Tails’ Blography

This morning I was woken up by M who told me Iso was making a funny noise. I got to the cage and her breathing was very laboured. Her nose was snotty so its almost like her nose was too blocked for her to breathe so I steamed some Prep in a mug (I didnt have any Vicks) and it seemed to help but I phoned the vet and he said to bring her in so we can put her on oxygen.

I got to the vet, mom drove, and in the car Iso was cuddled on my lap, Macro (came along cos she was clearly stressing over her Iso, and we made the decision to say goodbye after an analysis by the vet.

Iso was very listless, her eyes were dull (which was my main indication) and she just gave me an energy of saying its was ok. I spoke to her, told her I loved her, cuddled her, explained that she mustnt feel bad about leaving me and if she sees a light. That she must go and join her Wormy and her sister, Figgy.

She went peacefully and I felt we all did the right thing. But I’m going to miss that Hamsterrat. My Isovice, Iso1000 (cos she was noisy when she chewed the bars), my tube earred rat. Esp since we’d grown so close over the past month what with me feeding her every day on my lap and her cuddling with me on the couch.

I got an extra month with her I never thought I’d have. She handled her PT better than most of the rats I’ve had in the past who’ve succumbed to that in their lives. I was, and still am, so proud of the rat she was.

RIP my Iso

All my posts lately seem such a tedium to write. I sit and think about stuff I should write about, but when the time comes to put finger to keyboard, I just dont feel like it anymore.

So a quick post, just to keep y’all updated.

Did some gardening this weekend. It was early evening on Sunday and the weather was gorgeous. Pulled out some grass runners in the bed and tossed up all the soil. Looks a little neater now.
Played some Sims 3 for the first time in ages! My sim is a bit of a tart and flirted with a guy she was supposed to be investigating as well as another guy she met through work. They both had girlfriends which they cheated on. My sim admitted to cheating and the guy broke it off, so she continued on with the other guy and he’s since moved in and they’ve purchased a small house (ala ‘motherlode’ of course lol)
Iso’s still pushing on, but the headtilt has worsened but she’s eating and being strong. I love this rat so!
Since researching healthy foods for my girls, I came across a book called The Scuttling Gourmet which I have ordered! It should arrive on the 9th (latest) so yay! So excited!
We’re redecorating our kitchen, going to paint one wall a nice red colour, the rest yellow (if I feel up to it). We bought a shelf to put up where I can put my cookbooks so they’re off the countertops, giving more space and a cleaner looking kitchen area.
We’re currently looking for a cabinet and a tv table for our lounge, and I’m looking for a table for the kitchen (M hates this latter idea for some reason).
And for those who are on WeightWatchers, I found an AWESOME food blog with WW points (both PLUS and REGULAR). I do hope you check it out, WW member or not: SkinnyTaste.com

Thats about it, I recon the only thing left to leave you are some pics from our Engagement Shoot that I won! What do you think? We got so many on the DVD, we’re going to print some and hang them on our walls in our flat

My Fav:

My first ever, both made and tasted, asparagus! It wasnt as bad as I expected and even the SO ate it!

Posted via my HTC!

Which is exactly what I intend to do!

Our garden, as I think I’ve mentioned before, is almost as arrid as a desert! The sun beats down on it almost full time and thus even our flower bed struggles to keep plants alive within its soil. A while back M and I bought a half wine barrel for R150 (bargin!) and we sanded it, varnished it and thats pretty much where its ended.

I’ve been desperately looking out for a Dwarf Citrus tree of sorts (the dwarf variety is propegated off a full grown tree vs a sapling thats stunted as a bonsai) but there is nowhere that I can find that sells this elusive tree. Thus our barrel has sat empty, void of all soil and roots (ok my mom borrowed it for her avo tree for a bit) and I recently (read: earlier today) found an article in The Gardener magazine which spoke of “Designer Trees: Local winners for small gardens” which turned out to be a pretty cool article. It basically outlined 5 or 6 trees to consider for a small garden.

Two of which caught my eye and are available fairly easily:

Heteropyxis natalensis – Lavender Tree (pictured above)
Searsia pendulina (formerly Rhus pendulina) – Wild Pear

Both are sized 4-10m tall (obv pruned to stay at 4m) and are great with full sun, and dry conditions. So I found a place that sells em, and I was verbally quoted R1500 for a tree of 4m in height (the largest which can be handled by hand without machinery assistance) which is too big anyway, so I’m hoping the price will come down for a smaller (2m) tree.

Yay! I cant wait! I’d like any thoughts you have on which tree you prefer, and why!

And some more good news, possibly even better, Iso’s biopsy results came back. She has (had?) a benign tumour which my vet removed in its entirety vs just a small biopsy and all looks good for it not to bother her again! They suspect it was a saliva gland gone awry but they said it looked like the vet had removed it all so happy days all around!

This weekend I’m finally doing something I’ve been waiting for since March 2011 for! I’m going Wedding Dress Browsing!

My sister (who is my Maid of Honour), my best friend (who is my bridesmaid), my mom (who is awesome) and a good friend (who never got to dress shop for her own wedding) are all coming along to assist!

The shop we’re going to is by appointment only, and we’ve booked the package which includes a bottle of of champagne, some cheese, crackers and 5 dresses to try on, and afterwards we’re having a braai at my place to continue on the festivities. The guys are going to hang out at our place while we go off and do the dress thing.

Its the first real weddingy thing I’ve done thus far, except view some venues. Oh, speaking of venues, we’ve booked ours! We chose a lovely winery which is so picturesque and perfect! We also booked our honeymoon suite which is 4 star accomodation and includes a Honeymoon turndown service with champagne, chocolates, cheese, and biscuits as well as breakfast the next morning as well as a complimentary wine tasting and cellar tour! So much awesomeness!

I’ve had a bit of trouble with my rats recently, Iso has a growth/lump on the side of her face. So I took her to the vet, got a week’s dose of Baytril and Prednisone and went home. The meds helped a little but she’s still got the lump, so I took her in the following Saturday and then again on Monday for a biopsy.

She came home with stitches on her cheek, poor thing, and I’ll get the biopsy results hopefully by Friday. If its a tumour, at least I’ll know. Anyway, so yesterday morning I had them out on the bed and next thing I look, there’s Macro grooming out all Iso’s stitches! GRR! So now the wound is open, bar one stitch, so I took her through to the lounge to glue it shut with superglue! (the vet does this all the time) It worked and I then decided to keep them separate until the wound is healed, which I should have done in the first place, but didnt because I felt bad that they were both alone in their respective cages.

Ok so next weekend is also a first for me! My first photoshoot! I won an engagement photoshoot from Hearts in a Shutter and we’ve booked for the following weekend! As you know, I’m normally always the one behind the camera, so this is rather daunting for me. I have no idea what to wear, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out (I’d buy something new but the vet bill set me back R800 this month and still R371 to go!). We chose a nice earthy theme and picked a forest to do the shoot in, so I’m looking very forward to it, in amongst the nerves haha.

And then the following weekend after that one, we’re meeting with our wedding photographer to sign on the dotted line! She is an amazing photographer and I’m so lucky to be able to secure her for our wedding! I always knew the photography was going to be the toughest decision for me because I’m a photographer, but she made it so simple!

And that, my dear readers, are my next few weeks in a nutshell….