Loki: Not dead yet!

I took Loki in for a distemper vaccination. In the car on the way home,just a couple of blocks from the vet, he started vomiting, so I pulled a U-y and brought him back to the vet. After he got there, he started pooing blood and his skin, especially visible in the paw pads and gums turned bright red. They gave him antibiotics, Benadryl, fluids and sugar water. He was pretty out of it for about 3 hours. Since the vet didn't have anything that he would eat, I drove to Target to get some chicken baby-food, which he ate, though he needed a bit of coaxing to decide that he was hungry.

Now he seems to be doing fine, though tired, since they had me keep him awake and try to make him active the whole time. Now we're home and he's sleeping. The little butt wouldn't take his medicine, even though I mixed it with chicken baby food. I'll have to try it again tomorrow morning with Ferretone or soybean oil.

I'm absolutely exhausted! The last couple of times that I had to take a ferret in, in critical condition, they died. Needless to say, I was very concerned that I was about to lose my Loki boy too!

I'm supposed to watch him tonight and see how he is in the morning. If he has more problems overnight, I'll need to take him to the emergency animal hospital, or if he's having issues in the morning, then I can take him back to the vet.

The Queen and the Soldier

One of my favorite "local" bands covered the song "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. It's a song that's haunted me ever since I heard it almost a week ago. Below is a Youtube video of Suzanne Vega singing it at a concert in Germany.



Here are the lyrics:

The Queen and the Soldier

The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more"
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside.
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will
Only first I am asking you why."
Down in the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down.
He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"
The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.
And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread
It cuts me inside, and often I've bled"
He laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.
"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see.
And the sun, it was gold, though the sky, it was gray
And she wanted more than she ever could say
But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away
And would not look at his face again.
And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand
Your highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown, it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached
She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait
She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on

Very sad, I must say.

Snowball has gained even more!

The little fuzzy is now up to 1 lb 14 oz (1.875 lbs)!

Chaos has lymphoma.

I took Chaos in to the vet yesterday because of dehydration. The vet gave me fluids to give him twice a day subcutaneously. Poor little guy! The vet also found a bunch of hard nodules, which he says show lymphoma. He also felt some lumps in his abdomen. The vet gives Chaos weeks or months, but "not seasons or years".

Can we please protect Americans abroad?

I'm not against the death penalty per se. I know that many people are violently opposed, but that's not what I want to write about here.

I want to say that I wish that Texas had just handed that Mexican rapist/murderer over to Mexico rather than going against the Vienna Convention and executing him.

Those treaties are the only thing that protect Americans abroad...if we don't respect the treaties, how can we expect other countries to do so???

Not that I plan on doing anything that would get me arrested, but I'd like to be able to contact my consulate while abroad, thank you very much.

Snowball is gaining weight!

Snowball is up 5 whole ounces! Compared to 1 lb 7 oz (1.4 lbs) a week and a half ago, she's at 1 lb 12 oz (1.75 lbs)!

Reassuring Observation

I just watched Loki and Snowball at the moment when Snowball was screaming bloody murder. Loki's teeth and claws were not engaged, which tells me that she was just telling him to go away, rather than crying out in pain. That lets me feel better about not rushing to her rescue every time I hear her scream. It's very common for deaf ferrets to be rather vocal.