Flashman foxes

I forgot to mention. . .

2012-09-04T01:34:00.003+01:00

With all the stress and worry of Akiko's leg I think, scratch that I know that I forgot to tell you all about something wonderful that happened to the Flashman family. . .

On August 13th Barbie and Inari blessed us with three new family members, two of which you can see in the above photo.

Oh this photo you can see all three of them with their mother:

The photo had to be heavily edited as she has them right by some bars so whenever I photograph them the shadow of the bars covers them. The most important thing is that you can see those cute little feet!

I swear these are the most guarded kids EVER as they have their Mother, Father, Aunt and Uncle looking over them 24 hours a day, it really is the sweetest thing.

So, yes I hope to update you all with lots of photos and videos of them whenever I have the chance.

I feel so lucky to have them and all of my other fur kids, they are all so very wonderful!

Post op radiographs

2012-09-02T19:57:00.003+01:00

So Akiko is doing really, really well which I am really, really, REALLY happy about. She had a check-up on August 24th and Marie, the vet said that she was doing well.
Akiko is still having to stay pretty much out of action but she is becoming accustomed to this and pretty much accepts it without getting all depressed. She is also now totally off medication and does not seem to be in any pain which is wonderful to see!

It was actually quite odd on the 24th as that morning Akiko really was feeling fed up and did not want to take any more medication so she lunged to bite my partner but he moved out of the way. We can totally understand her feeling this way as having tablets shoved down ones throat twice a day is noons idea of fun. Anyhow just after that my partner put his thumb in her mouth to hold it open which Akiko seemed to think was him giving up so she started to chew on his thumb hehe. Thankfully her back teeth are not sharp so it did not hurt him and Akiko seemed happy to finally get her own back at him hehe.

Here are her post op radiographs for those of you who are interested:

And as shown in the last post here is what it looks like from the outside:

It is actually a fair amount less pink now but I have no new photos as I don't really want to upset my little princess with my camera flashing in her face.

Akiko's fracture

2012-08-20T00:19:00.000+01:00

Monday started out like every other Monday, I got up, I fed everyone I let them out and I went to work. Well Bar Akiko as she does not get up as early as the others, she also goes to bed later.

Anyhow I was at work and a message was left for me which just said 'Your Daughter has fractured her leg, call me.' I was thinking at the time it was Audrey and that she had been really naughty hence she was 'my' daughter and not 'our' daughter.

I called my partner that instant and he told me Akiko had jumped out of the bottom level of her ferret nation and seems to have landed funny. He was pretty sure it was a fracture but it is hard to tell on something so tiny when you don't properly know their bone structure and they are trying to get away from you. Anyway he was on his way to our vets in Birmingham which is about 1h 30m away. . . 1h 30 mins if you don't get pulled over for speeding and retained there for 1h despite explaining to the officer that you have an injured animal in the car in a huge amount of pain.

So eventually my partner got to the vets, they sedated Akiko, gave her an xray and said that she had fractured a bone in her elbow. . . They dosed her up on morphine and said they would keep her with them over night so they could continue to keep her on the morphine and keep an eye on her that way they could x-ray her again in the morning. They would not do the operation and would have to send her to a specialist.

Upon my return home I vented about it all, about how I feared there would not be a specialist that would see her, how the vets did not know of one and then a good friend said that she thought her vet would see her! She said she would e-mail to check and the vet agreed! I was over joyed! An added bonus was that this vet was a mere 23 mins from the one Akiko had slept at.

So Akiko slept at the vets.

The next morning came and they called me asking if she was a male or female which I found odd as she was still registered there as 'Princess'. . . Anyhow I told them that she was a girl and asked what time I could collect her. They said she would be ready at 12 noon so I waited to call back then. I called the vet my friend had told me would do the op and made an appointment for 4:20. . . I mean if I am picking Akiko up at 12 I should be 23 mins away by 4:20. . . right?

So I called vet number 1 back at 12, no answer and I just kept calling until I got an answer. I got through at 1:50! They said they had still not done the x-ray. . . I decided to start driving up there.

When we got there they were done, they gave us a new x-ray to take with us for vet number 2. They swore that they had sent her notes over but alas upon arrival at the second vets there were no notes and the X-ray was near enough totally black! All the vet could see was that the fracture was no in the elbow which obviously was a great relief.

So again Akiko was to spend the night at the vets. She would be moved to their other branch for surgery the next morning.

Vet number 2 was very sweet and told us that Akiko had eaten which was a relief and it really was nice to know. They were pampering her and hand feeding her live moreo worms and the duck we took for her to have. Akiko does not normally have duck but she steels it from the cat and she had not eaten at the last vets so we just wanted to be sure she had something.

The next morning our dear friend who said to go to vet number 2 was there with two of her squirrels, one was due for surgery. We had seen her the day before also when we took Akiko to the vet as her squirrels also had an appointment. She checked on Akiko and let us know she was doing fine.

We headed up when the vet called to say she would soon be in surgery, we wanted to be there for when Akiko woke up.

So myself, Mr Elina and our friend Laura (with the squirrels) were all sat in a pub across from the vets talking about any and everything but NOT the furkids. We were all clearly so worried but we were all doing well at keeping our minds off it all.

We got called at the same time near enough to say that Laura's babies were ready but Akiko still out. She had been in surgery for 3 hours They had found on the new x-ray that Akiko in fact had 2 fractures, neither in her elbow but neither was far from it. They pinned one and plated the other.

We got to see her when we went with Laura to collect her babies. Akiko was sound asleep wrapped in bubble wrap and a pink fleece blanket Laura had brought for her. The bubble wrap was to keep her warm and we were told that during surgery she even had her ears wrapped to keep the heat in.

We left her with the vet as it was important to keep her warm and for her to monitor her.

We went back to Laura's and saw where her Richardson's ground squirrel just had a tumour removed. Once she was tucked in with her friends we all went for coffee to await the call to collect Akiko.

We collected Akiko around 7pm. She was all awake and looking well considering. She had 3 medications to take and we booked for her to go back the next Friday. Sounds odd but I am sort of proud as the vet said that her bones are great bar obviously the fracture so as we are her breeders we know that all along she has had a great diet her whole life, even before she was born.

When we got home we walked in the door and there was Sprite papillon. Akiko saw her and screamed 'MEEP!' but soon got upset as she was not allowed to play. We proofed her cage so she could not fall off anything or get anything caught and put her in there, she could not work out how to curl up so I helped her however soon after she got back up and refused to be helped so slept that night with her bottom in the air.

The next morning she took her meds like a good girl and when I put her back to bed she leapt into bed and curled up right away! I was amazed at how fast she adapted.

On Saturday I took off her bandage and I am so glad she has a cone or I think she would totally freak out.

She is doing really well though. I am so grateful to Laura for getting the vet to see Akiko and being there for us (and for the coffee:-)) and our friend George who's pet chihuahua recently fractured both of her legs so he was able to talk us through what he went through and to all of our other friends for their support.

You should all go and visit Laura's squirrels here: http://www.gophers.org.uk/ the are the most charming little critters!

I know I am very, very behind on the blog, shall try to update it all when I have a chance.

Cali and Ranger

2012-06-07T00:27:00.000+01:00

Guess who:

The above photo is of Sapphire and Slush standing next to each other. Quite shocking really how different they look at the moment. Slush is near enough totally black where as Sapphire is still quite clearly and Arctic fox.

Weather in their summer or winter coat I think they both look amazing. I must get some better photos of the whole of Slush so you can see how very adorable he looks.

As well as looking quite different Slush has also looked very cold. It seems the hot weather has left us and in it's place has been left rain and grey sky's and so it has also been rather chilly. Thankfully I had plenty of blankets to give Slush to keep him warm so he seems fine as does Sapphire who in the last 3 days has really been catching up with the shedding.

As well as having two very different looking Arctics we have gained 2 bouncing baby vulpes vulpes!

As you all know we were all totally heartbroken when Freyja passed away. She was here for such a short time and yet left a HUGE gaping hole in our hearts so we decided that though nothing could every bring her back we still had love to give and so we made the decision that we would get another.

Early last week we saw some platinum white mark vulpes vulpes for sale. I am very fond of platinum foxes and so I suggested that we get one. My partner agreed so off we went to get a platinum fox. . . or so we thought. . .

Upon our arrival we met 3 female foxes; one platinum and two platinum gold. The first one I held was a platinum gold and was very, very cute. The second was the platinum and she was adorable but a bit of a biter and the third . . . The third my partner was holding and she stole my heart.

It was still quite hellish trying to choose between them all. They were all so very playful with each other but Cali just looked so very beautiful I just had to have her!

SO this is Cali the platinum gold Vulpes Vulpes:

Cali adores attention from anyone willing to give it and is even quite fond of having her photo taken:

But her FAVOURITE thing in the world is her cat teaser

Once we had Cali my other half decided that he would quite like a silver fox. As Cali will be moving outside when she is about 6 months old it would be cruel to make her live out there alone.

Ranger is a silver phase Vulpes Vulpes. As quite obviously my partners favourite phase is silver I was not going to hear the end of it until he got his own little fox.

Ranger is the youngest and the most mischievous. Much like Cali he adores any and every one and even Valla seems to think he is a wonderful playmate. . . I wonder if he reminds her of Freyja?

Here he is setting the sat nav for home:

And enjoying the cat teaser like the crazy little guy he is:

So that is everyone!

All the kits are taking very well to litter training and are learning tricks amazingly fast due to their age and their love of food.

I am pretty sure that is us done as for getting foxes. . . Well until some bat eared foxes pop up hehe.

Oh we also have a little red vulpes vulpes by the name of Secret but like his name he is top Secret shhh!

April 28th - May 20th

2012-05-21T00:49:00.001+01:00

Sorry for the delay in my posts but my PC has been acting up. Can't live with them, can't live without them. . . Well I suppose I could live without my PC but I would have to hand write the blog multiple times and have hand drawn sketches of the foxes which with my kindergarten level of drawing would be less then enjoyable for you all.

April 28th was Valla's 1st birthday! Gosh it is hard to believe that it has been a year since my baby girl came home. So much has happened in that time which has shaped her into the wonderful girl she is today. I just cant believe how beautiful she is!

As you can see she got 3 plush animals ( 2 foxes,1 Eeyore) and a birthday cake made of dog chews which was also filled with chews. She also got an Elefun which is a children's toy that is shaped like an elephant that blows butterfly's into the air for children, or in this case foxes to catch. I think her favourite was her Elefun which her and Harry played with for ages each hoarding butterfly's in an opposite corner of the room to each other. Needless to say we did not have a second round for quite some time.

Amazingly all of Valla's soft toys are still in one piece apart from the Eeyore who like all of her Eeyores she has removes the tail from. I really have no idea why she does this but she does. Maybe she knows that in Winnie the pooh Eeyore is always looking for his tail?

In other news Sapphire and Slush are shedding BIG time! Their summer coats are coming in fast, Slush's more so then Sapphire's but they are both looking so different.

With Sapphire it all started with her eyes:

Then her mouth and snout joined in:

And that's about where Sapphire has remained more or less for a couple of weeks. Slush however started by getting darker:

Then his spots amalgamated:

Then his whole coat looked like it was going to just fall out:

Then his face got darker:

and today:

He's suddenly almost black!
Here he is next to Sapphire so you can see the difference:

Her back leg has just begun where as he is ready for summer! I wonder if Slush will have spots again next winter?

Oh and the white things on the ground are duck down from the duck down pillow that we opened and poured into Sapphire's house and fur from the two of them.

So the other day Akiko was playing with Sprite while I was painting the wood work in a room. She was very brave unlike any of the other foxes and started to play with Kikomo the Bengal cat who, being twice the size of her quite liked having a tiny critter to play with.

At one point Kikomo decided that leaping onto Akiko from atop his scratch post would be glorious fun which Akiko did not agree with and from that moment on decided not to play with him. He worried the poor girl so much that she literally pooped herself!

Clearly it was time to play with Sprite on the bed.

When Sprite wandered off to find Valla to play with Akiko went to investigate the decal I had just put on the wall.

She seemed a little worried by it all.

Maybe it was due to the size:

So she jumped down and came to watch me paint. What I didn't notice however was that I had left the lid to the wood paint on the floor within reach of the little tyke who then walked over it and started to paint the floor:

You just have to love the guilty look on her face hehe!

Until next time!

Happy Easter!

2012-04-09T01:47:00.002+01:00

Okay we may be a day late but Easter is very busy in the Flashman house hold with so many fur kids and one human one we have been been run off our feet!

Everyone got a big plastic Easter egg filled with yummy goodies and a plush rabbit toy. . . They also all got rabbit for dinner but I promise it was not the Easter bunny!

As Audrey was making Easter masks in the morning by time Akiko got out of bed Audrey was done and there was allot of craft stuff left over so we thought we would have some fun with the presentation of Akiko's eggs.

The following photos are sort of freaky but they are where Akiko is chewing:

OMG! No Peeps?!

We hope everyone had a most wonderful Easter!

Until next time.

One month and four days

2012-04-01T02:32:00.000+01:00

Today it has been 1 month and 4 days since Slush arrived and turned Sapphire back into the happy go lucky girl we all know her to be.

I must be honest, I was worried to post in-case something suddenly happened to him like with Logan, I just did not want to jinx it. Silly I know but with the luck I have had this last year I was just so worried.

A few days after we got Slush we took him to the vets. He is 100% healthy which was a real weight off our minds. Not that we thought anything was wrong with him, more that we just wanted to be sure. The vet believes Slush to be between 2-3years of age which makes him a fair bit older then Sapphire who is not yet one but I don't mind, so long as Sapphire is happy I am happy.

This last month has been really interesting to watch as Slush has been worming his way into Sapphire's heart. He started with grooming her, then he started hauling blankets from inside their house for her to sleep on in the sun (shame he does no take them back in when it rains hehe), then he noticed that Sapphire likes to give kisses so he kisses her (on the lips and everything) which is all quite romantic!

For a while I was not too sure if his ways of winning her over were exactly working. Sapphire was not sleeping curled up with him and as he is unable to jump atop her level she was sleeping more and more often up there as though she was trying to escape him. I would not actually be too surprised if she was trying to escape him as for every romantic thing he would do he would then try to hump her which Sapphire was not a fan of. . . Mind you Sapphire was not exactly innocent in all of this, she is very much a little flirt!

One morning after I had heard Slush doing his mating call nearly ALL night I went to a window which faces my garage and Logan's old enclosure which is where they are housed and to my surprise I could see neither of them! Had they escaped?!

I quickly donned my robe and ran to their enclosure as fast as I could calling "Pie? Pie?" my slippers were getting muddy as the lawn was still damp with dew. I fumbled with the keys and the combination lock as I was so very worried. Once I was inside the enclosure I was not greeted with my customary morning kisses and screams of delight! Where were my little princess and her new prince charming?! I ran to their shed and opened the door to my relief curled up in the XL dog bed which was atop of the kennel, my fur balls were okay! Sapphire looked up at me with a HUGE smile on her little face as she stretched her front paws out. I walked over still shaking from worry and cuddled her tighter then I think I have ever cuddled her as she let out a little squeak which she does not normally do (oops, maybe a bit too tight). Slush continued to sleep which was odd as he is normally very much on his toes when I am around.

How on earth Slush managed to get up there continued to be a big mystery to me until a couple of days ago when I set aside a few hours to wrestle him into his collar. It turns out scrabbling really does help where your jumping may fall just a little short. . .

So it looks like though it took him a few weeks Slush is now allowed to sleep in the same bed as Sapphire at bed time however nap time is still a no-no if it is warm outside. If it is warm Slush is expected by Sapphire to sleep out in the sun while she will have the whole shed to herself! . . . Well I never said Sapphire was not greedy.

On March 28th I got Slush his first bale of hay. You may wonder what exactly is so great about a bale of hay for a fox, they are not rabbits, they don't eat it. Well instead of merely eating it they rub against it to help them remove their winter coat, they roll in it to smell nice, they pounce on it as they like the sound and the feeling under their feet, they make nests with it. . the list goes on and on! I honestly think a bale of hay is one of the more fun things one can give a fox. I actually filmed Sapphire and Slush playing in the hay for you all to enjoy!

Some of it is cut quite randomly. This is as Slush was being his randy self and as I do not like seeing that sort of thing I did not think any of you would either.

Today my daughter Audrey was spending some time with Sapphire. They spend allot of time together every day and have become very close. I would go as far as to say they love each other:

Well today Audrey wanted to make a video for school talking about Sapphire and how they are the best of friends. . . Well it did not exactly go to plan. . .

It started well enough, Audrey was not worried about talking to the camera:

But then as if from nowhere Slush came out of the house and tried to run off with Audrey's jeans, pulling them down in the process!:

Thankfully Audrey was not at all upset with him and actually found it all to be hilarious!

Well I must be off, it is 02:30 and I must get some sleep as must the foxies:

Goodnight!

Happy Sapphire

2012-03-02T19:41:00.000+00:00

So sadly I did not get my snow video as it had all melted by the next day. To make up for the lack of snow we got Sapphire a HUGE bale of sawdust for in her house which seemed to make her nearly as happy as the snow did!

Sapphire smelt wonderful from rolling in the sawdust! I think we might have gotten too much as it was enough for a stable but she seemed really happy that it was so very deep and she could hide things in it but sadly like with everything else the novelty wore off and she went back to missing Logan.

I really did not think that she would grieve for so very long. Do not get me wrong, I am still grieving his passing but people say that if the animal sees the dead animals body that they will accept it. I think Sapphire just loved him way too much to be able to let him go.

Since Logan's passing Sapphire and I have become really close which is so very wonderful. You see at first, when she was a kit, she loved me but then she very much became my partners fox which was great as that was what she was meant to be but I will be honest, I was quite jealous of their bond. It is not that Sapphire did not like me it was just that my partner could pick her up and he clearly meant EVERYTHING to her.

Well the more time I spent with her even just sitting with her the more fond of me she has become. I spent allot of time with her before but always with my partner but now I was spending time alone with her and she saw that I am actually pretty damn fun where before she seemed to play with me out of pity as she and her human dad would be having such fun and she did not want me to be left out.

On February 28th my partner and I decided Sapphire was ready to welcome a new man into her life to make her whole again and so we welcomed Slush Puppie into our family. We had ordered him before the 28th but we were unsure if we should keep him in her enclosure as opposed to putting him in Logan's with Sapphire.

Slush was named by our 7yr old daughter Audrey who had wanted to name Sapphire and Logan Slush so we though it only fair for her to name this little man.

We have no idea how old Slush is but I am pretty sure he is at least a year older then Sapphire as he is very much a charmer.

When Sapphire first saw him she looked SO very, very happy, ecstatic even! Look for yourself:

As soon as we let him out of the crate they started playing and continued to do so until he noticed the dogs and went to tell them to go away. Once he noticed they were going nowhere he got back to playing.

It was all going very well. Not as well as Logan meeting Sapphire as she seemed a little worried but none the less well. . . Or at least it was until we noticed Slush making a noise like a happy ferret followed by some grunting and the next thing I knew I was having to tell Audrey that Sapphire was giving him a piggy back!

Yep Slush is smooth all right. He is a total little Casanova and when Sapphire climbed on top of her tower where he could not go he started sniffing our Papillon Sprite! I am just glad Sprite was outside the enclosure hehe.

I now feel quite awkward going to see them as if Slush is awake he is randy and poor Sapphire does not know what to do when she is trying to say good morning to her human Daddy and Slush is dragging her rear end off. I was told Sapphire should be in heat in 2 weeks time if not later but it seems we were off by a week or two.

I really hope that if Logan is looking down on Sapphire from the rainbow bridge that he knows that the only reason we got her Slush is as she loved him so much that she would have never been really happy without him here unless we got Slush to try to fill the void he left in her heart. It is so wonderful to see our little girl happy again as in truly happy. It's wonderful to go out and see her playing with him or him grooming her.

The first snow of the year

2012-02-05T01:25:00.001+00:00

Today we had the first snow of the year which was very exciting for young miss Sapphire and I feel it was just what she needed to cheer her up.

Since Logan's passing life has been hard for Sapphire. She stayed inside with us for a while as she needed someone to be with her as she was accustomed to Logan being there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After a while we decided that after her walk we would put her in her enclosure to have a play with us which seemed to really perk her up!

Oddly though no matter how happy Sapphire might have looked she never "talked" bar to call Logan, no happy squeals at all. . .

When the weather started to get properly cold again we thought moving Sapphire back outside would be a good idea due to the central heating making her WAY too warm but she was not happy in her enclosure. I suppose that was as it was where she and Logan lived so we moved her to the enclosure we built for Logan. She seems much happier in there.

So today, as I was saying, we had our first snow!
I love the snow and since the day we got Sapphire I have been excited about this day. As Sapphire sleeps during the day when she is outside it was great to be able to be the ones to show her the snow:

Once she emerged from her house she had a good sniff of the snow:

Then a taste:

Or two:

And then she was running around screaming like all of her Christmases had come at once!

She was having a most wonderful time until she noticed that her toys were gone so she had a break from her excitement to haul them all out from under the snow:

Once she knew Swiper was safe she went to watch the dogs rolling n the snow:

Then continues frolicking:

And being Sapphire there was also a fair amount of kissing, weather her Daddy wanted kisses or not:

I shall try to film her in the snow tomorrow as I doubt I will go out bar to walk the animals as it is my day off and I have fox shaped cookie cutters to try! I got a whole set of woodland animals including a hedgehog, a squirrel, a bear, a snail, a moose and of coarse a fox! I might make fox shaped liver treats for the foxies.

Well I must be off. I have a whole day of playing in the snow with my two snow buddies (Sapphire and Audrey) tomorrow and I will need my sleep to keep up with the two of them.

December 14th - January 14th

2012-01-21T03:51:00.001+00:00

On January 14th my partner and I went out to Logan and Sapphire's enclosure to give them breakfast only to find that Logan who was still sleeping will never wake-up. . .
We were at the time and indeed are still shocked beyond words. He was making such progress and was so very happy, even just the night before and now to find him curled up dead. . . It was just so very shocking.

Somehow just looking at him curled up with his tail over his nose, the exact same way that he sleeps I knew he was gone yet I could not believe it. My partner checked him for a pulse and there was none. His body was becoming more and more stiff yet he was still warm from where Sapphire had been curled around him all night sleeping.

I burst out crying. Sapphire started licking away my tears as she was unsure why I was crying. At first I thought that this was as she knew Logan was gone but she had no idea, she thought Logan was still asleep so she went over and licked his face. She then nuzzled his head but she still seems to have believed he was sleeping. . .

We waited for a while with Sapphire before moving Logan's body, if an animal sees their friend is dead it is meant to help the healing process but no matter how long we waited she still did not understand. I called the vet and said what had happened and that I needed a necropsy urgently as whatever had killed Logan could possibly be a threat to all of my other fur babies. They agreed to do the procedure as soon as possible.

When we got Logan to the vet he looked him over and could not see any reason why Logan would have died so suddenly. Our vet had seen Logan multiple times over the mere month he was with us as we wanted to be sure that Logan's weight gain was steady as well as to give Logan both his distemper and parvo vaccines.

That evening when we arrived home Sapphire was sat at the door of her enclosure looking at the house. She called occasionally for Logan. We went out to spend time with her, she was not very interested in us but instead much more interested in trying to look into the house where she last saw Logan headed. We stayed outside until she dosed off but when we went back inside she woke up again and resumed waiting by the door of the enclosure.

The next day we spent all day with Sapphire. We played with her and tried our best to comfort her yet when we would cry she would try to comfort us which was very sweet but again whenever she was not entertained she would wait for Logan and call for him. Eventually we brought her inside which seemed like a good idea as we could not really sleep outside with her. . . This ended up being when she began to notice Logan was no longer here. . .

Upon entering the house she ran around looking everywhere for him; under the sofa, in the bath, under my duvet on my bed, everywhere and she started to have a bit of a mental break down. She started looking in all of these places again and again calling for Logan as she ran. She had no time for Sprite who wanted to play with her and pushed her out of her path, she was going to find Logan wherever he was. . . Or so she believed.

Eventually she fell to sleep, she was exhausted.

The next day we went and got her some new toys. We bought her everything that we thought would entertain her; Kong's, bones, chews, squeaky toys, tennis balls, ropes and dental chews which she adores as we decided we would keep her entertained to keep her spirits up. It helped a little but the best toy for Sapphire seemed to be Audrey, her 7year old human sister who apparently is brilliant fun to chase and watch Beverly hills Chihuahua with.

On January 17th the vet finally called with the results of the necropsy. It would seem that Logan's little heart just gave up when he was sleeping. The vet believes that it was caused by Logan's bad diet during the key stages of his growth so well before he came to us. The vet said that there was no way of knowing this would happen and that it is just one of those things. . .

Even though Logan was only with us for 1 month in that short amount of time he very much became an important member of our family.

Sapphire is still very confused but I think she is beginning to feel a little better. She is still not talking which is very, very odd but I am sure she will again in time.

So anyway, that's what has happened.

Before these recent events I really wanted to tell you all about how over X-mas Logan had been highly amusing but as I can't really talk about him without crying I shall past here the post I wrote on Sybil's den for you all to enjoy:

"So I was in hospital for a couple or days, not working which was odd for me as I have only been admitted to hospital a couple of times in my life. It was just very bad tonsillitis so no big deal. I am allot better now.

ANYWAY when I was in hospital everything went wrong for Mr Elina; he fed my African Pygmy dormice and one got out which he could not catch and even after 24 hours has not gone into the humane mouse trap. He had to deal with Valla being of the belief that he had hidden me so she could not see me so she grunted at him whenever he went near her and argued with him when he put her to bed. Mr Sapphire climbing out of his enclosure. . . TWICE!

Mr Elina saw him the first time and was very confused. When he got over the top he came to the back door and Mr Elina eventually caught him, cut his nails which were quite long as we had not cut them yet as he is a bit freaked out by us and put him back. Mr Elina thought that he had jumped from the platform so he took that out too. A little while later he looked outside and Mr Sapphire was crouched atop one of the panels. Mr Sapphire then quickly got to the floor and ran off and as he had been caught once before he knew how to evade capture a second time. Mr Elina had to spend hours chasing Mr Sapphire around the 2.5acres (approx) he had access too eventually catching him and managing to put him in Sapphire's enclosure which has a roof.

During this Sapphire tried to follow her man as it looked like he and her Daddy were having a blast but she just fell on her behind so I do not believe all arctics can climb BUT if one can I am guessing this is not some kind of oddity and thus others will be able too so make sure you put roofs on your enclosures. I think one contributing factor to Mr Sapphire's ability to climb is that unlike Sapphire he is underweight and thus it was much easier for him to manoeuvre himself. I am amazed that even with short claws he managed this.

I just wanted to let you all know as I know a few of you got Arctics this year and though I am sure they are all nice and chunky right now come Summer time they might slim down and I don't want you all to be shocked at your foxes sudden cat like agility. "

Today Logan returned home, allot less furry and allot smaller. I have placed his ashes on the fireplace next to Freyja with his collar atop of him the same way Freyja's is atop of her.
I miss them both so much but at least now I can think that Freyja has a friend to play with while she waits for us at the rainbow bridge. . .

Mr Sapphire finally has a name!

2012-01-09T22:46:00.000+00:00

Yes you all read right; Mr Sapphire finally has a name!

After weeks of trying different names out we have settled on a name and oddly enough it was one of the very first we tried. I guess it is like a wedding dress where you normally end up wanting the first one you ever tried on.

So without further a do I shall list our winners!

In third place is Michelle Roderick with Denim.

In second place is Laura Jane Nolan with Hinto.

And our winner of the Mr Sapphire needs a new name competition is

Nicola Carter Barnes

with

If the winners could please send me a message on here or Facebook I will get your badges off to you A.S.A.P.

Thank you all for your wonderful ideas but there could only be one.

I have of stuff to tell you all about the foxes over Christmas but I must be off to feed everyone their dinner.

TTFN!

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T22:29:00.003+00:00

I just wanted to wish you all a wonderful X-mas and a fabulous New year and what better way then with a festive Fennec!

Have a great Holiday season everyone!

- The Flashmans

PS: Not chosen a name for Mr Sapphire yet, will inform the winner when I have but keep the suggestions coming!

Mr. Sapphire needs a first name

2011-12-19T01:18:00.001+00:00

I am stuck for a first name for Mr Sapphire and would love the help of you all. Preferably something that goes with the colour blue as he, like Sapphire is a blue phase Arctic fox. Person with the best name wins 4 Flashman foxes badges, 4 runners up get 1 each!

So far my other half want's to go for Smurf but I don't see that one happening and my daughter again want's to go for Slush like she wanted us to choose for Sapphire as she likes blue slush puppies but I am not sure. . .

Either reply to this blog post or on our Facebook page with your ideas.

I very much look forward to hearing from you all!

Continued. . .

2011-12-17T03:13:00.000+00:00

I am back as promised.

Here are some photos of Sapphire showing "Mr Sapphire" around which I forgot to post last night:

Mr Sapphire looking down on me when he eventually worked out how to get on top of the kennel:

Now where were we. . . Oh yes the next morning.

After waking up multiple times during the night to go and make sure the two of them were getting along I was quite sure and relieved to find that they were very much the best of friends!

When the sun finally came up off I went in my Wellington boots armed with their breakfast and the means to clean up any "accidents" as I was unsure of quite how litter trained Mr Sapphire was.

Upon my arrival I was greeted by a very soggy Sapphire and the tail of Mr Sapphire as he retired to the shed.

Sapphire was very happy to see me however it took her a while to get to me as she was attempting to avoid stepping in any of the "accidents" Mr. Sapphire had through out the night.

When I walked towards the platform I saw quite how many the poor chap had had and felt a tad guilty about de worming him the night before. . .

I saw lots of cute little beds that he had made of hay from the hay bale however on each bed there was a pile of what looked like Spaghetti. . . Oh no I thought, worms. . .

Well it explained why a fox with the thickest coat of any mammal whose spine I could see through said coat had a belly and yet I was very confused how two house holds had had him as an inside pet and failed to notice this. . .

Thankfully worms are easy to fix and as Sapphire is wormed regularly she is in no danger of getting them even though she had spent a fair amount of the night before "kissing" Mr Sapphire. I am so very glad she is not into rolling in excrement like red foxes do when they are young.

That afternoon Mr Sapphire had his first vet trip booked but before we went I let the vet know about the worms and he asked for a sample which was easy enough. (Very disgusting though.)

Upon our arrival at the vets Mr Sapphire was checked over and I was told that he is very underweight as expected and also has been malnourished which was also as expected. His worms were some of the largest the vet had seen with one measuring 11inches in length so he probably had them since birth and was just never treated. The vet said that Mr Sapphire was very lucky to have found us and that he could think of no better place for him to be which I though was very nice of him.

Here are some random photos I took of the happy couple. . . normally not together as it is actually very hard to get them to both stay still.

Mr Sapphire exploring me:

Mr Sapphire sniffing Sapphire's Kong, you can see how skinny he is and also his worm belly:

Sapphire at breakfast:

Mr Sapphire says "hi!":

Mr Sapphire looking quite handsome:

Sapphire stood in the way when I was about to take a good photo of Mr Sapphire:

Mr Sapphire coming out of the shed:

Tails. Sapphire left Mr Sapphire right:

I just noticed I totally forgot to click to post this entry until now which I am afraid is 1 day late, forgive me?

The spare enclosure and other news.

2011-12-16T00:28:00.001+00:00

Yikes I am SO behind the main reason for which being that my camera has been missing since November and my old camera was in storage. Needless to say is is not any longer.

I believe one of the foxes, namely Harry has nabbed it but I do like to wonder what someone would think if I lost it in a public place and they found it as on the memory card there are photos of Valla and Sprite in the Halloween costumes, Harry and Elspeth's second birthday party and various other photos of just foxes lazing around.

So anyway yes on November 13th it was Harry and Elspeth's second birthday! It amazes me that they have only been with me for such a short amount of time and yet they have shaped my life so very much and changed the way I think about so many things. . . Speaking of which as I type this I am sitting at my desk, at home with five and a half, maybe a quarter socks on my desk, one of my partners slippers and two felt tip pens all of which have been confiscated from Harry, Elspeth and Rudi in the last 45 mins.

The question is would I go back in time and change my predicament so my desk was once more free from their treasures? No way! I love all 9 of my fox kids and I would never have it any other way. I actually asked my partner and daughter the same question and my daughter said the only thing she would change is she would make Akiko sleep in her room so she could be her fox (this might I add shall never happen of else neither of them shall sleep). My partner just wished he could have Freyja back as well as having the others which we all wish could happen. . . And his slipper which he just noticed was among the treasures on my desk.

So what has happened since I last posted. Well ever so much as a matter of fact and as I got my old camera (which refuses to acknowledge it is not July) out of storage I have been able to document some of it in photos.

Now where to begin. . .

Akiko got a wonderful Tinkerbell hammock all the way from America with the help of our friend Dru (whose blog you can find here: http://illustratedrat.blogspot.com/ ) . Dru is very much into Rats and when she put up a link to a rat rescue I believe it was that made cute hammocks for rats I just knew Akiko would love one and Dru was kind enough to help us get one to the UK.

Akiko loves her hammock and it is just so very perfect for her! She was quite unsure at first though so we had to put it up so that it rested on a shelf at first and the I slowly moved it higher and now she is always in there, if not sleeping she is rolling around it in just for fun.

Harry and Valla have a new favourite food: baby carrots!
I would not have expected it but yep, they love baby carrots. I am pretty sure it is just because they are really crunchy OR because Audrey and I are always munching them but either way it is very odd to see a fox turn down a chicken wing in favour of a carrot. . .

December 5th was Sprite's second birthday! Unlike Harry and Elspeth's birthday with is really the day we brought them home as Sprite actually has documentation of when her birthday is we can actually celebrate the right day. Much like Harry and Elspeth's birthday all the fur kids got their favourite food, Sprite got to go to pets at home and choose some toys herself (the foxes don't do that bit, I don't think it would go down too well).

We built a spare enclosure which we then moved Sapphire into to help us fault find (we chose her for this job as though she is an amazing escape artist she always comes and tells us she is out). This is the first time we have not put something solid down as the base to prevent escape as in Harry and Elspeth's enclosure we used cement, on Sapphire's we used galvanised wire covered in paving slabs which were covered in bark chips which is great but this time we just used galvanised wire covered in bark. It was all going really well until the third day when she had dug all around the outer edge which made me worry (she had not gotten through the wire) so I brought in some paving slabs and put them where the biggest holes were. I later the same day found out why she had been digging as she dug another hole and then after some rummaging around pulled out a large stone and took it inside the shed and there I see she has a collection of them!

The new enclosure is entirely the work of my partner on the designing front. It has a 9ft x 9ft outside run and an shed measuring 6ft by 8ft which unlike Sapphire's enclosure is not inside but instead the run is attached to the front of it as though the shed was a house and the run the front garden.

Though much smaller then Sapphire's enclosure which has been extended yet further it has many of the features including a dog house in the shed which I think my partner mainly did to amuse me and a platform however we made that too tall and had to buy a bale of hay to be used as a step and according to Sapphire it is also to be used to rub and roll on as it smells very nice (apparently).

Here are a few photos of Sapphire hanging out in there:

Sniffing Audrey's shoes:

Looking beautiful! :

Loving her Dad:

Don't try the above at home with a random fox or your pet fox if they are not accustomed to it. Sapphire has been hugged from an early age. I know it sounds odd to add that but there are really some stupid people about, not that I think any of you are but with the Holidays upon us one to many drinks can make people do some crazy things lol.

Seeing as I love foxes so much it sounds normal for me to have a random extra enclosure for no apparent reason just sitting there waiting to be filled with the next wonderful critter. We actually built this enclosure as there is somewhat of a distemper epidemic sweeping Britain and we were readying for a new member of the Flashman household.

You may remember my partner was not too pleased when I got him to move Sapphire outside. Well since she moved out I have been told daily that she needs a friend and that she is lonely and I have been asked just as often if she can come back inside as she really does not smell now.

Well, though Sapphire actually smells very little now and she does seem to live for when we went out to see her and take her for her walks I just did not wan't to move her back inside.It's not because I am mean which my 7yr old daughter informed me but because we have the heating on so much now she would cook with her winter coat. Long story short I agreed to look for a friend for her.

I looked high and low and was offered a few but then I found one that seemed to really need a knowledgeable home.

I would like you all to meet "Mr Sapphire":

Mr Sapphire is a blue phase Arctic fox just like Sapphire is just he has had a bad start in life.

Mr Sapphire's first owners basically has no idea and fed him on potatoes, no meat to keep down his "foxy smell" and bathed him every day using head and shoulders! (Neither of this would keep a fox from smelling "foxy" might I add.)

His second home did not have him for very long at all.

The day we brought him home we stopped in the kitchen to fix him some dinner before heading into the garden to take him to his enclosure, that was when I took the above photo.

Once he had finished his dinner we wandered outside to the enclosure, went inside, set down his travel cage, opened the door and POOF! there was Sapphire sniffing his nose!

You see little did I know that though we had the night before moved Sapphire to her enclosure that during the day when we were collecting him "someone" (I shall not name names hehe) took her for a walk and put her back in the wrong enclosure! We had not seen her as she was sleeping in the shed.

So anyway there was out great plan of segregating them gone and a gradual introduction gone but thankfully as all of our animals are inoculated against parvo and distemper and regularly de wormed it was not actually too big a deal for them to meet, it was just not how I expected it to go.

In all honestly I could not have expected it to go as well as it did!

After sniffing each others noses and all over each others body they took off together with Sapphire leading the way showing him around his new home, she even showed him that her humans are tame hehe.

As Sapphire is a total foodie I did not expect her to be okay with him licking the bowls but she was fine and showed no aggression at all towards him. They his it off wonderfully.

After about an hour sat with them we retired inside but checked on them regularly. I saw one of the most adorable things I have ever seen on one of the times which was the two of them sitting atop the platform licking each others tongues! I thought it looked very odd at first the two of them "kissing" each other with their tails wagging like mad but at the same time it was so cute to see them both being so happy!

Now though I am not done updating you all I must go as I have the flu and I feel totally, utterly gruesome so I shall bid you all good night and return tomorrow with the rest of my news. My photos are already on my P.C. so even if my camera should vanish I shall be able to continue.

Good night all!

Happy belated Halloween

2011-11-01T23:03:00.000+00:00

Firstly I would like to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN for yesterday, as would young Akiko the fennec fox:

Yesterday was a wonderful day here in the Flashman household with many more treats then tricks. Valla and Sprite sported matching Halloween costumes of which both girls were very happy, Valla even more so then Sprite as she had cloths that were hers this did however not stop her from trying to take Sprite's too but what can I say, she is a fox and they do very much like to have belongings.

Though none of the other foxes got to dress up they still joined in the merriment with treats of various luxury meats mixed into their normal food such as venison, duck, pheasant and such which they very much enjoyed!

I have taken many, many photos for you all however I have misplaced my camera so I shall when I find it I shall post the photos as soon as possible for you all to enjoy. As for now to keep you all amused have this video if Sprite and Akiko playing:

It is quite long next to our normal videos but I urge you to watch right until the end to see the magic which is Akiko swapping from a white mouse to a black mouse without anyone noticing and no camera trickery at all!

When I said that none of the other foxes bar Valla got to dress up I might have lied a little but only the tiniest little bit. You see Sapphire has donned her fall coat which we have been joking makes her look like she was dressed as a ghost for Halloween.

You will have noticed that I said her 'Fall coat' which will have puzzled you as you, being a lover of foxes will know that they only have two coats; one for winter and one for summer. Well, I have dubbed Sapphire's current coat her Fall coat as whenever I think she is as light as a blue phase Arctic will get she gets lighter so I am not totally sure if she is quite done her transformation yet.

This photo was taken on October 17th:

And this one on October 30th:

I think you will agree that she has changed a fair amount in a very short time frame.

I must say it is very odd to think that this large pale grey creature was once the tiny little black one depicted here:

Well I shall go now to find my camera, it must be here somewhere but I suppose the question as always is where. . .

TTFN!

Fennec fox Vs Papillon round 1

2011-10-25T00:58:00.000+01:00

Sprite, the papillon has become more and more fond of playing with Akiko the fennec fox the bigger she grows. I think now Sprite is not as worried as she was before about breaking the tiny delicate little fennec.

As always Sprite will only play rough on a bed or sofa which is great as I am quite sure that if they played on the wood floor someone would get hurt.

Akiko is getting quite good at understanding how to play, she knows that is Sprite squeaks she should let her go.

I took a few photos of the two of them last night along with the above video, I hope you guys like them!:

In the last photo Akiko's eyes are the oddest colour, they are not like that normally before anyone asks.

Though Akiko may understand that when Sprite squeaks it means to leave her alone she has yet to learn that when I squeak I mean the same:

My poor toes!

You may have noticed the red patch on Akiko's thigh? That is from her red feather cat teaser, she slept next to it the other night and it dyed her fur and I cannot wash it off so she is stuck with this red patch for now. I do not think I would mind so much if it was a funny colour but that it is red makes her look wounded! Maybe I can pass it off as a Halloween costume on the 31st? hehe!

Akiko's tower.

2011-10-20T00:21:00.003+01:00

It is not just Sapphire who has a new house, she is not even the only one to have two new houses as young Akiko the fennec fox has moved up in the world quite literally:

I had ordered her a ferret nation over a month ago but the company seem to have never sent it but thankfully they gave me a refund which was great as the same day I managed to scoop a critter nation which is basically the same cage for half the price! Until the Critter nation arrives young Akiko has my sisters old ferret cage which is okay for now but I would never go out of my way to buy one for a fennec. There really is not much room to play and it is hard to get her out without encountering a ramp on your way. This cage is great as a gap filler though.

One of Akiko's favourite things is the tiny new bed I got her:

It is meant to be for rats and chinchilla's but it seems just perfect for a young fennec:

Look at those ears!:

I was really worried this morning when I went to give Akiko her breakfast of live Moreo worms as when she stood up one of her hind legs was all red! I thought she was hurt but then I noticed that the red that was on her leg matched the red of the feathery cat teaser that I have dangling in her cage, above her bed! Sometimes I think my foxes have a competition to see who can worry me the most.

As Akiko gets through 24 moreo worms per day at least and her parents get through twice that my partner decided to try his hand at 'farming' them, he has been doing this for about a month maybe. He is also growing meal worms.

The meal worms are going really well however the moreo worms just seemed to be getting bigger but not changing into pupae so we read up how to encourage them to do this and long story short he now has 4 huge, disgusting white pupae. When he showed me I ran out of the room screaming. I had thought spiders were the only thing that could do that to me but apparently not! Learn something new every day. . .

I would end this entry by showing you all a photo of these disgusting, wiggling things BUT as I will not go near them let alone plaster their images all over my blog I will end today with a photo of Inari who, like the pupae is nearly white but he is awfully cute;

Even if he was being a grump!

Sapphire's 'house'.

2011-10-18T00:14:00.000+01:00

Today started as any other day, I woke up, got out of bed and started my walk to the bathroom however today I noticed something a little odd; There was an Arctic fox who goes by the name of Sapphire sat at my bedroom door, the same fox should have been in her outside enclosure that we built for a week before.

I was initially quite confused as to how she had magically materialised in my room as the bedroom door and windows were locked yet upon going to wake my partner to inform him that Sapphire was some sort of wizard the muddy paw prints on his side of the bad gave it away.

"She was cold" he told me when I asked him why exactly he had brought her in "she is too. . . portly to fit in her kennel". After a discussion about how Arctic foxes are from, well, the Arctic and that she would be fine on a chilly Autumn night my partner said that if she has to sleep outside we should get her a house for out there to which I agreed. I had planned to buy her a kennel anyway just the local pet shop had none bigger then the one she was too big to fit into in stock last I visited.

Once I had fed and watered the foxes and dogs I went out to go to the spa with some friends and decided that I would pick Sapphire up a bigger kennel on the way home.

About four hours later I returned with what I thought was an amazingly large kennel which I was sure my partner would be so very pleased with. I decided to walk around the side of the house to where Sapphire's outside enclosure is to start putting it together as a surprise for them both.

When I got to Sapphire's outside enclosure and walked in I was met by a shed! I had no idea what it was doing there but there was a shed in her enclosure which, I believe was shedless when I had left earlier in the day. There was the sound of a power stapler coming from inside so I wandered around to the door of the structure to find out what was going on. "What do you think?" my partner asked with a huge smile on his face "It was the biggest I could fit in the car". I asked him why there was a shed in Sapphire's enclosure to which he replied "It's Sapphire's house, remember you said she could have one". I went to the side of the shed where I had left the box containing the kennel I had bought her and dragged it to the shed door "hun, this is a dog house" I told him. He informed me that Sapphire is NOT in fact a dog and so she did not require a dog house. I asked him where exactly it said that an animal smaller then a dog needed a shed to sleep in and he told me to stop being silly and to come inside the shed.

I was actually very impressed with the shed, sorry, I mean Sapphire's house.

The 'fox house' is 6ft by 8 ft so quite large but not too large as her enclosure measures 15ft by 30ft. My partner showed me how he had bought adhesive vinyl floor tiles and had put those down to make it easy to clean and how he had put a doggy door into the shed door so Sapphire could come and go as she pleased but would not get 'cold' , he had stapled mesh to the first 2-3ft of the wall to prevent her from pulling she shed apart and he had stapled an old blanket to the window so that it would remain dark in there for if she wanted to sleep when it was sunny (he loves his little girl).

All in all I was very impressed with Sapphire's new bedroom but had no idea where to put her new kennel. My partner liked the look of the kennel I had bought and said that there was one thing still missing and that she needed a bed SO we constructed the kennel and put that inside the shed SO Sapphire now has a kennel within a shed to sleep in.

The only thing still missing was young Sapphire herself who had been relaxing in her old bedroom inside the house while the shed and kennel were erected.

My partner went to get her while I stuffed her kennel with straw and lavender scented sawdust (I normally use it for my dormice) and some of Audrey's old cloths.

Upon seeing her new palace Sapphire was quite weary and only actually entered with help as she had no idea how to use the doggy door. I don't blame her there though, it is not normal to head-butt something that looks like a window and have it open hehe.

After a while she seemed quite fond of her new room and brought her Swiper the fox toy from out on the grass inside and then into the sleeping area.

I think she is impressed with it even though I clearly put the straw in the wrong place as two seconds after I left the shed she had strewn it EVERYWHERE!

Here are some photos of her in her 'house':

I think Sapphire is a very happy little girl now.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

2011-10-11T00:07:00.000+01:00

I totally forgot to scan these back in February when I got these very, very cool WWF envelopes with matching stamps.
Now I am not nor have I ever been into stamp collecting though I can see the appeal as each stamp is a mini work or art. Take for example the envelope that the envelopes I am about to show you came in:

Okay the cow ones are funny but still they are little bit's of artwork.

How I found the envelopes is quite funny.
I had been to Budapest last December and wherever I go I get a patch and in Budapest we were having real trouble finding one until we stumbled upon a stamp shop. When we went inside I did not really look around and just bought my patch and left.

In February, so 2 months later I found out that WWF brought out a set of stamps and envelopes with Corsac foxes on them so I decided I MUST have them. After a quick search on Google my partner found them for me. . . from the stamp shop in Budapest that I had been in in December! SO the reason that the patch is the thing obscuring our address is as I got it in the same place as the contents which I thought was pretty neat!

Now without further a do here are my WWF Vulpes Corsac envelopes:

Spring & Summer:

Autumn & Winter:

And as you cannot see the stamps very well I found this close up on Google images:

I wish people used these all the time. I mean even bills would not be too bad if they came in envelopes covered in the images of adorable little foxes!

Valla - Britain's next top model

2011-10-09T20:42:00.001+01:00

Last night when I stopped blogging and decided that maybe it was time for bed Valla did something I had never, ever seen a non human do. . . She bit her tongue!

Now you may giggle, I actually am right now and it did look funny when she did it as it was like she forgot to put her tongue away BUT having such very big, sharp teeth it actually was quite worrying. There was blood, not much but blood at all makes me worry with my kids, mostly with my fur kids as with Audrey my only non furry kid I can sort out but with my fur kids the exotics vet is over an hour away and is not open in the middle of the night.

ANYWAY the blood that was coming from her tongue looked like far more then there was as she is blonde and it had gotten on her fur and combined with her drool had covered her face. She was a bit freaked out so ran to my room and sat in my closet. (She likes hiding under my dresses when she is in a mood.) When I picked her up out of there she snuggled into me and started licking my hands. It did not take me long to notice she was licking my hands as she could not lick her own tongue so this was the best she could do as the blood from her tongue was going on my hands and she could lick that off. A little while after she stopped licking my hands she decided to try to lick in my mouth as she did not see why I was not licking her poor tongue better! This was a wee bit too much so I passed her onto Sprite who was more then happy to help her best friend.

So Valla is all okay now, she was just a bit worried as was I but she was back to running around with Sprite a few minuets later however she still felt a bit sorry for herself.

Prior to the tongue incident Valla had seen me putting a jumper on Sprite who wanted to go in the garden but was so very cold. Valla did not understand why she was not being treated the same, why she was not being put into a jumper so she decided to run off with one!

It was very, very funny as she looked at all of Sprite's clothing for a while until she decided that the brown jacket would be perfect for herself. (I think it was the golden coloured buttons that closed the deal.)

I called Valla back to me and she came, reluctantly as she was quite sure I would be upset with her. I then went to get the coat from where she had hidden it.

As Valla sat on the bed watching me as I put the coat away I decided to let her try it out. I was being unfair not letting her join in and she seemed to think I had decided Sprite was now my favourite as she looked very unhappy.

Foxes normally do not care if you want to involve them in things but Valla really hates it when Sprite does anything she is not allowed to do or gets things she is not allowed to have so we normally make sure not to do that, the girls always have the same things.

SO I put Valla's new harness on her which seemed to be a hit as it has little diamanté bit's on it and then I put the jacket on her. I would NEVER have thought a fox would be so happy to join in with a dog wearing clothing!

Valla spun around on the bed and ran down the hall after Sprite, I would suppose to show her how she was doing the same thing. Sprite seemed confused as to why Valla was so excited about just wearing a jacket and retreated back to my room. Valla was not far behind.

As I had my camera on my bedside cabinet I decided to take a few photos.

I posted a few of the photos on Facebook and a friend said that Valla would look nice in pink so as Valla was already having such a good time trying out Sprites wardrobe I let her try on a pink jumper too:

As you can see I was not holding her lead, she was too busy bouncing on her favourite trampoline in her stylish new togs to care hehe.

Valla noticing that she had her lead on.

Oh no she's found Sprite's morning treat bag! I just love the 'hunting' foot hehe.

Practising her zombie eyes ready for Halloween.

Her show dog pose. You have no idea how hard it is to get her to stand like that. It involves allot of treats hehe.

And here is my beautiful girl in just her new harness:

Her brush is so fluffy! It is not as long as Rudi's but it is so poofy I just adore it!

I just wanted to say that I would never have put Valla in the cloths if she did not want to. Unlike Sprite she has a winter coat on her naturally and thus has no need for winter wear, I just let her try them on to join in with Sprite and as you can see she enjoyed it.

Valla's new harness is the same as the one Freyja had but in black opposed to pink. It is mean to be for adult cats but it is still way too big for Valla even on the smallest settings. You can see how much of her is just fur.

Poor Akiko, like Sprite has no winter coat but also has no winter coats so she has stolen my stripy hot water bottle:

Earlier today I had quite a shock as I was peeling mangoes to dehydrate for Audrey's lunch and Rudi jumped on the kitchen counter, took a mango skin and ran off! I was totally amazed that he managed the jump with but 3 working legs and more amazed that he managed to land on his 3 good legs!

He does not seem to impressed with him mango skin but he will not give it up for anything, not even a chicken wing as I think he is proud of himself for getting it. . . I must be honest, I am proud of him too.

The fennec formerly known as ' Princess '

2011-10-09T05:50:00.000+01:00

So as 'Princess' go older and we had to use her name more often ("Princess, drop the sock!", "Princess don't poop there!" etc) we decided that we really had to change her name.

We had planned to for some time but it had become quite urgent as Valla, Sprite, Elspeth, Sapphire and even my 7yr old human daughter Audrey were becoming increasingly annoyed with me telling them off for things they did not do as I have a habit of calling all my girls 'Princess'.

I tried many, many names and none seemed to stick and I constantly caught myself calling her 'Princess' so I asked for help on Sybil's den (http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/) and Facebook where many people gave me many ideas but none quite worked until 'the_unstable' on Sybil's den posted a link to a website with Japanese names.

After many hours sat there with 'Princess' on my knee I tried many, many names and eventually narrowed it down to two: Akiko which means Autumn or Bright child or Kimiko which means happy beautiful or noble child.

With the help of Kimberly Deverell and her Japanese language skills she was able to tell me that the meanings were correct and I chose Akiko (Bright child).

SO without further a-do here is Akiko the fennec fox kit:

We also gave her a brand new (also her very first) collar to go with that new name:

She looks like she 'belongs' now.

The weather has been so very odd here as of late, this time last week it was 27 degrees and yet now it is so very cold! When it was hot Harry, Elspeth, Rudi, Valla and Sapphire were so very moody as they have their winter coats on and just could not cope with the heat. The fennecs were in their element and were so very happy with the extra days of sunshine.

Thankfully for our winter wear foxes it has cooled right down which has now upset the fennecs, I just cannot win! Akiko has decided that a cushion on the radiator or one of the cat beds that hooks on are perfect for her:

Her parents have decided that sleeping atop each other is more their sort of thing.

Sprite the Papillon is also a fair weather critter and seeing as she has no undercoat and unlike the fennecs does have to go outside to go to the bathroom and go for walks I got her some jumpers and coats:

When we were getting Sprite her Winter attire we saw the most adorable cat toy which we thought would be perfect for Akiko. It is a cube covered in the same stuff as a cat's scratch post with the shapes of cat heads cut out on four sides with mice hung in the cut outs on elastic.

I am very glad to say that it is a hit!

However so too is a the top of a juice carton. . .

Oh well, whatever makes her happy!

I must be off as Sprite and Valla are arguing over a jacket hehe.

TTFN!

And then there was one. . .

2011-09-22T23:11:00.001+01:00

So here we are 21 days since my last post and my lap is decidedly empty with but one Phoenix kit sitting on it; Princess, who has become very clingy since her brothers Giggles and Churchill and her sister Amali went to their new homes.

Giggles went to a pet home on September 11th, the same day Amali went to live with http://debonaireexoticanimalencounters.com/ and hopefully the future love of her life Pharaoh who is a few months older then her who I had the pleasure to meet at the Ark exotics awareness back in July. Here are Pharaoh and Amali together:

Pharaoh was the sole survivor of a litter of two kits and I think that is why he seems so mellow next to Amali who grew up with 3 siblings (and a Papillon) to play with at all hours of the day and night. I am sure he will become more accustomed to her idea of play in time. Thankfully she really seems to like him!

Churchill stayed with us for an extra week before going to his new pet home in Wales. He seems to be having an amazing time with his new family especially his new mum Paula.

Here he is in his new home where his new name is Phoenix:

Doing his favourite thing, eating! I am glad the move did not effect his appetite hehe!

Exploring:

Phoenix: 'Shh I'm hiding! :

And then there was one.

Young 'Princess' took her big brother moving out worst then when her Amali and Giggles left as 'Churchill' was her great protector. He was the ring leader and the bravest of them where she was very much the most fearful when it came to exploration. Now instead of eating Morio worms being great fun she is a little worried of them and yesterday actually ran away from them! Before her big brother would have saved her but now that job belonged to Sprite the papillon who also does not like them so insects being a staple of her diet was not going so well so we downgraded her back to meal worms which she seems allot less worried about.

Here is a video of 'Princess' and Churchill eating moreo worms:

I think 'Princess' needs a man in her life, not necessarily a mate, just someone to protect her as now she has decided that my partner is her favourite of the humans and will sit and watch him for hours calling to him whenever she cannot see him to be sure he has not gone far. She also likes to sit on his lap but that is tricky as the other lap fox in my partner life Sapphire the arctic fox is SO big he cannot hug them both at once for fear that Sapphire will crush 'Princess'.

You may wonder why I keep writing 'Princess' like that, well I am still not sure what to name her. The other day she was 'Prinseski' as my other half watched something about Russia, she has been Persil as she is small and mighty I just do not know what to name her. Should I name her something Japanese like Inari and Kitsune or maybe something Egyptian? I cannot decide so if any of you have any ideas let me know. My 7 year old daughter thinks Tinkerbell is nice or Tinker but she already named one of my Asian garden dormice Tinkerbell so we can't reuse the same names. I thought maybe Pixie as they are meant to have pointy ears and then I would have Sprite and Pixie. . . I don't know, I like the idea of all the corsacs names matching and all the fennecs names matching. . . Is there a Japanese Pixie?

Here are some random photos of the Phoenix kits last week or so together:

Bath time!

A visit to see Auntie Nix:

Together:

And then there was one:

I have so many more photos I need to upload of everyone and videos I need to edit but sadly I have to go now, I am falling to sleep at my desk so good night people!

Trials and tribulations of photographing & bathing foxes

2011-09-01T22:28:00.000+01:00

Sapphire has a very busy life style between playing with the dog, playing with Valla, sleeping, eating those second and third breakfasts we talked about before and visiting friends.

On Sunday we took her to visit a friend she had not met before. She was a little worried at first which made her a weee bit smelly as her violet gland was working over time so we had a look around their garden and made sure there was nowhere she could escape and let her go out and play.

We all actually ended up evacuating the house as Sapphire had made it so smelly! With all the windows and doors open and Sapphire in the garden the only challenge then was to keep her in the garden she she was quite sure the smells of cooling were some new way to call her inside.

As I had forgotten my camera the iphone had it's work cut out for it, especially with it's 2 second pause before it actually bothers to take the photo you have asked it to take and little fox who will not stand still for two seconds.

So here is our first photo. Not too sure what she is doing but I am sure when the button was clicked to take the photo it was something adorable.

Sapphire heading for the kitchen.

Coming at the kitchen from the other direction.

Eating the sea shells from on the path. At least this time we have her face in the photo.

I think this one is actually pretty cute! I love that you can see the shape of her and how her tail is more white then 'blue'.

Oh she found a leaf! We know she loves those!

She looks a little like a show dog here with this pose. You cannot see most of her harness as though it is not tight to her body her fur is so fluffy it covers it.

And she's off again!

Can you spot her?

Eating sea shells again!

And again. . .

Sapphire loved these yellow flowers she was looking at in this photo. She lost interest when she found one on the lawn, chewed it and found out it was NOT yummy hehe.

Sapphire- "Oh wow a whole load of leaves! Where do they come from?"

Sapphire- "I will just take a look."

As you can see out of 13 photos we have but 2 good ones!

This often also happens when I take photos with my camera as opposed to my phone. I normally try to post only the best or most amusing ones but today I thought I would show you why photographers (of which I am not) often say that they will not photograph children or animals.

On Tuesday I was playing with Valla in my bedroom but then when we came to leave she would not as our bengal cats were stood at the bedroom door hissing at her. I am not sure why they hate her but they do so I took the chance to film her playing on my bed with her Eeyore.

The video has no sound as I removed it as all you could hear was the cats.

When we finally left the room Valla was quite worried as we made our way to the living room and checked every room along the way for cats:

She came to collect me and escort me past the rooms once she knew they were safe:

I think she was trying to make sure I was safe or maybe she needed backup but wanted to appear brave hehe.

Earlier the same day the Phoenix kits had their very first bubble bath as they decided to hide some of their food in their bed. . . And sleep on it. This had created a sort of vomit coloured, meaty hair gel and would not come off with a damn cloth nor a rub and roll in the sandbox so a bath was our only option.

If you watched the video with the sound on yes, you heard me right I use conditioner on them. Why is as it is a puppy one and it is meant to be good for their skin so I am all up for that. And yes I used lavender scented bubble bath and shampoo on them as it is meant to be calming.

I actually spoil all of my foxes like this, they all have very nice bubble bath and other things and this is because I think it will make it a nicer experience for them all, I mean we must remember Harry and the cherry bubble bath:

I am quite sure they do not all have expensive taste like Harry and, would like the bath to be over as fast as possible but you can't blame me for trying!

Sadly after the bath while I was towel drying them I let them lay on my lap when I dried their backs which resulted in my new blue jeans dying their tummies blue! So all of the little phoenix kits have blue tummies hehe!

Do any of you remember when I first brought Sprite my papillon puppy home and she was adopted by Harry and Elspeth? Well here we are 1 year later and Sprite has now adopted the Phoenix kits! You would think that the phoenix kits would now think they are dogs but as Sprite is quite sure she is a fox and acts like one 95% of the time I think they have turned out more foxy then if they had never encountered Sprite.

Here is Sprite with 'her' two little girls:

I had put the two of them on my chair to take photos of them but Sprite was upset as she had just gotten them to sleep oops!

Here are some of the photos:

'Princess' aka Persil small and mighty hehe.

Amali being weary of the camera.

'Princess' having a hug. She is so small she makes my small hands look HUGE!

'Princess' on my lap

'Princess' on my desk chair.

'Princess' on my chair.

'Princess' on my chair

Amali and Princess on my chair.

The girls stare down the camera

Amali (left) 'Princess' (right)

So I think that is enough for now. I shall bore you all again tomorrow maybe if I have any free time and/or space on my camera's memory card.

TTFN!

Nom nom nom nom!

2011-08-29T23:47:00.000+01:00

The other day the fennecs were eating their dinner and I decided to film it. We all know fennecs can be pretty loud as adults right? Well the phoenix kits are also pretty loud and they were only 6 weeks old when I made this film AND their mouths were full!

They are so cute and so very funny I watch them for hours when I have the time.

People have asked me allot what the fennec kits have been eating and normally I just reply bugs and turkey/chicken mince but actually they have a few more things such as live meal worms and baby food. . . Yep you read right, baby food.
The fennec kits were having awful trouble with their veggies so I decided to purée them which they loved but made such an awful mess in the blender that the dishwasher did not do well at removing and I HATE cleaning the blades by hand as I fear I will cut myself SO I bought them baby food as it is pre blended. They have Plum brand Spinach , parsnip and basil which I mix into their ground meat. They have tried the parsnip, apple and pea but that did not go down so well and they seemed to try to avoid it when they were eating.

I bet you are wondering why the fennecs have salt on their food, maybe it's a bit bland for them?

Hehe nope, it is actually taurine and calcium which I sprinkle on their food I then mix it in and then it becomes this:

A brown icky mess. . . But they like it so the vomit inducing look of it can be excused.

The Phoenix kits have their food in the same bowls most people use for reptiles as they are shallow but also hold a fair amount. They have a flat base too which means their food is not spilt everywhere when they eat which means I have to clean up after them a little less. . . Only a little though.

PS:

Wesley Kenyon owner of a fennecfoxes.webs.com has decided to attempt to slander my name as I am sure anyone who has ever read his blog or joined his website will know. I am not like him and I know I do not need to go around spouting nonsense to gain friends but anyway here is my side of it all:

http://www.raskbb.com/sybilsden/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8209

It also has other breeders views on him after he too messed them around.