Pictures!

Tad bit overdue, but...

On the 21st, we had two rats go home.  A fawn-hooded female that was recently dropped off by someone who rescued and raised three rats... turned out one was a female, so he dropped it off here.  She was adopted out.  And the other rat adopted out *drumroll* was the fawn hooded male that's been here since May! YAAAAAAAAY!!  He is such a sweetie, and he totally went to an awesome home so I'm very happy for him.  And of course, his family is going to keep him separate from the girl.  The female rat they got is (hopefully) going to be cagemates with their current rat, Laffy Taffy (female), and they got the boy cause Mom wanted a rat of her own.  Aww.  The female is now named Lilly (nickname: Buttercup) and the male is named Lenny (nickname: Simon).

So then on the 22nd, our person with the $685 order came to pickup.  She was getting two cages (one huuuuuge one decked out with shelves everywhere, and a smaller one to put in the RV for when they go camping) and a ton of stuff.  So she came and got her cuties, Lilly's mosaic male and our extra dark ebony male.  I got a text from her this morning, said:

Morning, boys r doing well.  Seem to like my hay.  Put up their Bears hammock but they are asleep in their house right now.  They r prob worn out!  They loved running up and down the ramps for hours yest.... they're already bouncing up n down through the circular holes like pros!  Their cage is great wouldn't want one any smaller.  Will keep u in chinny updates, have a great day.

... as an aside, the cage had steel shelves and ramps, which were left in, and the shelves were worked around the existing shelves and ramps.  It actually looked neat, I should have taken a picture.  She has made covers for the existing steel shelves and ramps and is going to change them seasonally.  :D  

The large cage she got (which I was happy to see go!  It was taking up so much room) was 3 feet wide x 2 feet deep x 4 feet high (an extra 9 inches added to that cause it's on a rolling stand).  Very nice cage.  Similar dimensions to an FN, I suppose, but not quite as nice (though she gladly would have taken an FN off my hands haha).  

She named her new boys Max (x-dark eb) and Fritz (mosaic).  Apparently there's some kids story books about Max, Fritz, and Emma, these horses, and each story has a moral, or something like that.  She was telling me about a story how the horses came upon this skunk and no one liked the skunk, but the horses gave the skunk a chance, and formed their own opinion of him without listening to what everyone else said.  So, point being, she was naming the chins after some of those horses. 

And had to share this pic -- this was all the fur I got off of the chins while grooming.  The dust container is in the pic for size reference.

So, I was gone most of the day today, for various things.  Got home, called the person who had called me about the rats, she will be coming next weekend to check out our rats. 

One place that I was at today was Alsip Home & Nursery for their "pet days."  I don't know what it was called, really, but they had a little dog show, so of course Kailey had to go.  I realize this is totally not related to chins, but I'm posting it anyway.  So, she went up and did her tricks, and she got second place!  She could have done better, I think, I was working up to the "harder" tricks, but they cut us off and went to the next person.  But second place is still good!  (the person who won started out with tricks that Kailey can do, but we didn't get to)  So we got a frisbee, a bag of treats for her, some chew stick treat (which she promptly ate), and a $10 gift card to Alsip.  We used the $10 gift card to get her a bag of her roasted duck feet (which is like $12-13, so it was like $3).  She also got a medal.

Here's her wearing her medal and close-ups of her medal:

(the medal is really a dark silver in color, but this pic had to be taken without flash for the words to be readable)

So when I finally got home for the night, I cut up some more hidey houses, cut a few of the holes until the drill started heating up, and cut up some shelves for some cages I need to work on.  Was planning on going back down and keep working on that stuff, but I'm tired so I'm probably just going to end up going to bed. 

I listed some more cages on the Used Cages page.  Oh, and I checked our chins, Shimmy has gained even more weight, and I held her and definitely felt movement, so babies!!  Well, I kinda knew that, but ah well.  Joker... not so much.  Her belly still feels squishy (normal), rather than the firm way that pregnant chins feel.  On the other hand that 3 yr old female that we got in a few months ago is also gaining weight and is looking rounder.  We've had her since 6/14, and she's been gaining weight the entire time she's been here.  So, if she has a baby before approx. 10/4, that means she was pregnant when we got her.  After that, it means that Myshkin really took a liking to her right away.  We'll see.  And Lacey (guinea pig) is also totally pregnant.  She is so ROUND.  She hasn't had babies yet... well... she had once where she was all pregnant and then nothing... which means she likely had stillborns and ate them or hid the bodies, but I'm hoping for live ones this time.  Fingers crossed.