Home Improvements

So, here it is! Laura's extended abode! The cage underneath is her original home (a "Laura" hamster cage, from where she gets her name), and the module on the top is the one I got for 99p from ebay. I just needed to get a couple more connecting tubes, and now she has a whole extra space to live in! Seems like quite a lot of room for one small hamster (can you spot her, down at the bottom corner?), but hamsters in the wild like different "rooms" in their burrows, so hopefully she'll like it!

As you may already have noticed, our animals are exceedingly important to us - they give us so much in terms of relaxation, pleasure, purpose and just general loveliness that we always do the absolute best we can for them.

Even when they cause chaos! This morning was a bit crazy - I was on the phone to my mum explaining "mean operating income" (as you do), when the barmy little hamstress decided to do a wee out of her cage, all over a bit of a picture (fortunately I'd protected the actual picture - so she just got the mounting) and my Solti box set of Wagner operas (fortunately they were closed and wipeable clean). So then I ended up cleaning up with one hand, holding the phone with the other, and then my thumb started to bleed again where Lady Laura had bitten it earlier on! Madness!

Then I did a bit of human work and went into town to get the bits of shopping I'd been too weak to get yesterday (heavy stuff - cat litter, tins, etc) as well as getting a cheap frame to put the now-mountless picture in and a new rat tent since the boys had demolished their last one!

Then it was home to cage cleaning duties - first the rat cage, then Laura's, then finishing off by letting all the cats in and feeding them!

Peace at last!

The Wonderspouse is out doing a poetry thing this evening, so I'm on my own (well, as "on my own" as I can be with 8 animals in the house). I shall record all the telly that needs recording, have a little light supper, work at my desk and get my bag ready for college tomorrow, go in the bath with a book, and then collect the poetic one from the bus stop sometime in the middle of the night!

Today I've actually felt almost normal. I still haven't achieved full appetite yet (it was most odd being in Sainsbury's and not having to resist the cakes, which I can usually hear singing loudly to me the minute I enter the shop), but given that I'm not underweight (decidedly not), that isn't really a problem for the time being. Losing an ounce or two is definitely a silver lining to the cloud of illness!

Right, better just go and finish clearing up the bathroom, which is a bit chaotic after all the cage washing, and then I might sit down for a few minutes with a cup of tea! Done a lot of animal care today, but not very much human care!

Oops!