Yay for parents!

Hal's parents came and visited us for the weekend on the 12, 13, & 14th. It was so nice to see them and talk to them! We showed them the building where Hal works (visitors aren't ususally allowed inside, unless they're important people to the company...), and wanted to show them the Wichita Falls falls, but they were turned off! And, sadly, Mom Bradbury spent most of Saturday night feeling sick, and then she was really not feeling well Sunday! We felt bad! They flew all the way to Texas to visit us (and Hal's brother Blaine, who lives by/in Dallas), and Mom didn't feel good. Hopefully she's totally and completely healed! It was wonderful to see them though! Love you both!

OK, so the Wichita Falls falls were turned off... huh?
Here's your history lesson, courtesy of Wikipedia:
"A flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the non-existent falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 feet high and recirculates at 3,500 gallons per minute."

They made the falls in 1986, and apparently forgot to think about the logistics of pumping water out of the Wichita River. This cracks me up! I just love it! The lady at the Texas travel info center told me that every spring, (and almost any other time it rains) it rains enough that the red clay washes into the river and turns it "red with grit" and they have to turn off the falls. OK. So every spring, apparently, the falls turns off because the pump can't handle the amount of silt in the water.
I just think it's funny that the people here in Wichita Falls didn't think about this problem before they designed the falls. Surely it wasn't a surprise that the river gets all silty EVERY YEAR. And yet, apparently, it was a surprise to many the first year when they had to turn off the falls because the water wasn't pumping through the pump...
What's needed here? A better pump? A better filtering system?

The river is gorgeous though! It's all red and bloody looking... kinda neat! They turned the falls on for a couple hours one day last week, luckily I was driving by to see it, and it seriously looked like blood was cascading down! It was cool!


On a different note, on Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat. This really isn't all that strange to me... I get sore throats a lot. I just take decongestant and drag a little for a couple days. So, I drugged up and went and mowed the lawn.
By Tuesday afternoon, I felt AWFUL! My muscles were all achy (whether from illness or mowing, I wasn't sure), I had a fever, I was sick to my stomach, and it hurt to talk (TRAGIC!!! I live to talk!). Wednesday, I woke up feeling even worse. Today, I must be feeling a little better, cause I'm restless. But I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Or a train. Whatever awful cold thing I've got, I hope it passes soon! I'm getting sick of being sick!!! :)

Anyways, I hope ya'll have a good week!

Lacey had this on her blog and she said I had to do it too. So here goes...

44 ODD Things about you! Learn 44 things about your friends!Let them learn 44 things about you!

1. Do you like blue cheese? EWWW!!! It's very disgusting!
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? Never
3. Do you own a gun? Nope
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic'? Lime
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Always! But I usually only go the the doctor if something's wrong, so its OK!
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them. Usually. For some reason, I like cheap ones better than the more expensive ones. (Like Bar-S vs Ballpark)
7. Favorite Christmas song? Um... Rudolph is the one that goes thru my head all season... but I love Silent Night.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Water
9. Can you do push ups? Some... not as many as I used to be able to!
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I like earrings.
11. Favorite hobby? Gaming
12. Do you have A.D.D.? Probably, but nobody ever told me I did!
13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? I'm very rude and have a smart mouth...
14. Middle name? Marie
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
What am I going to have for lunch?
I want to sleep.
My head hurts, and my gut, and my knees... this sucks!
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, milk, Mountain Dew
17. Current worry right now? I need to get a job. But I don't wanna!
18. Current hate right now? Everything. Bad day.
19. Favorite place to be? At home.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? I got a killer headache, that lasted 10 days.
21. How old are you? 22
22. Name three people who will complete this? ?, ?, ?.
23. Do you own slippers? 3 pairs. Yellow ones, paw print ones, and star ones.
24. What color shirt are you wearing? I'm in my underwear, so white.
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Yes! Well, until my blankets slide off onto the floor. I have to be covered by something!
26. Can you whistle? Sort of.
27. Favorite color? Bright green.
28. Would you be a pirate? Only if I can be a VeggieTales pirate.
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Silly Songs with Larry... The monkey song, Pirates who don't do anything, Love My Lips, Barbara Manatee...
30. Favorite girl's name? Elizabeth & Annabell
31. Favorite boy's name? Michael & William
32. What's in your pocket right now? Nothing. I just put on clean pants and haven't re-loaded yet.
32. Last thing that made you laugh? Rocket and Garret.
33. Best bed sheets as a child? I had these flannel ones, that combined with my flannel nightgown made the best lightning!!!
34. Worst injury you've ever had? Do migraines count as an injury? If not then getting my chin split open.
35. Do you love where you live? It's OK.
36. How many TVs do you have in your house? one
37. Who is your loudest friend? Me!
38. What is your favorite game to play? Right now I'm addicted to Sims...
39. Does someone have a crush on you? Hopefully.
40. What is your favorite book? I love you, Stinky Face!
41. What is your favorite candy? Skittles, unless I want chocolate, and then it changes...
42. Favorite Sports Team? I don't watch sports.
43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? sleeping.
44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? When is it (time wise)?

Thanks Lacey! That was kinda fun! :)

Cocoa's first bath!

Thursday night, we gave our baby girl a bath. Cocoa (that's what we call her) handled it beautifully! Which is great! And a nice change from Rocket and Garret. (Well, mostly Rocket. I come away from Rocket's baths with a clean ferret and scratch marks all up my arms!) We also cut her nails. She didn't hardly even wiggle! It's fabulous! She's so good!
Well, except for the biting. She has yet to really get that DANI AND HAL ARE NOT FERRETS! Ferrets have tough skin. They don't mind if you chomp down on them with your razor sharp teeth. Humans DO MIND!!! She is getting better though, which is all I can ask for, right?


Anyways, I have this thing with humiliating bath photos... 'cause they're cute! So I wanted to share some bath photos... of our ferrets of course! Rocket and Garret's pictures are a few months old, but they're still cute!
Cocoa really is too cute for a humiliating photo!

Not like Rocket... who looks like an embarrassed drowned rat! (I know this looks like a painful grip, but if I support his rear end he starts spazing out and trying to get away! The only way to get him to even resemble holding still for his bath is to grab his chest and dangle the rest of him... Oh well!)

Check me out!!!! For some reason, he likes to look at himself in the mirror when he's wet. He doesn't care to look when he's dry, though... Weird!

Garret likes to sit in the warm water. Alone! No touching!

Drowned rat... Isn't he adorable!?


And I wanted to share a video of them playing together:


If you listen closely, you can her what sounds kind of like a squeaking/clucking noise. That's Cocoa! She's very vocal. It's called "dooking" and it's super cute! They do it when they're happy and having fun. Rocket does it sometimes, but not very often.

They seem to be becoming friends. Hopefully soon they'll be friends enough that they can all sleep together!

Sick!

First things first: We named our little girl Cocoa. We were trying to come up with a name that ended with a "T" like Garret and Rocket, but all we could come up with was Cricket (She does kind of look like a little black cricket when she's hopping around the room...). We decided we like Cocoa way better than Cricket, so Cocoa it is!

AND:
So I went to let the ferrets out to play on Wednesday morning and find Rocket not interested in getting out. At all. Which is very abnormal for him! He always wants to play! He wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, was super hot but couldn't stop shivering (fever?), had glazed eyes, and just wanted to sleep. And there's this green slimy stuff in their litter box. I was so scared! My ferret could be dying!!! So, I did what I always do when something goes wrong: I cried. And then I started researching. And found out about ECE.

So, ferrets get this disease called "epizootic catarrhal enteritis" (ECE for short), also called "the greenies" sometimes. It's characterized by green slimy stinky diarrhea. Apparently, most are exposed to it when they are kits (babies) and don't really exhibit many symptoms. But later in life, if they get stressed (like meet a new baby ferret maybe?) they can re-develop it. Or if they weren't ever exposed to it as kits, they can get it from other contaminated ferrets later.
When they get this disease, they seem to lose all interest in eating or drinking. They have no energy, get cold or hot, and sleep a lot. If left untreated, ferrets can die of dehydration in about 24-48 hours. Once the green diarrhea passes, they start having "birdseedy" poop (golden poop with birdseed looking things in it), which seems to mean that their food is not digesting and they are using their stored fat. Eeewww.... There is somewhere between 1-2 % and 5% fatality, depending on where you find your info. It can linger for like 2 weeks! Once they have it they can be carriers for an unknown amount of time, possibly up to 12 months!
Treatment involves pumping fluids, like water and pedialite, into the ferret, either through an IV or force-feeding; forcing them to eat soft food, like baby food or something called "duck soup"; and possibly antibiotics to combat the other diseases that might possibly be coming (ECE seems to lower their immune systems and make them more susceptible to other diseases like the flu or a cold).

So, I put Rocket in his own cage, so Garret would stop sniffing him and nudging him to get up (which really is kind of cute...), and he could rest easier. I went and bought some pedialite, an eye dropper, and some chicken flavored baby food.
I proceeded to force Rocket to drink water, with the eye dropper. He would NOT have anything to do with the pedialite. I could even dripple it into his mouth, like the water, and he'd spew it everywhere! I tried everything! He would eat a little of the baby food, but not much, and by bedtime Wednesday night he was even more dehydrated than he was earlier that day, despite my best efforts! And he still wouldn't eat anything. I could even smear the baby food in his mouth -- the way everything says to do, and he just gags it back out! He won't swallow! Grrr!!! So I cried again and went to bed, praying he'd be alive in the morning.
I woke up in the night and decided to check on him. He was worse still, so I seriously started forcing him to eat. He was weak enough that he'd swallow whatever I got into his mouth. (Finally! My little Snake-face will eat and drink!) Thursday morning, his fever seemed to have broken and he was ready to fight the food again. By Thursday afternoon, he had progressed from "green slime" to "birdseed poop"... I guess that's good? Right? I hope...
Last night he played for like 1 hour! Yay! (Which really is pitiful, because he can usually play for like 6 hours without getting tired...) And he was eating and drinking on his own! YAY!!!! I'm still going to force feed him until his poop gets completely back to normal and he regains some of the weight he lost, but he seems to be on the mend! He's lost about 1/2 of his total like 2 1/2 pounds... But I don't have a scale that will measure that little, so I don't know for sure...

Ok, so my week so far has went like this: We got our new ferret on Monday night. I introduced the ferrets to each other Tuesday morning and let them play a little. Wednesday morning Rocket was sick. Wednesday night he seemed to be worse. Thursday morning he was a little better. Thursday night he seems to be on the mend. Friday it looks like Garret might be getting sick now...great...wonderful...NO!...Yuck!

Cocoa on the other hand, seems to feel fine!

And just so I'm prepared in case they get sick again later, I'm going to teach them to like baby food (none of them will even touch it!) and pedialite (Cocoa likes it! She seems to think it's yummy!). When we got Rocket and Garret I read that it's important to teach them to eat the baby food when they feel good, so it's easier to get them to eat it sick, but I didn't have the heart to force feed them something gross when they felt good! I will now!!! Lesson learned!


Whew what a week!