R.I.P. Sandy :(

Well unfortunately Sandy's time had come. I've been wrestling with having her put to sleep for quite a while now, every time I thought that it was her time..she would do something amazing and let me know she just wasn't ready yet. The end of last week she was beginning to look very very skinny- she was eating almost non stop and still seemed to be losing weight (from her body), but that tumor just kept growing and growing. The skin was becoming necrotic from lack of proper blood supply. I just couldn't let her continue on in that state. She was still fairly happy but I knew she would go down hill fast.

Saturday morning I called my vet and they said I could bring her in. We waited in the waiting room and she was very very good. She sat in a blanket in my arms and just ate a million chocolate chips..I let her have as many as she wanted until they took her back. She went very quickly, I think her heart was weak from dragging that thing around for so long. I'm glad she went quickly for her sake and mine.

When you take care of a sick or elderly animal for a long period of time, you create a strong bond with them- and although sometimes she only *tolerated* me..I know she loved me. And I loved her so very very much. On Sunday I buried her in one of her blankets, next to all her previous brothers and sisters that I had before her. This is how I will always remember my girl:

Before the nasty monster tumor!

I'm a little worried about Dee, she's the only oldie left and she loved cuddling with Sandy..they were best buds. Now she's dealing with the 2 little brats who never calm down! She's seems to be getting along pretty well though. No signs of withdrawal or anything so I think she'll be ok. I do always find her cuddled with the other girls so I think they're giving her lots of cuddles.

I was not looking forward to making this post- even though I knew the day would come, you can never be fully prepared to say goodbye to a pet. And no matter how many you've had to say goodbye to in the past, it never gets any easier. It hit me Saturday night when I didn't have to give her her meds...thank god my boyfriend was here..or it would have been even more of a rough night.

Well I'm working on a new video for the channel now, then I'm gonna get my chores done and head to bed early I think tonight, it was a long and stressful weekend.

Daily Boggles:

• I rented 4 movies tonight, The Chernobyl Diaries, Hotel Transylvania, Men in Black 3, and Ted. I also bought Dark Shadows- the new Johnny Depp movie..so I'll keep myself busy there..lol
• work has been picking up a lot more..I was scheduled for 5 days this week (although I was sent home early today because we were so slow)
• I kinda feel like I might be getting sick again, I hope not!
• I need to stop neglecting this blog..for some reason I can't seem to keep up with this blog! ugh! Sorry bout that!

I spoke too soon about Sandy :(

I was so excited about Sandy last night, but I spoke too soon :(. I was cleaning the cage this afternoon and I was checking on Sandy and I found that she had a section on the tumor with a decent amount of pooled blood under the skin..I'm not sure what's happened if it's a ruptured blood vessel or if the tumor itself is rupturing..*sigh*. I've made a few posts on the rat forum that I'm a part of to get some opinions on what it is, and where I should go from here. She's not acting like she is in any pain and she wasn't acting any differently- other then she didn't want to be picked up (which is understandable--she never did like to be held much). So right now I'm playing a waiting game before I decide what I want to do. I'll update again as soon as I figure out what I'm doing. Here's a video I shot this afternoon...:/

I'm in SHOCK!!

So I've been contemplating what to do with Sandy, with that large tumor and all. I've been hinting in previous posts that I think her time is getting close...well tonight she was out to prove me wrong in a BIG way! So I was sitting here watching some tv and I heard the wheel going round, I glanced over and SANDY was on the wheel! She was actually walking/slow running on it! I guess she's trying to make it clear to me that she isn't quite ready yet. It's just funny cause I haven't seen her on that thing in quite a while (although she could have been and I just didn't pay attention). She never fails to surprise me with how well she deals with that thing. Some people might think its cruel of me to keep her alive with it being so huge...but my gut instinct is that she's just not ready. As long as she can get around, eat, drink, and isn't in any pain or discomfort--I'm willing to keep trucking for her. She's not much of a *people* rat...but I know she loves me and appreciates me...and I admire her for her strength. She's almost 2 and a half years old (pretty old for a rat) and lugging around a tumor the size of a baseball...and shes HAPPY! She teaches me about strength and how to persevere when life just sucks..She's such a beautiful little girl <3.

Daily Boggles:

• I've been working a lot of hours lately so I'm incredibly exhausted..I'm so glad I can sleep in tomorrow..I hope I get up before like 2 pm..lol
• I've been watching this show called Man, Woman, Wild..it's about a husband and wife team who survive in the wild..its crazy, they eat bugs and all kinds of stuff.its so gross..lol but very interesting
• not sure what videos I wanna do this week..but I suppose I should get on it...since I'm going to have to film both videos tomorrow probably..then I can edit all day Tuesday..then work Wednesday and Thursday.
• Time for bed!  

I've been SO sick! + concert fun!

So the last week and a half have been HELL! I've been so incredibly sick. I'm just now finally starting to feel normal again! I've had a lot going on in my life lately. I did in fact get to go to that Matchbox Twenty concert I mentioned in my last blog post! It was friggin amazing! I actually got to meet Kyle, the guitar player..he was a nice guy! I even have a pic to prove it!

the problem was, I had already been feeling a little under the weather, but in order to meet the band I had to wait outside in the FREEZING cold (think like 5 degrees) for like 2 hours. Was totally worth it, but didn't help with me being sick! I ended up going to the doctor and found out I had the flu and an ear infection..JOY!

On top of my recent illness, two days before the show, I went to say hi to the rats and noticed blood in the cage. I immediately started to panic- when I see a situation like this, I allow myself 5 seconds to panic then I push it out of my head and deal with the problem. So my first thought was Sandy's huge tumor had ruptured--I checked her and she was fine. Then I checked my older lady Dee, she was fine too. Then I grabbed Lucy and noticed she had a decent sized circular wound right near her vaginal opening. It seemed rather recent and I couldn't tell if it was a ruptured abcess, a bite mark, or a ruptured tumor (unlikely cause I hadn't seen anything and she's fairly young still). So first order of business was to clean it up and inspect it. With some help from an online forum I'm a part of we decided that it was probably an abcess. I have been keeping it cleaned up and the hole is really small now so it's healing up great, but it gave me quite a scare. I was really scared because it was so closed to her vagina that it could cause some serious problems like infection or trouble urinating. But all seems to be well with her and she's on the mend.

Sandy's tumor is just..ugh..I know I mention it every time. But I think I may have to make the decision sometime in the next week or 2. It's just so rough for her now :( She's having trouble getting up and down ramps and stuff now. So we'll see how it goes.

I'm going to film this weeks Friday Fact's tomorrow, I think I'm going to do a video about the best litter and bedding for rats..hopefully I won't have any issues uploading like I have been. That's all for tonight.

Daily Boggles:

• I've been watching a lot of Survivorman, incase I ever get lost in the wilderness (hahaha..I don't like outside)..but it's cool to see how people survive.
• I woke up with a horrible migraine this morning, ugh..I hate this time of year- the weather can never decide whether it wants to be hot or cold.
• I finally cleaned my room up really good today- it needed it! THEN my stupid shelf/clothes rack fell in my closet! 1 step forward 2 back- RIGHT?! ugh!

sorry for disappearing!

Hi guys! Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I was sick on and off for a few weeks there, and my boyfriend was in town this past weekend so I was spending time with him. Plus add work into the mix...it's just been crazy! I promise I will start updating more regularly! I'm working on a new video for tomorrow's quick tip tuesday! I was hoping to do one about wheel tail, but I don't think that's going to happen this week unless I can find someone willing to donate a good picture. My girl Dee used to have wheel tale (when their tail curls up over their back from running on a wheel so much), but she's so old these days she just kinda holds it to the side..lol. If I can't get a decent picture tonight or early tomorrow I'll pick a different topic...I'm thinking maybe a video about teaching your rats to come to you, and why it's important. Either way, I'll have one of those 2 videos up for tomorrow. I'm currently uploading todays video. I didn't capture a whole lot of good video/pics over the last week. Everytime I see them doing something cute- the second I turn on the camera they stop! LOL! Anyway, I also plan to work on the informational pages on this website too- have so much more to get up there!

Sandy's tumor is still growing...I just don't think its actually going to stop...sad face. I think her time is getting closer...she's definitely getting harder and harder for her to get around..she's still managing though. But the tough decision is weighing on my mind a lot lately. *sigh* I hate making that choice, but it's truly a necessity when it comes to your pets.

Well I think that's all for tonight. I'll try and update tomorrow..have a good one guys!

Daily Boggles:

• I cut my hair tonight, it was just getting horrible looking, I had to put some layers in it so it didn't start looking so heavy and flat. I almost always cut my own hair..its not too difficult and its cheap! Hopefully once it's washed and dried it'll look ok! lol
• I found this show on Netflix called TANKED, its this family that makes custom fishtanks for people and business...holy hell it is AWESOME. I can't even keep my 10 gallon going..ha...but it's so cool!
• I've been having insomnia and sleep issues lately (nothing new for me), so I haven't been going to sleep before like 2 or 3 a.m. regardless of when I had to be up the next day. But last night I was so exhausted I went to sleep at like 12:30 and was up at 10:30--I feel SO much better getting a decent nights sleep.
• I was hoping to go to Matchbox Twenty's concert next weekend, but tickets sold out before we had a chance to get them *sad face* ...it was going to be my boyfriend and I's valentine adventure..but that didn't really work out...so...sucks...maybe next time though!

ugh, editing and uploading problems!

It's been crazy here lately. I filmed my first *true* video for my channel today of me talking. It's basically me talking about whether a pet rat is the right pet for you. I was SO nervous filming - when I went back to edit, I feel like I looked like a blubbering idiot! Thank God I was able to edit a lot of stuff out ...lol. Hopefully I'll be able to get more comfortable in front of the camera as I go along..it was a rought first time filming..lol. Then I had SOOO much trouble editing the video and getting it to upload! I spent over an hour filming on Saturday (was waiting for my boyfriend to get there to help me film) afternoon, then figured I'd have the evening to edit the video and have it up by Saturday night at the latest..well that went out the window real fast! I ended up editing about 3/4ths of the video and over half of the files became corrupted..so I spent 3 hours editing for basically nothing! So I started over and edited each section (I shot the video in sections) separately and then decided I would put them together in one large file at the end. So I go to the 4th section (out of 5) and finished editing it..and it became corrupted..at that point I was getting incredibly frustrated. so I ended up having to save the unedited file and then edit the saved version...was crazy. So I got to the 5th section and edited it, and those files were corrupted too! So I tried saving the unedited version for that section and then editing that...it didn't work. By that time it was almost 2 a.m. and I had lost my patience so I gave it up for the night. So this morning I got up and started working on it, and thank god the first edit worked! So then I strung all the sections together and saved the file- and it wouldn't save! So then I tried renaming it and saving it again and it worked (which took like over an hour!). Then came uploading..I began the upload and it reached 96% and it failed! I was so close to giving up..I just didn't know what else to do! But I decided I'd give it one more time so I uploaded again and left to go to the grocery store. When I came back it FINALLY uploaded!!! It was a ridiculous amount of work! But here's the finished product:

This evening I got lots of video for tomorrows video (Monday Movie Madness!). I was able to edit it with no problems, I'm currently waiting for it to upload..hopefully I'll have no issues with it uploading! I'm also planning Quick Tip Tuesday's video..which will probably be filmed tomorrow. I'm now going to be heading to bed shortly. I had a late night last night and its already 2 a.m.! I need my beauty sleep ;) lol. 

All is finally quiet in the rat cage..had to break up a few wrestling matches that were getting out of hand (nothing new there though! Pixie is such a little beast!). I'm thinking I may have to have Sandy put to sleep soon though..her tumor is getting so incredibly large. I'm going to be doing a video soon on her updating condition. It's just not looking good. I've been dreading this after having Sweetie put to sleep at the end of last month. I knew it was only a matter of time for her- but it doesn't make it any easier :'( . She's still so full of life, but I know I have to do what's best for her. Anyway, that is all for tonight. Hope you're all enjoying the new content as it comes up!

Daily Boggles:

• I've been having a lot of issues with my insomnia lately, even my normal meds aren't really helping. Maybe I should try meditating again..hmm.
• I've been watching this T.V. show on Netflix called Man, Woman, Wild...its crazy its a husband and wife team (I believe he's the same guy from Man vs. Wild) who go out into crazy locations and try and survive. It's crazy to watch, but maybe I'll learn some life saving information if I ever get stuck in a crazy situation!
• I checked out my local pet store today, it's a little family owned place that do REALLY great with their pets. They had Degu's there...I've never seen one before, but they're pretty darned cute! They had some cute little ratties in there too! One was hairless which I've never seen in person before. They were all boys though- and I have girls...so no more ratties for me!
• I'm about to go eat some more of my sourdough pretzels and watch another episode of Man, Woman, Wild before I go to sleep!

working hard on the youtube channel and blog!

I've been working really hard on getting some good content on my accompanying youtube channel. I've decided I will have 3 regular upload dates a week. Monday, Tuesday and Friday! Here's what I've got:

Monday Movie Madness: Where you can see all the antics that my rats have been up to through the week. Cute videos of them running around, sleeping, eating...basically doing rat things.

Quick Tip Tuesday: Will be a short  video on quick tips for your rat. Best treats, best litter/bedding, great toys to make at home..things like that

Friday Facts: This will be the long informative video of the week. Videos on how to set up a cage, first aid kits, basically important information you need but will be expanded and show me talking to the camera and explaining things.

I'm gonna go with this setup for a while and see how I like it. I don't think I'll be very comforatble in FRONT of the camera for a while. But we'll see how that goes. My boyfriend is going to help me with filming until I can figure out a setup that I can do by myself. It might take me a while to find my groove, but I'm excited about it!

I will also upload videos randomly about other things, like updates on Sandy's tumor or any other things that might be going on with my rats personally  that don't fit into the other categories. It's basically going to depend on how much time I have between the other videos as well as work and my personal life as well...so we'll see how it goes!

Right now in the rat world, everyones asleep except for Dee, she's roaming around the cage eating and drinking. All is quiet on the homefront for now! LoL that could change at any moment though..lol. Well I'm off to work on other projects for this blog and the channel. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy everything!

Daily Boggles:

• My mom's pretty sick so I cooked lunch for her. And no one had to work today so we're all just hanging out around the house.
• I discovered these CLIFF bars. I think they're basically like meal replacement bars..they're great in the morning when I don't have to work. I usually wake up later on the days I don't work and don't want to eat a meal that close to lunch time..and they're not too expensive.
• The weather here has been freezing! Ive had a sweater on all day and I still can't manage to keep warm! Ugh!