My Silly Sleepers

The Upside-Down Zonk: featuring Mokey


There's Too Many Ferrets in This Hammock, by Fawn

Kiss My Taxed Tookus

So I went to CVS to buy some pop, soup and other grocery items. I was privileged by the state of Illinois to pay a 9.75% tax, a 12.75% tax, and a 2.25% tax. One of these is a tax on things in plastic bottles--I think. I'd been avoiding it by not buying liters of pop, only cans. But I got the tax again. I think its because I bought some apple juice. I guess I can only buy frozen juice now? The taxes are already too high, and now there are three sales taxes. Glad to hear Quinn is planning on raising the taxes. That's the problem with people living in Chicago, they don't pay enough taxes. Lets have a 13% sales tax on everything and then assign additional taxes based on packaging, route of delivery, and, oh, I don't know. Let's fund a think tank to come up with more things to tax. Hey, you typing! Are being taxed for that internet? We should tax per letter. ---Ahhhh!

The Packaging is Always Best!

Since I was ordering the ferret playpen for our trip home for Thanksgiving, I figured I'd go ahead and get some Christmas presents since they would be included in the flat shipping rate. By the way, Doctors Foster and Smith has become my favorite place to order ferret items from. Not only do they have a flat shipping rate, which is great when ordering cages and playpens, but they have a huge variety of ferret items. Since the girls could not have their Christmas gifts yet, I let them play with the packaging peanuts and box. Don't worry, the peanuts dissolve when wet so they can't choke or cause blockage. Yep, I tested them first to make sure. Took a lick! Its part of a mom's job.

Fawn preferred to dig
Kyra preferred to burrow
Mokey!? Mokey!? Where are you!?
Yes, she's in there. You can see a bit of white fur in the center a bit to the left. She was really hard to snap a shot of.

There she is!!!
I played Find the Egg with Fawn. She really loves a good Easter egg.
Here's a video of Fawn finding the egg.

More Sleeping Ferrets

Just cause its soooo cute!

Fawn is sleeping in my hand.

Kyra likes to sleep in my favorite blanket.
She's not stretching. She's sleeping like this.

No matter how many hammocks and beds I give them,
they all want to sleep in this shoe box.
Don't miss Mokey, she is in there.

Ferret Nation Has Been Floored!

The girls were still very apprehensive about the steep ladder used to exit the new cage. Despite ample time to practice, they still began each descent down the ladder with a slow start at the top which soon became a stumble, slide, bouncy-bounce, somehow ending in them sliding down sideways into a jump to skip the bottom all together. I was never happy about the extended height and lower level shelf anyway. The height just made the already too big cage look even bigger, and the bottom shelf invited clutter.

So off with the legs!

I wanted to skip the bottom during the original assembling, but was afraid it wouldn't go together right if I veered from the instructions. So this weekend I finally took the legs off. Mom and ferrets are now happy! When the door is open it sticks out over the ferret gate putting it at perfect level for Mom to hit her knee on every time she enters the room. But, its not the worst thing to happen since ferrets took over my home.

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

This weekend the girls said goodbye to their old cage and hello to a new Ferret Nation cage.

I think this was hardest on Mom because I loved the old three level cage. It was designed perfectly with its first level bathroom and kitchen, second level half floor for sleeping sack and hanging hammock, and third level full floor for plenty of play boxes, balls, and tubes. So why did I replace it? One word: Mokey.


This perfect cage is all wire: sides and floors. Mokey feels that she should be able to poo anywhere she feels like. She wakes up and poos in the nearest corner, getting poo on the sleeping sack or raining down each wire on the side of the cage. She poos on the third level so it falls down into the hammock. She poos right up against the wires so it falls out onto the wall. In one more word: Ew.

Common toys in the play space were a shoe box
with tissue paper and balls, tube, and jingly strawberry.

I couldn't stand a half hour cleaning project every time I came home from work. It's much harder to get the poo out of the wiring than I would ever have thought.

Most ferret cages are made with shelving so tiny and weak that it is very unsafe and there is zero play space. Also, these genius cage designers design the cages to have ample open air space as if to accommodate a bird. This also causes the ramps to be very steep and the ferrets to fall frequently. One cage has a tube ramp that goes straight up and down. Um, ferrets don't know how to use rip cords.

So Ferret Nation it is. Ferret Nation is sturdy and has enough room for playing. It is also way too large and set up on a rolling shelf so the ferrets cannot get in and out and it takes up twice the space for no reason. Also, you have to buy a separate ramp (not included) so the ferrets can get in and out. This, by the way, costs more to ship than buy. It is also way too high off the ground so the ferrets are afraid to use the ramp and usually do a few tentative steps down before sliding, rolling, and toppling to the ground. And, yes, this is the best ferret cage on the market.

So anyway, despite its flaws the girls seem to like it. We'll see how it holds up to Mokey. So far it's done well its first day and a half.

Fawn helped with the unpacking.

Mokey tried to help by running off with the bag of screws. So all three got to wait in the old cage until Mom was finished with the assembling. Three hours later, Ta-Da!

Skinny Jeans Complaint 10.2

Today I watched a man struggle to put his cell phone into the pocket of his skinny jeans. This attempt required so much of a struggle that he was actually grunting and calling out "Ow, ow, ow,ow,ow!" I walked past before I could find out if he was successful or not, but it wasn't looking good.

I would like to add this to my argument that skinny jeans should be banned from public sight. Skinny jeans do not compliment the wearer when worn by an overweight person, causing the "yikes" effect. Or when worn by an underweight person, causing that grimace, "ooh" response as you wonder when they had their last meal. As for the attractive and otherwise physically fit person, the skinny jean takes away all attractiveness, causing onlookers to give the disappointed head shake at what could have been.

I do not expect my movement to have any more effect on society than my previous oppositions to those hideous shoe like things called Crocks, the Capri pant, the low rise jeans, and men's desire to wear their pants up to their butt and their boxers up to the waist. Improvements have been made on the women's low rise jeans, especially in the thong-sticking-out department. Did you know some places were moving to place a law against the thong sticking out? Of course you still see a tushy crack or undergarment popping out occasionally, but there are at least appropriate options on the wracks again. But that took a political, religious, and social uproar from the public. I feeling like I am in the minority on the skinny jean. I suppose I will just have to wait till they fade out of fashion. Hopefully!

Ugh!