Frayed around the edges, but let's talk about pets
We're fine. Not thriving, but fine. Cook and I are still employed. Kids "passed" their distance learning classes (though I'm pretty sure they learned nothing). Here they are, in a rare moment of being together and not actively crying or yelling at me or eachother.
But I'm here today to tell you about the pets. 2020 is the year of Pandemic, Social Collapse and Pet Adventures at Our House.
1) Regarding Guinea Pigs. Snufkin is dead. He got bladder stones and started peeing blood and crying in pain, and we had him euthanized. There was a whole ethical crisis around this (we COULD have gotten him expensive surgery and a lifetime of medicine with no guarantee the stones wouldn't recur, leaving me awake at night pondering the ramifications of holding a small life in my hands and whether I was euthanizing him because he's never liked us, etc.), but we did it. RIP Snufkin. (He got to eat a last meal of treats that we'd never given him before.)
And then we set about trying to replace him, because guinea pigs do not like to be alone. We went back to the guinea pig rescue fanatics and tried speed-dating Momo with a couple of potential buddies. She was okay with one of them, Fracas, so we took him home. He was really charming - much more curious and friendly than Snufkin or Momo have ever been.
But when we took him home, we realized pretty quickly that he was also peeing blood. I told the kind guinea pig fanatics that I could not do this again, and they took him back. (Turned out he had a bladder stone and an enormous kidney stone, so he's now in hospice care at the rescue.) We tried speed-dating again, but Momo, as it turns out, is too passive to manage most males, and wasn't compatible with the few females available. They don't adopt out unspayed females, and spays are non-essential procedures, so we're waiting until they have some more spayed females ready for speed-dating. Hopefully we'll get Momo a buddy sometime soon so she doesn't die of loneliness. Pro tip: Guinea pigs are terrible pets.
2) Regarding The Dogs. We have had a series of foster dogs. Cook does not particularly enjoy dogs, so this has been a sacrifice for him, and they have been a lot of work, but they do provide something to think about that isn't us, which I do appreciate.
Dog #1 was a lovely, mild-mannered giant American Bulldog mix who was confident and able to self-regulate. He loved tug of war and lying in very soft places. In retrospect, we can see that he was exceptionally easy. (Pro tip: by all accounts and our anecdotal experience, American Bulldogs are excellent pets.) We had him for maybe six weeks, and then he was adopted.
Dog #2, an old boxer mix, arrived late at night, straight from a 14 hour drive in a van full of dogs from a shelter in Northern California. She also arrived infested with ticks and with a burgeoning case of pneumonia. She was quite fat (thyroid issue) and had very limited mobility. She also didn't much care for people, but defended our house and me (as her food source) with unpleasant barking, growling, and snarling. None of us much liked her, but we all felt a lot of sympathy for her because of the neglect that brought her to the situation and condition she was in. (Old dogs, apparently, make up a lot of the shelter population because nobody wants them.) We had her for a couple weeks, long enough to get her over the pneumonia and ticks (Duchess was our expert tick wrangler - life skills!). When she snapped at Skipper, we asked the dog rescue fanatics to move her to another foster home, which they did. (She subsequently was moved to another home, one free of dogs, cats, children and stairs. Not an easy dog, and I can't imagine she'll ever be adopted.)
Dog #3 is a subfoster from another foster household who went on a dog-free weeklong vacation. He's our first dog under 85 pounds, a medium-sized pitbull mix who would like to spend all his time in your lap. He's our most people-loving dog so far, coming up to people wiggling and smiling and wanting love. He also is horrible to walk, because he pulls a lot is distracted by everything, forgets there's a person at the end of the leash, and lunges hard at passing bicycles, motorcycles, squirrels, and other dogs. Also, he occasionally marks pee in the house so he has to be supervised constantly.
Dog #4 is about to arrive tonight, a few hours after Dog #3 leaves - he may be the last for us for a while. He is a medium-large middle-aged pitbull, infested with fleas and with some kind of skin condition that's probably mange, and he's unneutered, so we'll be making some vet trips (and probably cleaning up a lot of pee...).
So there we are. Maintaining at one dog and one guinea pig. I hope you and all your pets are well, and that nobody is peeing blood right now in your home.
But I'm here today to tell you about the pets. 2020 is the year of Pandemic, Social Collapse and Pet Adventures at Our House.
1) Regarding Guinea Pigs. Snufkin is dead. He got bladder stones and started peeing blood and crying in pain, and we had him euthanized. There was a whole ethical crisis around this (we COULD have gotten him expensive surgery and a lifetime of medicine with no guarantee the stones wouldn't recur, leaving me awake at night pondering the ramifications of holding a small life in my hands and whether I was euthanizing him because he's never liked us, etc.), but we did it. RIP Snufkin. (He got to eat a last meal of treats that we'd never given him before.)
And then we set about trying to replace him, because guinea pigs do not like to be alone. We went back to the guinea pig rescue fanatics and tried speed-dating Momo with a couple of potential buddies. She was okay with one of them, Fracas, so we took him home. He was really charming - much more curious and friendly than Snufkin or Momo have ever been.
But when we took him home, we realized pretty quickly that he was also peeing blood. I told the kind guinea pig fanatics that I could not do this again, and they took him back. (Turned out he had a bladder stone and an enormous kidney stone, so he's now in hospice care at the rescue.) We tried speed-dating again, but Momo, as it turns out, is too passive to manage most males, and wasn't compatible with the few females available. They don't adopt out unspayed females, and spays are non-essential procedures, so we're waiting until they have some more spayed females ready for speed-dating. Hopefully we'll get Momo a buddy sometime soon so she doesn't die of loneliness. Pro tip: Guinea pigs are terrible pets.
2) Regarding The Dogs. We have had a series of foster dogs. Cook does not particularly enjoy dogs, so this has been a sacrifice for him, and they have been a lot of work, but they do provide something to think about that isn't us, which I do appreciate.
Dog #1 was a lovely, mild-mannered giant American Bulldog mix who was confident and able to self-regulate. He loved tug of war and lying in very soft places. In retrospect, we can see that he was exceptionally easy. (Pro tip: by all accounts and our anecdotal experience, American Bulldogs are excellent pets.) We had him for maybe six weeks, and then he was adopted.
Dog #2, an old boxer mix, arrived late at night, straight from a 14 hour drive in a van full of dogs from a shelter in Northern California. She also arrived infested with ticks and with a burgeoning case of pneumonia. She was quite fat (thyroid issue) and had very limited mobility. She also didn't much care for people, but defended our house and me (as her food source) with unpleasant barking, growling, and snarling. None of us much liked her, but we all felt a lot of sympathy for her because of the neglect that brought her to the situation and condition she was in. (Old dogs, apparently, make up a lot of the shelter population because nobody wants them.) We had her for a couple weeks, long enough to get her over the pneumonia and ticks (Duchess was our expert tick wrangler - life skills!). When she snapped at Skipper, we asked the dog rescue fanatics to move her to another foster home, which they did. (She subsequently was moved to another home, one free of dogs, cats, children and stairs. Not an easy dog, and I can't imagine she'll ever be adopted.)
Dog #3 is a subfoster from another foster household who went on a dog-free weeklong vacation. He's our first dog under 85 pounds, a medium-sized pitbull mix who would like to spend all his time in your lap. He's our most people-loving dog so far, coming up to people wiggling and smiling and wanting love. He also is horrible to walk, because he pulls a lot is distracted by everything, forgets there's a person at the end of the leash, and lunges hard at passing bicycles, motorcycles, squirrels, and other dogs. Also, he occasionally marks pee in the house so he has to be supervised constantly.
Dog #4 is about to arrive tonight, a few hours after Dog #3 leaves - he may be the last for us for a while. He is a medium-large middle-aged pitbull, infested with fleas and with some kind of skin condition that's probably mange, and he's unneutered, so we'll be making some vet trips (and probably cleaning up a lot of pee...).
So there we are. Maintaining at one dog and one guinea pig. I hope you and all your pets are well, and that nobody is peeing blood right now in your home.
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