Christmas

My days at the moment begin at 4am although I try to sneak more sleep till 5am when the cats begin their early morning chase scenes. Gypsy thinks it's funny to use me as a spring board so will leap up from one side of the bed onto my chest and then fly off the other side. She's the smallest cat but she can really pack some power into those rear legs and I ended up with a bruise the other day.

I am Queen of the Scum People according to the cats at the moment as their Christmas started with me spraying them for fleas. The dog being a total woose took his treatment without a sideways glance but the cats were terrified. I know it's the sound of the spray that scares them but I still have half a bottle of the stuff so they'll have to tolerate it. I'm going back to herbal prevention though once I work out how to apply it. I can't sneak garlic into their food like I can with my dog Mishka and don't trust collars as they're so easy to snag on a branch so may have to return to dabbing them with wormwood.

My little chick hatched the day Taffy died is doing well with her Mum in the hutch out front. I was so relieved to see she was a female. She is a mixture of browns, gold and there are some white feathers in her wings so hopefully she'll be a speckled hen. I would really love to develop more speckled ones if possible but think I may need to buy in more stock to do so.

Muggles my house rabbit is feeling the heat despite having the window open near him. I have been removing his coat to cool him down and prevent wool block. He gets on so well with the cats and dog it's unnatural.

Finally photos

I have been trying to scan photos from my last developed film (oh for a digital camera)for a while but only managed to find some time this morning. Although my last litter are now four months old these are their five week old photos.
This is Giselle and Sherbet who was the kit I had to revive in warm water when he managed to get out of the nestbox aged three days. Little guy has been outgoing and inquisitive right from the start and his sister is not far behind.
Harmony and Goblin are a bit more shy than the other two but quiet and easy to handle. It still amazes me that the white took five generations to pop out. Genetics!

I began the angoras on papaya tablets bought from the health food shop last week. The vet advised me to put one in each water bottle once monthly and this, along with their usual hay, should help prevent wool block. I also have them on apple cider vinegar once weekly which is a good tonic and is meant to prevent kidney problems.

The heat is bothering all the animals at the moment as it is quite muggy. I also haven't seen Angel the cat in a couple of weeks now as she's on one of her periodic hunting expeditions due to the current wild rabbit explosion. Even Piper cat brought a baby one in a couple of days ago and had to sleep the effects off all day. Fortunately Demelza is not too interested in hunting anything except cicadas and the youngest two, Peaches and Gypsy, are still at the fly catching stage. They are also now getting to sleep with me along with Dem so things get a bit fraught as I am contorted in all sorts of interesting positions. Sleeping With Cats is a lifestyle choice!

Taffy

Last week I lost Taffy my new angora buck. On Monday 21st November he wasn't drinking much and not as perky as usual. I thought it could be a touch of heat stress so dragged his hutch under the willow tree on the front lawn. The next day dawned cold and windy and he brightened up so I thought I'd solved the problem. However on Wednesday although he was still eating he wasn't his usual self and I noticed his droppings were a bit hard. I began him on pineapple juice thinking he had a touch of woolblock but by Thursday he was completely off his food. I rang the vet who drove out and after palpating his stomach diagnosed extreme wool block. David said that the mass was three inches by one inch thick and had been there for months and months. As I only had Taffy five weeks I emailed his previous owner who confirmed he had been off his food a couple of times in the past six months. The vet was concerned his temperature was now dropping so took him back to the clinic to heat him up, rehydrate him and syringe as much pineapple juice into him as he could. Unfortunately Taffy passed away during the night. David said there was a touch of pneumonia in his left lung as well, probably a result of stress from the blockage, and as there was another rabbit nearby he put her on antibiotics just in case. However a week later she is fine.

I was pretty hard hit with this loss. I spoke to his breeder the next day and she said his coat was pretty fine and that she has another doe that also goes off her feed periodically. She has a couple of bunnies she can send up to me later this month so I now I will save up to pay for their airfare from the South Island.

While he was up here on the farm the vet also vaccinated the four last babies against RHD. I then separated them into their new cages. Looks at this stage as if I have two boys and two girls. They seem happy and healthy so that's something.

Also just after the vet left with Taffy I went to put the hens to bed when I heard cheeping. Sure enough there was a little chick with ten eggs in a broken down bin that the hens used to lay in before one of the big hens sat on the top and broke it. I gathered the chick, the eggs and the little bantam mother into a cat carry cage where they stayed for a couple of days inside while we experienced an unseasonably cold and violent rainstorm for a couple of days. Unfortunately the hen abandoned her eggs a couple of days later as there was no sign of any of them hatching. I cleaned out one of the rabbit hutches on the lawn this week and mother and child are now safely ensconced in this much to the frustration of my dog Mishka who wants to lick them (he has a licking fetish!) It's the new life that keeps you going when things get rough.