Excessive cuteness

Last Wednesday was the day that little Fergus (formerly the happy humper) was liberated from his cage. I am SO happy about that. When I had to pick him up and put him in the cage at bedtime, he knew what was coming and would kick and try to get the door open once I got him in there. It literally made my stomach upset to my stomach. We took the cage apart and removed it from the room. Can you imagine spending your whole life, or the majority of it, locked inside a small cage, completely dependent on someone with whom you can’t communicate very well to remember to give you food & water? Life in a cage is no life at all! For obvious reasons, our gerbil has to remain caged, which does bother me. It’s a huge cage, and we work hard to keep it interesting by changing the toys and things we put in there for him. He comes out to play for a while everyday. I hope that he’s happy and not lonely or bored. It’s the best we can do to allow him to have a safe, healthy life. So back to the rabbits. They are so in love and happy together. They groom each other frequently and are almost always touching one another.

The kittens continue to grow and are on the chubby side now, which is a very good thing. Sparta (mommy) is also becoming fat and is happy and playful as well as affectionate. She seems to like to show the kittens off, it seems. When I go in the room to visit them, Sparta will stand there purring loudly as I praise the kittens. The kittens, however, are little tattle tales. They know I’m not Dej or Joe, and if I hold one for too long, he/she will yell for mommy, and she comes running. At that point I always hand the kitten to Sparta, so she doesn’t get distressed. She then has to groom the violated kitten for a bit. Even though their eyes are open, their vision is still extremely poor at this point. They will be much less fearful once they can see the world. They are not walking yet, but they all slither around pretty well, and a couple of them are getting very close to leaving their snuggly little nest and exploring the big scary world. I can’t wait!

Luciana was under the weather this weekend with a sinus headache. She wasn’t her cheerful, happy self and was very quick to both tears and meltdowns this weekend. I hope she feels better soon. I miss my sunshiney girl. It’s times like this weekend, when she is so unlike herself and is somewhat unpleasant, that we really appreciate her normally happy-go-lucky personality. Normally her disposition is more like Mark’s than like mine. I’m very grateful for that! He gives her a happy, fun disposition. I give her sinus problems and headaches. Nice.