Lucy does know her way around her mansion. If you are unaware of Lucy's latest Mansion Expansion; ... Lucy now has a Basement, Livingroom, Bedroom, Meditation Attic as well as some un-named spaces.
I must mention that Lucy has been exploring it all extensively... leaving her scent marks all over. That's how hamsters make it their owm.
She truly does feel at home; here's a photoshoot (the first after much counseling, see previous post):
" Me making "Engine Sounds"...
Lucy is off in an instant... " - Mathijs
" Note that Lucy's eyes are closed,
whiskers forward,
nose active,
as well as ears folded back. " - Mathijs
" Dude... Are you down there? " - Lucy
What should I say? While holding my camera ?
" Hi Dude,
I've missed you!
You've been outside, haven't you? " - Lucy
" That's true; it has turned cold here,
as well as some powder snow that wasn't there yesterday,
so I got my camera,
thick coat,
and I went out on a daring mission: " - Mathijs
" I shot this is an art-y photograph;
while I was HANGING ON A CLIFF... ;-) " - Mathijs
Not really!
I photographed the top of my (square) waste bin, outside, using a macro lens.
(This is why the bottom part part is blurry: bokeh as it's known!)
Then I turned the photograph upside down... Faking the cliff...
Cliff-hanger isn't it?
This, unfortunatly, this did upset Lucy:
" I thought you where in danger! Dude...
Please don't scare me like that again!
So I say: STOP NOW HERE! " - Lucy
Let's examine that in close-up:
" A famous paw... " - Mathijs van der Paauw
I just LOVE Lucy's mole on Lucy's left pinky! I guess the T.S.A. will let Lucy5.0 pass immediately after this publication! USA here we come! (???)
All excited about the weather phenonimum called snow, Lucy wanted to get outside a.s.a.p. to 'throw some snowballs' as she stated.
I explained that snow is really cold to the touch, as well as that I do not have gloves with four fingers on each hand... It took some convincing;
" I showed Lucy this 'cold' photograph...
I said that I'd rather be spending time with her on the couch... " - Mathijs
" Really?
HAND-TAXI!...
DUDE...
Please, get me one a.s.a.p. ! " - Lucy
Needless to say, we are experiencing this wonderful quality time as you read this.
Xtreme HamsterTracker™ Cool 2 Totally Must Do Have a look (and buy) my "Happy Hamster" book at my publisher Chronicle Books or at Amazon.
Send your loved one a "Happy Hamster" eCard.
It's been a while since I've blogged... This doesn't mean that I've been sitting still. :-)
I have started working on Lucy's Statistical Graphs a few weeks ago and since then we experienced some setbacks: Although the Data Scanner software I developed about a year ago to load Lucy's data easily into a spreadsheet. I had forgotton that Lucy5.0 needed all new graphs and such...
This involved much copy & pasting previous graphs, while changing data-ranges to reflect Lucy's latest statistics.
Meanwhile I experimented with hooking up more camera's to Lucy's webcams... This had interesting results... The HamsterTracker™-Server froze... didn't respond to ANYTHING... so I was forced to the most brutal reset imaginable; cutting power...
"This resulted in a non bootable system,
which required me to restore a System-Backup made a week earlier... " - Mathijs
That didn't work... so I tried another backup... two weeks earlier...
That did the trick! We are back and up and running!
So I got back to Lucy's statistics:
Lucy5.0 Treadmill time graph
Lucy's water consumption is a bit in-accurate!
Lucy did love to knaw on the cage, rubbing her belly against the water dispenser. Causing a terribly wet cage (which I ofcourse had to clean :-) as well as distorting the data collected.
Since I moved Lucy's water bottle to the front of her mansion this water spoilage hasn't taken place! :-)
The more vertical the above line is,
the more distance Lucy ran in her treadmill.
Note that Lucy5.0 is very lazy...
Lucy loves her three story mansion!
She goes from her basement,
to her living,
to her Meditation room
within a flash!
It did calm her down a bit on cage-knawing & biting attempts!
We haven't been sitting still here at HamsterTracker™.com! Lucy and me are in therapy, trying to overcome (or, at least for me, PREDICT) when Lucy is in a BYTING mood...
We are making progress, fortunately! I noticed that Lucy easily get's over excited, (why I do not understand or know), when we have contact... A gentle cuddle, using my hand can go from loving, to a bite in an instant...
On another thought, I worked on expanding Lucy's mansion! After a joyfull experience, buying a second hand Habitrail Safari cage (via a Dutch auction site)... I finally could replace Lucy's (a bit worn out after nine+ or so years) Lucy's Living room with a(n used) but much better one!
Using 93% of my Habitrail Safari Tubes I managed to connect it into one whole ... extreme ... see for yourself below:
" Meditation room Living & sleeping quarters Basement! It's all there! " - Mathijs
Except for (maybe) a pooltable ... :-)
" Dude ... How did you get a mortage ?
Dude ... Are we going to cut down on pineseeds ?
Dude ... What abou........ " - Lucy in her basement
" Lucy has been asking a lot of questions... (!) " - Mathijs
She does feel at home after exploring all tubes etc. for a gazzzillion times!
Lucy also has the tendency to knaw on her cage. She does that exactly where Lucy's drinking bottle was... This resulted in HUUUUGE water consumption data! Sometimes almost the whole bottle in one night!
This did of course mess up the water consumption data as well as making Lucy's living room VERY wet! While she was knawing on her cage she probably rubbed against the water valve, releasing H2O all over the floor!
Therefore I had to take measures: I moved the water bottle to the front of her mansion (for the very first time in history).
" Giving me great photo opportunities... Hoping that my next shot will be more of a close up... " - Mathijs
In case you where wondering why I havent updated for quite a while...
It wat because of Lucy's fits... for some reason she tends to bite me without problable cause...
It was a few weeks ago that Lucy got me really bad: We were enjoying some great time on the couch; when Lucy tried to chew on it... I responded with a gentle poke, hoping to "snap" her out of it...Which WORKED ... for like 15 seconds...
Then Lucy5.0 struk my hand that I put there on the couch for reconciliation... *BITE*... *AUW(TCH)* ... Moved my hand... knocked Lucy accidentally from the couch on the floor...
Here's my official report:
" We went into counseling after this (many of one) incident... " - Mathijs
As it seems, Lucy5.0 has trouble handeling her 'Famous-ness'.
It was suggested that Lucy would remain out of general publicity, in the hope that Lucy will (slowly) get used to the pucblic-life!
So to take my mind off, I took my first steps in HDR-photography:
" the art of combining the best lighting of serveral photo's into one " - As I'd like to call it!
" Here I combined the best of every shot,
into a singe one... it's amazing that the final result,
doesn't have the light reflection in the Lucy-memorial. " - Mathijs
Although it does contain some errors (where DOES that light (magically come from) at the corner of Lucy's ground floor...
Also I've improved the Tablet Experience a bit more:
If you bookmark HamsterTracker.com on an Apple device, you'll now get the official HamsterTracker™-Icon:
" Bookmarking HamsterTracker.com on an iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone... is now cool! " - Mathijs
To focus my mind off more...
I've (also) been doing my first steps into producing music:
Please allow me to share my very very first experiments in my home made tune for X-mas:
Sorry for not updating earlier, but I've been looking out for the Glow Eindhoven festival 2011 for weeks now!
I've been experimenting with my DSLR camera in shooting photographs with 30 second exposure time since I took a course last year, just before Glow 2010.
It's facinating to shoot photographs like that; when someone passes (accidentely), it doesn't show up in the final picture (unless they cary a torch or something).
I've learned a lot yesterday; one of them is to keep in focus of the actual reason of being there to photograph. I must admit I got distracted along the way, shooting exciting photographs which do not have much to do with Glow Eindhoven.
Please allow me to share the following fun adventure I experienced:
(Before I get back to real HamsterTracker™-Business, down below)
" This is a 30 second exposure shot.
The bottom of the picture is a bit fuzzy because of all people passing by... " - Mathijs
" City Hall as a (degrading) cardboard box.
I love the two elderly watching on the bottom right.
(I hadn't spotted them when I was shooting this photograph.) " - Mathijs
:
Here's where I shot my best photograph of the evening!
I'll save it for the end of this post :-)
:
" I wandered off a bit; (that's where I lost focus on Glow,
completely immersed in shooting photographs!)
The Laser line IS part of Glow...
The white lines at the bottom are bicyclists passing by
during the 30 seconds it took to shoot this photograph.
" - Mathijs
" I love that odd looking highrise!
All the lights on street level where cars passing by.
I call this photograph: "Light Explosion"
Mental note: check the level-ness of camera before shooting:
the odd building isn't straight up!
While in reality it is... " - Mathijs
" The odd highrise up close.
It took a couple of attempts to get this one right.
On the original photograph, you can even see some stars in the night sky! " - Mathijs
My favorite photograph of this photoshoot:
" This is the back of the 'van Abbe Museum'.
The 'Glow-Show' had just ended it's cycle when I found this sweet spot!
The lasers make it interesing as well as
the (almost full) moon pitching in at perfect angle!
The red 'hedge' are actually people moving around! " - Mathijs
On-topic: Lucy:
Lucy does enjoy me enjoying Glow:
" ZZZ zzz ZZZ zzz... " - Lucy
" An occasional foot-wash... " - Mathijs
" Dude... can't you see I need my beauty rest? " - Lucy
Lucy and I have been spending time on the couch, almost every evening!
She does love it, although she tends to get over excited (read: unhandable) within a couple of minutes.
Although whenever I put her in my hands, she remains very very gentile!
Lucy is pretty persuasive as well as demanding attention every day! Not that I mind, although Lucy did/does have a way to draw my attention: Cage Knawning is a popular activity by her.
She has a lot of stuff to knaw on to keep her teeth in shape ( Hamsters DO need to knaw ), she prefers her cage every once in a while.
Currently I am training myself only to interact with Lucy, when she's not engaged in such activity...
Which does seem to help, a bit...
" Duuuuude ! ...
Are you there ??? " - Lucy
Of course I was... Lucy 'announced herself' for a few minutes...
;-)
" Shall we sit on the couch and have a littl' talk ? " - Lucy
I agreed; Lucy took a gentle 'Hand-Taxi'-ride to the couch...
Which she explored a few minutes, when she froze:
" This couch is a mess, Dude !!! " - Lucy
"Why ?", I asked
" The plate, isn't tucket away, the way it should, DUDE !
Can't you see that ? " - Lucy
" Here; this isn't right ... " - Lucy
So I asked Lucy, what to do...
It didn't take two seconds, before Lucy started:
Lucy build quite a food-stash on her way up and down to her 'Meditation room (See this room in the previous post below).
She makes a lot of noise going up as well as going down. There are two of these (what I'd like to call:) S-tubes, put there mainly so Lucy doesn't have a three feet drop.
Lucy5.0 likes to use these as pantries, similar to all previous Lucy's ... :-)
" There you are... I was looking for that snack... " - down-side-up-Lucy
" Crunch... crunch ... " - Lucy
" Wait there is more ... " - Lucy
It sometimes does take ages for Lucy to go "downstairs"...
Lucy has also been spending a lot of time in her explorer ball! She loves it!
Whenever I hold the ball in front of her opened front door; she immediately climbs in, every time !
She loves running around in the living room. In the beginning she bumped a lot into obsticals.
Now she learned to avoid them or slow down before hitting an obstical (like wall, my feet, chairs etc).
Good excersise for me and my camera:
" I've gone over budget on the photoshoot,
in an attempt to show Lucy's speed in her Explorer Ball.
(True photograph; no photoshop! " - Lucy
I can't wait for Lucy to wake up...
Then we can start doing this all over again !!!
Last week, I expanded Lucy's mansion with her ( for HamsterTracker.com's-regular-visitor, familiar- ) "Meditation-Room".
(Needless to say), Lucy LOVES it! (A LOT!)
When I entered the living room in a morning, I found Lucy 'meditating':
" ZZZ ... zzz ... ZZZ ... " - Lucy
" I'd rather have a pillow; but I guess I would make the most of it, like Lucy! " - Mathijs
It didn't take long for Lucy to wake up (because of the flash-light)...
" Dude... I know you are there ! " - Lucy
" You are UP THERE, aren't you? " - Lucy
My simple response was : " Nope! " - Mathijs
" Lucy was still aware of me shooting photographs (with my 100 mm Macro lens),
that she ocasionally put on her brakes to check it all... " - Mathijs
" Dude .. I know I heard you...
Let's have some couch-fun ! " - Lucy
We did/do/are doing, this a lot; the couch thing; Lucy loves to get out and explore using her Explorer Ball as well as checking up with me on the couch. Lucy is the firsrt hamster to actually invent the 'Digging-game' in the corner of the couch (instead of the 'Touch-downs' scored by climbing up the couch)!
Lucy doesn't mind my hand, while trying to stop this 'couch-destruction'; it's actually a pretty fun game, SHE invented ! :-)
Here, in the Hetherlands we have experienced a very lousy summer; it felt like autumn all the way; being rainy, cloudy and way too cold for the season.
Fortunatly, the weather can be very erratic over here; these last few days, ever since autumn started we've been experiencing summer-like weather... Enough for me to go out with my camera and shoot some 'Summer in Autumn' photographs:
" The leaves being all red = Autumn,
The sunsine (as well as temperature) = SUMMER !
Is it me? Or is there actually a heart-shape there? " - Mathijs
Because Lucy's growing up, really fast, regardless of the weather;
I took some time to enhance Lucy's mansion with a 1 meter+ (one yard+) = climb to her 'Meditation Room'. Lucy has been exploring the room for quite some time; running up and down many, many times :-)
It's a great distraction for Lucy; which we can see in Lucy's Treadmill performance; the interest in her new mansion expansion is greater as opposed to running in her treadmill!
Who can blame her?
:-)
" Lucy, goin' UP ... " - Mathijs
This morning I discovered that Lucy used her Meditaion Room as a Bedroom:
" Good moooooornin' ...
... Dude ... " - Lucy
So I gave Lucy a few minutes, after a long night of runnin' up and down...
To challenge: I offered her a nice pine-seed, while calling her:
" Dude... Pine-Seed? " - Lucy
" I am on my way, Dude !!! Just give me a few more seconds... " - Lucy
These last 16 days have been a blast here at HamsterTracker™ Head Quarters: Lucy is getting used to my hand appearing in her mansion! She will quickly explore my hand in search of a pineseed.
She is very gentile to me; she did put her teath in my fingers a couple of times... she did that very gently too. Maybe she mistaked it for a pineseed, I don't know. At least she now seems to know that my fingers are not food for her :-)
Lucy is also very inquisitive... every morning when I enter the living room, she is sitting up looking towards the door I enter, amazingly cute! Of course that will get her a treat or two!
So when Lucy came with the following suggestion, I couldn't resist:
" Dude, I need to get out! " - Lucy
" Can I? ... Dude ? " - Lucy
The above photo's are shot using a 100mm macro lens. I didn't open the front door; it's shot 'through' the cage, while standing a meter (yard) away...
That's why you see these 'lines' in the photo; these are the bars or her cage walls of her mansion.
" I let Lucy (for the second time) in her explorer ball,
this time doubling the time to 10 minutes... " - Mathijs
" I called Lucy...
It looks like she came running back, although reality is the opposite;
I had some fun chasing Lucy for her second time on the couch experience: " - Mathijs
" Hi, Dude! " - Lucy
" Bye, Dude! " - Lucy
Lucy really enjoyed the experience!
But she is still in the process of learning that she shouldn't jump out of my hands, while on the couch. One time she fell on the floor a 50 cm (about half a yard) drop... Fortunately I could pick her up immediately preventing her from escaping in the livingroom!
The two times I put Lucy back in her mansion; she urinated in my hands. Although it's only a few drops, it is very smelly and it made me wash my hands immediately.
This last week I've been spending quite a lot of fun time in getting to know Lucy (as well as Lucy getting to know me). We are improving on our trust in eachother; I play the 'put my hand in her mansion' (a.k.a. Hand-Game) a lot, while holding a pine-seed. This blonde Lucy also LOVES her pine-seeds, b.t.w....
We spent some time on the couch as well; (just a minute or five or so, being Lucy's first experience.) She loved it, although she didn't really like me when I picked her up (for training as well as) returning to her mansion. When she was back 'at home', I discovered that she pied in my hand... a quick hand wash later, I was back on giving her a 'pat on the back' and she didn't mind at all!!!
We have also been working on our language skills; Lucy now knows her name is Lucy... and for some reason she automatically called me Dude... :-)
" Ah, there you are... Dude ... " - Lucy
" Right foot, needs a wash, appearantly ... " - Mathijs
" I am almost done, Dude ... Are you READY ??? " - Lucy
" Let's play the 'Hand-Game', Dude... " - Lucy
We are hand shaking as you read this!
( September 21, UPDATE: I corrected the incorrect photo dimensions... Sorry... it's been a while :-)
These last three days where really exciting! I did have to get used to a hamster making noise while treadin' her treadmill.
Lucy on the otherhand needed to get herself aquainted with her new living space. This meant sniffing and rubbing her scent glands (on both her hips) all over the place.
I tried to not bother Lucy too much; whenever I opened her cage, Lucy went into a defensive mode; holding up one paw, showing that she didn't approve.
Yesterday evenening we had a breakthrough; she didn't mind my hand being in her quarters as well as accepting a first pine-seed straight from my hand! :-)
We are getting to know and used to eachother...
" I was explaining on how special Lucy was... " - Mathijs
" Really ??? " - Lucy
One of the few words, Lucy currently knows...
" Isn't she cuuute ? " - Mathijs
" This picture clearly shows how long Lucy's hair is...
Looking forward to cuddle, this huge fluffy-ness ! :-) " - Mathijs
" An almost perfect 100 mm Macro shot!
(the top of Lucy's ears are missing)
Although I LOVE her looks in this photograph. " - Mathijs
Thank you to all that have responded on Lucy5.0 arrival!
HamsterTracker™-Shouts back to you all!
Finally, THE DAY HAS ARRIVED!
I got a phone call yesterday anouncing the arrival of Lucy 5.0!
" In the 'adoption' center... " - Mathijs
That's where I instantly fell in love with Lucy5.0!
She's about 6-7 weeks old; although she looks much more mature. She is a so called 'half-long haired' Golden 'Teddy Bear', as well as Blond (or Cinnamon).
Therefore she looks a 'bit more' than she actually is:
" After Lucy was put in her new home, she started her bathroom inspection immediately :-) " - Mathijs
" I let Lucy sit in the front seat, but only while wearing her seatbelt! " - Mathijs
Arrival at HamsterTracker™-Headquarters:
" What a cute fluffy Lucy, isn't she? " - Mathijs
Let's look closer:
" Nom, Nom, Nom... " - Lucy5.0
" Lucy is in her foodbowl, having a nibble, a bit startled by all changes this day... " - Mathijs
" Climbing up a treadmill... attempt no. 1...
and 2 (and three)... who's counting anyway? ... " - Mathijs
" Lucy's hair is pretty, as well as long! " - Mathijs
Finally, we're back in business, HamsterTracker™-Friends!
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