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Ups and Downs

Friday
10/9/2009

Chase and Khola were even more excited than usual to get through the back door and into our fenced yard at 7:25 this morning, which is the usual start time for our dog-walk. When I followed their stares, I saw why; a fat raccoon was ambling toward a tree in the back corner of the yard. He’d heard and seen the dogs and realized it was time to vacate the premises. Still, he took his time scaling the tree and climbing down on the other side of the fence.

I let the dogs out and went down to the basement to put on my dog-walking shoes, then came out to the deck a few minutes later. Now the dogs were focused on a smaller tree just beyond the side-yard wall of the fence.

This raccoon was 20 feet up, apparently asleep. I don’t see how it could have been the same one, or could it? Our lot is only about 50 feet wide, with about a dozen of those feet outside the fence and studded with bamboo. Do we really share it with two large raccoons?

Sleeping is about the only thing happening in the 50K villa, where Lynxie and her kits are suffering through horrible congestion and crusty, drippy noses that make it impossible for them to smell and force them to breathe through their mouths. We’ve seen Barley eat a few pieces of dry food and Harry take a few licks of baby food, but aside from that, Lynxie and her Hellions have been fasting for two days.

Normally we’d respond by syringe-feeding them Nutrical and slurry. But the Hellions all arch their backs, whip their heads, and thrash their claws when we try. So far we’ve had the most luck by dripping Nutrical on their paws, which prods them to lick it off. As they lose weight and risk dehydration, we’re starting to get concerned. Luckily they were pretty strong before they contracted this virus, and we haven’t seen any vomiting or diarrhea. I took the kittens to the downstairs bathroom for a steam bath, and will head out to buy a vaporizer later this morning. If they don’t start eating soon, I’ll be back at them with a syringe and long, thick sleeves.

Upstairs in the bunkhouse, it’s a very different scene. The Cinders are chowing like fiends, and the sloppy poop is firming up a bit, now that we’ve been adding a big scoop of canned pumpkin to each meal of wet food. Martha read that pumpkin helps treat diarrhea somewhere, and so far, it looks like a winner. Not bad, at $1.40 a can!

While Deirdre is still hissy and Spike’s ears still flatten a bit, the Cinders are turning into happy little campers. When they’re not doing a big sardine-nap, they ramble around the bunkhouse and dribble balls in the shower. So far, so good with this posse.

filed by: TS

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