Yesterday evening I had returned a little late,
to find Lucy pretty active in her cage:
" Note Lucy's ears; they are more upright !!! " - Mathijs
So I opened Lucy's cage to give her (her now favorite) treat; Hazelnut:
" Where is my Explorer Ball, Dude ? " - Lucy
I held the open explorer ball in front of the cage,
so Lucy could easily climb in if she wants to.
It only took a few seconds; Lucy had climbed in:
" Good to be Explorin' again, Dude ! " - Lucy
" VAROOOOOOOOOOM !!! " - Lucy
After the Explorer Ball adventure, I always let Lucy on the couch.
So I placed a towel (for a different photograph background) and told Lucy all about it:
" Are you sure that's safe, Dude ? " - Lucy
Don't worry Lucy !
" This is different, Dude ! " - Lucy
" Smoooth runnin' here, Dude ! " - Lucy
Last night Lucy ran 52.26 meters in her treadmill !
Although this is not breathtakingly much for Lucy,
it is GOOD NEWS !
I think that Lucy is almost 100% recovered from whatever it was she suffered !
Before the Lucy update,
this wonderfull entry has been aging in the HamsterTracker™-Mailbox which is very appropriate right now:
Rhiannon (from the UK) took a trip to Lourdes in France:
" here is lucy admiring the Basilica at Lourdes ! " - Rhiannon
Poor Poor Lucy - Part III
First of all, HamsterTracker™-Shouts for all your reactions
on Lucy's illness, in Lucy's Guestbook and in the HamsterTracker™-Mailbox.
Good news is that I don't think that Lucy lost a finger !!!
I don't have a clear photo as proof, but I am sure I counted four fingers on her left hand.
(Hamsters have four fingers and five toes, so that's normal).
Puzzled by this all, I do currently think that Lucy made an unfortunate drop from her meditation room,
thereby injuring herself;
that kind of (huge) bump on her nose (could have) caused the nose bleed (and/or)
Lucy broke her left hand...
I don't think it's wet-tail or some kind of bacterial infection,
but I am considering the dilemma:
a trip to the vet / leave Lucy alone and not stress her too much
Meanwile I got the suggestion of fresh fruit for Lucy:
" A nice piece of fresh apple ! " - Mathijs
" Note the red spot on Lucy's left hand ... " - Mathijs
" This was Lucy's most silent nibble ever. " - Mathijs
Lucy got out of her bedroom last night to have a drink (5 ml.) !
AND she is still grooming... That's always a good sign !
I can't stop pondering over my dilemma...
meanwhile, Lucy's experiencing the best care, rest assure !
HamsterTracker™-Shouts to Rhiannon
We hope that the powers of Lourdes will help Lucy!
Lucy is not feeling well since last friday.
I've been keeping Lucy as much to herself as possible;
not wanting to stress her, while giving her the best care you can imagine.
Today I wanted to give Lucy a treat and some 'watered bread'.
Then I noticed a not so pleasant smell,
a (premature) bedroom clean was in order:
These last couple of days where a bit stressfull
at the HamsterTracker™-Office;
We have experienced a miniature heat-wave,
which slowed down Lucy quite a bit;
" ZZZ ... zzz ... ZZZ " - Lucy
On day 400 I noticed that Lucy
had blood on her nose...
I thought she might have made a plunge from her meditation room,
that's divided in three 42 cm. (16.5 inches) vertical tubes.
Those 42 cm is the maximum drop she could have made.
I didn't want to disturb Lucy too much,
but her bedroom needed cleaning :
" So we got out the spare bedroom,
to prepare it. Extra food and Pillow treats where also added " - Lucy
I took Lucy in her bedroom,
opened it near the freshly cleaned bedroom.
Lucy climbed in it immediately...
I did notice that Lucy was not feeling well...
" The day after (day 401), Lucy DID some decorating " - Mathijs
I also noticed that Lucy's ears where 'up' while she was sleeping.
Normally Lucy does fold back her ears when catching ZZZ's.
" I put some of Lucy's favorite treats conviniently for her to grab. " - Mathijs
Yesterday (day 402), I noticed that Lucy had used those treats as a bathroom.
Yuuuuuck !
So I toke a paper towel to clean it,
then Lucy tried to grab it :-)
I cleaned it,
then I gave Lucy a new paper towel,
which she used in her bedroom right away!!!
" Here's Lucy all busy with the paper towel.
I hope that's a sign that Lucy is recovering. " - Mathijs
Lucy has not run in her treadmill,
as well as not drinking much from her water bottle.
" This is how Lucy get's a drink...
the moisture gathered is all licked up by Lucy. " - Mathijs
Although that water (condensation) should be pretty safe for Lucy to drink,
I don't really like the thought.
So I drenched a small piece of bread in lot's of water for Lucy.
Lucy loved it; a bite to eat & a drink in one.
Then I noticed Lucy's paw:
" I've studied different photographs I made,
and it looks like Lucy's lost a finger on her left hand... Poor Poor Lucy. " - Mathijs
Her wound looks to drastic to go for a torn nail.
Here is a close up:
" That would explain why Lucy had blood on her nose;
it got there when Lucy gave herself a wash. " - Mathijs
Today Lucy did accept a lot of Pine-Seeds !
I did see her washing up and grooming, although she is still a bit slow.
Again today she accepted some 'watered' bread.
Poor, poor Lucy !
She must be enduring a lot of pain these last couple of days...
Hang in there Lucy! Get well soon !
I am still very puzzled on how this could have happened.
Meanwhile I try to give Lucy the best care I can give.
Very regular sender-inner Kim sent in this wonderfull
sunny & blue-sea report about Lucy in México.
So for all of you out there who are not enjoying their summer-vacation (yet),
please, enjoy these scenic photographs (like we do):
" We are in Playa Del Carmen, México " - Kim
" Lucy really likes the beach as she will spend all day(s) with us... " - Kim
" We love the scenery, as well as HamsterTracker™-Model: Kim !!! " - Lucy and her Dude
HamsterTracker™-Shouts to you Kim!
We suppose that :
" If you don't get a holiday feeling with these pictures,
you'd probably live or work there ... " - HamsterTracker™-Observation Dept.
Thank you Kim, for this new Extreme HamsterTrackin' Country submit!
I did let the empty explorer ball roll off the table,
I did put it back together again, using Duck-Tape.
I did dare, to have Lucy, have a run-around in it after all this:
" I can see you very clear-ly, Dude ! " - Lucy
" If you'd stop movin' then I wouldn't have to run so much ... " - Lucy
We left off (the day before) yesterday, when Lucy was grabbin' a large piece of wallnut.
Here's Lucy after getting it all... Or at least she thinks ...
" My first acquaintance with the (again) awesome (FUNK) band : Tower Of Power.
(Picture of is of the HUGE (LED-)video screen) " - Mathijs
" I also got acquainted with Buddy Guy's awesome Blues ...
He walked by pretty close, walking around in the crowd while jamming his guitar (during his concert) !!! " - Mathijs
In between concerts (there where 200 acts over 15 podia in 3 days),
I (ofcourse) did some Extreme HamsterTrackin':
" I just can't get it to focus... " - Mathijs
Then Kees offered his assistance to help make the perfect shot:
Remember DJ Manga's Extreme HamsterTrackin' from last year?
"North Sea Jazz 2007"
They did their stuff this year too. You just couldn't stand still on their grooves !
" North Sea Jazz 2008,
Deejay Manga presents "Legends" hosted by MC John Agesilas "
I did gave them the 2007 photograph (with a dedicated HamsterTracker™-Message, ofcourse)...
Which produced a laugh, while they where jamming it to the max. !
Music is very important to me ! Although I can't play an instrument,
I do enjoy listening to music so much; it's a part of my life to me, almost like bread and water.
These last couple of months I was looking forward to visiting the
North Sea Jazz 2008 festival:
Puzzled by this experience since I take care of hamsters,
the following photoshoot gave me an inspirational moment,
trying to resolve WHY Lucy puts her ears flat while eating/pouching...
" Please note;
Lucy's ears pointing away from all the knibblin' ... " - HamsterTracker™-Observation Dept.
Then this following theory struk me:
A hamster is not an animal that's high on the foodchain,
therefore it needs to be very carefull on what it does, with dangers being everywhere.
My theory is; that when eating/pouching it makes too much noise for a hamster.
Therefore they'll be likely more inclined to put their ears flat
(and pointed to the sides and back),
to listen for any dangers there ...
" Lucy sure is listening around while devouring this Vitakraft Kracker " - HamsterTracker™-Observation Dept.
" Husssshhhhh, for Lucy ... " - HamsterTracker™-Observation Dept.
Then Lucy responded to my theory:
" Is there an echo in here ? " - Lucy
" I am not gonna tell if you got your theory right, Dude !!!
Because I don't have a clue on what you're talking about. " - Lucy
Trying Pine-Seeds as a Truth-Serum as you read this...
The harddisks of the dream machine where running full.
While having a generous (160 GB + 250 GB = ) 410 Gigabyte of harddisk space;
we where running out. Lucy's pictures do take up a lot of room...
So after the HamsterTracker™-Financial Dept. gave their go-ahead,
we (finally) obtained this following beauty of a harddisk:
" It has 750 GB of (unformatted) data capability,
32 Megabyte Memory buffer (the existing one only has 16 Megabyte)
SATA II 3.0 Gb/s interface
(that's an approx. 300 Mega byte per second data transfer rate !!!) " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" Here it's fitted with the (red SATA cables all hooked up... " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" After hooking up the Floppy-drive IDE cable,
we took some time to clean the Dream Machines internals,
by using a (new paint-) brush...
You can't imagine how much dust accumulates in a mere 6 months! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" Here's everything all hooked up;
the SATA harddrives now have power.
[ The new 750 GB drive is the one on top ] " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" The Dream Machine BIOS recognized the harddrive immediately !!! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
It then took a solid TWO and a HALF HOURS to format this beauty.
After which it's now running smoothly (and silently),
consuming only an additional 5 watts while operating !!!
Now we have a generous (160 GB + 250 GB + 750 GB + 1 GB = ) 1161 Gigabyte of harddisk space !!!
(The 1 GB drive is a flashdisk, permanently installed in the Dream Machine),
Therefore the Dream Machine fully qualifies the 1.16+ Terabyte (1 Terabyte = 1000 Gigabyte) norm!
We can (finally) keep those Lucy pictures comming and comming ;-)
Lucy didn't notice a thing !
" Lucy is relaxing it to the MAX !!! " - HamsterTracker™-Observation Dept.
Lucy's can run her own show, directing everyone,
while writing up a nice speech for all fellow HamsterTracker™-Visitors
" ... Could you clear the area, please !
So the Camera-Dude can have some space; Thank you ! " - Lucy
It took a moment before Lucy was completely ready.
On her command here's her speech:
" Hi, fellow HAMSTORIANS ! " - Lucy
" As I understand A LOT of you are going on a holiday around this time !
Please don't forget your DIY Xtreme HamsterTrackin' kit,
so you can do some Xtreme HamsterTrackin' of your own !
...
We at HamsterTracker™ would love to know what YOU've been up to ! " - Lucy
" So we have an understanding, right ?
Thank you !!! " - Lucy
Then,
behind the scenes,
just after 10 seconds in Lucy's break;
" Caught you " - submitted by "Anonymous48957" - HamsterTracker™-Mailbox Dept.
" I said: NO PAPARAZZI !!!!
( AND I also remember using the word 'PLEASE' ) !!!,
You owe me a Pine-Seed, 'Anonymous48957' ! " - Lucy
It has been a while since Lucy's latest statistical graphs where published.
this is one with a twist; except for the 'treadmill distance & speed graph',
Lucy2.0 data has been included:
HamsterTracker™ Server crashes/ISP blackouts/Sensor misalignments:
Day 4, 19, 55, 56, 66 - 69, 121, 239, 252
[ Dream Machine operational since day 114,
day 121 & 239 where forced reboots by Windows XP during night time, after auto update. ]
Treadmill time graph
The more vertical the above line is,
the more distance Lucy ran in her treadmill.
Now I am off to do some serious cage-cleaning,
Lucy has left it in a bit of a state (again) :
" As it seems the HamsterTracker™-Sanitation Dept. has left for the weekend ...
I guess we'll have to do it ourself; with a little help from Lucy " - Mathijs
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" GROOOOOOOO-vin' ... "
