AppleCheeks - The Zoo

by AppleCheeks Thu 21 Apr 2016, 5:03 pm

Or at least that's what most people refer to my place as.. I swear I don't have enough animals or variety to start up a zoo Laughing

That said, with permission from Abeona, since I can't contribute to the forum in the way of mouse pictures, I decided to start a thread so I can show off and in the case of this particular post, introduce some of my animals Smile

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AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_8925_zpsw62quzxx

I wanted to show off this, now yeah, it's just a picture of a rose bush with a single flower but under that rose bush is where I buried my darling boy Luca. I adopted Luca and his "brother" Dylan from the SPCA way back in the beginning of 2007. They are.. or were more like mini dogs than anything, coming for walks with me, coming to get the cows in, following me wherever I went. Luca was my boy, slept with me every night, if I went away for a day or two (or longer), dad would come home to find Luca sitting at the end of the drive waiting for me to come home.
On March the 11th, a friend came to visit and I heard a loud crash, I figured the dogs had knocked something over so after my friend left, I went to look around. Luca was meowing, now usually if I call, he will come running but not this time. Long story short, I found him in the roof. Its like sauna up there, he couldn't move his back legs. Rushed him to the vet and a few vets suggested he might have a broken back. My favourite vet who has helped me with Callie examined him and found he had a blood clot in his back, Saddle Thrombus. His heart murmur caused a blood clot to form and it went to his spine and cut off all blood flow to his back legs. I left him at the vets, went to work the next day and I got the call.. my boy passed away in the middle of the night.

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_1816_zpscb384371

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_1816_zpscb384371

I should have probably typed that last so I'm not trying to type the rest of this through the tears.. It's been a a little over a month and I still cry at really random things.

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More positive things!
A few pictures of my oh-so-adorable dogs, I take A LOT of pictures of them - apparently I'm an addict haha. I've been working on trying to get better focus with some action shots and honestly, I failed. The few that I did get were total luck!
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9444_zpsz0etcy0x

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9444_zpsz0etcy0x

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9554_zpsyprjp7qm

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9530_zpsrth5tusu

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9543_zpsqamllsx6

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Some new.. or new ish.. or not even here yet additions.
For those who don't know, I breed standard rex rabbits (or at least I try to, rabbits are funny with breeding sometimes). I found a breeder a few hours south of me who had tri-colours, a colour I had been dying to get for a while! Granted I did want the standard tri (orange, black and white) but the standard tris she had were out of a doe from a plush lop breeding scheme and I didn't want to potentially add "lop" into the mix. So I opted for Nimbus, he's a gorgeous charlie marked tri colour. This picture doesn't do him justice of course but he's nosy as anything!
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9381-001_zpshuxwbveb

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9381-001_zpshuxwbveb

I ended up buying this girl, who has yet to be named.. terrible huh? to be an eventual girlfriend for Nimbus - she's a blue harlequin. Note - breeding harli to a tri colour increases your odds of getting tris out Wink

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9384-001_zps7ekuevwu

I suppose you could say this girl was a bit of an impulse buy but I'm glad I got her - I had a flemish doe ages ago, grumpy thing she was but I absolutely loved her and the breed in general. Now with the mouse room being empty, I wanted to look into getting a larger breed rabbit to live in there and I came across someone selling flemishes for a total bargain. Her name is Hartley, she's a total sweetie, probably the friendliest rabbit I own!
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9410_zpsdcuijlii

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9410_zpsdcuijlii

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9435_zps3319hrr3

Not the last new addition but she is the biggest and honestly.. probably the cutest. This is Ella. She should be arriving on Tuesday or Wednesday so I'll post more pictures of her later but the breeder sent these pictures through and I wanted to show her off.
Again, for those who don't know, I breed Scottish Highland cattle. Just a small stud, 9 animals in all currently including a calf who has technically sold. We ended up keeping a few heifers calves and we've been looking into getting some new blood in for a while and while we should really be looking for a new bull, I just fell in love with this girl and everything timed out perfectly - I have a friend delivering a heifer down the line in a few days and she is borrowing our float, the breeder of Ella just happens to be not far from the road she is taking to get back home so she offered to pick her up for me as a kind of "thank you for the use of your float". Now fingers crossed our float comes back in one piece! (Last two time we loaned it out.. well one was a cheap fix and the person who got it paid for the repairs but the other time was to my Mum, a tree fell on it and my Dad and I had to pay for the repairs and fix it ourselves..)
AppleCheeks - The Zoo 12966059_10209243448547004_1474839887_n_zps5gc0gznh

AppleCheeks - The Zoo 12966059_10209243448547004_1474839887_n_zps5gc0gznh

AppleCheeks - The Zoo 12966657_10209243494868162_615744115_n_zpsb24xviho

Sharing this picture just because I love it. Dylan (the cat) is just so laid back and Pip, she loves to be in his face saying hello almost every chance she gets.
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9134_zpswxmgdlfi

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9134_zpswxmgdlfi

Oh! One more new addition.. Yeahhh, maybe they're right about this place being a zoo.
If you are on the facebook page, you might have seen this. Her name is Carrots. Nope, I didn't name her. The previous owner is a friend of a friend and her dog ended up getting into the cage and.. disposed of Carrots two cage mates so Carrots ended up here because the previous owner didn't want her being alone. Thankfully my girls happily accepted her and now she's here to stay!
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9210_zpsh98jklvx

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9210_zpsh98jklvx

by cloverfieldmouse Thu 21 Apr 2016, 5:43 pm

Oh my gosh I want that heifer... I wonder if my dad would be alright with it... lol.

As for the unnamed girl, I think Lavender might be a pretty name? Could just be the picture or my computer, but her grey has a little pit of a purple tint to it.

Anyway, lovely collection of animals you have Smile

by CinnamonPearl Thu 21 Apr 2016, 7:05 pm

I love all your pets! Those cows are absolutely beautiful. I've always thought cows are really pretty animals. Prettier than horses, at least! And I LOVE your rabbits! I've always wanted a rabbit, but it'll be a few years before it can happen. I'm so sorry to hear about poor Luca. You have my condolences.

by Peachy Thu 21 Apr 2016, 7:20 pm

Aww. My kitty died 16 months ago and I still cry for her. Sorry to hear about Luca. Sad

I already said this, exactly, but I love seeing your photos. lol The second one of your dog is great, the nameless rabbit is beautiful, and that's an AWESOME picture of a guinea pig!!!

(I know this is kinda off topic, but I wanted to say that permission isn't really needed for topics here. lol The other night I was thinking one of those "What are you listening to/watching/reading/eating/drinking/wearing/doing/whatever?" threads would be fun, so it definitely doesn't have to be mouse related! Laughing

)

by AppleCheeks Fri 22 Apr 2016, 4:24 am

cloverfieldmouse wrote:Oh my gosh I want that heifer... I wonder if my dad would be alright with it... lol.

As for the unnamed girl, I think Lavender might be a pretty name? Could just be the picture or my computer, but her grey has a little pit of a purple tint to it.

Anyway, lovely collection of animals you have

You could totally just keep it in the house, like a dog. Daily walks down the road, the only downside is the large quantity of pee and poop..
AppleCheeks - The Zoo P1032354_zpsustux7vi

AppleCheeks - The Zoo P1032354_zpsustux7vi

CinnamonPearl wrote:I love all your pets! Those cows are absolutely beautiful. I've always thought cows are really pretty animals. Prettier than horses, at least! And I LOVE your rabbits! I've always wanted a rabbit, but it'll be a few years before it can happen. I'm so sorry to hear about poor Luca. You have my condolences.

Animals are addictive.. don't do it! 10 rabbits.. and counting lol.

abeona wrote:Aww. My kitty died 16 months ago and I still cry for her. Sorry to hear about Luca.

I already said this, exactly, but I love seeing your photos. lol The second one of your dog is great, the nameless rabbit is beautiful, and that's an AWESOME picture of a guinea pig!!!

(I know this is kinda off topic, but I wanted to say that permission isn't really needed for topics here. lol The other night I was thinking one of those "What are you listening to/watching/reading/eating/drinking/wearing/doing/whatever?" threads would be fun, so it definitely doesn't have to be mouse related! )

Today has been rather rough and I don't know why. Grief seems to be really hitting me in waves, I can be fine for a week and then cry my eyes out for a day then be ok again. Today is one of those bad days.

Haha that picture was a total fluke, I swear! I keep thinking I'm getting better with my camera and sure, I do get some great pictures but they're "one in a million". I'm always thankful for the kind comments because I assure you, there is usually a good 50-200 pictures take to get one decent picture. The continuous shooting setting can be a total god send and a pain in the butt sometimes.
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9555_zpsi4pozenk

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9555_zpsi4pozenk

Carrots is such a skittish wee thing but she LOVES the camera - a little to much honestly because getting a picture is so difficult, as soon as the camera comes out she is right there having a look at it.. up close.. very close!

The friend who is borrowing the float stopped by to pick it up today and she gave me this..
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9581_zpsgxcl16lm

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9581_zpsgxcl16lm

Ok, granted I had asked if she could draw it for me so it wasn't a total surprise but she has been very busy lately and had been telling me she just hadn't had the chance to draw him for me yet. Needless to say, I cried.. like a baby.

As for me asking permission, looking back I feel a bit silly asking permission but I knew this thread could become very picture heavy (picture addict here) so better safe than sorry Wink

by MouseLover Fri 22 Apr 2016, 4:57 am

Aaaw I love them all Smile

by Upendiparrot Sat 23 Apr 2016, 10:01 pm

A zoo indeed! Lovely animals, they're so lucky to have you Smile

by AppleCheeks Sat 23 Apr 2016, 11:14 pm

Sorry guys, no cute animal pictures in this post.. it's more a.. "oh my gosh did that just happen?" type post.

Backstory, Callie has suffered from allergies since she was 6-8 months of age. It was a somewhat long road to get a diagnosis as "allergies very rarely crop up in dogs so young" but never the less, we finally got there though not without a rather expensive vet bill for allergy testing etc. After everything, I was sure her issues were environmental, specifically a type of pollen but sadly I was wrong - dust mites.. yep! She's allergic to dust mites, I suppose at least that's one incentive to keep the house clean Wink

We tried steroids for a bit but she's still a young pup so I opted not to continue and to instead look into other medications and various things I could do to try help (ie, cleaning more often). The vets suggested Atopica a while back but at nearly $500 a month it was never something I could afford. Apoquel was something I had heard of but the vets informed me there was a 2 year wait list for it! WHAT?! That was about a year ago now.

So a bit more recently I took Callie to the vet for a weight check and to get some shampoo to start this big elaborate plan I had about how I was going to give her daily soaks, weekly baths, clean all the sheets weekly, vacuum daily, blah blah blah (I followed through but more on that shortly). The receptionist mentioned that Apoquel was now in stock, except the price she gave was still out of my price range - $260 per month.

Forward to yesterday. Normally Callies allergies somewhat settle around March ish but this year they haven't so I took her to the vets to do a skin scraping to just confirm it wasn't mites or a fungal/bacterial infection making it work - all clear! Then my vet mentioned Apoquel and before I could say I couldn't afford it, she had calculated the price and quoted "$70 for the first 2 weeks then that will become the monthly cost"
Wait.. huh?
Something in my price range. Always pays to double check medication costs with a vet.

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We started her on Apoquel yesterday. I had read the brochures and talked to people and they all said if its going to work, you'll notice a difference within the day - Yeah right..
Yeah, they were right! So I'm a bit bummed that I didn't take pictures BEFORE starting but here are some from after her first 24hrs on Apoquel. Normally she is WAY more red than this by the way - ignore the red dot on her chest, thats from where the vet did one of the skin scrapes.

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9594_zpsmrtp86fa

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9594_zpsmrtp86fa

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9586_zpsdk9c9vbt

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_9600_zps4mw7fyli

by scaredymouse Sun 24 Apr 2016, 4:07 am

Oh my, there is so much to cover!

First, I'm so sorry about Luca. That's the worst when you are so very close to them for so long. I lost a cat after 18 years. We grew up together, she was there for everything and she slept with me every nights. So, when she died, not only was there a hole in my heart... there was an empty space in my life. And just when I think I can't take anymore heartache, I bring home another critter that is going to break my heart. And so it goes.

Um, I love carrots. The guinea pig, not the food. I mean, carrots are okay but I don't love them Wink

Your bunnies are magnificent! I've always loved Flemmish rabbits, they are gigantic. If I had one, I would just hug it all day. What ever happened to the little bun you had that lost clumps of hair that you had to put in a little sweater?

Also that's great about the new medicine for the doggie. Of course, I don't know what it looked like before, but it looks great now!

Omigosh, and your cattle are so darn cute. You said you had cattle... I didn't imagine such pretty cattle! I wish you lived closer I would totally go to your zoo Laughing

by Mouseketeers Sun 24 Apr 2016, 4:34 am

I have to admit I wasn't expecting to see the cow photo, I did squeal out loud. So cute! Carrots is adorable, that photo is fantastic.

by AppleCheeks Sun 24 Apr 2016, 4:42 am

scaredymouse wrote:Oh my, there is so much to cover!

First, I'm so sorry about Luca. That's the worst when you are so very close to them for so long. I lost a cat after 18 years. We grew up together, she was there for everything and she slept with me every nights. So, when she died, not only was there a hole in my heart... there was an empty space in my life. And just when I think I can't take anymore heartache, I bring home another critter that is going to break my heart. And so it goes.

Um, I love carrots. The guinea pig, not the food. I mean, carrots are okay but I don't love them

Your bunnies are magnificent! I've always loved Flemmish rabbits, they are gigantic. If I had one, I would just hug it all day. What ever happened to the little bun you had that lost clumps of hair that you had to put in a little sweater?

Also that's great about the new medicine for the doggie. Of course, I don't know what it looked like before, but it looks great now!

Omigosh, and your cattle are so darn cute. You said you had cattle... I didn't imagine such pretty cattle! I wish you lived closer I would totally go to your zoo

This is where I am thankful that my dogs fill up the physical space left on my bed since Luca passed. No more new kitties for us until the current ones pass away, I just don't want to put the stress of bringing a new cat/kitten in on Isabel or Dylan since they're getting on in age - they deserve to relax for the remainder of their life. Im sure having the dogs in their faces is annoying enough, definitely don't need a kitten pawing their face haha

The bun with the sweater would be Snugz, or Snugglebum if you want to use his full name. He likes to keep me on my toes! After a good year, his coat is finally what you would consider "normal" for a jersey woolly. It mats some but nothing that cannot be managed.
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_7986_zpsyblwtqdt

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_7986_zpsyblwtqdt

I was so sure I had some pictures of Callies feet from her worst but apparently not. Every time I took pictures of her feet I would try angle the camera in certain ways to make her feet seem lighter and less red than they actually were so none of the pictures I have from before meds represent how bad it was accurately. Easiest way to explain it? See the red spot on her chest? Her entire lower chest was that colour, same with her front feet and the few bald spots she has on her toes. Like a bad sunburn.

So these are slightly older pictures but you know, pretty cows Wink

why not share?
AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_1714_zpsdche5fk2

AppleCheeks - The Zoo IMG_0720_zps7qyf6tqh

AppleCheeks - The Zoo P8233080_zpsln41fjsz

by Mouseketeers Sun 24 Apr 2016, 5:19 am

Ahhh those cows! <3 Drool

by Peachy Sun 24 Apr 2016, 7:26 am

I'm glad you found something that works for Callie! And the drawing of your cat is such a sweet gift.

Squee, look at the cows! How in the world do they see where they're going with all that hair in their face? Wink

by MouseLover Sun 24 Apr 2016, 8:02 am

I didn't realise cows could be so cute Laughing

by Artistwolf Sun 24 Apr 2016, 9:11 am

Awww! I agree with MouseLover—who knew your cows were so adorable?! I need to draw them. Like now. LOL
I'm so glad Callie is feeling better now! That is great news!
Oh, I'm so sorry for your loss of Luca. I'm usually not a very emotional person but I cried my eyes out over my neighbor's cat dying (well, we had an unusually strong relationship for a neighbor's cat, don't judge me), and I still feel sad thinking about him. So I understand how you feel, at least a little.
Aw, Guinea pigs and bunnies are always so adorable. Do you have any more Guinea pigs?