Day 159: Homesick

As I made devilled eggs today with my aunt, I couldn't help but think of Miehiera. Whenever I make devilled eggs I always give her a boiled egg. It's her favorite treat next to chicken.

Well, I apologizing for not posting sooner. Between my finals, the holidays and other nonsensical drama, I haven't gotten the time to update this very often,

This week I went to my family's Christmas party earlier in the day, and I am now at my aunt's so that I may go to another Christmas party for my writer's group, and then another one the day after for another sect of the family! I finally go home Wednesday evening.

That's 5 days if you're counting. That's the longest I've ever been away from Miehiera since I got her in July.

Yesterday night I already felt homesick. See, as a bored teenager with access to the internet and not at home to draw or play with my fox, I spent a lot of time lurking message boards and blog posts, and reading all the stories made me quite homesick. I really, really want to go home right now so I can be greeted with an earsplitting screech and pick her up and give her a hug.

What have I been doing between all these parties? Well, a couple of things.

For one, I went and visited the world's tallest known English mastiff, named Rousseau, and the 2nd tallest dog in the world. Zorba, the previous record holder for English mastiffs was 35 inches at the shoulder... Rousseau is 39 inches at the shoulder and weighs over 220+ lbs! He is a tad shorter than George the Great Dane, world's tallest dog, who is 43 inches at the shoulder. Understand however that Rousseau is only about a year old. I looked at his father (Voltaire "Volt) and then to him - Voltaire is a few years older and much more filled out, with a deep, wide chest. Rousseau on the other hand is just a puppy who has not filled out yet. He's got two more years to grow, so here's hoping he becomes the biggest dog ever known!

I'd post pictures, but unfortunately it is on my phone, and my phone is very old and does not have internet. I don't have the cord and I'm no where near any place that will take a micro SD card.

I'm 5'2 and Rousseau comes up past my hip to about the middle of my belly. His paws are bigger than my hands. This is a big, but gentle dog. I thought my cousin's English Mastiff Lil'O was big, but Rousseau stood much taller than all the other mastiffs, and trust me, I got knocked over by quite a few mastiffs and maybe a poodle.

My cousin is the breeder's good friend, so that's how I know this amazing, goofy, HUGE dog.

Then today, I went out to a small wildlife rehabilitation facility. This was also another friend of my cousin.

There, I met lots of animals, mostly ones that are unable to be released.

I met quite a few owls, a few of them blind. There were Great horned owls, eastern screech owls and another one I can't remember. There were probably about six Harris hawks, and one kept screeching at me the whole time I was in the room. There was a Dove and a few songbirds. I also got to see an old crow who was over 20 years old with white feathers growing in! There was a woodchuck aptly named Chuck hanging out with the many rescued cats, nearly 20 red squirrels nearly ready for release after a bad case of mange, and a beaver named Paddles who unfortunately suffered neurological damage and cannot be released. There were lots of domestic rabbits.

There were other animals I did not get to meet as they were at the back of the property and were not used to the sight of people - two foxes, a red and a white. A few others too, but I was disappointed I could not meet them.

However, I am invited to come back and help in the summer, which in the spring and summer time things get quite busy what with all the babies being born. She told me she had six red fox kits this summer!

After all this excitement, I called up my mother to check on Miehiera who had quite a story for me.

See, when I feed Miehiera I first go out there, greet her, take her bowl scoop it out and bring it back.
My mom opted to get a Styrofoam cup and pour her food in.
Well, my mom explained to me that Miehiera, being the cunning foxy she is, stole the cup when she poured it. My mom not wanting her to eat it, chased her around the pen until she caught up with Miehiera, who actually got the cup caught on her tooth!

Ah, I can't wait to come back home to that ball of fuzz.

To end this blog post, I will answer a question sent in to me:

Hi! I just found your blog the other day and I really enjoy reading it. Miehiera is such a cutie! My question is, how exactly do you pronounce her name? 

Thank you! And Miehiera's name is pronounced Me-hair/air-uh.
Miehiera/Mehera (I went for the more complicated name... silly me.) means vixen in Belurasian and Ukrainian.

For my next post I will try to put up all the videos I've gotten of Miehiera so far, including playing with her, her rolling in the snow and her greeting scream.

Happy Holidays to all!