Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Less busy day, but productive

So, before I go into today, I want to share a "fail" moment that happened the other day.  I'm not big on poking fun at myself, but even I can appreciate my really stupid moments.  So, many people know I am highly allergic to both the hay and to sawdust.  So, if you see me bagging up lots of hay, drilling through hay cubes, or cutting more than one piece of wood on the table saw, I probably have a dust mask on.  I prefer to be able to breathe, thank you very much.  So, the other day, when I was cutting up a lot of wood (so, dust mask on), I took one of the pieces and sanded off a rough edge.  The wood ended up with some sawdust on top.  I went to blow off the sawdust.... with my dust mask on.  Fail.  Lol.

Onto today.  Started off the day packaging up a flat rate box of mazuri and an order for three ryerson bottles.  Mailed those out. 

Conversed back and forth with a few people about their orders til they got their payment in, and then packaged up another two orders.  Put together an order for a friend of a friend (who will be meeting me later this week to get the order).  So now there's more piles of stuff to go out in the mail.

Put the completed hidey houses where they go, and glued the remaining roofs on the last few that needed it.  Rubberbanded those, and they will dry until tomorrow sometime. 

Made some 4th of july/memorial day toys and noted that we now have those on the Supplies for Sale page.  The red could have turned out more reddish, will have to use more dye the next time.  On a positive note, the pine rectangles that were dyed black are actually retaining their black coloring.  Haven't had a chance to do anything orange, but one day that time will come.

Organized a bit more of the stuff in the rescue.  My table-of-doom is finally getting down to things that should be on there.  Few random items I still need to list on the webstore, the box that has Toby's bed (which needs a pillow before I can put it up), as well as the urns (which need to have the ashes put in them, along with little stands that I need to make, so I can move that box), and a few random things.  I did buy the epoxy for that cage that needs the wheel glued on -- bought something that says it's as strong as steel, which it will need to be, because this cage isn't going to stand up with three wheels.  It never fails it would be one of the as-tall-as-me cages that is brought by with a wheel that won't stay in place....and it's like a 4" caster from top to bottom so it's not a slight difference.  And, unfortunately, the other wheels aren't feeling like coming off.  So... the solution is to glue the heck out of that wheel and get it to stay in place.  But that's for another day.

So, terrified-rat, as he/she is now being called, has settled into his/her cage.  If I had to guess, I'd say male, but I need to wait until he/she calms down enough to get a picture and send it to my rat guru to verify.  Looks like male with super-tucked-in-man-parts.  Anyway, first day, terrified rat bit the heck out of me, leaving me scrambling for something to stop the bleeding on my swiss-cheese hand.  I left terrified-rat alone for maybe a week after that (advice from my rat guru).  Noticed, upon looking in terrified-rat's cage, that terrified-rat was nowhere to be seen, so terrified-rat had to be.... in the gravity feeder.  Wonderful.  So I donned the gloves and got the rat out of the feeder, and removed the feeder from the cage (the rat cages all have bowls as well, so terrified-rat is getting fed).  Terrified-rat remained terrified and moved itself into the space pod, which is like the ultimate no-no for rats that are even the least bit territorial or aggressive, as they always decide to claim that as "theirs" and make swiss cheese of me when I try to get them out.  So, few days later was aimed at getting terrified-rat out of the pod and getting the pod out of the cage (there's still a hammock and toys and a wheel in the cage, it's not barren, just minus the "problem items").  So, after terrified-rat came out of its pod, I grabbed terrified-rat.  Terrified-rat did not bite me (though, I definitely had gloves on), but let out a bloody-murder squeal that even made me put it down.  And you all know how I am about putting animals down when they start biting/crabbing -- just reinforces that if they act out, they get put down.  But I mean terrified-rat... I had NEVER heard this sound come out of a rat.  So, I eventually got out terrified-rat again, without the squeal, but it was, well, terrified (hence the name, right?) and so I didn't have it for very long before I put it back.  Today, I peeked into terrified-rat's cage, and terrified-rat was sleeping on the hammock (in view!).  Still looks like terrified-rat's fur is all ruffled up, but hopefully that will de-fluff with time.  I tried to give terrified-rat a treat, but terrified-rat wouldn't take it.  Maybe I will try with peanut butter or, better yet, sunflower seeds, terrified-rat's favorite!!!  I have been told that if this rat is ultimately unadoptable I may be able to get a sanctuary to take it (as I already have one of my rat cages filled by a medical-watch rat, and have another rat cage [above capacity] with two rats in it), but my rat guru thinks terrified-rat will come around and remember its manners.  We shall see.  It seemed a good sign that terrified-rat didn't try to repeat the past performance of making my hands into swiss cheese, though that could have been since they were covered with thick gloves, and rats aren't stupid.  But I'll err on the positive and say that's a good sign.  But time will tell for sure.

I want to say that about wraps up what I did today.  Ok, wait, no, never mind.  I also took down all my old ads and relisted them.  Oh, and Critter was adopted today - yay!!  And I put up the ads for Vincent, as he is now available.  Also, set up a pickup for Aubrey and her baby, so I better get cracking on making shelves for the cage they're going with, as well as getting the other supplies ready.  Just waiting to hear back from the to-be owners on whether or not that cage is going home in one piece or not.

Ok, and really think that wraps it up this time.  

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