PonderEthereal

If you remember, I have a ferret that was diagnosed with adrenal disease. I started melatonin treatment right after his diagnosis and we’ve already seen improvement.

He gets 1mg of liquid melatonin between 1 and 2 pm about 3 times a week. Every morning, I open the blinds wide and I’m more careful about using as little artificial light as possible in their room at night.

His body mass and shape started normalizing almost immediately. You can see in the picture that he’s lost the ‘lightbulb look’ of a really skinny fore section and a really fat hind quarter.

About two weeks ago, his coat has started growing back in. Although it’s hard to photograph his hair because it’s so light, you can almost see it in this photo.

I did read about ferrets who get a one time temporary reprieve from the symptoms of adrenal disease without treatment - but his improvement…

Part one was about kittens. On to the ferrets.

I can handle the daily meds for adrenal disease. What I can’t handle is the constant cleaning. Ryan never did stay on top of them so they stunk. Keeping them so that they DONT stink is an every day affair. So I was determined to find the right stuff to do the job better. Also, they have a playpen but it’s a real pain in the ass to pull out so I thought some in-between-playpen-time toys for their cage were in order.

I changed litters. I was using corn cob litter because that’s what was recommended by the people we rescued them from and therefore, that’s what Ryan was using. I changed to Marshall Ferret Litter. What a difference! This litter does a MUCH better job of controlling odor and it doesnt get all stick to the litter box in a goopy…

I started with a box turtle and two older cats. In January, I adopted an older dog from the shelter. In September, I became a foster mommy to the sweetest 4 week old kitten (if that). She is so dark brown, she’s black and she has the prettiest light brown eyes. I just couldn’t give her up. But she’s a hellian. Then, in November, my ex ditched his two ferrets with me. And although they are not hellians, they poop a lot and one has adrenal disease. Not exactly the perfectly easy pet one hopes for.

Ethan wants a fish - and I was considering a large dog, for protection, in lieu of a gun. But then I thought to myself… “Self, you run a zoo and it drives you nuts as it is. What the hell are you thinking?” And then I realized that I was a breath away…

Thank you, mystery person who got me the stuff off of my wishlist. You mentioned the blog so it’s safe to assume I can thank you here and you’ll get it. I am absolutely enamored. Thank you, thank you.

If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will.
If you don’t love yourself, no one else will.
If you don’t put yourself first, no one else will.
If you don’t respect your boundaries, no one else will.

If you don’t, why should they? It obviously isn’t important to you.

I make crafty stuff and I wanted to sell them. Having a physical storefront was out of the picture so I was relegated to the ranks of online sellers. Selling stuff online seemed really daunting. First, figuring out the site would be a pain. Then, I’d have to list the items all individually, then I’d have to figure out how to wrangle payment. Then there is the shipping debacle… supplies, packing it, getting it to the post office. But really, once I got it up and running, using etsy, paypal and the USPS, it was cake.

There is always more than one way to look at something - even something like autism that seems so set in stone what with all it’s medical clinical speak from old men in glasses that mmhmm over us from very the age of 2, at the first sign of ‘developmental disability’. For instance, in the western world, although there is a known medication for almost every ailment, in the east, a few needles in energy meridians is all it takes to effectively cure even the most gnarly of dis-eases. Not because Chinease humans are a different species than American humans - because they aren’t - but because sometimes there is more than one reasonable, working paradigm for a given dis-ease.

Awake people can be explained with a variety of Western diagnostic terms narrated into an impressive sounding list of diagnostic criteria and neurological soup. They can also be described by a…