![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
with your skin and your tail
Jul. 29th, 2007 11:23 pmCharlie shed for the first time this weekend. :D
The past few days, I've been an absolute maniac because while I was almost positive she was going into her first shed with me, I am just loony enough to think something is drastically wrong. Especially because it was taking her so goddamn long to really look like a shed was coming.
All in all, it was a bad shed and was coming off of her in bits and pieces. So, last night I decided to give her a good soak and then rub her down, hoping that this would help her wiggle out.
I'm still a little skittish about picking her up directly, so I used tongs to kind of airlift her out of the tank, then put her in the soaking container (which she hates like nothing else). Let her soak for about twenty minutes, then sat with her at my vanity and rubbed her back and belly. It really helped a lot; she immediately started to poke through her nose shed and pieces of skin were splitting all down the length of her body. Unfortunately, because it was already a bad shed, it didn't come off in one piece. We sat for a long time together, her wound all around my wrist and squeezing and dragging the side of her head against my arm and me slowly rubbing my finger in circles on the spots that seemed to need it. At one point, I really thought she was just going to slide out of her skin while I was holding her because I could see her body moving underneath of it. How awesome would that have been? But, it didn't happen. I helped work off quite a bit of the shed, then put her away for the night because I didn't want to stress her out too badly.
Today when I checked in on her, the only skin that was left was on her head. Part of it was sticking straight up, just above her snout, and looked like she was wearing a goofy mask. I gave her another, much shorter soak, then held her in a damp washcloth and kind of dabbed at her head when she would let me, which wasn't often. She managed to get most of it off her head, but she's still left with a wee bit on the left side of her skull, with an eyecap. When I put her back in her tank, she immediately started to rub her head against her new log, so hopefully, it'll be completely off by tomorrow. In a couple of days then, I'll try to get her to eat.
<3 for my girl.
This weekend has been vastly tiring. Friday, I took the day off from work because I had a slew of things I needed to accomplish; one of which was taking the train to the city and meeting with the recruiter for that non-profit job I wrote about a few days ago. That didn't go particularly well, as she feels the company wouldn't want me because I'm going to college and wouldn't be staying with them forever and the rest of my life. The company is apparently incredibly and ungodly picky, she says. I was peeved because I took a day off from work and tooled through the city in professional clothes on an enormously humid and gross day. Ick.
On top of that, I had also wanted to go to the college and get a few things taken care of: officially changing my current major to Human Services instead of Business Administration, renewing my student loan with Financial Aid, and selling my used textbooks to the bookstore. One out of three isn't bad, I reckon. The bookstore is apparently closed on Fridays during the summer and the Financial Aid office was also closed for some reason. Irritating.
I also needed to go to Haddonfield and get a copy of my marriage certificate so I could get my license renewed, but I was so peeved with the day's events and incredibly worn out from the heat, that I didn't feel up for it. I need to get that done stat because my license expires tomorrow.
Friday night was Joanna's going away party because her last day of work is the 31st. A slew of us headed to a local bar and sat out on the deck for a much-needed night of carousing. It started to rain fairly heavy at one point, but our table had an umbrella and we largely stayed dry. Of course, I sat near the end of the umbrella that leaked, so my entire back and butt got completely soaked.
We were fairly rowdy, which happens whenever you get the group of us together. Former abortionists and current abortionists, we all had a massive amount of shit-talking that needed to be done. After the bar, we (me, Angel and Joanna) drove to the grocery store and bought an enormous amount of junk food, then went back to my apartment for more drinking and junk-food eating until five in the morning.
Today has been quiet, overall. It's the beginning of Shark Week (hooray!) and they've been playing old shark shows all day long on the Discovery Channel, leading up to tonight's new show (which was boring). I laid on the living room floor with every blanket and pillow known to man, smoking cigarettes and brandishing my giant stuffed Great White, David Byrne, at the cats. I dozed and snored and ate chocolate-covered pretzels. The Engineer threw things at me and talked about how the hammerhead shark's special talent is perfect pitch.
I may go to bed early, but I haven't decided yet.
The past few days, I've been an absolute maniac because while I was almost positive she was going into her first shed with me, I am just loony enough to think something is drastically wrong. Especially because it was taking her so goddamn long to really look like a shed was coming.
All in all, it was a bad shed and was coming off of her in bits and pieces. So, last night I decided to give her a good soak and then rub her down, hoping that this would help her wiggle out.
I'm still a little skittish about picking her up directly, so I used tongs to kind of airlift her out of the tank, then put her in the soaking container (which she hates like nothing else). Let her soak for about twenty minutes, then sat with her at my vanity and rubbed her back and belly. It really helped a lot; she immediately started to poke through her nose shed and pieces of skin were splitting all down the length of her body. Unfortunately, because it was already a bad shed, it didn't come off in one piece. We sat for a long time together, her wound all around my wrist and squeezing and dragging the side of her head against my arm and me slowly rubbing my finger in circles on the spots that seemed to need it. At one point, I really thought she was just going to slide out of her skin while I was holding her because I could see her body moving underneath of it. How awesome would that have been? But, it didn't happen. I helped work off quite a bit of the shed, then put her away for the night because I didn't want to stress her out too badly.
Today when I checked in on her, the only skin that was left was on her head. Part of it was sticking straight up, just above her snout, and looked like she was wearing a goofy mask. I gave her another, much shorter soak, then held her in a damp washcloth and kind of dabbed at her head when she would let me, which wasn't often. She managed to get most of it off her head, but she's still left with a wee bit on the left side of her skull, with an eyecap. When I put her back in her tank, she immediately started to rub her head against her new log, so hopefully, it'll be completely off by tomorrow. In a couple of days then, I'll try to get her to eat.
<3 for my girl.
This weekend has been vastly tiring. Friday, I took the day off from work because I had a slew of things I needed to accomplish; one of which was taking the train to the city and meeting with the recruiter for that non-profit job I wrote about a few days ago. That didn't go particularly well, as she feels the company wouldn't want me because I'm going to college and wouldn't be staying with them forever and the rest of my life. The company is apparently incredibly and ungodly picky, she says. I was peeved because I took a day off from work and tooled through the city in professional clothes on an enormously humid and gross day. Ick.
On top of that, I had also wanted to go to the college and get a few things taken care of: officially changing my current major to Human Services instead of Business Administration, renewing my student loan with Financial Aid, and selling my used textbooks to the bookstore. One out of three isn't bad, I reckon. The bookstore is apparently closed on Fridays during the summer and the Financial Aid office was also closed for some reason. Irritating.
I also needed to go to Haddonfield and get a copy of my marriage certificate so I could get my license renewed, but I was so peeved with the day's events and incredibly worn out from the heat, that I didn't feel up for it. I need to get that done stat because my license expires tomorrow.
Friday night was Joanna's going away party because her last day of work is the 31st. A slew of us headed to a local bar and sat out on the deck for a much-needed night of carousing. It started to rain fairly heavy at one point, but our table had an umbrella and we largely stayed dry. Of course, I sat near the end of the umbrella that leaked, so my entire back and butt got completely soaked.
We were fairly rowdy, which happens whenever you get the group of us together. Former abortionists and current abortionists, we all had a massive amount of shit-talking that needed to be done. After the bar, we (me, Angel and Joanna) drove to the grocery store and bought an enormous amount of junk food, then went back to my apartment for more drinking and junk-food eating until five in the morning.
Today has been quiet, overall. It's the beginning of Shark Week (hooray!) and they've been playing old shark shows all day long on the Discovery Channel, leading up to tonight's new show (which was boring). I laid on the living room floor with every blanket and pillow known to man, smoking cigarettes and brandishing my giant stuffed Great White, David Byrne, at the cats. I dozed and snored and ate chocolate-covered pretzels. The Engineer threw things at me and talked about how the hammerhead shark's special talent is perfect pitch.
I may go to bed early, but I haven't decided yet.