Ginger – Sept 2007 – Oct 27, 2014

Ginger passed away this morning. she had been slowing down the last month, but was still quite her rambunctious self for a little while during playtime. and she was just full of energy on saturday. but then yesterday she wouldn’t move, and noa took her to the vet, who said it could be some sort of over insulin producing disease, or not. She is just plain old for a ferret. and then last night she just laid there and whimpered in her sleep, and thats when we made the discussion to put her down. she couldn’t even get up to eat or drink, she was so weak.

Noa just told me her friend Mel said she learned the important life lesson to never put your feet on the ground when your sitting on a couch. I think we could add to that, don’t wear socks in the house. or watch out where your stepping. all these relate to “there might be a ferret lurking about to strike at an opportune time.”

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Honestly, i feel like we have always had ferrets. but looking back on my blog, we got them dec 1, 2007. I distinctly remember telling my boss that i need to ask for the day off, because I’m driving to seattle, to go pick up our ferrets. reading about it now, brings back all the memories of the day, but ill never forget pulling those two little ferocious fur balls made of teeth and claws, and feeding them arby’s at some exit along the I-5. in fact you can read about it here if you wish.

i think this passage taken from that blog post sums up our early experience with ginger quite well

the sable is really calm and relaxed, which is nice. but that chocolate, is really dangerous! she drew blood about 6 times tonight.

Yogurt apparently was the docile one, and ginger the ferocious killer. well as everyone who had been over to our house knew you had to tread careful around her. but she really mellowed out in her old age, and the last year she has not been as lethal at all. and on top of it, she’s probably one of the best travelled ferrets ever. I mean, born in North Carolina, lived her majority of her life in vancouver, and then finished her retirement years in sunny Israel. Quite the life.

Having a ferret has been the perfect pet for our lifestyle the last 7 years. we had an energetic carpet shark running around twice a day, but she slept for those 20 hours a day too, and was ideal in our apartment. I know ferrets are not the most loving animals, but we had so much fun together. playing hide and seek, ferret bowling, hiding socks, bitting unsuspecting feet, the list just goes on. and when we would go away and come back, she would always be super happy to come out and play with us.

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We could not of asked for a better ferret.

All i know is that ginger is with her sister now, in a huge field filled with socks to move around, and couches to lurk under.

I for one will always have a ferret sized hole in my heart.

we will miss you ginger.

Life post puppy – a full mango status report

So mango’s been here just over two weeks.  it already feels like its been much, much longer.

Noa picked her up at the milan airport, as we had arranged for the breeders to meet her there.  we actually delayed the pick up time by a week, as we had to postpone the flight the day before the original date due to some issues with the israeli dog import authority.  we had to have a piece of paper that shows her clean bill of health and rabies shot stamped by a vet, but we found out after submitting it it had to be a government vet, not any vet.  so they rejected our import license.  so the following week our breeder went to get the other stamp on the paper too.  anyways, stressful week for everyone involved as again we didn’t know if we would be able to fly until that morning, when we took the new stamp to the airport for them to approve, which they did.  phew.

so noa flew with an empty crate, spent a fun day in milan, and the following evening met up with mango for the first time.  since we had met mango as a puppy, she of course remembered noa’s smell, which I’m sure helped calm her bit.  noa went to check in, there was some fun discussions with the manager about if we could fly with mango or not, as they knew we got rejected the previous week, and finally they allowed it and noa was set to go.  of course she was the rockstar at the airport as everyone knew her as the girl with the cute puppy dog.

I went to go pick them up at 4:30am from ben gurion airport, with both of them exhausted.  we got home and mango happily sniffed all about. the good thing was we had the whole day to bond, so that come evening time going to bed would not be as hard, right?  wrong!  mango came from a family of 23 adult dogs, and she was with 3 of her litter mates until she left!  we opted for crate training, and she yelped and cried so much, that noa brought a mattress down and slept outside of her crate that first night.  her presence helped calm mango down and she mostly made it through the night.  (since then we have learned your supposed to start with the crate in your bedroom, and move it further every day away from you till its where you want it).  the second night i had to go to her once to calm her, and the third day we had taken her to the beach so she couldn’t even thing about being awake during the night.  we still have some complaints going to bed, but by this point, we pretty much put her to bed around 11, and she sleeps till 7 no problem, not making a sound.  it helps that we try to walk her as much as we can to tire her out.

walking in the village has been an interesting thing to see.  starting out i would take her to as many different ways as i could, but i think that was a mistake.  she needs to be comfortable with her surroundings, and she for sure wasn’t.  plus in the village there are a lot of dogs roaming around, and ones locked up behind fences.  so almost every path we took had a dog barking at her, which would scare her.  (2 weeks later we walk right by them usually now).  but our first walks were more of a sitting session.  i would walk 10m, and then she would sit.  look behind her.  look in front of her, behind again.  and then continue.  if there was a loud dog, lay down, and don’t move.  i think i was focusing on the idea of walking around with her too much, instead i should of turned around and went in the opposite direction.  but we were literally hemmed in by dogs everywhere.  we are now at the point were she won’t sit as much, which is great.  walks are getting a little longer.  its starting to be summer here though also, so we have to go early in the morning or dusk for it to be cooler.  she’s not so interested in going on a walk during the heat of the day.

too much energy and teething/chewing has been a challenge.  we now have a plethora of stuffed animals, and chew treats.  pigs ears, hoofs, sticks, long chew, short chew, everything.  its mostly in the evenings she wants to romp around a bit, and focuses on chewing on us.  so we are trying our best to redirect to toys first, and if all else fails, one of her chew things.  we think all her adult teeth are in, and the chewing is becoming less in the evenings.(ice cubes are a good solution too(thanks jeff))

Dinner time to start was funny with her.  she eats 3x a day still, same food as what she got at the breeder, a grain free italian dog food.  it seems really good for her, but we are going to mix some with grain in her diet after this bag is almost done, to get her used to other foods too.  as she came from a litter of 7, when i would put her food down, she would suck that food right in.  now she knows theres no competition from litter mates and she eats much slower.  i also started off having her sit before i feed her, instead of lunging for the food.  and now we are working on stay, and you don’t get to eat till i say okay.  after 2 days its already working.  (though stay is still a foreign concept to her)

The first week I did much of the walking, so I’m the defacto pack leader at the moment.  noa calls her my shadow.  noa started taking her on more walks with and without me, and is competing with me as pack leader status.  mango for sure prefers when we are both around, but we need to work on letting her be comfortable with just one of us around.  speaking of which separation anxiety is a huge issue, since we are around all the time.  so we are making an effort to have her be in her cage for a few hours a day with us not in the room.  this is much tougher for little puppy…..    she likes having her pack around her.  we still are working on this.

as for ginger, were still working on them.  mango loves that ginger drops food around her cage.  but she’s still a little snappy at her when she’s too excited.  but they are getting more comfortable around each other.  this is for sure a work in progress.

okay, some pictures!!!!

our first day together

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on our walk ,making sure theres no one following us

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first day at the beach

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happy with mom

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beach days

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i tell you, the dog beaches here are amazing….  theres dogs there all day long, and its a nice long span of beach.  you always meet nice people and their dogs, and its such good exercise.

 

zonked out after a tough day

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i like my chew toys

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and playing in the water some more

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we are settling into a happy routine now.  i like going on all the walks, its great.  once true summer hits it won’t be as fun (wake up earlier to beat the heat).  but she’s behaving well (as much as can be expected for a puppy) and we love taking her out on the streets in tel aviv and eating out with her.  dogs are allowed almost everywhere here.  sorry for the puppy load of pictures, but i had to get these out there.

as always, lots more to see on flickr.

Mimouna

 

At the end of passover this year, noa’s sister got invited to a Mimouna(check it out), and therefore invited us to tag along.  none of us had ever been to one, and its quite a fascinating event.

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During passover you are not allowed to eat any wheat which has been leavened.  Ie, bread, pasta..  its complicated what you can and can’t eat.  anyways, jews living in morocco were surrounded by arabs who were allowed to eat bread during passover.  so they would basically lock themselves indoors during the whole holiday.  finally, towards the end of the holiday, on the last day after the sun has set and wheat is allowed again, the families would open their doors and have a huge party.  basically, they would invite everyone they know to come over, and eat sweet treats, and what i would basically describe as a delicious wheat flour tortilla(like the ones we ate fresh in mexico) filled with honey or chocolate or sugar!  they were called Mofletta’s.  and OMG, they were amazing, and we were gorging on them.

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besides those there were all these amazing marzipan and other assorted cookies.

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So we showed up at 9pm, and the party was already in full swing.  music was blaring, and there must of been more than 70 people crammed into this little house and yard.  we ate mofletta’s, sweets, and drank mint tea.  we hung out for a while, and as we were leaving, noa’s sister was told that next year she won’t be invited back.  because once you come once, you are just supposed to show up every year.