Christmas Newsletter · 8:26pm Dec 25th, 2020
A Merry Christmas to you and you and you, and your families. I apologize for not being around much, and when I am, I'm just lurking in the shadows and trying to find something interesting to look at. So I haven't said anything since August, and I'll bring you up to speed on the ups and downs of the last few months.
September
Nothing really happened except another big windstorm with hurricane-force winds. Surprisingly, this one didn't knock out the power for us like the last two and the tornado did. Otherwise, it's classes and work and drawing stuff and adjusting to a schedule of taking care of guinea pigs. So far, so good, the piggies seemed pretty healthy, even if they hadn't adjusted to me as their owner yet.
But, here's some Super Rodent Squad supporting characters I created (and some I based on pets past):
Cookie, however, has been given a redesign, because... well, I'll explain in just a minute, but it's a good reason.
October
Admittedly, I've been getting more into Darkwing Duck, and one of the things on my wishlist for DuckTales 2017 was the appearance of my fave, Bushroot. And, well, when I found out that he was set for that, I was over the moon! Sure, he seemed different from the original, but, hey, I do admit to wanting to see him up the horror and be more awesome in fights, I'm sure they'd do something interesting with him, he's got a lot of potential for cool stories! ^^
Buuuuut, then I watched the actual episode, "Let's Get Dangerous", and while it's not bad and I liked the Drake and Gosalyn stuff (I mean, it is the important part after all), the Fearsome Four were just crammed into the episode, and I feel you could replace them with any other interdimensional minions and the episode would remain the same. And don't get me started on how much I just... dislike the new Bushroot. Sure, they did up the scary and let him do awesome things, but they shaved off the dweebish personality I fell in love with and turned him into a screeching zombie. I just... nope, sorry, I'm sticking with the '91 version.
In other news, I was completely intending to get to female guinea pigs, and that's what I thought I had... but I noticed something weird about Cookie when playing with them, so I decided to take them to a vet for a checkup. They're healthy, need to make sure they get their Vitamin C, stuff like that... and it turned out that Cookie was a boy this whole time. Welp, someone at the pet store made an oopsie.
So, I scheduled a neutering for Cookie, and surely it wasn't too late to prevent a pregnancy for Meadow, right?
Also, here's the SRS Cookie redesign, thanks to this awkward news:
Also, you know how my family has been raising lambs? Well, I guess I forgot to mention that we were raising them for meat. Although, my dad did decide he wanted to try breeding, so he bought a couple older lambs that he initially planned to be the breedstock, but at some point, it was decided that two of the bottle-fed lambs we raised should be that (part of it was that one of the older ones was so mean to Bailey, and you don't be mean to our dog). The winners of the draw were Gabby and Lemon (Lambert had crooked front legs, so he wasn't going to have a good time as an adult, and Pixie... she was just unlucky and now I'm sad because she was so friendly).
Basically, we're down to two ewes.
And as for Halloween... it was one of my best. Got to dress up at work (I was a pioneer), went to the amusement park because my sister had family day tickets (sure, we still had to wear masks (blegh), but we still went to a freaking amusement park), and for once, my house was the cool house that passed out full-sized candy bars, for any soul brave enough to go out trick-or-treating. There were more kids than I thought there would be, and at one point, I overheard a kid say, "We have hit the jackpot!"
So, take that, 2020!
November
Got a ram to hang out with Gabby and Lemon for a time. We call him Rambo and he's just a bundle of nerves (also, apparently he's younger than the girls). He's usually standing back while we pet the girls, though he'll sometimes run with us when we're playing with them.
Also, the sheep are so fluffy now. And Gabby still stays true to her name and won't shut up. She, Bailey, and Meadow (who wheeks so loudly we hear it from the living room) make up the Loudmouth Club.
My dad decided our family would stay home for Thanksgiving this year. I was a little miffed, but I gave the piggies a Thanksgiving salad, and they loved it. By now, I got a good grasp of their personalities--Cookie being the curious and adventurous one, but also a pretty chill dude; Meadow is timider, and yet also kind of demanding (she squeals and wheeks a lot, often for reasons I can't figure out). Both love it when I give them fresh veggies.
December
Okay, so this was a wild month for us.
When Dad was setting up the lights, our neighbor's dog was let out to do business, and instead decided to attack Bailey because apparently beagles are annoying to other dogs. Dad rescued Bailey, and she got a wound that we had to spray antiseptic on until it healed. She has a battle scar now.
Another tragedy struck our family way too soon after losing our uncle (we'll call him Uncle N); our aunt (different one from Uncle N's wife; let's call this aunt Aunt G and her husband Uncle G) was walking to the bus stop from work when a van hit her, and she passed away in the hospital. Her funeral was last Saturday, and again, looking at her in the casket had me thinking that it didn't look like her. Uncle G is very much heartbroken.
I didn't cry this time, since she doesn't have as much of a history in the family as Uncle N did, but it still hurt, seeing as she had just married into the family a couple years ago (I remember when I was watching The Best Gift Ever, even though it was before Halloween, and some of my cousins were looking over my shoulder). Even then, when she was dating Uncle G, she was always at every family gathering, even when Uncle G couldn't make it. She just ended up being part of Mom and her sisters' girl posse, and we quickly accepted her and her kids as honorary family before they became actual family.
It's sad, really, that two of my mom's siblings have lost spouses this year. At least they can lean on each other, knowing how the other's feeling.
And on to the hilariously awkward answer of, "Did we neuter Cookie in time to prevent a pregnancy on Meadow's part?"
The answer is no, we didn't, and as of the 16th, I'm a grandmother to a trio of tater tots.
Anyway, we call them Peaches (tri-color), Cream (fluffy tan and white), and Tater (brown and white). Things are all right now, but they'll grow up and we don't have room for five full-grown guinea pigs, so we're going to have to find a good home (or homes) for them when they're older. Also, we think that Tater's a boy (not entirely sure, it's hard to tell when they're little), so we'd have to neuter him before this happens all over again.
And now I oughta come up with SRS designs for them.
And in the same week as the Tater Tots were born, drama happened while I was at work. The tale relayed to me is as follows:
These two large dogs came out of nowhere and attacked Rambo. My Dad came out just in time to save him, wielding a gun to shoot the ground to scare the dogs off (one got scared off, the other was kept at bay with a bat while Dad guarded our wounded ram and the two ewes). Eventually, animal control showed up, as well as the dogs' owners, who were so apologetic about their dogs' attempted murder that they offered to pay vet bills. Dad just wanted the money that Rambo was worth, and the wife (who was a nurse) helped dress Rambo's wound. Dad and my sister were worried that he was dead (there was a lot of blood coming from his neck), but he survived and is recovering well with antiseptic and penicillin, though he's clearly traumatized.
We do feel bad for those neighbors, since they're the losers in this situation; the dogs may be good around people, but since they attacked our ram and have even killed a goat before, animal control has to take them. The owners have tried to contain the dogs, but they're escape artists.
And lastly, my Christmas presents:
This sticker's on my laptop, btw.
Anyway, that's been the past few months. What a ride.
M'kay, Merry Christmas.
Hey, glad to see you back! Merry Christmas!
Wow, you have a veritable army of rodent people at this point! (And the Cookie mix-up and resulting adorable tater tots were pretty funny!) Guinea pigs and sheep are so adorable~
(On that note, I'm glad all your animals survived the attacks.)
My family also handed out full-size candy bars, because we knew we'd barely get any trick-or-treaters. We were right--only about six kids total. And it looks you got a good Christmas haul! I got a blueberry body cream I'm excited to try out!
Sorry to hear about your aunt. 2020 has taken too many already.