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

Living Life Like a Ferret

Ferrets live life in the fast lane and to the fullest extent that they can. You can see the passion in their eyes as they take on a new challenge or adventure.

This week I made the decision to become the Crazy Ferret Lady and oddly things that I have been wanting to happen have started.

First was being the Featured Blogger on Pet PR’s site while I knew I would eventually be there I did not expect it to happen this week.

Then I was chosen for a writing job that has to do with pets. While it isn’t directly related to ferrets it is part of my passion and may lead to some other pet/ferret related work.

I did a prelim interview about the ferret clothing I make and while I am not ready to let more details out know that it will be huge for me and the boys.

So know your passion make the decision to follow your hearts passion to the ends and above all else grab that shiny and run like hell to your hidey hole to make it yours alone.

 

Have a Chittering Good Day,

Jo

Domestication of Mustela purtorius furo

             
The family of Mustelidae consists of animals that have a musky scent. These include otters, minks, weasels, polecats, martens, badgers, wolverines, and used to include skunks until DNA testing put them in a different family the Mephitedae.    

  



  It is believed that the domestic ferret has been domesticated for over 2000 years and is a descendant of the Western European polecat and came from Libya where they bred them to hunt rabbits. It is unclear of how the domestic ferret ended up in England but wherever rabbits were introduced, the ferret wasn’t far behind.

     The domestic ferret was introduced to the United States in 1875 as a form of rodent control. Ferrets were often used on ships to keep the rat and mouse populations down. The USDA promoted the use of ferrets as rodent control until chemical rodenticides were developed then the practice died out. Hunting with ferrets was made illegal in most states in the Twentieth century and ferret fur farms never took hold in the United States.

     In the mid twentieth century saw the ferrets embraced as companion animals and are ranked as the third most popular pet to own. First and second are the dog and cat. Ferrets have held a number of jobs from hunting to running telephone and electrical line.

     Large scale of breeding facilities can produce healthy ferrets in large numbers is the reason ferrets are used in Biomedical research. One of the first uses was with the study of the human influenza virus, because of their susceptibility to it. Ferrets are also used in the study of virology, toxicology, pharmacology, reproductive physiology, endocrinology, physiology, teratology, and anatomy.

These studies have helped us get a better understanding of the ferrets anatomy, physiology, and ferret disease. It is these same facilities that also produce the pet ferrets.


Jo