Sad news :(

Poor Scraps has to tidy herself up after our messy hand-feeding session.

Here we go again. We spent the day yesterday up at the UW-Madison Veterinary Hospital with Scraps. For the second time, I am going to have to guide a beloved family member through a fatal absess. It's a hideous ailment that rabbits can get but rarely ever make it through. Because their pus is so incredibly thick, once they get an infection, it's a huge problem. Once it hits their little jawbone (hers has), it's basically a death sentence. Our beautiful young girl will have her precious life cut short because of this. It's the same thing that took my Pinkerton's life. Pinky was the first rabbit I had the pleasure of sharing my life with. I'm heartsick over this, because I know it's painful. At this point, all I can do is give her the antibiotics, ear drops, pain medication, and handfeeding that she needs, along with a ton of love and cuddles. Once her pain is such that it interferes with the quality of her life, we will take that horrible last drive to see Dr. Nelson. They did the best they could to fix her up and improve her life by trying to knock the infection back for a while, but despite our long discussions with the head vet of exotics and the head of the animal dentistry department, there's nothing more we can do for her. This just sucks!

I'm so glad that I have the rest of the month off work, so I have extra time to spend with her. The biggest problem lies in the fact that she can't communicate with me about her pain and the quality of her life, and prey animals are so very good at hiding their physical distress. I DO NOT want her to suffer at all! I know after her CAT scan and the manipulations of the vets yesterday that she was in pain and is still showing signs of being in pain today. That pain should be abating soon, but if not... The other main problem with the whole thing is that rabbits can't take any good pain drugs. The strongest thing they can be given is about the equivalent of aspirin. Think about the intense pain from an absessed tooth that has spread to an ear and bone infection and only managing that pain with aspirin. That is the primary reason that I know we won't have too much time with her. The antibiotics will, hopefully, slow the infection down and briefly improve it, but that's about the extent of it. Given that I won't let her suffer, her time with us will probably short.

Because I have a great 'regular' vet, he is willing to work with the UW on cases that they can handle better than he can. He worked as a team with their vets way back when Pinky suffered from this. Rabbits are strange little creatures, and require a good amount of special knowledge and special equipment. My vet is the first to let me know if he feels that a problem could be handled better by another vet. The UW vet hospital is cutting edge with top-of-the-line equipment. Dr. Nelson (Mt. Zion Small Animal Clinic) is wonderful--he knows his stuff, he's honest, and he cares deeply! He scheduled the appointment for me, faxed all the information they would need, and they also work well with him. They faxed him all the results yesterday. It's nice to have a team of vets working together, and I have the utmost faith in Dr. Nelson and his staff. I'm also fortunate enough to have a kick-ass avian vet, too. Most 'regular' vets don't know much about birds at all, and they are very different from the other animals. Dr. Chaudhry (So. Beloit Animal Hospital) is an avian expert, a great guy, and a vet who really cares about the animals. I have encountered enough sloppy, greedy, careless vets to know that we are extremely lucky to have such treasures to care for our family members.

I snapped this shot while we were in the 'bird room' cuddling Scraps. Botswana gets a little hay whenever we refresh Scraps' supply, and he immediately starts moving it around to his preferred hiding spots. He's a very cute, very busy little guy who loves to redecorate his environment.

Despite our heartbreak, I giggle everytime I see the clip of Bush being pelted with the shoes. I have cheered myself up a bit by re-watching that on You Tube. Damn, that man has some snappy reflexes for a worthless drunk. Here's my question on the whole thing: Why, after eight years of his terrorist regime, is this the first time something like this has happened?!! I'm glad to see at least one man in the world has retained enough balls to stand up, speak out, and take action. I love the non-violent, yet extremely insulting nature of the shoe toss. I would love even more to see this happen at every single public event this piece of shit attends. That would make the statement that this pile of pus needs to hear. He can ignore it from one man, but if people threw shoes everywhere he went, maybe he would actually get the message!

L. spent the day at my mom's, working on a gingerbread house. It was very nice for her to have a day with grandma and get to do something fun after the unpleasant day we had yesterday. The three of us--M., L., and I, all took Scraps to the vet, so she too spent much of the day sitting in the waiting room, only to get bad news. She's very sad about Scraps, so I'm happy that she had a day away to hopefully forget for awhile. She had a lot of fun and was very excited to show me her very detailed gingerbread house. H. is here tonight, so they are off playing and making messes until 8:00, at which time he will go home and get ready for bed, and L. and I will medicate, feed, and visit with Scraps. Then she will go to bed. Then I will be able to hang out with M. and watch the Sarah Silverman dvd that just arrived from Netflix today. We are ready for a little bit of escapism.

This antique xylophone is one of those small, silly things that makes me happy for no apparent reason. The last time I went 'junking' this summer, I picked this up for $1.00. I saw it sitting on the shelf and was drawn to it. It made me smile for some strange reason, so I bought it, not having a clue what I was going to do with it. I'm trying to simplify and get rid of stuff, so I hesitated and argued with myself about acquiring another completely pointless object to dust. I decided to hang it on the cupboard over the sink, so I can look at it when I do dishes. I can't explain why, but I've gotten much more than $1.00 worth of enjoyment out of this pointless toy.

We had another Petland protest on Sunday, and it was awesome! We had about 30 people there. That is just unheard of for a protest in Janesville! Let alone a protest on a cold winter day during the very busy xmas season. I couldn't stay out there for too long, as I still have a hard time standing/being on my feet for very long. I got out there for a while, though, and was so glad we went. There was so much community support. We were spread out all over Hwy. 14 & 26, and there were almost non-stop horns, thumbs up signs, and several who stopped to get literature. Petland will not make it through 2009! Here is a rare photo of M & I together, taken by Allegrea.