Remember, this is 5 days after he came home for the first time and 4 days after he met the rest of The Kids for the first time.
[Vazra]
It’s been a busy day already here at the homestead. Laundry is going in both the washer and dryer, the dishwasher is going, Loki had his morning dose of asthma medicine, Vazra had his morning dose of antibiotics, all of The Kids had a treat, the bathroom has been cleaned and returned to its normal state following Vazra’s temporary incarceration there earlier in the week, food has been put outside for the birds and squirrels, preliminary work on Vazra’s “The Kids” page is complete, several site application updates are downloaded and prepared for installation, web server OS and application upgrades are downloaded and prepared for installation, I’ve had my morning coffee, the mail has been retrieved, bills and other financial paperwork are sitting next to the laptop ready to be addressed, more than 500 spam e-mail messages have been deleted, about 300 spam comments have been deleted, a bit more investigation into Vazra’s breed yielded more solid evidence he’s a Persian, each of The Kids has enjoyed a lot of lovin’ and play, the bed has been stripped and related items placed into the laundry queue, and Vazra’s lady friend Larenti had her breakfast.
So what else is on the list? Finish the laundry (one load of darks, one load of towels, and the sheets), go to the pet store to get treats and litter, clean the cat boxes, vacuum, unload the dishwasher, vacuum the bed and heat the pillows (both to get rid of dust mites), dust, sweep the patio, put down a fresh barrier of Sevin dust to stop the ants who assume the patio is for them, brush The Kids, pay bills and do general finances, catch up on the news, pick up Loki’s new prescriptions from the pharmacy, do some posting (including some new photos of Vazra), finish the preliminary incarnation of Vazra’s “The Kids” page, do some writing (not for the site), read, eat and drink and be merry, and spend more time with The Kids.
Some of these items were to be done yesterday, but we lost power during a thunderstorm and had to postpone a lot of activities because it was out for several hours and not restored until evening. We desperately needed the rain, so you’ll get no complaints about the power loss.
Sitting at my desk around 11:00 this morning as I read the news and petted Loki while he slept beside the laptop, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Something scampered along the patio right next to the windows and doors in my office. I couldn’t make out what it was based on peripheral vision, but I knew a small animal was skirting the exterior wall. Based on prior experience, I immediately suspected it was a squirrel. They tend to be the only mammal that will venture into this area during the day that can also fit through the fence (the latter being the most important point since bobcats, foxes, rabbits, coyotes, and badgers can also be seen during the day around here if you’re lucky, but none of them can fit through my patio fence). Squirrels are apprehensive on the patio given it’s an enclosed space. That often means they sneak about trying to go unnoticed; this is a far cry from their antics outside the fence where they can find food and a quick escape up the tree, into the bushes, or in any direction covering a 270° arc.
I immediately rose from my chair and stepped over to the door so I could take a peek. Much to my surprise, it was not a squirrel. I was immediately troubled to see it was a baby opossum. I grabbed my camera and headed out to the patio through the bedroom door (opposite where the opossum was currently milling about).
The little fella was small enough to stand comfortably in my open hand. It was no more than six inches (15 centimeters) from the tip of its nose to its ass. With a tail about 6.25 inches (16 centimeters) long, it’s total length was no more than 12.25 inches (31 centimeters). This was a baby in every respect and was a tiny fraction of the size of adult opossums. Consider this:
That is a two-by-four he’s stepping on at the bottom of the fence. Also, remember the fence’s measurements: lattices form the diamond spaces that are 2.75 inches by 2.75 inches (7 centimeters by 7 centimeters), and the space across each hole from corner to corner (horizontally and vertically) is just shy of four inches (10 centimeters). He was able to step through them both fully upright and with a lot of room to spare. Keep reading for more…
Compare both of those to the infamous opossum butt where an adult animal is already halfway through the fence. Notice the significant difference in size between the two.
If you need to scale the juvenile beast to something you can relate to, here’s some reference material.
To the right of its nose is an almond. Above and slightly to the right of its nose is a pecan half. Everyone should have experience with at least one of those two foods to understand the size involved. What you see below the little guy are various seeds and food items. There are sunflower seeds (both black oil and stripe), corn, and safflower seeds, not to mention the pecan halves and almonds that are visible, and the walnuts that are out of the picture.
I watched as he tried to eat an almond and failed. It was too large and too hard for him to chew. He then tried a pecan half. Unfortunately, he also found those were too large and too hard. While I’ll admit almonds can be a bit cantankerous to the chompers if you’re dentally challenged, at my scale and with my experience, pecan halves are not hard at all. And yet this tiny thing was unable to chew either one of them.
A closer shot of him demonstrates the scale of his body with regards to the corn and sunflower seeds on the ground. It also shows he has no worrisome reflection in his pupils (the reason that’s important I will explain below the photo).
Opossums are active only at night. They generally return to their daytime sleeping place around dawn each morning. I have seen them out just before and just after the sun breaches the horizon, but I have never seen them out in the full light of day like this small one. For nocturnal animals like raccoons and opossums, being out in daylight normally indicates something is terribly wrong. For that reason, I looked for the major warning signs: foaming or excessive discharge around the mouth (rabies), odd reflective colors in the pupils under direct light (distemper), and disorientation, confusion, or shakiness on their feet (rabies and distemper). Nothing amiss was evident.
I stood on the patio and watched as this child moved from edible item to edible item trying to find something to eat. It eventually chanced upon a dried cherry (something I put out for the cardinals). It was large compared to the minuscule monster, so it took some time to eat it all. With that properly masticated and swallowed, it eventually moved on around the corner. While I rushed back inside and to the front door to see if I could surreptitiously intercept the opossum, it was long gone before I got there. Too much brush and cover is available for me to know if it was right there near me or had already disappeared into the area around the lake.
I’m forced to wonder if this was one of the children of Momma Possum. I don’t know how quickly they grow and can’t make an educated guess as to whether it was too small, too large, or just right. Knowing the plethora of wildlife around here, it might well be the offspring of some animal I have never seen in these parts.
Likewise, I’m also forced to wonder why this poor child was out wandering in the daytime. That’s highly unusual for opossums. And yet, it’s not entirely unheard of, so it’s absolutely possible it’s still too young to get the timing right on when to be foraging and when to be asleep. It’s also possible it’s already sick with something unrecognizable to me, or something which as yet has not given rise to recognizable symptoms.
[all photos of a baby Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana)]
[He Who Steals Souls: Loki]
Loki had his annual vet visit this morning. Things are not looking so good around here at the moment, so you’ll pardon me if I don’t do much posting today. In fact, after this one, I will probably post a photo of Loki and then take the rest of the day off as incommunicado.
Loki has been suffering from a persistent dry cough for the last several weeks. I have generally believed it to be the result of shedding despite my brushing them each day. If enough hair were swallowed to cause irritation without causing a hairball, coughing would be the result. Until this last week, I was confident that was it.
Over the last week, the coughing has continued, but Loki has become less energetic than normal. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he’s been lethargic, but he’s not been the Satan I’ve come to know and love. The vet, unfortunately, confirmed my increasing suspicion that something is amiss.
They could not give him his vaccinations — and I would not allow it. At present, they pose too much of a risk to him. With what we discovered, vaccinations may well have killed him.
The persistent dry cough he’s had for the last several weeks appears to be an indication of the very same daunting medical bifurcation Grendel faced in late 1997. With an enlarged heart and swollen bronchioles in his lungs, not to mention the sudden loss of weight, all findings we came across after many tests this morning, there are two likely and viable options: asthma and heart disease.
Grendel has asthma, as you know, and Loki is his biological brother, so that at least lends credence to asthma being Loki’s problem. However, Loki is over nine (9) years old and it is highly unusual for asthma to present this late in life. Grendel began showing signs near the end of his first year. Loki will be 10 years old in early 2007.
Given age and indications, it is far more likely he has heart disease. If it is heart disease, it is acute. If it is asthma, it is probably late-age chronic-acute. Grendel’s asthma is seasonal acute. Loki’s version would be significantly worse than his brother’s.
For the next seven days, Loki will be given the same asthma medication Grendel takes, except he’ll receive it four times as often as his brother does. If he has asthma, this may help improve his condition, but it’s also possible we’ll have to extend the test another week since inhaled steroids do not act as quickly as systemic ones.
Systemic steroid treatment is utterly out of the question. If he has heart disease, steroidal treatment of that nature would increase the burden on both his heart and lungs, both of which already show tremendous signs of strain. In fact, his heart rate and breathing were so dramatically above where they were last year that the vet originally considered admitting him. The situation became worse when he was taken back for x-rays and began heavy mouth breathing. That is, for cats, not a good sign.
On the other hand, if it is asthma and we treat him for heart disease, the treatment will greatly increase the burden on his lungs, which, as I mentioned, are now under great strain.
It’s a lose-lose situation regardless of which one we treat him for. That leaves us only one option: inhaled steroids. While they take longer to get asthma under control, they are better for his overall health as they only affect his lungs and will not exacerbate a heart condition. This is the only choice available. I hope that in a week we’ll see improvement. If they are minor, we will continue the medication for another week. Additional improvement will verify he has asthma. No improvement will indicate heart disease, and then he will need a cardiac ultrasound to identify specifically how bad it is and how best to treat it.
Aside from something very uncommon not yet considered, there is one additional option that is far worse than either asthma or heart disease alone: that he has both. If that is the case, I’ve already mentioned why treatment for one will only irritate and worsen the other. The only hope would be to get the asthma under control with inhaled steroids before beginning treatment for heart disease. Even then, treatment for the latter would only make the former worse and harder to treat.
His age in this case would point toward heart disease. He is at that perfect stage in life where cats would normally begin demonstrating the ailment. Much to my dismay, it is very rare for a cat to begin demonstrating asthma at this age. The redeeming quality is that Grendel has asthma and the two are biological brothers. Still, the odds are very much against that diagnosis. Let’s hope betting against the odds in this case is a winning proposition.
Unlike Grendel, Loki does not do well with the inhaler. In fact, he’s never been good at taking any medication. The only experience with that either of us has is from after his being neutered. Aside from that, he’s never been sick. Ever. If he must take medication regularly, I hope it’s the inhaler since pills are far more difficult. And dangerous — for me.
This week started out looking so promising. It has since rapidly spiraled downhill. There are significant financial concerns that were unplanned with regards to the cats. The stress of Loki’s trip to see the vet obviously poked a stick into the eyes of a sleeping dragon; that beast awoke right there before us and showed precisely how much danger it posed to He Who Steals Souls. That means there is the increased stress on Loki with Vazra in the house that only in hindsight seems like a really bad idea. There is my significant lack of restful sleep due to Vazra’s schedule both before and after his capture. There is stress from the job search and sudden realization of dramatically increased money outflow without compensating inflow. There is adult feline integration to be managed that is never easy for anyone involved. There is, in light of Loki’s sudden health crisis, the increasing concern over Kako‘s health given stress can easily activate her deadly UTI problem, and all of them can feel my stress, and that subsequently increases their stress. And, stress is bad for Grendel’s asthma as well, not to mention whatever ailment Loki is suffering with. There is the loss of another pet at the family farm: one of Mom’s cats. A dog was lost there not to long ago, and a cat shortly before that and another cat shortly before that and another cat shortly before that. The list goes on, but I already tire of this exploration of my life’s vicissitudes.
The more’s the pity…
So, now I’m signing off for the day. Be good to each other, poppets, and be good to those you love regardless of how many legs upon which they walk. Time is a predator and has no qualms with exercising malicious intent at the drop of a hat.
Oh, I still have one more cat to take to the vet.