Pet Blogger's Challenge Repeat offender *chitters*

1. How long have you been blogging? Please tell us why you started blogging, and, for anyone stopping by for the first time, give us a quick description of what your blog is about. I’ve been blogging since 2009 and here is last year’s post.

2. Name one thing about your blog, or one blogging goal that you accomplished during 2013, that made you most proud. I’ve gotten to work with a few companies that I wanted to work with but I didn’t meet most of my goals last year.

3. When you look at the post you wrote for last year’s Pet Blogger Challenge, or just think back over the past year, what about blogging has changed the most for you? That I need to make realistic goals that I can manage now that I am back to working outside the home

4. What lessons have you learned this year – from other blogs, or through your own experience – that could help us all with our own sites? Don’t get stuck in concrete. I mean if you need to take a break do so but at the same time don’t burnout rule you.

If you could ask the pet blogging community for help with one challenge you’re having with your blog, what would it be? More followers/comments. I set a really high goal of 400 readers and then fell off the face of the Blogosphere. But not getting one comment can put a damper on things too. Just a simple “Hi” is all that is needed sometimes.

5. What have you found to be the best ways to bring more traffic to your blog, other than by writing great content? Word of mouth mostly

6. How much time to do you spend publicizing your blog, and do you think you should spend more or less in the coming year? Last year I didn’t do a lot of publicizing my blog and it showed so this year I will be publicizing it more.

7. How do you gauge whether or not what you’re writing is appealing to your audience? I try not to gauge my writing as I tend to get overly critical about it and then I don’t post anything.

How do you know when it’s time to let go of a feature or theme that you’ve been writing about for a while? That is the hardest thing to do. I try to keep with what is current and write updates as they are needed.

8. When you’re visiting other blogs, what inspires you to comment on a post rather than just reading and moving on? It depends on the post and the reason I am reading it. Sometimes it is because someone left a comment on my blog so I let them know I followed their link back to their blog. Other times the subject means a lot to me or I have learned something new.

9. Do you do product reviews and/or giveaways? Yes

If so, what do you find works best, and what doesn’t work at all? I stay away from Raffelcopter as it has too many glitches for my liking and all reviews are my opinion no matter what the outcome. But I need to get several more done that should have been done last year.

If not, is this something you’d like to do more of? What hurdle is getting in your way?

10. When writer’s block strikes and you’re feeling dog-tired, how do you recharge? Last year I had writer’s block and blog burnout not a good combination as I couldn’t seem to pull myself out of it that is until November when I do this thing called Nanowrimo. Where you have to write 50,000 words. I used word association and basically jump started several blog posts that will be showing up this year. Another thing I use is a site called write or die a great motivator.

11. Have you ever taken a break from your blog? How did that go? Yes, I did last year and I felt like I was letting my readers down

Have you ever thought about quitting your blog altogether? What makes you stay? Yes last year I really thought about it. The fact is that there really isn’t any other ferret bloggers.

12. What goals do you have for your blog in 2014?

To post at least one real post a week and one wordless Wednesday post. To reach 100 followers and to let my personal life show through many of my posts this year.

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Update On Marcuz and Other Things

 

Marcuz is back to his old self. Climbing things he shouldn’t and trying to be the dominate male. For now Manny is letting him think that he has won but it will only last until Manny gets tired of Marcuz pushing him around.

For that I am grateful as I am for those that have donated towards the Ferret Chariot. There are so many amazing people out there thank you all.

I am sure that most of you noticed that I’ve been gone for a week both on my blog and twitter. While I could just say I nothing I feel that an explanation is needed.

First you need to know I suffer from Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) it is a type of depression that hits many in the winter months or those that don’t get a lot of sun. 

There isn’t really a lot known about it and while mine is mild it can become extreme if I am not careful. Which is what happened.

Marcuz getting hurt was just the start. The stress from not being able to get him help and the weird weather threw off my sleeping and eating habits.

Then finding out about a friend losing someone to suicide brought up some unresolved issues of losing someone extremely close to me on the 15th sent me deeper down that dark road.

The final nail that made me withdraw was the fire that cost two people I’ve never met everything and I felt helpless that all I could offer them was a few handmade toys.

I needed to get myself collected and back into the habits that help me deal with my own depression that could have affected how well Marcuz recovered. I know our pets can feel our moods and will try to make us happy.

I didn’t want Marcuz trying to do his funny jig so I would laugh it would have been and is still too soon for him to do that type of wiggling.

So I am back into the habits that keep my SADs in check and the fact that the sun has been out more helps but I am still not 100% but then I don’t think any of us hoomans are ever 100% but I am a lot closer than I was.

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Depression and Ferrets

     Sorry for being MIA for a bit. I needed to process losing Lance and the fact that James is ten years old this month. The television ads say depression hurts but those same ads don’t tell you what causes the depression. They just want to sell you on the newest get happy pill.

     Yes depression hurts  for me it is caused by the grief of loosing my fur babies. First Gweny in February and then Lance in April. The emotional roller coaster of grief isn’t limited to just humans.

 

     About two years ago I lost Blizzard , an albino ferret, to an infection and his buddy Mouse mourned his death hard. What I didn’t realize what that he had stopped eating and drinking. He would mimic that he was all right by putting his nose in his food bowl and made chewing noises.

     Ferrets are quick to loose weight if they don’t eat and Mouse went from being a 4 lb boy to being a pound within a week. It wasn’t obvious because of his heavy coat. When I noticed I put him in with Gweny who wouldn’t let him leave the food bowl until he really ate.

     Gweny played the role of mother well but it wasn’t enough for Mouse. He had an underlying problem that I didn’t know about until he did stop eating and that was insulinoma. These two things combined ended Mouse’s life three weeks to the day after his bud Blizzy death.

     Because of Mouse’s downward spiral I was aware that James could have a similar reaction to Lance’s death. I was hyper vigilant to how he was acting and I made sure I spent a lot of time with him and Manny.

     James had a couple of down days where he didn’t want to eat but would nibble at a treat or two. He allowed me to give him some duck soup when he didn’t want the treats.

     They say a change in environment is helpful for some people with depression so I figured I do the same for James now that the weather was getting nicer.

     So I put James’ harness on him and we went outside. At first all he would do was lay down and look like he was crying. The third day of this found James walking a few feet and sniffing the grass. Now we go to the end of the driveway and walk back up with James pulling me to where he wants to go.

     He is back to eating and drinking. He does sleep more than he used to but then he is ten and an old man. But the moment he hears me getting out his and Manny’s harnesses he is at the cage door waiting for me to put it on him for his walk outside.

     This got me to thinking, sometimes a bad thing, about how I could combine their walk with helping the ferret rescue I am sponsoring on my blog and came up with the idea of walking a part of the Allegany Trail here in PA with James and Manny in June.

     The part of the trail we are going to walk is 21 miles long. Well I’ll be walking the whole 21 miles the boys will walking until they are tired and then riding until they are ready to get out and play some more. More to come about this project later.

     This blog will be a year old in June and to celebrate we are going to have a twitter pawty. The theme will be outlaws and gangsters.

     The date hasn’t been set yet but it will be soon. Anyone willing to donate a prize please email me at enlightenedferret@hotmail.com

Jo