Ever wake up only to wish it was yesterday?
 
Last month, Minnie Moose was diagnosed (via symptoms) as in the early
stages of adrenal disease (typical hair loss, swollen vulva and nipples,
aggressive) and was scheduled for surgery Thursday (yesterday).  As I was
bundling her up for surgery, I noticed Bear limping by.  Not one to ignore
a limp, I picked him up only to discover his left front paw was double
normal size, angry red and looking like it was about to pop.  Not 24 hours
earlier he was sleeping on my lap and nothing was wrong with the foot (I
give my guys foot rubs....really.  They love it).  So now two fur pops are
going to the vet.
 
Minnie underwent surgery and came through with flying colors, although she
was a bit cool too long for my tastes.  She didn't have adrenal disease
after all, but instead she had a massive ovarian-like tumor on what stump
was left after being spayed.  The rest of her organs appeared normal, but
we are having the tumor tested anyway to make sure we know exactly what
it was.  Hopefully, she will recover and live a long healthy life.
 
Bear is a different matter.  We ruled out scabies, and suspect Bear got a
bite while playing or something and it is just an infection.  So we are
giving him a triple whammy of antibiotics to see how the foot responds.
We also took a very tiny bit of tissue just to see what we could see, but
won't know the results for a few days.  In the meantime, the little monkey
is riding in the sick sack, with ol' Bob checking the foot every hour to
make sure it has adequate blood flow.
 
Complicating everything is between the stress of having so much fun in
Toronto, then coming back and writing some serious papers, I've managed to
get a nasty little sore throat, probably due to the steroids I take.  So
not only do I have that steroid bloated head I am so proud of, BUT I also
have a thick neck to match it.  Oh fun.  Elizabeth is calling me Bobby
Churchen-Necker.  My head feels as big as Ted Koppel's.  I'll be eating
liquids for a couple of days.
 
Portland people; Sam Luc is not doing well.  In the last few weeks, I've
had to start twice daily feedings to keep his weight up, but he is not
doing the winter plump the rest of the goon squad are doing.  He is not
tolerating the loss of Fraggle very well, and I keep him in the Sick Sack
when I am home so he gets lots of attention.  I'm hoping this is just a
temporary depression which he will work out of, but I fear age is creeping
up on him.  He is such a sweet little guy, and both I and my vets are
trying to keep him going.  While he lost a lot of weight, at least it's
stable at the moment.  Poor little guy.
 
And to top the entire day off, I came home from the vet to find a bookshelf
toppled over with books and papers everywhere.  Apparently a peg sheered
off from the weight of the books, and the entire shelf collapsed.  Thank
God no ferrets were around when it happened, but I have to admit I had a
very queasy stomach and a feeling of deep dread; I had checked noses and
came up with one short, which I was convinced was under the ton of books.
I started to tear into the "biblio-pile" when I remembered Minnie Moose
was in the hospital cage.  I have so many books, and they weigh so much I
have tossed my wooden shelving and turned to those heavy duty steel Gorilla
racks.  I had a single wood bookshelf left, slated to be replaced next
month, but will now have to move the replacement up a few weeks.  Of
course, the ferrets had a grand time playing king of the hill and a single
book had a suspicious brown stain on it, but all in all, I think I got off
lucky.  The worst part is the top two shelves held photocopies of ferret
references, and now they are jumbled and hopelessly mixed up.
 
I'm just glad I made it to Friday.  Sam!  The Tui helped!  ;-)
 
Bob C and 15 Mo' Bibliopile Poopers
[Posted in FML issue 3190]