Deep thoughts, third thoughts and lemurs

Basil rat is ill. Well, that’s obvious – he’s 3 years old, has had Myco (snuffles) his whole life and has had degenerative myelopathy for the last 6 months (weakness to paralysis of his hind limbs). Now he has a large hard swelling on his pelvis by his tail. It’s either a bone tumour or an abscess. I hope it’s a tumour. An abscess means a trip to the vets, which would probably kill him. A tumour won’t affect him in the slightest at this age – plus rat tumours are benign as a rule.

I have problems with euthanasia. I’ve been brought up to think that it’s usually better for an animal to die of it’s own accord than to be taken to a scary vets – especially when they are rodents. Euthanasia has it’s place but for me that place is further down the line than for other people. I had Lily (Basil’s life partner) put down 2 days late. I know it was 2 days late, she went from very-ill-but-strong-life-force to given-up in one day, and I waited another day hoping she’d die herself in her sleep. She didn’t – tough little minx. Now Basil has lost the use of his hind legs which have wasted, and his breathing is getting steadily worse, but he still loves his sweetcorn and would happily attack me for chocolate so I continue to ignore those who think they know better. When he refuses his food, that’s when his mental strength is waning – and I shall act then this time instead of waiting. In my defence, Lily was my first animal I’ve ever had euthanased – the decision was the hardest I’ve ever had to make. And I think it’s worse once your studying to be a vet and you’ve worked as a nurse as you know too much and have seen too much to feel comfortable with the idea.

I watched a BBC wildlife program today about lemurs. Ringtailed Lemurs are an unusual lot! The females patrol and go to war with neighbouring groups, complete with newborn babies on their backs! Quite incredible. Plus they only have one baby a year. So how the species survived when they only have one young a year and then they take that young to war is a conundrum… This is a sweet story though – I like the bit when the baby lemur is upset because they washed Cow. Some great photos here too – Lemur catta – perhaps because they make a sound like a cat?

Got myself a new Terry Pratchett book yesterday – A Hat Full Of Sky. It’s a good book – I highly recommend it. I’d recently been feeling that Discworld was becoming a tad cookie-cut – Monstrous Regiment was good but dear me, was it predictable. Night Watch I adored, but that’s probably because I love the Watch and Lord Vetinari. The Trousers of Time theories often hurt my brain though. A Hat Full Of Sky is reminiscent of the old Equal Rites and Masquerade books – clever and unpredictable because they run on people and not on theories about the space-time-trouser continuum. Ironically, although Monstrous Regiment also ran on people, it evidently had a unfeasibly high quotient of narativium, so was predictable from start to finish. I’m also struggling through the Science of Discworld II (always takes me a few months to read the Science of Discworld books – heavy on theories and new ways of thinking) and I have the kids book The Wee Free Men which really I should have read before A Hat Full Of Sky as it is a sort-of-prequel to said book. However I’m managing so far. I love Witch novels – the remind me that my aim in life is to become the village hag :laugh:

PS that last paragraph would only make sense to Pterry fans so don’t panic if it was so much cheese to you.