So I’ve been thinking of ways to make some extra cash that won’t take me away from the house…and I got to thinking about my pet sitting gig. Sometimes I kinda miss it. And then it hit me. Duh! I can petsit small animals at my house! So I threw an ad up on Craigslist and I already have my first client. We will be pig sitting for two weeks! A family from DC will be driving their guinea pigs here on Saturday. How easy is that?

I needed to be super competitive so I’m only charging $5 a day. Doesn’t sound like much but they’re giving me $70 for doing a whole lot of nothing. I had someone else email me about ferret sitting but I didn’t hear back from her after I asked if her ferret was ADV tested. I may be money hungry but I’m not willing to bring any disease into my house.

And tonight I will end with some new pics of the bunny boyz.

Tank sez: I ken get down now?

Ranger washes hiz handz.

Periscope

I ken get back up dare?

Wut?

Wassat?

Tite skweeze.

I growed sum.

OK, someone needs to nomimate me for “What Not To Wear”. Seriously. I saw an episode today where they took a woman who is built kind of like me…and they made her look so beautiful I couldn’t believe it. Everything she wound up with looked fantastic on her and I want to look like that. I’m even willing to do the whole secret footage/ambush thing.

Thanks in advance!

Last night I bit the bullet and called all my creditors. I’m a month behind on everything, which isn’t horrible? But not good either. So I made my payment arrangements and everyone I owe money to is happy. Big weight off my shoulders.

Today I heard back from my mortgage guy. The guy who sent me a happygram saying I was going to have to pay $75 more per month because my escrow was over stated. He had awesome news for me. Not only will my payment not be going up? It’s going DOWN by more than $100!

That man is my hero. And the good news doesn’t end there! They collected too much money from me. I’m getting a check for $435! Almost the entire amount that I paid at settlement. So not only will I be paid up this month? I’ll be ahead of the game and I am so happy!

I just watched a show called “Must Love Kids” and one lady has a daughter who is a brat! She didn’t act too terribly bratty on the show but I can see it. Mom is indulgent and daughter. If I was one of the guys competing on that show I’d ge like “buy bye, you guys have fun!”

I’m actually very content being boyfriendless. The girls are gone and I’m filling my time with the pets and I feel good. I was listening to Dr. Laura today and a lady was going on and on about how she couldn’t get over her abusive ex boyfriend. Dr. Laura told her to snap out of it and to fill her life with something that makes her feel good. She told her to surround herself with pets or volunteer, just stop wallowing in self pity. And I thought “I’ve surrounded myself with pets. And I feel pretty damn good.” I’ll tell you what, the pets don’t purposely push my buttons and try to start a fight. They love me and like it when I’m happy. That’s pretty much all I need aside from my girls.

On that show Intervention…does anyone ever refuse the treatment?

I watch it every now and then and every time I do I’m just disgusted. I admit that I have no tolerance for people who are addicts. I don’t believe additcion is a disease, I think it’s an excuse to behave in a way that’s unacceptable. That may piss a lot of people off but that’s what I believe. If you can choose to go through rehab? And you can choose to abstain? Then you a breaking a habit. Seriously. If I had cancer I couldn’t just choose to check myself into a program for 90 days and walk out cured.

I believe the same thing about being overweight. I am overweight. By a lot. And yes, I’m frequently disgusted with myself for not having the will power to stop eating crap and exercise. I could look much better than I do. I just don’t want to have to work that hard to accomplish it. I don’t see a difference between me, who doesn’t want to give up eating crap that tastes good and an alcoholic who likes to be drunk or a person who smokes because it “relaxes” them or a person who does drugs because they like to be high. I could decide for myself that I want to lose weight and be healthier. And I could join a program to learn portion control and what kinds of things I should eat to be healthy…the same way addicts can go to rehab.

That show is a train wreck. No matter how irritated I get with people for being weak (much like I am with junk food) I can’t seem to look away.

The legislative forum wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I caught up with a few people I haven’t seen in a long time, gave my spiel, and basically sat back and watched. I was not at all impressed with this group. They’re all about getting new laws passed, and that’s great (!), but they didn’t want to discuss enforcement of the laws. That, to me, seems like it should be a huge part of their mission, to see that the laws they are successful in getting passed are enforced. Instead they kept saying over and over “this meeting is about creating legislation, not how to enforce it”. It seems that their attituded is “Hey, we get the laws passed, it’s up to the individual municipalities to figure out how they’re going to enforce them”. The problem with that? Most of the laws already on the books aren’t enforced because municipalities don’t have the funding or the manpower. It just seemed to me like they’re successful in creating emptly laws, which doesn’t do anyone any good.

Another thing I wasn’t so impressed with was the lack any real direction in where they’re going this session. They spent a lot of time going over what was successful LAST session. The series of forums that are being held are pretty much to find out what the rescue community would like to see happen. They had a big list of things that have been suggested like anti-tethering, spay/neuter BEFORE adoption or sale of an animal (which I liked and might be willing to work on), TNR, etc. What they were looking for were people to take on these causes, to hunt down a senator or congressman to support a bill, present it to the house or senate, and get it passed into a law. If you come up with your own idea they want YOU to do all the legwork. They’ll help you get in touch with your delegate but it’s your show. And when you succeed…they take the credit for it. Because in order to succeed you will have signed up to join their group.

Yeah, not my thing. And I sent an email to my rescue saying there wasn’t really anything to report back to the other volunteers because it’s not something the rescue as a whole can devote themselves to. At least we can say we were there though, even if by “we” I mean just “me”.

Today was the day I got to go to the rabbit rescue and IT WAS AWESOME! I took Tank and Ranger with me and they are most def a couple of cutie patooties. I saw one rabbit that has the same coloring as Tank, except the gray was more pronounced. I hope Tanks turns out like that, the other rabbit was gorgeous! I didn’t see any that looked like Ranger.

I didn’t get to see as many bunnies as I would have liked. I walked around and “saw” all of them but I didn’t get to meet any of them. I might have been able to if the rescue lady and I hadn’t sat around for over an hour shooting the shit. We talked about rabbits but we also talked about a lot of stuff that wasn’t about rabbits. And of course, she said that if I ever want to work with the rabbits to let her know and she’d be happy to have me as a volunteer.

I’m so in love with the Bunny Boys! At this age they’re very friendly and they’re OK with being picked up. That will probably change as they get older but I’m hoping not! I’m not looking forward to adolecence. They will turn into terrors for a few months and then finally settle down into their permanent personalities.

I was referred to a vet that does neutering for a very reasonable price. That makes me happy. Rabbits, like most other animals, will mark their territory by peeing all over it. That includes their people! I’ve been warned that I *will* get peed on if my bunnies love me. Fabulous.

Tomorrow is the legislative forum. I was looking forward to it but now I’m just kind of “eh”. I think it’s because I’m unhappy with the rescue I’m representing. At least the presentation I have to give is short. I’m hoping it’s interesting. It sounded like it would be but now I’m afraid I’ll be stuck there for three hours bored out of my mind. What was I thinking when I agreed to this???

I should not still be awake. As a matter of fact…I’m tired…I just don’t feel like getting off the couch and climbing the stairs.

Today started out an hour earlier for me than it usually does. Might not sound like much but for me it’s a pretty significant chunk of time. I’m not at all a morning person.

But! Marcy, the foster ferret, needed to have her teeth cleaned and the vet I had to take her to was 45 minutes south of where I live. The only way she was gonna get there was if I drove her so I sucked it up, got up early, and drove there and back…amazing myself by being on time for work.

Marcy’s teeth have been bugging her. Or at least I think they have. She’s been losing weight and I’ve been feeding her duck soup…but it hasn’t fattened her up. After watching for a few days I noticed she wasn’t eating her hard food. When I looked inside her mouth I was a little grossed out by the condition of her teeth…and her gums were very angry. The cleaning went well, I found out she’s probably around 8 years old (which is the high end of the life expectancy spectrum, she probably won’t be around much longer), and she’s in good health. Except for the watery poo at the vet’s office, but after a fecal test it was determined to be just nerves.

She is now happily snuggled up with Dusty and Roscoe, relieved to be back home.

The girls are gone for a week. They got picked up at 6:30. They’ll be back next Friday night instead of Sunday like I thought. Before I found that I out I rescheduled my trip to the bunny rescue for this Saturday. The dog I was supposed to handle at the adoption event got adopted! And instead of picking another dog I decided to do the bunny thing instead. I’m still going to the forum on Sunday.

I’m still trying to motivate myself to get my butt out of bed in the morning and at least take Jezebel for a walk. My brain says I want to start joggin but the from the neck down my body is saying “oh HELL no”. So far my brain is not having any luck being assertive.

I didn’t get to play with the bunny boys today. I was looking forward to having them to myself but after the girls were picked up I had to go get Marcy and now it’s after 10 pm. I’ll play with them tomorrow. ::sigh::

Alrighty, I’m going to head up to bed…after I check in one more time at Binky Bunny.

The girls are going away to their grandparents house in Ohio on Thursday and my weekend is already filled up!

Thursday I have to take my foster ferret to a vet in Woodbridge to have her teeth cleaned. She’s losing weight (which a 1 lb. ferret can’t afford to do) and I think it’s because her teeth hurt. Her gums are angry red and her teeth are looking kinda green. Ferrets are prone to bad teeth. It doesn’t matter what their diet is, I feed them a mixture of the high end foods and they still have problems with their teeth and gums.

Saturday I’m going to an adoption event close to my house. I’ll have to drive out to the shelter to pick up my dog, though. Her name is Karly and she’s a young female Rottie. It’s gonna be hot as blazes so I hope the cooling stations they have advertised are all they’re cracked up to be.

Sunday I’m representing my rescue (the same one I said I wasn’t gonna work with any more) at a legislative forum as a cohost for a non profit group that drafts bills to protect companion animals. That sounds like it’s gonna be cool. They take on issues like preventing shelters from killing dogs based on breed, outlawing gas chambers, things like that. I had a brief freak out moment when I found out the founder of the rescue I used to work with…who is good friends with Pete, will also be co-hosting. At first I experienced a moment of dread thinking he might tag along because his nose is always stuck so far up her ass he can see out her nostrils. But then I remembered that it’s on a Sunday and he will be busy at an adoption event (I hope) so I won’t run into him. I haven’t seen him since he came to my table at the pet fiesta last year and I haven’t spoken to him since the day I moved out of his house. Anyway, the issues sound interesting and I actually have to speak on behalf of the group for a couple of minutes. I’m suprisingly not nervous, I’m pretty sure whatever I say will just be on the fly. I just have to concentrate on speaking slowly because I have a tendancy to talk like an auctioneer when I have an audience.

Then, Monday through Sunday I’ll be busy with my animals. I’ll have to give the bunnies and the ferrets their out of cage time (which can’t be at the same time as they all have to be supervised and can’t be mixed together) plus pay attention to the dogs. The girls really play a big role in taking care of all the critters and while I’ll be happy that I won’t have to wait for them to stop hogging the babies I’ll miss them when it’s time to chase the ferrets around the livingroom.

And, on top of all THAT I have to keep up with my reading. I have an assortment of blogs that I MUST KEEP UP WITH, the Pit Bull email list, and now my new favorite…the bunny forum! The bunny forum isn’t very active…because there aren’t tons of people who treat their rabbits the way most folks treat their dogs and cats, but I’m learnng alot.

I’m going to call one of the local rabbit rescues tomorrow. I had emailed them asking for advice on how to care for rabbits as young as mine. The boys are only 5 weeks old and should technically still be with their mother for three more weeks. During that email conversation I was invited to come out, see the rescue, and meet some bunnies. I’m sure her goal is to get me to buy my pellets and hay from them, which I have no problem doing. It’s cheaper and it benefits the rescue. I may volunteer to work their little store once a month or so. The place is 30-45 minutes away and if I get my stuff from them I’ll need to trek out there anyway.

The next 10 days are gonna fly by. At least it won’t be boring!