Home Improvement

I have been noticing Mario digging at the rug I put on the bottom level of his cage for traction. More recently I noticed him nibbling at it a bit. But yesterday I took it out to vacuum it and saw this:

With BunnyGirl's Tidbit feeling under the weather, I couldn't stand the idea of Mario getting stuffed up with carpeting. So I had to throw his traction rug away. Without his rug, I've seen him struggle to make the jump up to the first raised level of his cage. The bottom floor is pretty slippery when you've got furry-bottomed feet! My parents recently revamped their bathroom and decided while they were at it they would redo it in such a way that it will take them into their "Golden Years" (door wide enough for a wheelchair, shower stall instead of tub so they can still get in and out of it in 25 years, and handlebars in the shower stall). So in similar fashion, I had to geriatrify Mario's condo.

I lowered the first level one inch. Mario's condo has been through many incarnations, but his original condo's second floor was a good 4 inches higher than where it is now. The distance between the second and third floor is now pretty large, but since he has a good grip on floor 2, he doesn't seem to have any issues making it up another level. But I'll keep an eye on him and may end up lowering the third floor, too.

I had a nice six mile run today and followed it up later on in the day with a six mile ride on the trainer. I had meant to take the bike out for a proper ride but the weather outside was windy and all doom and gloom so I opted to stay inside. Truth be known, I'm a big weenie riding in traffic and down hills (and especially next to traffic on the downhills) so decided to play it safe indoors. I've had some much more enjoyable rides on roads that had a wide shoulder and no stop signs every two blocks and hope to get out to one of those this weekend.