Winston Has a Valenswine and She Spoiled Him ROTTEN!!

Winston has a sweet Valenswine - her name is Charlotte - and today he got a lovely package of Valentine's goodies in the mail.

Winston and his Valenswine's package

A gift and a bag full of goodies!!

Winston checking out his new sign

Love, love love!!!

Lots of lovely things in his gift bag

Envelope for his card from Charlotte

ADORABLE squeaky toy

He loves it!

Yummy Treats!!

A back scratcher - let the forking begin!

Checking out his fuzzy new blanket

Cheerios!!!  Every piggy's favorite! 

Testing out the new back scratcher

Um....  I think he likes it!

His new sign up on the wall!

Winston and Emma's wall - which will get redone soon - Winston will have the whole thing and Emma's stuff will move in with on the puppy wall!

Enjoying a peppermint!

Thanks to Charlotte and her piggy mama for an amazing Valenswine package!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our furry gang....  In honor of the holiday dedicated to love - some pictures demonstrating the love in our fuzzy family:

V Day image from a couple of years ago - since this we have added Fiona and Bash and the puppies

I love this photo - it's Finn on the left, Theo in the middle and Clooney on the left - I am so thankful that Clooney found ferret friendship in the latter part of his life and that Finn felt so much love in his short time with us.

Emma and Winston - about 30 Winston pounds ago

Phoebe, Oliver and Zoey - I miss that crazy orange kitty

Phoebe, Finn and Violet

Winston and Oliver - he was probably about 8 weeks old in this photo

Emma and Oliver

Harlow and Theo - oh how I miss that ginger girl

Madison and Violet

Oliver and Madison

Harlow, Kai and Tabitha

Juliett, Charli and Tango

Charli and Tango

Emma and Tango

Aggie, Phoebe and Oliver

General Updates

I haven't updated for a bit - here are the latest and greatest happenings from the zoo:

Oliver - he had a case of squinty eye last week (he either gets something in his eye or he gets poked and then he squints).  He is all cleared up and doing fantastic - his eye is completely back to normal.

Phoebe and Aggie are both doing well.  They have been enjoying a bit of outside time in the playspace since the weather has been so nice.

Winston is doing well.  He is getting more and more used to sharing his yard with the puppies.  His behavior has been just fantastic - very sweet and affectionate and very obedient.  Gotta love it!

The ferrets are doing quite well - they have also been spending time outside in the sunshine.  The little girls are all just great. The little boys are wild children - happy and active.

Violet went to the vet this morning for a glucose check and her number was crappy.  She was at 51 which is icky.  She needs to be at 60 at a minimum and 70 for optimal levels.  The good news is that she is completely asymptomatic.  She is feeling good and quite active.  So - we have increased her predisone level to .96 cc.  This is likely as high as the vet is going to want to go so we will give it a few weeks and check again.  We go back on March 6.  If her numbers have not improved then we will add in the second medication.  We can adjust dosages for that med to see if we can get her numbers in check.  At that point if we get to the max on the second med we might be looking at a surgical option. I think we are a long way from that still and I am optimistic as she really shows no signs of  the illness at all.

Emma got her spring hair cut over the weekend.  I think she feels much better getting rid of all that hair.  My mom and her dog Quincy were here for the weekend and they had some time together which Emma enjoys.

The puppies are doing very well.  Potty training is going quite well with only one accident in the last 7 days!  They all three are terrified of Winston - I hope it stays that way!  They all three had a bath over the weekend as well.  They remained clean for about 27 seconds until they went outside and rolled around in the dirt - silly pups.

All in all the zoo is doing just great!  No complaints.

Drama Kitty

Oliver has 'squinty eye' again - that's my technical term for it.  He is quite rough and tumble and he wrestles with both kitties and ferrets and as a result he gets poked or gets something in his eye three or four times a year.  I have taken him to the vet for this condition multiple times and they give me a soothing ointment - but really no treatment for it so I have started treating him at home using colloidal silver.

When his eye is squinty I flush it out with a syringe of the silver - Oliver hates this process but tolerates it.  Usually in a day or two his eye is good to go.  I flushed it out last night and went to check on him early this morning.  He is such a little tabby colored turd....I went in his room and he was bathing himself - his eye was a tad bit swollen but open almost normally.  Then he saw me - little stinker snapped that eye shut.  'Oh - my eye.'     D R A M A.....

I gave him lots of lovies and I cleaned it out and flushed it again.  He ate the attention right up.  As always I will keep a close watch on it and take him in if it doesn't get better in the next couple of days.  And - my standard disclaimer - I am not a vet and the treatments that I decide to use on my critters are not to be considered a recommendation.  Please consult your vet should your furry have an issue.....

I Love that Crazy Pig!!

I have to say that even though he can be a big pink turd some of the time I absolutely adore the pig. How in the world could you resist that perfect face???

Ferret Snaps

I spent a bit of time down in critter land this morning playing with the ferrets.  They are all doing well.  Violet took her medicine like a champ and everyone was up and around and playful.  I got some snaps of everyone but Kai - he was too wiggly and all of his shots were very blurry.

Fiona

Fiona

Violet

Violet

Theo

Theo

Theo

Bash

Bash

Madison

Tabby

Theo

Madison

Routines Change

The addition of the puppies to our family made for changes to the routine we follow each day.  I think that added to Winston's angst about them joining our herd.  Pigs really hate change.  Our days look something like this:

• Some time between 6:00 and 6:30 Winston wants cookies.  He gets a few and gets put in his small room (the laundry room) where he goes back to bed til breakfast.
• Once he is up the puppies and Emma are up so they go outside for their morning potty break.
• The puppies play outside and inside and outside and inside - depending on the weather and any noises outside - I have been official promoted to door woman.
• Winston gets fed between 7:00 and 7:30.
• Once he eats the puppies and Emma are inside and he goes out.  Puppies go in their "room" - the master bath for their breakfast.  This gives me the opportunity to feed Emma and let her eat without a bunch of assistants and I also take that time as my errand running or chore doing time.
• Violet and the kitties get meds at 9am.
• We spend the day alternating between pig outside time and puppy outside time with at least one period of overlap.  I stay out when everyone is outside and referee.  Winston was very good with them today - we are making progress.  If the weather is nice the critter land outside play space is opened up so the little guys can have some outside time as well.
• Mid morning when Winston comes in I usually spend some time with him in his room.  We do lovies and maintenance (ears, hooves, scent glands - whatever needs doing).  This has moved from the nightly tuck in routine.
• The afternoon is much the same - puppies in, pig out, pig in, puppies out.
• Winston gets fed around 5:00. 
• Puppies have food available at all times - they are not overeaters thankfully.
• Around 7:30 puppies go out back and Winston goes out front for final potty breaks.
• Puppies go to bed between 8:00 and 8:30.  They get a chewie - which is just a longer lasting dog treat when they go to bed.  It's a big deal and they know they have to go in their room to get it.  Winston and Emma also get a chewie as well.
• Violet and the kitties get meds at 9 pm and the little critters get put to bed.
• Around 10:00 I tuck Winston in - mostly just covering him up and giving him some love - not the long drawn out process we used to have.  

Everyone seems to like the new routine.  It's a critter filled day - I wouldn't have it any other way.