I have some more distraction for you with a happy and non virus related story, with lots of pictures, as some of you have mentioned liking pictures
Take a seat, pour a drink, it's a long story with asides and stuff. Don't read when you don't like pets, in that case it will be a very boring story.
To stay on topic, my fbg today was 5.3, very nice to wake up on something below 6.5 for a change!
Let me first introduce you to Efraïm and Vlieg, as the story starts with them. They were found in a freezing field by the roadside in early december by a friend of mine, 10 or 12 weeks old.
While I didn't need more cats (I already had two), I knew I would need the distraction shortly, as I'd just decided it was about time for my old dog to go, and I'd made an appointment with the vet for a week later.
And besides, those two needed a home, so why not with me?
They turned out to be very bold, brave, social and cuddly kittens, sleeping fearlessly in my bed with the dogs end exploring the world!
Now it was time to have them neutered, both to prevent more kittens like them being born and to make them safer when they would start venturing out of the garden; a tomcat smelling a pretty female is much more likely to meet a car the wrong way.
I decided to have it done in the guinea-pig shelter where I've adopted guinea-pigs in the past, as they do it very cheap. I didn't have guinea-pigs anymore, and I didn't want them anymore after last years tragedy involving 8 guinea-pigs and a big foster dog who lived with me for six months. Naimah is a sweety but she liked guinea-pigs a little too much and the pen was built to withstand my own chihuahua-like little monsters, not a 30 kilo giant! Naimah has now found her forever home in a perfect place without guinea-pigs
On the spur of the moment we decided I would take my neighbour's lonely (his friend had died at the start of winter) guinea-pig as well to either have neutered or else leave at the shelter to be adopted with friends. Our plan wasn't very clear because it was 7am, so pretty much middle of the night for me.
At the shelter I offered to volunteer with the piggies for the day because I had to wait six hours before I could take my kittens home anyway, and it didn't really make sense to spend my money killing time because of saving money by driving a long way to get them neutered.
Anyway, the end of the story is predictable:
I spent more money on the neutering of the neighbour's male piggy and the buying of 9 (or more, there are 2 that might be pregnant) than I would have if I had had my local vet do the neutering
They now live with the bunnies Owie and Suus, named because I somehow ended up with two young German women in my car when I picked them up. The girls kept squeeking "Oh, wie Süss!" ('Oh, how sweet') so I decided to simply name them that because they were already used to those names by the time we came back from the A&E where one of the girls had to have her foot stitched.
It was too hot to leave them in the car so we sat in the A&E waiting room with the bunnies in a cardboard box, every employee, doctor, nurse or security, whispering to us to not let anyone else see them because it wasn't allowed
The new guinea-pigs are slowly settling in now they've been here for a week. The're still scared of me, they haven't had human contact apart from being fed before getting to the shelter, but they're perfectly at ease with Owie and Suus, who have grown out to very handsome rabbits.
In 3 weeks my neighbour's neutered male piggy can join his gang of ladies and they can start exploring the big outside pen too by then