Goodbye August

9-8-22 – I’m not sure where August went. First it was my sister’s birthday, then a program on the 10th with Max, Smudge Hedgehog and Burt Parrot. The program went well but everything went downhill from there. Smudge started leaving her fruit untouched but would still come out for mealworms but that stopped on the 13th. I got her into the vets on the 15th because I had scheduled the chinchillas for an initial exam. So, I was able to bring her instead of them. Thank goodness I did or perhaps she would not have had a good last week. Seemed she caught a cold. I don’t believe from anyone because she was held with gloves and people only touched her spikes. I could have missed her slight behavioral changes before the 13th but she was always greeting me, so maybe not. She could have caught a chill when I started leaving the windows open at night for the fresh, cool air. It had been wicked hot for weeks and when we finally got a cool front, I was delighted. I took her outside on the 14th for sunshine and took photos. She seemed slow, wobbly but interested. Anyways, she first sneezed at the vets. Okay, we can give her fluids and antibiotics. She was a trouper. However, the vet noticed her heart was beating irregularly and surmised that she had heart disease and was missing teeth too. How could that be? She was only maybe 2.5 years old. I got Smudge in January of 2021 and was told she was “about a year old.” Hum, evidently that was wrong. Smudge’s cold got better but her heart seemed to be overworking. I thought she was taking a turn for the better when I caught her drinking water on the 19th. I guess not. On the 20th in the evening when I tried to medicate her, she refused. So, I held her and was talking to her asking why she didn’t want to take her medicine. She looked at me and took a breath. It was her last. I just stood there looking dumbfounded and kept calling her name. My head could not wrap around the fact that she was gone. Being the curious person that I am, I looked at her teeth and yes, many were missing or worn down. Smudge was an old hedgehog. Had I known she had heart disease from the beginning, perhaps, I would have prevented educating with her due to the stress and always have a warm pad for her to help with circulating. But darn if she didn’t move off that pad when I put it in that week. So, what the heck? Little prey animals mask their illnesses so not to look weak. I created a video of all my beloved animal ambassadors over the years and posted it on YouTube – Loved and Lost. It was sad and wonderful remembering all my little pals.

I got to meet a 1st cousin on the 22nd for the first time. However, she gave me Covid, and I came down with it on the 24th. I had to find coverage for me at the museum and had little interaction with the animals including Max. I was fearful one of them would get sick from me. I handled the cold part of it but the fatigue and muscle weakness wreaked havoc. However, since I had animals to care for, there was no lying around feeling sorry for myself. I continued to do my animal care as best as I could and took multiple breaks. I did catch up on my sleep which was a good thing! I lost my taste and smell 4 days into it, but it slowly came back a week later. As of this writing, I’m still coughing and have sinus issues but am negative. Heck, I was having those issues before Covid.

Let’s see. While I was out mowing the lawn on the 27th, I noticed my car in the garage leaking. Called for a tow that Monday and it went to the shop without me. Seems my power steering sprung a leak. It was probably a mouse! I hadn’t driven it since the 10th. I’ve been using mom’s car since it has less mileage. Well, that got fixed and I picked it up once I was out of quarantine.

On the 30th, we had a major rainstorm, and my house was hit by lightning. I don’t think it was a spike but more of an electrical flash. It sent the cable out which also works the phone line and three of my outlets went dead. Lucky, I flipped the breaker, and that took care of the dead outlets. It was a couple days for Spectrum to get to me to replace the fried DVR and Wifi router. My new phone/answering machine arrived on Friday but what I didn’t know was that the lightening killed the old phone, not just the power cord. I was listening to a message yesterday and it was all static. So, I’m thankful I didn’t send the new phone back when I purchased a new power cord. Though I now have an extra power cord! It also fried the power cord to LED lights in the kitchen. I know it could have been worse and for that I’m truly grateful. Imagine the cost of replacing Max’s meat freezers? Phew.

At times like this, I tend to forget that there have been good times, too.

I look back at some of my messages & photos to my sisters and friends. The 19th was a beautiful day when I sat on a bench at the nature preserve where I work and watched the bees pollinate. I watched a butterfly make it’s rounds to the plants and then stop for a drink of water in the bird bath. I remember thinking how lovely and wonderful nature is.

The morning of the 20th, I gave Lil Bun new flooring. Yep, I don’t get new flooring, but the rabbits do! This will make it much easier to clean up after them. I still need to do Poppy’s flooring which I will get to this weekend. It’s a bit time consuming with the cleaning the wood, cutting, and placing the vinyl squares and kneeling! I love the results. It will help preserve the wood base too. What you don’t know is this is my 2nd upgrade on their living quarters. Lil Bun would run and scatter poo, hay and litter outside his bars. So, I created a baseboard around the cage to keep in the mess. Poppy is not as messy. Lil Bun is a joy. Sometimes in the evening he runs circles in his cage. I usually put him on the porch to help him with his energy. I would put Poppy as well but he was neutered at the beginning of August and will still try to hump her. No, I’ll wait another month before I combine their cages into a larger one. Though I might have to get rid of the couch and rocker!

Max…last photos I took of him were on August 1st. On the 21st, I got a photo of him carrying around his purple puff ball like a baby and mewing. He then tried to hump it. OMG, that cat is so funny!

Good news, Ruby will sit on my shoulders and be okay if I don’t touch her much! Progress! The photo is from August 31st.

See, not all of August was a bust!