEDDING ONTO MY FLOOR RIGHT AFTER I’VE VACUUMED!!!

<.<

>.>

>.<

*cough*

Yeah–

Hai!!!! I iz a Movee Star!!!

Oooh, yes! I LUVZ de Stwahbewee yogurtz!

Iz don' need you to hold et! ... STOP HOLDING DE YOGURTZ!

She really didn’t want me holding it anymore– She turned into a teeny version of He-Man and ripped it out of my fingers.  About a second later she shoved it into her cheek pouches with the other one I gave her.  Good thing she didn’t have any doorways to go through.  Her face kind of looked like this: ( O.0 ) (use your imagination).

See? I holdz et myself!

I getz dem outta de bag too...

I’m really going to have to keep an eye on her– She really isn’t so shy anymore…

Uno on the other hand, decided she didn’t want anything to do with “teh Yogurtz” and therefore wouldn’t sit still for pictures.  I don’t know why this frustrates me anymore–  She’s a Gerbil, they’re born to take blurry photos.

*Squish*

Still– It’s sad I have to put her in a headlock just to get a semi-decent picture.  I’m probably lucky I didn’t lose any of my fingers with this one.

I hatez you.

Of course, if I didn’t, all you’d get to see is:

"Oh look! Black Blobs are legal to have as pets now!"

"Oh man, soooo jealous. I've always wanted a Black Blob!"

I’ve also come to the conclusion Uno needs to go on a diet.  I play with her and all, but I get more exercise chasing her when she’s out of her ball, then she does.  And when she’s in her ball, she just sits there and wrings her paws wondering what she did to deserve to be put in the Bubble of Badness.  It’s a Gerbil version of the Cone of Shame.  I try to feed her right, she gets her seed mix and I make sure she eats more than just Sunflower Seeds (they’re like Oreos to a Gerbil!) and I give her Timothy Hay from time to time… I try NOT to give her too many Yogurt drops…

Though, I may fail a little on that…

They’re just too cute some nights!  So shoot me!

I’ll try to be better.  I don’t want her to die an early death because she has clogged arteries or something.

OH!  Hey!

Here's that spider I was telling you about! Yay! GROSSNESS!

Um... Crumply?

We don’t know what happened.  One minute it was being grotesque and spidery, the next it curled into a little ball and was carried off by ants while Mom serenaded it with the well-known funeral dirge “Circle of Life”…  I have it on video if you don’t believe me.

I just thought I’d creep y’all out too, it is getting close to Halloween and what better way to share than with a picture of a spider that could probably suck your face clean off?!

What would you do without me?

Well, I gotta get up in the morning!

Until then,

Jaina & Faith & Paisley & Uno & Baxter & Watson & Buddha & Evie & All De Bebe Fish

It’s Tiny and Gold…

And her name is Evie

I’ve been hesitating to post that I brought a new friend home because I’ve been afraid people, (you know, the 2 people who have been reading this) would think I was simply trying to replace Ianto, now that he’s gone.  I’m not sure why it would bother me so much that anyone think that, since it shouldn’t matter.  Regardless, it made me hold back on saying anything other than on my Facebook, until now.

I do want to say, that I’m not trying to replace Ianto.  Ianto was irreplaceable, as any pet is irreplaceable, for several reasons.  Ianto had his own quirks, personality and style.  He was a brat, a food hoarder and kick boxer in one tiny, furry body.  He appreciated fine-dining and despised cleaning day and for the life of me, no other hamster will ever be like him.

But, after he was gone, I knew that there was a hole he had left behind and so much recently in my life has not been at all what I expected, that leaving that hole without filling it with something or someone, would just add to the holes that are already there and trying to heal.

Repairing a hurt with a snuggly, fuzzy, lovely hamster, is a far easier patch than the hurts you feel when you lose someone you love out of the blue or your days aren’t going well for no particular reason, or you just want to be successful and not wonder if you’re going to be one giant ball of fail when it’s time to be an adult.

It’s far easier to wake up to the squeakity-squeak of a little fuzzy-butt running in their wheel than find yourself laying awake because you can’t sleep without it.

It also helped, finding out that I’m not the only one who felt that way.  I recently read a post on a wonderfully snarky and yet, so close to home blog called: Hyperbole and a Half, on a post where the author had recently lost her beloved pet rat to a brain tumor (Post found here: Isabelle) and was finding it hard to cope with the loss.  Since I’ve lost several of my closest furry friends over the last three years, I can honestly say I related to her story and that when I saw this particular excerpt, it made me feel better about bringing Evie home:

Love is wonderful in that it can never be wasted or used up.  We can never replace the people or animals we have loved, but the love we feel for them can be expanded.  I like to think of love as being stretchy.  It is easy to feel guilty when you start to love a new pet – like somehow that means you love your old friend less.  But when you think of love as being stretchy and able to expand, you can see that there will always be room for everything.  You can love as much as you want.

I can love as much as I want.  There is enough room in my heart for a million, billion loves– Though I think my checking account shriveled up and died at the sheer thought of that– Love shouldn’t have an expiration date and it shouldn’t just curl up in a ball and sit in a corner when you’ve lost something that you love– like a Ianto.  I still love him, no matter what, just as I still love my very first hamster, Ernie or my mouse, Alice or even my late Grandma’s cranky old dog, Rosie.

And I can love Evie, with just as much love as I had for Ianto, as I do for all my pets.

Little Evie, who plays freeze tag when I peek in her house, or during the first two days I had her, flattened herself out like silly putty, every time I tried to pet her, because she wasn’t sure I should be touching her.  Little Evie who started trusting me enough a few nights ago, to fall asleep in my hand while I watched a movie.

She will be well loved.

I’ll post more later when I’ve stopped crying.  I get a little emotional about these things and I realize now, that this post has meant more than just my pets, it applies to many things.  It’s a good cry, it hurts and it’s a little like picking at a scab when it’s started to heal really well.  But it’s good.  It’s a cry I’ve needed.

So, maybe the next post will be funny.  I’ll dust off the camera and try to capture Evie a little better than what can come of a camera phone.  She really is a beautiful hamster, if I do say so myself and she’s got the sweetest little face.  And if you’re tired of cute, I’ll whip out the pictures of the giant, grotesque spider my Mom spotted fifty miles away.  That’ll get the blood flowing!

Until then,

Jaina

P.S.  You’ll probably never read this and it’s probably pointless to put here, but just in case…

I’ll never understand, why what we had went the way it did and I’ll never understand why you talked to me like you hated me.  But I think I can say now, that I forgive you.  It still hurts and it stings to be reminded of you.  And maybe you don’t feel you did anything wrong, or maybe you’re hurting every time you think of me.  But just so you know.

I forgive you.

Super Buddha

So, last night, after taking Buddha out for a little lovin’, I discover my poor piggy’s fur has matted on her behind, despite my best efforts to keep her in order.  I had to trim some of her rump fur off to make everything better, but decided, no matter how much I cut off, it still was troublesome.  So, I dug out her shampoo (It’s called, Squeaky Clean– Clever, right?).  Anyway, I fill the sink up with lukewarm water and at this point, she’s watching me intently.  I set her in it and for a second, she seems all right, but as soon as shampoo is squirted into my hand, all bets are off.

Fortunately for me, the sink has a bit of an incline to it, so she couldn’t just jump straight out and break something, but let me tell you, she was persistent.  It’s given me insight on how it must be to give a toddler bath, especially when your hands are wet and probably have something slippery in them, like soap or shampoo and yet you still have to manage a grip that keeps baby from killing themselves but without it turning into a Vulcan neck pinch.  Somehow, I managed (because I do believe the pig is harder) and about a second later, the once clear water was almost completely brown.  The directions on the shampoo say to give your little one a bath every 2 to 3 months and I gave Buddha one the day she came home with me in late June, early July– So now I’m thinking I’m going to have to give her one every other week so I don’t have to trim all her fur off.

She was none too pleased when I emptied the sink out, only to refill it again and then leave it on so I could rinse her off.  Let me just specify here, her face was nowhere near the water and only the fur that flips onto her neck was wet.  The way she started wheeking at me, you’d think I was actually trying to drown her.  By the time I got done with the whole thing, she was more than a little PO’d at me, but once I got her wrapped up in a towel (my little Burrito de Carnitas) and snuggled with her while drying her off, she seemed to be ok with everything.

While I was drying her off, I realized her fur had dried a certain way:

Clarkeena Kent anyone?

My Guinea Pig– Grew a Superman curl.

Look at her eyeballing me!

Even though she hates me right now, she smells better, her fur is soft again and her butt doesn’t look like she spilled something on it anymore.  So, I’d say it’s win-win, she doesn’t realize it yet.

"If I were Superman-- I'd chuck you out this window."

So, if anyone is looking to hire a Superpig, I’ve got one readily available who is talented in haircuts (long story, maybe later), eating and wheeking for your attention.  Her pay is not much, just a million-billion-trillion cucumbers, to be paid in equal monthly sums.

:0D

Until then,

~Jaina & Buddha

In which Jaina Breaks up with 2010…

Before I even get into it– I just want to say, I’ve been looking at what people have been searching for on Google and then happening on to my blog as a Top Search result.  You people are strange.  I’m not sure what possesses anyone to do a search for “Throw Cow Pee” but I’m hoping it’s in regards to a very important, lifesaving, research project.  And I’d also like to reassure you, there is no throwing of cow pee here.

Thank you.

And now, to the more serious reason behind this post.  This year has finally reached it’s peak, at least for me, in horribleness.

This evening, while I was checking my fuzzy upstairs pets, I found Ianto had died sometime this afternoon.  I don’t really know what happened.  I know that hamsters, on average, only live one to two years.  Ianto was about to turn one (or thereabouts) this September, but was in, as far as I could tell, good health.  And, not to toot my own horn, all of my hamsters have lived much longer than that, never the lower end of the average.  I know, that I heard him running around at 6am this morning, before I left for work and assumed he was sleeping when I was in my room this afternoon.

I am mostly sad because it seemed so sudden.  He still had food in his cheek pouches when I found him and it looked like he had been heading back to his nest.  I know these things happen, but I feel like I’ve lost a lot in the last few months and I’m not handling it well.

My Grandpa, my dog, my hamster, people and creatures that were and are close to my heart.  I was hoping these sorts of things had settled down by now and that I could just ride 2010 out into the sunset and then kick it good riddance.  Apparently, that wasn’t meant to be.

Yes, I know, these things happen for a reason– Hard to believe your hamster dying without you realizing it or being able to figure out why has a reason, but hopefully he’s happy, wherever he is and that he has all the sunflower seeds he can find to save up for the apocalypse.

I will remember his little attitude, his tendency to kick box my fingers when he didn’t like what I was doing or realized he had to work for something.  I will remember his planning for the end of days, his little house, constantly full with seeds, like something was about to happen and the rest of us just didn’t know about it.  Or all the times he got upset with me for cleaning it out.  Or all the times he got me back, waiting until right after I had put the vacuum away to kick most of his clean bedding back onto the floor.  He was a tiny evil genius and he was my evil genius.

I will miss him and yes, I’ll cry for him– I don’t care that I’m 22 years old, I think it means I have a soul. Maybe I care too much about my pets, but they’re my life right now.  I just want them healthy and happy and right now, even if I couldn’t have prevented it, I feel like I failed him.

I'm in my wheel, watching you...

Remove it silly human

Maybe in the future I’ll find another little hammie that needs a home, but for now, I am in mourning.  I hope he’s happy, wherever he is.  As for 2010.  I’m over it.  I would really love for January to come and that be the end of this terrible year.  I know I’m feeling sorry for myself, but I’m pushing the boundaries as to how much I can take this year before I curl up into a little ball and hide in my room.  It just doesn’t seem fair.  And yes, I’m going to whine about it.

Love you Ianto.

~Jaina

Faith’s Face Redux

Faith is home!

I knew my worries were probably a little overzealous– but you can’t blame a girl for caring.  I wasn’t actually kept up to speed with her surgery on Friday morning since I hadn’t dropped her off and wasn’t really available until after she was done with it and recuperating anyway.  I spent most of the day worrying and waiting for someone to call to tell me any news at all.  Friday was also the day everything was happening: Work, Faith’s surgery, a mandatory orchestra audition, more work, paperwork, blahblahblah.  A lot of it stuff I didn’t want to do– I know, I know, suck it up, you’re an adult.

Whatever.

Regardless, I was looking forward to seeing her and got home, just in time to see her with the cone of shame, barging through the house towards the door.  Seeing her face made me cringe:

Ow.

She got a lot more stitches then we were expecting, and they apparently became concerned about the cyst near to her nose that’s been there for years and hasn’t caused nearly as much trouble so they had us authorize it’s removal.  It’s sad how much they have to cut in order to get all of the cyst, but I would rather them be thorough than sloppy, especially if the cysts are less likely to return now or if there’s even the slightest chance they might be cancerous.  So, although it might look pretty nasty now, I’m sure it’ll improve and her fur will grow back and if the scars don’t hide under that… She can tell people she got into a brawl with a Puma or something.

I’m just glad she’s home.  Since someone has been at home at some point to watch her, she hasn’t had to wear the cone of shame too often and strangely enough, Paisley has been leaving her alone.  She’ll talk to her and all of that, but she hasn’t tried to bite Faith’s face more than once the last day or so.  In fact, once her painkillers kicked in, Faith kept trying to goad Paisley into playing tug.  To which my mother promptly grounded them.

Of course that didn’t stick, since I bought about $40 worth of treats, toys and other fun stuff for her to make her feel better.  She had a rough first night home, her pain medication didn’t seem to be working and she was miserable.  So I was a good Mom and brought her own version of “Graham crackers and Sprite”.  Her stitches don’t come out for 14 days, which I think is way too long, but what do I know?  So I might as well make her happy.

Thank you all who kept her in your thoughts (I know of a few friends on Facebook that have been following as of late, I appreciate your well wishes.) it helped me and I’m sure it helped Faith, knowing you were thinking of her.

I know she’s fine, but it got me sentimental thinking about her– I’m a little rusty working with Final Cut, since I haven’t done anything substantial on it since my U of I days.  So bear with me if there are issues–  I know it’s just pictures, but everything in the video is of those people and things that she has loved throughout her life 🙂

Hope you enjoy (Ohh, by the way, before I get sued– The song is Forbidden Friendship from the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack– by John Powell.  I know, I don’t own it.  If I did, do you think I’d have to stoop to using other people’s music?)

Until then,

Jaina

Faith’s Face

Well, add one more to 2010’s victory over all that is pleasant and making it utterly suck.  About a week ago, I took Faith to the vet to have her face looked at.  In the last few years, Faith has become a fairly lumpy dog.  She has cysts on her face that come and go and a few that have concerned me as something more nefarious.

Recently, a second cyst showed up on Faith’s cheek and has since become problematic.  Between scratching it open and Paisley hanging off of it like monkey bars, this cyst refuses to shrink or heal and often breaks open and bleeds.  It’s obviously painful and it makes a mess and needs to go away.  Thankfully, as of Monday the preliminary test results of the needle aspiration her veterinarian (who is amazing) took came back negative for cancer.  I remain hopeful that this won’t change come the results of the cyst pathology once it’s removed.

It isn’t a particularly invasive surgery, but as Faith is 11-12 years old (since she’s a stray, we’re guesstimating) putting her under anesthesia is always scary.  I always worry when any of my pets are ill and away from me for any given time– Or if I’m on vacation or having to leave them.  I’m sure I over worry, but I can’t help it sometimes.  I just want to know they’re ok.

But Faith– Faith has been my friend since I was 13 years old.  I was in middle school, the most awkward, ridiculous, hormone drenched era of my life when she wandered into it and she’s made life better.  She’s been naughty, perfect, in-between and always my buddy since day one.  She has judged boyfriends, loved my friends, kept me sane through my college years and has accumulated a box of squeakies so full, I wouldn’t know what to do with them if she didn’t come home– So I’d rather not inherit them, if at all possible.

So, keep her in your thoughts if you would.  I really cannot deal with another heartbreak, another loss or even whisper of a hiccup this year.  I want her to be healthy and happy while also maintaining what’s left of my sanity.  That’s all I’m asking.  Really.

Until then,

Jaina