Hamster tail, get it? Yeah, I know. It's a bad pun. But I think it's a cute one. This is not one of Otter's hamsters, by the way!
Lots of stuff going on around here.
To start with, the title Hamster Tales refers to the fact that Otter's hamsters have now decided not to get along. It happens sometimes, they have been raised together which usually will work out. But hamsters are by nature solitary animals and sometimes they will simply stop getting along and once that starts, they seldom go back to being peaceful occupants of the same cage. Otter's two girls have been fine, just the occasional spat, since she got them. However, as of last night, it's all changed. The smaller one has always been the more submissive of the two. But last night she apparently decided that a change of command was in order. She kept attacking the larger one, and it wasn't just a spat. They were seriously fighting. We kept separating them and every time they got back into the cage, the smaller one (Helena) would attack the bigger one (Nadine). We finally realized that they were going to have to be in different cages if we wanted them both to stay alive. A few months back, Otter bought a smaller cage which was attached to the larger cage with plastic climbing tubes. We took them apart and blocked the openings, she had a second water bottle and a second, smaller food dish that came with the smaller cage. This morning, we tried to put them back into the same cage and Helena started another fight so we put her back into the smaller cage. This afternoon, we went to Petsmart and bought another wheel as well as a larger food dish for the second cage. The cages are now seperate and both have wheels, good sized food dishes so they don't have to be refilled every day and water bottles. The larger cage had a climbing tube set up that went to a smaller room and a second climbing tube to an area that can be accessed via a lid on the top. We moved the climbing tube set up with the smaller room to the smaller cage, since Helena was pretty much the only hamster that used it. Nadine has always climbed up to the access area so she's still got it and Helena has the one she always used. Among other things, they are not the same type of hamster although they were sold as the same. But that's not a major deal.
The chimney repair started today. It's a 2-day job. The roofer called Friday evening, he had an opening in his schedule so he was going to start today as well. Billyboy was off work today and also tomorrow, for the chimney work so he told the roofer to come on. The chimney crew left around 5:00ish, they said that they hope to be able to finish up tomorrow but honestly, it might not happen. Because we might get winter weather. The roofers did the back of the house and the side/garage area, they stripped the previous roofing material off and put the felt/membrane down, then the shingles. They did not get to the front of the house yet. They did it in stages in case they weren't able to finish it all because of the afore-mentioned winter weather possiblity. Both of them are planning on being back tomorrow, if it's at all possible. Otherwise, it will be sometime later on in the week or possibly Monday for the chimney and I'm not sure about the roof schedule, but it's similar. The way that the roofers did their job today actually worked out very well, in case we do get bad or wet weather. But we can't use the fireplace yet, it will be 24 hours after they are all done anyway. I just hope that the winter weather holds off enough or is mild enough so that the chimney at least can be finished up tomorrow. The roof can wait a few days if it has to, I'd prefer not to have to wait but it's ok if it can't be finished up tomorrow. I hope that they finish soon, there is a very large truck parked in my driveway and piles of roofing shingles & supplies stacked in the front yard!
I spoke with Virginia tonight. She is doing pretty good, she said that she's been so busy with the kids & moving into her mother's house that she hasn't really had time to process everything. But she's finished up with moving, and now she's trying to get the kids back into a routine. She hasn't been sleeping too well, which is probably normal. She said that she knows it hasn't really hit her yet, but she is coping as much as she can at this point. She misses her husband badly, but she knows that he is with their daughter and that they will all be reunited some day. She wanted me to tell everyone again how much the prayers mean to her.
I have another prayer request, along with continued prayers for Virginia. Miss Dorothy, who I had requested prayers for in the spring when she broke her hip. She has come down with pneumonia and is hospitalized. She's doing very well, I talked to her today, but she is 93 and that makes her more fragile. She'll probably go home tomorrow, but I would still like to ask for prayers for her. Her husband, the young old boss EL, had it a few weeks back. He's doing great now.
Goodnight!
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