Sleeping Arrangements

With my parents coming for a visit, I managed to have fresh sheets on the bed, plenty of pillows, and a tiny fold out couch for myself in the living room. Never did I imagine that Mokey would be the one who ended up needing rearranged sleeping quarters.

Exhausted, I put the girls to bed around midnight and planned on putting myself down immediately after. Mokey, however, had other plans. She wanted to play. When Mokey wants out of her cage she rattles the doors. It has the same effect on me as nails on a chalk board for most people. I actually think this action/sound has a direct link to my blood pressure. I let the Mokster out to play. And after running her ragged -or so I thought-I tucked her and myself in.

Some time around 2am Mokey decided she still wanted to play. Que intense shaking of the cage doors! I try laying really quietly like a kid who closes his eyes and thinks that no one can see him. Mokey proves smarter than a small child. She persists. I bring her out for another play. Then I return her to her cage with ferretone in her water dish and start to drift off to sleep...and..then..."SHAKE A SHAKE SHAKE!" I pass her a treat...pause...."SHAKE A SHAKE SHAKE!" I'm contemplating putting her in the bathtub at the exact moment my mom comes out of the bedroom and suggests, "Maybe we can put her in the bathtub?" (No one would ever doubt that the basis for my child rearing techniques stem from my mother.) Apparently I was not the only one Mokey had kept up for the past hour.

So in the tub she went!

I grabbed the Mokster, a blanket, and two toys. I tied the bathroom cabinet shut with some lace provided by Mom, plopped the noisemaker into the tub with her meager belongings and closed the door tight.

And everyone slept peacefully. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

I used this method the next night around 3am, but implemented it with immediate response to the first "SHAKE!" with military speed and precision.

I am continuing to use this method during the night and once during one of Mokey's freak outs. (A "Mokey Freak Out" refers to when Mokey engages in very bad behavior, usually involving some kind of destruction via digging. When put in her cage to stop this behavior she goes crazy throwing a fit, upturning her toys, throwing things down the stairs, and pushing litter paper everywhere - yuk.)

Now she just gets the tub. She seems fine with it. I've never heard her digging at the door. She can get in and out of the tub and now I have a bucket in the bathroom with her sleeping and playing supplies. She seems to play outside the tub for awhile and then climb back in and snooze in her purple towel. She seems to enjoy the adventure during her bored/frustrated time, and I enjoy the peace and the lessening of the chest pains she frequently causes.

I don't think Mokey will ever grow into her name, being named after the kind, peace and friendship loving Fraggle, but I did notice in writing her nickname "Mokster" that it does resemble "Monster" at quick glance. Hmmmmm?

This is what I found the other day when I went to get Mokey out of the bathroom. She had gotten creative.

Mokey sleeping in the trash can