I left on Tuesday for the Philippines. My first flight was from Philadelphia to Chicago. Then Chicago to Tokyo Japan. When I finally arrived in Japan after my 13 hour flight I found out my cell phone wasn't working. I almos had a panic attack because I had no way of contacting F.B. to let him know I had arrived safely in Japan. I tried going to the money changer but I couldn't understand how to fill the form out and the Japan payphones were really odd looking too and you need Yen for them. I didn't know how I was going to let F.B. know when I was in the Philippines so he would know to come and pick me up in the waiting area. The flight from Japan to the Philippines was about 4 hours right before we were going to land I realized on the control for the LCD movie screen there was a phone on the other side you could use with your credit card so I called F.B. from the plane. At first he couldn't hear me so I had to call back and then he was like, "You're at the airport?" "No, I'm ON the plane! We're going to be landing my cell phone isn't working!" After all that once I did land in the Philippines, my cell phone did work. F.B.'s dad said Japan is on a different network and that's my phone didn't work.

We got back to F.B.'s house around 11:30pm on Wednesday. He had a red rose for me and some ratties waiting... hahaha! There was also a sign in the dining room Ate Malou made.

The next day was Thanksgiving so we headed to Mall of Asia for my "Thanksgiving" in the Philippines. We also watched 'A Christmas Carol' with Jim Carrey in 3D at the IMAX theater. We also had to pick up a new voltage box because my laptop wasn't working with the one F.B. got after the flood. We had dinner at Gerry's Grill like we did on my "Thanksgiving" last year in the Philippines. We had Gerry's grilled squid & veggie rice. We also tried a tofu & pork appetizer but it wasn't so great.

Friday we got up early to go to the US Embassy in Manila to get my 'Certificate of Legal Capacity to Contract Marriage' We left the house around 6am and arrived around 7am. On the way to the building F.B. forgot he had his cell phone in his pocket.(No electronics are allowed inside the embassy.) As we were walking back to the car F.B. heard this guy say "Sarah Lynn". We were a little freaked out at first until the guy introduced himself. A few weeks ago I recieved an email from a blog reader who works for Department of Homeland Security at the US Embassy. He wanted to let me know that the embassy would be closed on December 1st and that November 27th would be a half day since those were the days we were considering going to the embassy. He had been at the Starbucks and was walking back to the embassy when he said he recognized us from my blog pictures, lol! I'm world famous now, haha!

I emailed him later in the day to thank him after we ran into him and he replied:

Hello Sarah-Lynn and FB, I am glad all is set now for the big day. It was nice, definitely a coincidence, running into you both this morning. Although I think I may have scared you guys a bit when I approached you and FB on the street with my Starbucks cup. You probably thought I was panhandling!

We really weren't at the embassy too long. I had to fill out my paper, go to another window to pay for it, then the longest part was waiting for them to do a background check. After that our name was called and we were interviewed briefly before I signed my paper and it was notarized. We were out of there around 9:30am. Then we headed back to Mall of Asia for lunch at Chow King and then back to F.B.'s house. Wednesday we have an appointment at the Cainta Municipal Hall to apply for our marriage licence. Saturday we just spent the day hanging out at his house watching movies and relaxing after the past 2 busy days.

Today we are at Robinson's Galleria. I'm at an internet cafe right now. We are going to see 2012. Afterwards we will be having dinner at Tokyo Tokyo.

I will leave you with some silly photos we took today!


And this is "Mugwort" he is another stray cat that likes to visit F.B.'s house. He survived the flood too. F.B. was trying to carry him out of the garage when the water was up to their necks but he jumped off his shoulders and swam away! F.B. named him "Mugwort" because if you look up the Tansy flower on wikipedia (My cat's name.) Mugwort is another name for Tansy. He's like the male Tansy, lol

NOTE: If you are getting married in the Philippines and you are a US citizen these requirements from the US Embassy in Manila Philippines, will be helpful: Getting Married in The Philippines.

 

So last year when I found & talked to our immigration lawyer. He said immigration would need proof of our relationship. He said making copies of my plane tickets, our letters, etc would help to establish proof of our relationship.

I bought a all in one printer last weekend from Walmart. Surprisingly they had an HP Deskjet for $34! And it doesn't seem to be a sale price. It does seem to be an online only purchase though. I couldn't believe the price when I ordered it!

It arrived this week and I set it up and started making some copies. I've kept every boarding pass, every email from Orbitz.com. I have receipts, movie stubs, play tickets, basketball game ticket stubs from the times I've been in the Philippines. I'm planning to make copies of these. Maybe not every receipt, but I'm sure ones from the hotels we've stayed at, etc may be helpful. Since F.B. & I have sent tons of letters in the past 5 years my lawyer agreed making a copy of the 1st page of the letter and the front of the envelope with postmark should be sufficient.

F.B. has also kept trip journals each time I've been in the Philippines. He wrote down what we did on each day of my stay. I'm going to make copies of those too. F.B. will be making copies of my letters. These are all to provide immigration with proof of our relationship. We will need other documentation and even statements from relatives to prove our relationship to immigration. The more proof we have the better! It's going to take awhile to make copies and records of everything but that is why I am beginning now so we are prepared when we start working with our immigration lawyer in early 2010.

I've also been bidding on eBay again like crazy. When am I not?! Whenever I want something, I always check eBay first for a great deal. I am always saving money that way. I've gotten books recently and clothes and I've been wanting Bose in ear headphones for awhile now. They are so expensive. They retail for $99! I can't stand my tin can sounding ipod buds anymore. Not since I started listening to my music through my new car stereo! I have sony in ear headphones for the plane but they are uncomfortable so I was looking for something that sounds great and is comfortable too.

I was bidding on Bose headphones for the longest time and always getting outbid until a week ago or so. I was outbid on an auction but a few days later I received a 2nd chance offer because the winner the auction failed to pay. I got brand new in the box Bose headphones for $40! My highest bid. They are amazing too! They don't go in your ear all the way so they are comfortable and I barely have to turn the volume up on my video ipod at all it's so clear & loud! With the ipod buds I had to turn up the volume almost all the way and it still didn't sound so great. I'm very happy with them!

So it's been extremely rainy in Philadelphia for a week straight now! It was supposed to overcast for the weekend and then it changed to scattered thunderstorms. I've been wanting to take my new rattie girls (Ginger, Nutmeg & Saffy) to the park to get some nice outdoor shots of them like my older girls. Well I woke up by chance this morning around 8:30am and the sun was shining in my window so up I got. I was definitely heading to the park! My brother & I stopped for breakfast sandwiches and redbull at Wawa and then took the girls to the park where I got some lovely shots of them outside.

They were very curious sniffing and looking around at the park. And of course people had to stop us and say, "Is that a rat!?" "Are they good pets?" "What do they eat!?" And others just pointed. Yes, I'm the crazy rat lady at the park, haha! It was really humid out though. And it did start raining just as we were leaving and heading to the parking lot but we had a really nice morning.

Here are some pictures from today:

You can view the rest of the pictures at my photobucket album here!

I've been thinking about getting another white rat for a few weeks, so Wednesday after work I stopped at a few pet stores to see if they had any rats. 2 of the stores I went to only had males and the Petco where I adopted Tansy had 3 white females, so I didn't feel too bad since I was only buying 1 of them.

Please meet Saffron! "Saffy" for short!




She is very tiny and she isn't quite used to being handled by people just yet. When you hold her she cries and squeaks a bit until she settles down. She's very sweet & curious and so small compared to my other girls! The sales associate at the pet store had a heck of a time trying to get her out of the cage. She kept running away from him and she squealed up a storm when he finally caught her! I'm thinking about introducing her to my other girls this weekend so we will see how things go. If all goes well she will be living with Ginger & Nutmeg. Sugar is still very territorial, so she & Cinnamon live in the upper part of the Ferret Nation cage.

Now for some updates on my other 4 girls!


Sugar is around 1 year 7 months old now. She's been suffering from abscesses on her left front paw since January. I took her to a new vet last month and he gave her a shot of baytril & started her on a new antibiotic. She has not had anymore abscesses since then, but she did develop a blood blister in the same spot she had her last abscess and it's healing very slowly. Sugar also seems to be developing a mammary tumor on her belly near her left back leg. Since she is getting older now and has alot of other health issues I'm not going to put her through surgery to have it removed. Right now it is growing very slowly.

Cinnamon is around 1 year 3 months old now and doing just fine. She's my chunky monkey. She is the biggest of all my girls. And she loves to be cuddled. She'll hang out on the bed with me if I'm reading or on the laptop.


Ginger & Nutmeg are both around 5 months old now. Nutmeg never sits still. She loves to run all around my bedroom when I give her free time. She will climb up the curtains just to get into the window to look out.

Ginger started bleeding a few weeks ago and it was very similar to Cinnamon's issue over a year ago. I was very hesitant to have another rat spayed so I started her on antibiotics hoping it was just an infection. After a week on the antibiotics the bleeding went away and hasn't been back. Which makes me wonder if Cinnamon ever really needed to be spayed and if my old vet should have tried her on a different antibiotic.

In other news; I ordered some new books on Amazon.com last week and just started reading them. I ordered: Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace, Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance & Designs of the Heart: The Pattern/The Pledge/The Promise. The last book I read the 1st book- but I wanted to read the 2nd & 3rd so I ordered a volume with all 3 books.

My cat Popcorn passed away around 8:30pm this evening. She was 15 years old. She seemed just fine today. I saw her in the morning before I left for work, cuddled up on the back of the sofa and I pet her head before I left. This evening she was okay too. My parents said she was even eating some leftover sausage scraps from dinner. My 14 year old brother Sean even gave her a bath.

Around 8pm my mother knocked on my bedroom door and told me Popcorn had had a violent seizure and that she was not doing well at all and asked if I wanted to come and see her. She was laid out on the sofa, next to my brothers still wet from her bath earlier. Her eyes were not blinking her one ear looked crooked and her tongue was protruding slightly. She was paralyzed. She would try to breathe every now and then give a horrible groan and her paws would twitch...

I called my vet but got the answering machine with the number for the emergency vet service. I called them and got directions and got dressed, I didn't want her to suffer all night... we were going to have her put to sleep. I was waiting for my parents to get ready when Popcorn wasn't making any noises. I felt for her heartbeat and it was still there and asked my brother to check too... but just as quick as that she wasn't with us anymore... and she passed away around 8:30pm....

My Dad & Scotty buried her outside under the trees. We said goodbye to her before they took her outside. It was just so sudden tonight... I wasn't expecting this at all. We were all talking about our cats this morning at work... I am very upset... my whole family is upset. We got Popcorn when I was just 11 years old, and I will be 27 this year... my brother Sean who is 14 is also really upset. When I first went away to the Philippines almost 3 years ago Popcorn became really attached to Sean and was his buddy. Goodbye Popcorn... we will miss you...





















Four Feet in Heaven

Your favorite chair is vacant now...
No eager purrs to greet me.
No softly padded paws to run
Ecstatically to meet me.
No coaxing rubs, no plaintive cry
Will say it's time for feeding.
I've put away your bowl, and all
The things you won't be needing;
But I will miss you little friend,
For I could never measure
The happiness you brought me,
The comfort and the pleasure.
And since God put you here to share
In earthly joy and sorrow;
I'm sure there'll be a place for you
In Heaven's bright tomorrow...

By, Alice E. Chase

My friend Brittney operates Star's Rat Rescue in Winner, South Dakota. Brittney helps rescue rats in need and helps to place them in forever loving homes. You can see her current adoptable rats on petfinder.com

Brittney also makes hammocks, cage liners & cubes for rats. All of her proceeds go towards her rescue. For more information you can visit her store here.

I recently ordered a Ferret Nation cage liner set & two cubes from her rescue. (She has a great selection of fabrics so you can customize your order!) They arrived on Thursday and they were so nice! The cage liners were thick and soft. Each of the liners has elastic on the bottom so it will secure nicely in the cage. The cubes were adorable, my ratties really loved them!

Here are some pictures of my girls enjoying their cubes:
















































The girls cage looks so nice now with everything in it here are a few pictures:









































For more information on Star's Rat Rescue please click here.

Or if you own pets rats or are interested in owning them, please feel free to come and hang out with us at the ratchatter forums here.

I was planning on calling the vet to get Sugar's paw looked at again since it was still very swollen from her sprain a month ago. Well Saturday afternoon after I got home from work (overtime) my brother noticed her one eye looked larger than the other. I didn't think too much of it until Sunday when it swelled up. I used a gel ice pack and held it over her eye until the swelling decreased but by Monday evening her eye was actually bulging out. I made an appointment to get her paw & eye checked at the vet.

Tuesday she had her appointment and the vet checked her paw out. He wasn't sure why it was still swollen (mostly around her wrist, she can't bend the joint.) or why her eye was swollen. He said it could possibly be tumors and there wouldn't be anything he could do for that. He prescribed some more metacam for her swollen paw.

I don't really believe the swelling of her eye is being caused by a tumor at all. Just because of the fact the ice pack keeps bringing the swelling under control. If it was a tumor that would be a foreign mass under the skin and I don't think the swelling would have decreased with the ice if it really was a tumor.

Some of you might know I'm a member & moderator at the ratchatter forums. We were discussing Sugar's condition on the forum. We were saying it could be a possible infection or even a condition called edema. Then the fact was brought up that metacam is a immunosuppressive drug. When it is used for long periods of time it can decrease the immune system which makes your pet more susceptible to infections.

Metacam should actually be prescribed with an antibiotic because of this. (And Sugar was already on the metacam for almost 3 weeks a month ago.) I didn't know this beforehand or else I would have mentioned it to my vet. He is a good vet, but sometimes he isn't as knowledgeable about rats as I would like. (Though the way my rats keep visiting the vet- he'll be an expert on them soon enough, lol!)Surprinsgly; I also noticed tonight if you look up metacam here, it even lists edema as a possible side effect.

Well, since I didn't know that metacam should be prescribed with an antibiotic; I went home and by Wednesday night Sugar's eye was worse. Bulging farther out, red, runny, swollen. She couldn't close it, it was awful. I actually shrieked when I saw her. I called the vet and they said to bring her over and they would see me first. This time my vet thought it could definitely be an infection so he put her on the antibiotic SMZ-TMP The nurse was saying since her paw is still bothering her and because she's had alot of porphyrin in the mornings she was probably rubbing her eyes alot and could have gotten an infection that way. That makes sense, especially if her immune system is low.

Wednesday Night:















Of course the vet said if the swelling didn't go down then we could be looking at something more serious like a tumor- but she's been on the metacam & the antibiotic since Wednesday and this morning her eye looked so much better! It wasn't bulging. It still looks slightly puffy and irritated but nothing like the other night. She's also still been getting ice on her eye in the mornings, afternoon & evenings and this morning she didn't need any ice at all! So yay! Looks like she is on the mend! Her paw was actually looking slightly better too, so I'm wondering if it's just fluid buildup from her sprain. Once she's finished all of her med's & her infection clears up- if her paw still looks puffy I'm going to look into taking her to a different vet for another opinion & x-ray.

How her eye looks currently:















Sugar isn't fond of her medicines at all... she loves to drool it out of her mouth! She is getting 0.1ml of metacam once a day & 0.3ml of SMZ-TMP twice a day. I always try to trick her with a yogurt peanut afterwards so most of the medicine gets in her. I've decided to keep up with the ice pack in the evenings unless she looks like she needs it. I've also been rinsing her eye out with saline to keep it clean. Let's hope by next week she will be doing much better!

So as I mentioned the other day my brand new 3 week old Nissan Versa has a few scratches on the hood. It happened last Friday. I was at several stores and in several parking lots that night. Either someone scraped it with a key, walked into it or was sitting on it with the back pocket buttons of their jeans. The only thing I can think of is when I stopped at Walmart there was this sports car parked next to mine and these teenage guys hanging around admiring it. So maybe they leaned or sat on the front hood of my car and accidentally scraped it. Either that or someone scraped it intentionally. Either way it really really sucks! My first payment is due on Saturday.

I took the car up to the dealership today. I had to leave work an hour early to drive up there. When I called the salesman that sold me the car yesterday he said to bring it up and he would look at it and see if they could just buff it out. Well, they tried buffing it out with their strongest stuff and the 2 lighter lines are gone, but the 2 deeper vertical fine lines are still there, they couldn't get it out. Still looks white against the black paint. He said I could take it down to the collision center and get an estimate. He thought it might just need a wet sand. Well the man at the collision center said a wet sand probably won't get it out- it would need to be repainted. So I asked for an estimate and he said $400!!! I tried not to fall over after that price. I said I would have to think about it so he gave me his business card.

That's really too expensive for me. I can't afford that. My Dad said he could try a wet sand but if it needed to be repainted he could do it for much much less. My dad used to do auto body repair before he retired. He said to try a colored wax or touch up paint first though so I'm going to see if I have any luck with them before getting anything drastic done to my new car. First I ordered a Nissan Versa touch up paint pen with my paint color & clear coat. And I'm also going to try Turtle Colored Wax Since I had to order the paint pen online and it will take a week or so to arrive I'm going to see if they have the colored wax at the auto store tomorrow after work.

My manager called when I was on my way home from the dealership and said they would be offering overtime tomorrow from 6am-11:30am so I'll be off to work tomorrow. I really need the money. I have to pay off these credit cards so I can buy a plane ticket to the Philippines sometime this spring.

I also had my taxes prepared last night and my $600 refund will at least put a dent in my $1,800 balance on my credit card. I have to pay that down before I can afford to put $1,500 back on another card. I already got a new 0% APR card from Citibank that I'll be using for my plane ticket when the time comes. I'm thinking of going to the Philippines before or right after Thanksgiving and arriving home mid January 2010. That will give F.B. & I enough time to get our paperwork together before getting married in December.

I still haven't mailed F.B.'s valentines stuff... looks like it will also become his anniversary gift! (Our 5 year anniversary is April 1st.) I ordered his sister some ring guards for her engagement ring. (She got engaged a few weeks ago!) and I ordered F.B. a small something and then I ordered his mom a gift off of Etsy.com. So I have to wait for it to arrive before I mail everything.

I have to call the vet on Monday. The swelling on Sugar's paw has still not gone down completely. It's been about a month and her metacam only lasted 3 weeks. She can walk on it and climb and eat with it. She doesn't cry when you touch it. But she's can't really stand or walk properly on it. It's still so swollen she can't straighten her paw out completely so she walks crooked on it. Also she has alot of porphyrin around her eyes in the morning and rats do not get that unless they are stressed, in pain or ill. I'm hoping when I call the vet on Monday he can just prescribe more metacam since he said last time there was nothing else they could really do for a sprain.

Still Swollen:















It's going to be a very tight paycheck because too many of my bills are falling on the same week. I got my first car payment & first insurance bill and they are due when a few other high bills are due. I called Chase bank to find out about moving the due date for the car to the middle of the month but they said I must make the first payment before they will be able to move the due date. That's another reason I'm hoping she won't have to go in for an office visit, since it's $45 just for the visit and a 2 week metacam prescription was around $26. That's also another reason why I have to go in for overtime tomorrow!

I haven't updated in a few days, I was so busy this past week and yesterday was spent cleaning my entire room and doing laundry. Sugar had her visit at the vet on Tuesday for her sprain. He did an x-ray to make sure it wasn't a broken bone. Pretty weird seeing the inside of your rat on an x-ray! It was just a really bad sprain. He prescribed some metacam an anti-inflammatory for her to take for 2 weeks. She has to get it once a day and she just hates it, she will try to drool it out of her mouth. The swelling is decreasing slowly and it definitely doesn't look as bad as it did. He skin was really dry and peeling on her paw when the swelling started to go down though so I was putting a dab of olive oil on it to help keep it moisturized.

Finally got a quote on insurance for a new car. It would be $119 a month for full coverage from our State Farm Agent. That's not bad at all. I have to call one of the Nissan dealers back on Monday. He called twice during the weekend but I've been busy this weekend so I will get back to him on Monday. There's about 4 dealers in our area. And once I talk to the one dealer my dad & I are going to check out all the dealers maybe this coming weekend or next weekend. So maybe I will have a new car by March or so! I'm still interested in the Versa Sedan. I also found out one of my co-workers recently got the same car from the dealer right near my house. The same dealer I have to call back on Monday.

My own car was having issues with the shocks last week. I actually had to get a ride to work on Tuesday. It had snowed in the morning and when I started driving the car it was shaking and bouncing so badly I thought something was wrong with the tires. My dad ended up dropping me off at work and my co-worker gave me a ride home. Turns out my car has just entered old age. (It is a 93') I now have to let it warm up for 10-15min in extremely cold weather or else my shocks freeze up. I will be so happy if I am able to afford a new car this year!

F.B. & I were talking recently about snow and what he would think of it. He was wondering how he would drive in the snow & ice too and what it would be like to experience 4 seasons when he moves to the USA heehee.

I visited my Nana on Friday night. I haven't seen her since before I went away to the Philippines and I had some gifts for her and she wanted to see my trip pictures. The ratties paid her a visit too. I took the girls last time I visited. She loved my new girls Ginger & Nutmeg and she gave everyone a Hershey kiss. She said, "See if you come to visit Nana- you get candy!" So funny, heehee.

I ordered 'The True Life of Mary Stuart' by John Guy off of Ebay. I just started reading it and it's really good. I've been reading alot of books about Mary Queen of Scots lately.

I have to start working on getting Valentines stuff together for F.B. too. Though I think he may get his package after Valentines. I'm going to get our trip photos printed up and put into albums like I do every year for us. And I've got to get him a card and write a letter. I'm finally getting a paycheck this monday. I always hate coming back to work after being furloughed because it takes 3-4 weeks before you receive your first paycheck again!

I went back to work on Monday after a 2 month break. I was exhausted all week, I'm just not used to getting up early again. Next week I'll be starting my workout routine with my treadmill Mon-Thurs. It was a busy week and we have update training at work on Tuesday.

I was able to order our wedding bands this week! F.B.'s Christmas package I sent him arrived and I had included a plastic ring sizer for him so we could find out his ring size. I ordered the rings from a wholesale jeweler. We got titanium wedding bands. I wanted something silver in color but very durable. F.B. is going to pay me back half for the rings. I like the satin finish which is more masculine for F.B. and the shiny one is more feminine for me.

Here is a picture of the wedding bands I ordered:























They just arrived tonight and they are so gorgeous! Here are the rings:











The left one is F.B.'s & the right one is mine. F.B. & I happen to have the same ring size. I'm 3 inches taller than him also; so I always tease him and say "At least your shoe size is bigger than mine!"

I've been bidding on Blackberry Pearls on Ebay for a few weeks. I really wanted a new phone but I'm not eligible for an upgrade from T-mobile right now and even the discount price they offer for me is still well around $200.00. The phones on ebay seem to be going for $100.00 as well even with a broken trackball, etc. I was finally able to win one for $65.00 though! The only issue with it... a dog chewed it. Yes! Haha! Here is the listing.

When the phone arrived it actually looked better than the description, the only major damage aside from cosmetic scratches was the back door panel was cracked:













I ordered a nice new hard shell case for it on ebay also for $1.99 and you can't even tell it's not new:

















I had to upgrade to the $24 T-mobile unlimited internet & 400 text message plan though in order to use the instant messaging. F.B. & I always talk on AIM or Yahoo messenger on my breaks at work so we need that. The only time we get to spend together when I'm working is a date online on the weekend and we email every other day Mon-Fri. Technically I'm only paying $14 more than what I was paying for internet & texting, so it's not too bad. And I don't talk on my phone so much. I have the lowest plan T-mobile offers. 300 minutes & unlimited weekends for $29.

I also decided to get some extras for my new phone on ebay. I ordered a 2GB memory card for $6. A new battery for $4 and a new back door panel for $1. So let's see- the phone was $69.00 with shipping and I've spent $12.99 on accessories. That's about $81.00 for a blackberry & accessories. God, I LOVE ebay! If I'm ever looking for something, I always check ebay first to see if I can get a good deal.

I'm also looking to get a new car this year. My Dad has to talk to our insurance company and see how much it would cost for me to get insurance on my own. Right now, I'm covered under his insurance still. I will be 27 this year so I'm hoping it won't be too bad to get insurance on my own. The car I am driving I have had for 4 years now. It's a 1993 Chevrolet Geo Prizm, that my Dad got used (He's a mechanic.) The starter went one year, the alternator last year, I needed new tires. It's falling apart and I want a car that I'm not going to have to worry about getting inspected every year.

And now is the time to buy a car. The prices are so low on some of the new 2009 models because of the issues with our economy. The cars within my price range are about $10,000 brand new. I'm looking at a Nissian Versa Sedan or a Hyundai Accent. First we will talk to the insurance company though, because it depends on how much those payments will be monthly in addition to what my payments on the car would be monthly. And then next year F.B. & I will start working with our immigration lawyer, so the car & insurance payments need to be affordable for me.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia. 

I've had Ginger & Nutmeg for about 2 weeks now. There were some issues with Sugar attacking Ginger though. I've had them separated on levels in the Ferret Nation cage. At first I had Sugar & Cinnamon on the lower level, but that didn't work out so well because Sugar was climbing up and Ginger was poking her hands down between the bars and she ended up getting attacked & bit twice. The 2nd time she was missing a toenail. So I moved the new girls to the lower level instead and there hasn't been anymore attacks. I've slowly been introducing the new girls to Sugar & Cinnamon this weekend. There's been a few scuffles but nothing major.

Tonight I'm going to try play time in the cage on one of the levels. But I'm going to remove their boxes and plastic igloo so no one gets cornered. The cage is a more territorial area, so we will see how things go. I think it's going to take a little longer than it did when I introduced Cinnamon to Sugar & Spice. But it will be nice when they can all live in the same cage together.

Here were all of the girls earlier hanging out in a soda box! So far so good!