Wednesday night Jake's mother found one of his sugar gliders dead in his cage. Gizmo was the sweeter and friendlier of the brother pair and except for some sleepiness the day before, he'd displayed no symptoms. On top of that he was only two years old, and they tend to live fifteen to twenty years. His death was completely unexpected.
In light of his passing, Jake and I decided to take Neo to the vet immediately to rule out any contagions.
Thursday, my aunt made the difficult decision to put her older rat to sleep. Poor sweet Penny had a GI blockage that ruptured and caused her to bleed from her abdomen. Although she wasn't in any pain, she was growing slower and my aunt chose to have her euthanized rather than let her linger for days. I sat in the room with my aunt as she cradled her darling pet and watched her breathing slowly stop. Penny kissed my aunt and made her purring noise softly until her spirit went. I had no words for how heavy my heart felt. I ached for my aunt, and for her loss.
After we left the clinic my aunt and I separated; she to her home and I to my grandparents with Penny's body. When I arrived at my house and pulled into the driveway I noted that a light was on inside so I figured my grandparents were home. I hauled my stuff onto my shoulder and walked to the door. As I got to the front door the lights inside suddenly went off. A little spooked, I jiggled the door and realized it was unlocked. As soon as I opened the door Bunny shot out the front door towards my car. I had this horrible, spine tingling shiver run throughout my body and I quietly closed the door. I think I went into shock because I barely remember calling Jake but suddenly he was in my ear telling me to get off the porch, get in my car, lock the door and call the cops.
Being the good girl I am I obeyed and then called 911. That conversation is also a blur but I'm pretty sure I babbled quite a bit. 911 operators are very nice, however. This one sent two cop cars over and pretty soon the police were checking out my home.
In the midst of all this my grandparents showed up. Once the police officers had double checked our house (they were really very nice) they told us that most likely the light could be explained by a power surge. They recommended that, if we were nervous, we look into investing in an alarm system. I had to laugh at that because my grandparents had ADT installed over three weeks ago but haven't armed it once! Needless to say THAT will be changing.
Even though the officers didn't find anyone I was still spooked and ended up sleeping on the couch upstairs. I slept in bits and pieces and had nightmares most of the night.
And finally, today arrived. The vet called and told us that Neo was close to anorexic, had almost no white blood cells and was suffering from bacterial enteritis ( basically an inflammation of the gut), dehydration and possibly depression from losing his brother. Sugar gliders are very bonded to family members and will sometimes die because of a loss.
So now, on top of nursing Uzza the leopard gecko back to health from her bout with metabolic bone disease (which includes medication once a day and forced feeding every other day) we have to hand make all of Neo's foods and make sure he's eating, and give him oral antibiotics.
I don't grudge these acts at all, but it breaks my heart to see our animals suffering. It will hurt too much to think of if we lose Neo after all this.
See what I mean? I hope that we are nearing the top of the mountain and that the rest of this month is uneventful.
Tomorrow we will have a joint burial for Gizmo and Penny.
Please, God, let the days grow calmer.
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