kit-kit-kit-kitsune

[ans99]

so here's our new kitty. she's a firecracker, just a year old, and her name is kitsune. i knew the first time i held her what her name would be, and even though we "auditioned" six or so cats on sunday she was the obvious one. loves to be petted, this cat. ye gods, she'll hit her head against anything trying to get a head rub out of it. including a metal file cabinet. yeech.










the only problem we've run into thus far is that she's way too interested in wilson. so interested, in fact, that we went to watch battlestar galactica for 40 minutes in ken's room and when we came out she'd reached into the rat cage with her paw as far as she could and wilson was just cowering in his house. i guess some rats nip cats, but wilson is apparently far too polite. we squirted her with vinegar twice and she jumped down. we're moving his cage to our bedroom and making it off limits to cats tonight. it's a shame. i'm with wilson right now, in my art room with the door closed, and he is so upset and i feel awful.

i realize i haven't been keeping you all abreast of my animals. that's in part because something happened this weekend that made me feel like a total jerk.

basically we decided dot and dash were far too sick to introduce to wilson, and in fact far too sick to have ever been adopted out in the first place. so we returned them. the waiting room was awful. there was this old couple that came in with their two (or more? i only saw two carriers at the least) cats, and the lady at the front desk basically said 'we have no space for these cats.' i was silently pleading the whole time that they wouldn't just leave them there to be possibly euth'ed anyway, and finally the old couple took the cats away to be brought back at a later date. i'm surprised they weren't directed to another shelter, actually.

the thing is, we did something we shouldn't have done and we adopted rats that were on vet check. someone had seen them "sneezing blood"-- we had no idea what myco was at the time because it just doesn't come up in conversation with friends, seeing as none of them own rats. and i've only dealt with lab rats, which are usually myco-free. so we thought nothing of it, and took them after the swiftest vet check ever. we should have waited, because the entire time with us they kept getting sicker. we waited a week, and then we returned them. if it had been stress i would have expected constant improvement as they adjusted, not one rat already sick then the other.

it's another shame, because i really liked them. it's just we felt they were too big a risk to him in their debilitated state. i'd get them in an instant, again, once they were better and fully checked out and monitored in a stable environment. i guess we'll keep an eye out and see.

we're still going to get wilson a companion, because there is no way in hell he could possibly be myco-free. we carry it in our nasal passages and he's no longer in a barrier facility. so we're going to get back to the shelter, or get in touch with a rat adoption agency, and try again. maybe with buddies he'll toughen up and nip that cat. we'll see, i guess. i hope we find him a suitable buddy soon.

in other news, what have i been up to... hm. the diet is running me ragged and i'm not getting enough sleep, so i haven't really lost anything yet but i feel tired and hungry all the time. last weekend alan and adrienne showed us grand hotel, the movie with the line "i want to be alone." it was pretty funny, unintentionally, and it was telling that even with a murder and attempted suicide, the most disturbing thing for us was not knowing what happened to the deceased's schnauzer. that and the pasted-in-after-the-fact overly dramatic closeups of greta garbo. i want to hang out with them again soon, because it was a really good time. and i want to see more old movies!

i think i did more but i'm so tired i have no idea what it was. time for bed.

i hope kitsune can find the litter box tonight.

Comments

[delphizyx.livejournal.com]

I already said this, but there are more pics and she just keeps getting cuter. no judgment here on the awful petowner stuff because stuff happens and you just cant beat yourself up about it.

Maybe Kitsune just wants to be Wilson's friend :)

[freyja.livejournal.com]

yeah, you can only do so much for animals when it just isn't working out. :( and i tend to think it's like childrearing; it can be really dependent on the personality of the "kid," the situation specifics, etc. thanks for the no judgment though. :)

Maybe Kitsune just wants to be Wilson's friend :)

LOL, even so, wilson will have none of it! he was so upset he was afraid to go back into his cage that night, even after we moved it out of the common room. i think he had visions of a cat paw swooping in out of nowhere... :(

[tr2a.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD I CANNOT WAIT TO MEET THIS KIT KAT

[freyja.livejournal.com]

SHE IS INCREDIBLE. if a bit clingy (case in point: last night she kept grabbing our hands with her paw and directing them back to the task of petting/scritching-- i have never seen a cat quite that bold the first day, she's a real attention whore!).

[eyeteeth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all domestic rats have myco, usually they only get active infections when sick with something else or otherwise stressed. It's an odd thing, though, because it can progress to the point that it kills them, it just usually doesn't. I had a rat who died of myco, I think -- she had the hallmark coarse fur, lethargy, and wheezing. Those little guys really are a fucking thrill a minute, especially their tiny little lungs. Damn them for being so fragile!

[freyja.livejournal.com]

yeah, it seems so variable. i'm surprised i've never heard of it before, you'd think that this would be something rat owners were warning against, or actively campaigning science to find better treatment or even a cure...

then again maybe they *are* and i'm just dense. i didn't know about this HR 669 thing either...