I forgot to mention. . .

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

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

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

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

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!

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.