Entropy sucks!

Tonight is the Alliance's Annual chili cookoff.  I have to run out this afternoon and pick up some supplies for that.  I also have about eight hours of grading (at least) that needs to be done today between now and five when we leave for the dinner.  So what does a responsible adult do in a situation like this?  She comes up ways to procrastinate the grading, of course!

My little Colorado river has not given up on her rat campaign.  In fact, she has stepped it up--writing me little essays about rats, essays on how much research she has done, stating how good her time management skills are, sending me constant links to cages, pictures of rats...  My husband has bailed, as he always does in such situations.  He knows he is helpless against her assaults, so he completely bows out and says something like, "it's up to mom".  He's also working so much he's a virtual non-entity in our home these days, so it's just the raging river and me, the mountain that will soon be the Grand Canyon.  Damn me and my logic-based democratic parenting!

We had to schedule a vet appointment for Botswana who has started to show some definite signs of aging.  He suddenly stopped eating his sunflower seed treats, which he usually can't eat fast enough.  He continued eating softer foods but has dropped some weight in the last couple of weeks.  We took him to our rodent specialist vet and he checked out okay.  He has no teeth or mouth problems, his heart sounds great, he has no growths or indication that there is anything wrong with him.  He was diagnosed as being a very geriatric gerbil. 

Of course there's no way to know with 100% certainty that he doesn't have some kind of cancer or organ issues--there just isn't any way to determine that without opening him up for surgery, and that is not an option.  That's the exact problem that haunts me--what if he's in some kind of horrible internal pain!  I don't want him to suffer at all, but there is no way to determine that.

 He's slowed down and is not coordinated, so I also was concerned about arthritis pain.  L has rearranged his cage to prevent falls from climbing, and she's added lots of padding, so if he does fall, he shouldn't be hurt.  The vet said that I can give him a small dose of baby aspirin (8 ml every four hours) to minimize pain and inflammation.  He's also on a softer diet and seems to be loving it.  We are giving him the small animal critical care mix with a syringe, and he chows that right down.  He holds the syringe in his little hands like a bottle!  We also got him (unsalted) sunflower seeds without the shell, and he is loving that.  Because he is old and his weight's down, he can have unlimited quantities of his favorite fruit, in addition to his daily veggie produce.  He seems to be very happy with being able to eat as many blueberries as he wants!  He is such an adorable little guy!

These photos are all from a 'session' L tried to do with him this summer.  It's hard to get good photos of a tiny guy who doesn't hold still!