Darla - Update

Darla is healthy a growing!

Baby Darla growing up!

She's got a sweet neutered bunny boy friend who shares her cage. It was love at first sight!

Poppy sitting on top of Darla

Sharing a romantic meal

Planning the next mischievous thing to do

Being a special indoor bunny and not knowing what might be up with her insides from her nest box drop, we decided it was best to get to spayed and keep her as healthy as possible.

On monday I dropped her off at the vet. Everything went well and she came home well drugged!

Snuggling post op in their new cage 

24 hours later my bad little bunn had split her incision open! Back to the vet we went and they replaced the glue with staples. Not nearly as pretty, but a little more heavy duty.
By Friday Darla had pulled all but one of her staples out. Bunny teeth are JUST like the staple remover at the vet. SO back to the vet yet again! They stapled her back up and sent her home in the cone of shame... Poor naughty rabbit!

CONE of SHAME

Her cone of shame was so cute they took a picture and put her on the clinic's website! (link to come soon!)

ChaCha

Fun day today!

A knock on my door resulted in the coolest pet ever. 

This couple came to our door today with a duck. I thought maybe the feed store had sent them for duck diapers. 

This cute duck followed them home from the park! She'd been following them around for a few days and they realised they just couldn't take care of her, so they were walking around the neighborhood searching for a new home for her. 

Everyone else on the street so far wanted to eat her (She's a little small for a meat duck, I don't think she'd be all that yummy). When they saw the pair of Ancona ducks in our yard they hoped we would take her in. 

I brought her in and put one of Trina's old diapers on her and she took right to it. 

Trying on her very first diaper

ChaCha sleeps right at the head of our bed, takes her breakfast in the tub, and loves a little wind in her 'fro when she rides in the car.

Checking out her new carseat

Napping in her bed

Trying out a sparkling TuTu

"Ducky Burrito" 

Just what I've been wanting! Someone else who likes to sit on Randy LOL

Modeling her new hair bow

SKATES!!!

Alright! So first day of practice ON SKATES!
I picked up NEW in box safety gear - elbow pads, knee pads, wrist guards, and a helmet - on craigslist for half retail price. The skates are the biggest expense, even more so because of my weight. The less expensive plates (what holds the wheels and connects them to the boot) are plastic based and aren't meant to carry a skater over 200 lbs. The aluminum plates are heavier and quite a bit more expensive, but hold up better to more weight. So rather than shelling out $300 or more for a pair of skates, I opted to try out some loners from the team supplies. I got a great little black leather pair of Riedell's, with some funky green wheels and mismatched laces.

Once I was all geared up, sitting on the ground tightening the last bit of laces, I realized...

 I have NO IDEA how to get up.

 So I sat.

 Aaand I sat.

 Aaaaand I sat.

 FINALLY I got the courage to roll over off my butt and on to my knees. It was only a few seconds up on my feet before the coach called me over. Expecting me to SKATE to the rink. I made it though. No falls or anything! Just itty bitty baby steps.

The coach (Mel) was super helpful. She asked about what previous skating experience I had, and then had me skate a lap to see where I was skill-wise. I learned feet shoulder width or less apart,smooth rhythmic strides (even if they are short strides), knees bent, lean forward, shoulders back, and look up and where you want to go. It worked great! I was flying around the rink!

OK I was putzing, and the little kids who had come from the neighborhood across the street were lapping me even though they fell a lot. But I was moving! And better yet, I was NOT falling.

BUT - I had no clue how to stop. So I skated another lap, and at the coach's direction headed for the fence with a nice crash stop. Next I learned to knee stop. Drop a knee and skid to a stop (with a little more detail on what NOT to do). And then how to get up! After a little practice I moved on to T-stops, which I absolutely could not do. Not enough muscle and confidence to pick my foot up, put it behind me, and drag. So I practiced the motion as best I could and used the fence to crash in to.

Then it got hard.

We did side steps and vine steps and toe steps. Then stationary knee falls/get ups, then burpees (of which I did exactly 2), mountain climbers (again, 2, but on each leg, yippee!) and then I got to sit in the middle and watch. All of that from skates on to resting in the middle took about 90 minutes. After another 20 of sitting and watching and trying to catch my breath, I did 3 speed laps, the speed of a sugar high turtle, and I was done!

I survived PRACTICE #1

I learned I need stronger calves, but MOSTLY a stronger lower back. That "ready position" that ALL athlete's learn - legs bent, lean forward, shoulders back, prepare to shuffle! - is about a thousand times harder on skates. Just saying'. And it burned! But a good muscle building burn.

I fell twice (2 is my magic number today I guess) once I went down forward, yay wrist guards, and once down straight back on my butt, arms and legs flailing, all in slow motion of course. One of the girls has the butt/hip pad pants that I saw online during my equipment research, I think I'll be getting a pair of those suckers cause I like my tail bone intact.

Any other "fall" was really just a knee stop, which were all intentional.

All in all I think it was a pretty good practice. I did WAY more than I expected I'd be able to do, and I think it's going to be really fun! I'll be super sore tomorrow and Sunday, but by Monday I'll be ready for another practice!

BIPAP - The first night!

Randy's face mask - if only I could get you a real life picture ; )

After some doctor confusion and a whole lotta appointments, Randy has FINALLY got his new breathing machine to help with his sleep apnea! His two sleep studies showed that not only was his airway restricted, but that sometimes he actually stops TRYING to breathe! A standard machine is called a CPAP, but Randy's machine is a BIPAP. It not only holds his airways open with a constant stream of air (this is what stops him from snoring), it also detects when he isn't breathing and will stimulate him to breathe. Without the machine he would stop breathing once in a while, no rise of the chest in an attempt to breathe, and then suddenly there would be a snore-gasp for air, sometimes as much as 30 seconds later!

Randy's fancy machine with heated humidifier!

It's about a foot long

If Randy would let me, I would totally post before and after sound clips but he would totally kill me. So it will have to suffice to say that a little air hissing is a HUGE improvement on the old snore symphony that was his nightly routine.

It's only night number 2, so we will have to wait and see if he feels any more energized during the day from getting a good nights sleep (and maybe me too)!

A New Hobby

Recently I've been having a bout of high school nostalgia (although I can't really imagine why, high school sucked...). Mostly I think I miss playing sports. I've also come to realize I need more social interaction in my life beyond animals and Randy.
So I've decided to try Roller Derby.

Yup, roller derby!

But this isn't your average roller derby league... this is the Renegade Rollergirls of Tucson! A no rules, no wussies, no holds barred league. Established in Phoenix, the league has grown to 7 teams, half of which reside in California. Last Saturday Randy and I attended a bout (that's roller derby speak for "game") between Tucson and LA at rrot's practice rink. It was tamer than I expected, but looked like a blast none the less. I met with one of girls to get some more information on joining and on Friday attended my first practice. I'm looking at borrowing some gear from their loner selection to start, hopefully I'll be on skates giving it a try this Friday!

Wish me luck!

My very first workout post

I've been going to the gym with my mom or before class sporadically over the past year. After the actual work out I feel good, but there haven't been any long lasting effects. I've been taking small steps to try to get healthier overall and finally found a good motivator and a buddy to do it with.

In November Missa and I are going to Disneyland!
Three full days - open to close.
That is going to take some serious walking!
Padded on either end with a few days in Pacific Beach for a 10 day trip, where I won't be driving at all so we will have to ride bikes and walk everywhere we want to go.

My main goal is to be ready for all the physical activity during the trip. My secondary goal is weight loss - because really, if I'm going to feel better I'll need to be putting less stress on my body.

Missa and I get together on Wednesdays for lunch, so we decided to use that as our starting point. Instead of eating every time we hang out, we would only do lunch every other week and counter it with work outs. We'll meet each other at the gym Tuesday and Thursday on "Lunch" weeks, and Monday, Wednesday, Thursday on off weeks. Then work out on our own the days we aren't meeting. I'll meet my mom at the gym on my off days so I always have someone to keep me motivated!

We are also both using a diet tracking app called My Fitness Pal that we can plug in our meals and snacks, and even keep track of our work outs. I've been trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks, and replace fast food meals with breakfast shakes (chocolate meal replacement shakes) and "Lean Cuisine" type frozen meals. I'd also like to phase in "real" foods where ever necessary, for example raising my own meat (rabbits and chickens), eating eggs from my own chickens, and would love to try using real dairy products fresh from local cows and goats. While these things might be higher in fat or sugar, I think my body will feel better eating fats and sugars with less artificial additives.

I stuck to my "diet" for a school week and felt great! I felt full, I had energy, and I even ate less calories than my diet app's max without trying, just only eating until I was full. then the weekend hit. After hosting the whole family for enchiladas on friday, having pizza on saturday, and eating fast food on sunday, I felt like crap. I can really FEEL the difference between my no breakfast, cookie/chocolate/ice cream laden diet of the past and my fresh food and light food diet in less than a week! That alone is ample motivation.

Part of my workout plan is to keep record here on my blog of my weight, measurements, workouts, eating habits, and of course new healthy recipes to stay motivated.

My plan heading toward my Disney Trip is to change my habits to healthier ones while I have the motivation so that living a healthier life will be easier in the future.

Darla

Red has been having a rough time with her last couple litters. The last one started out as a litter of 9, and within a week was down to 3! One stillborn, one runt who didn't make it, and the rest dragged out of the nest box early on who froze to death or were eaten by the chickens.

My fav picture of the surviving three - 2 girls and a boy

This litter started as 7. The first casualty was a fresh born kit whose toes and one back foot were nibbled off. I don't know if it was by a chicken or a rabbit, but it was pretty awful. I put that one down myself. At 5 days old two kits were found huddling outside the nest box across the hutch, apparently dragged out by Red because they were still attached to her when she decided she was done nursing them. When I returned those two to their nest box, I found two more were missing.

A full 36 hours later the two missing kits were found under the hutch buried in the dirt, STILL ALIVE. They were cold and dirty and skinny. I cleaned them up and put them back in with the others. They nursed and did just fine, but I decided to bring all the kits in the house in a shoe box for the next week or so while I got the hutch and nest box fixed.

At 3 weeks old, their eyes are open, they are eating solid foods, and the baby bunnies are all running around the hutch playing and nibbling things. The two that were lost in the dirt were significantly smaller than their 4 other siblings. The next day I found the small boy bunny had died. 

Darla became a house pet! She is inside in her own cage with her own food, water and hay. She gets tons of attention from us and any visitors. She is half the size of her siblings, her coat is dull and looks rough despite being bathed brushed and blow dried. She might have a parasite or simply have organ damage from not getting fed at such a young age. For now we will keep her inside with us until we know for sure that she is healthy and is growing and gaining weight like she should. I'd love to keep her here with us, I think she has the coolest markings!

White with both orange and gray spots!

Darla's ratty rough fur

Compared to a her fat siblings smooth fur

But a cute little face!