Nov 26, 2011

Legends... 12

"There is a legend
that fallen knights return as great horses.
He has seen what awaits you, and he will protect you."

Nov 8, 2011

Napping peacefully under a table... 'time to go?'... Wake up, sit up, bonk head on the table... 'not time to go? Okay then'... Lay down for more napping, bonk head on table.

A WonderVet perk: the joys of castration can be brought to your very own home.
National Geographic has a nifty chart.

Nov 7, 2011

Foffmom: Trip follow up

Reporting that travel with a service dog is really quite pleasant, and his human did a great job as well. But there's no place like home....

Nov 3, 2011

Olaf has regained his health, and is a hellion. He is just learning to socialize with the bedroom kitties (Calypso and Penelope), and they are.... well they can just get over it.

The Foffparents are bringing me on a weekend venture to elsewhere, and of course that means they are bringing Gibbs too. I was reassuring Foffmom, "Don't worry, Gibbs will be great!" She replied with, "It isn't Gibbs that I am worried about." Sigh. Well, I am positive that Gibbs WILL be great!

Oct 20, 2011

Foffmom: Final Nanny Goat Update

The nanny goats had caseating lymphadenitis and had to be euthanized. Our equine (I'm NOT a Goat Vet) vet once again came out, agreed on diagnosis, prognosis, and management. (Cull from the herd- as described in multiple sites on line.) The euthanasia was swift and that was a good thing, as they were so herd bound to one another that to have had one ever be aware of being alone would have been misery inducing.

I brought their bodies to a local business that cremates dead large animals, as the organism can supposedly survive in soil for years. I still have to finish sanitizing the stall before we can use it for the horses again. Yes, it is moderately contagious to horses, and mildly so to humans, although there is effective humane treatment in humans, but not in goats.

They were making such progress on becoming socialized. It was put to ironic good use, in that they were not crazy freaked out antelope when the vet walked into the stall. Sigh. Goats- they are not easy, at least not for us. So far.

Oct 18, 2011

Foffdaughter: Olaf's #s

Foffmom and I took Olaf to an unfamiliar vet clinic to assess the seriousness of his illness. It feels like cheating on WonderVet, but for some reason which isn't good enough, WonderVet decided to take off work for a day. Of course this only became apparent when I was calling to schedule a visit for that afternoon. Anyway, we all went to a new place to get the opinion of a vet since we could not reach the vet.

They estimated Olaf to be around 11-12 weeks old, and he weighed in at 1 lb 15 oz. An oz off of 2 lb. Kittens are supposed to gain one pound per month, and that makes Olaf a little behind schedule. I cannot wait until his health returns to him. His entire life has been handicapped thus far. Initially the problems were worms, fleas, ear mites and hunger, and then he was healthy for about a week before this sickness started to settle in. Anyway. Those are some numbers for Olaf.

Oct 17, 2011

Foffdaughter: Olaf

The newest kitten has finally gotten a name. Olaf. I didn't name him, and I am just grateful that the final title wasn't worse. Olaf isn't such a bad name. It is from a book - good start. It is the name of the villain - excellent. If you rearrange the letters, it spells Foal - brilliant. The adorable kitten has not been photographed just yet. Here are other things instead.



Note: above picture not Olaf. One cheetah has an average of 2000 spots.

Oct 11, 2011

Foffmom: What Consequences?

Updating on unplanned rat family.

About two weeks later, on second round of giving out treats, I was hovering over the end of the aquarium that held the roiling wriggling mess of rattins, now with fur. I was trying to determine if there were 7 or 8. Mother was not happy with my studying (eyes only mind you). I decided to offer her another treat. She bit me with a lunging intention I would have previously only attributed to a shark. Foffdaughter had shown me the movie at the end of Ratatouille which stated that rats can chew through stainless steel. So doing a pincher move piercing my index finger nail bed and my finger pad was an easy task.

You know in cartoons when a rodent bites a finger, the human then waves around the finger trying to shake the rodent off? While an unavoidable instinctive move, I do not recommend it, because the full weight of the rat swinging off your finger really really hurts worse than the rat bite, which hurts plenty. And no they do not turn loose to fly through the air, they wait until they are firmly planted to release you.
I have not gotten an infection, and have an interesting puncture/blood bruise in my nail bed, that will grow out eventually.

The rattins are really really cute...
I think there are 8 of them..
Maybe.
Don't care as much now.

Oct 4, 2011

Gibbs: Graduated

Gibbs is getting a new ID badge to replace his current 'in training' badge, and then that is it. He will be so credentialed that it practically qualifies for diplomatic immunity. It is rather startling to admit how gloriously Gibbs has performed through virtually every aspect of this saga.
Even though it was not mandatory, Gibbs was held to the standard of the 'Public Access Test'. It has various scenarios that all fairly common and routine, and each one is scored based on how closely the testing dog matched the ideal behavior(s) listed for that scenario. Make sense? I don't care enough to really get into examples, but the bottom line is that Gibbs passed with flying colors when tested.