Animal Updates

Just under two weeks after Wilson's shoulder-dislocating automobile incident, we took the cast off. By this point, the cast/bandage was filthy and tattered, leaving trails of stuffing everywhere he went. Now that the cast is off and he's had a good bath, he looks like our old beagle again! So far so good on the shoulder staying in place, but he is limping on it just a little. We're still going to be keeping him on very limited activity for a while until we're sure that shoulder is gonna stay put!

Wilson has been on the phenobarbital for 13 days now. He's had 3 or 4 seizures during that time, but they have been very short (5 mins as opposed to his usual 45 mins). I was hoping we'd be able to decrease his dosage sometime soon as I'm worried about the side effects of this drug, but the vet says we need to up the dosage since he's still having seizures. It's kind of a trial and error thing at this point, with hopefully not too much error.

In other animal updates, one by one, all of the baby guineas disappeared. We even lost one of the adult guineas recently. The upside of this is that Ranger is no longer alone. Apparently it was Silver's boyfriend that got snatched, and Ranger has happily stepped in to fill his role. So, we're down to four guineas - two happily mated pairs. I would love it if it would stay at that level. I'm not too keen on any more babies, despite how cute they are, because it is just too much of a bummer watching them all disappear.  

Our chicken population has more than doubled because I brought home our teenage chickens from my boss' farm. In addition to my barred rocks, speckled sussex and salmon favorelle chicks, I also ended up with two polish chickens, one buff and one black with a white crest. Polish chickens, if you haven't seen one, have goofy puffball crests of feathers on their heads. Joe has named the two of them Bebop and Rock Steady, apparently after some characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since my childhood TV diet consisted almost entirely of Mr. Rogers, I wasn't familiar with these names, but they definitely seem appropriate for these chickens.

In the last week or so, we have FINALLY gotten some rain. I think we've gotten just over 2.5 inches in several rain events. Things are starting to turn green again. I leave you with this picture of a stealthy visitor to my day lily patch.