It has been an interesting (to say the least) few months. Starting with Charlie, all the way back in October, we have been plagued by random illness associated with our critters. After Charlie, the issue with Sonnen's tail started. Then Milo & Casper started scratching a little too much for our liking. I have been diagnosed with ringworm; where it came from, who knows? All our critters are now on meds.
Milo & Casper are on mite and ringworm meds.
Ping Pong is on mite and ringworm meds.
Sonnen is on mite, ringworm, antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory, and iodine drops.
Crazy.
If we want to see Sonnen completely recover from her wound then there must be sacrifice on our part. We are staying up all night with her until her stub heals so that she doesn't pick at it and continually open it up again and again. What we failed to accomplish with Charlie, we seem to be succeeding with Sonnen.
We have spent hundreds and hundreds of $$$ trying to restore our little ones to health. Seriously, well over $500 so far. We have lost weeks of sleep. I submitted a poorly written major term paper last semester which surely affected my final grade because I was so tired taking care of Charlie.
But it has been worth it.

These little creatures are so vulnerable, depending on us for almost every aspect of their happiness, health, and quality of life; yet they are so mistreated and abused. When inconvenience presents itself on their behalf, we often deem their life so worthless that we are not prepared to spend much 9if any) time or $$$ on their well-being or importance.
It is not so far-fetched to call beings such as these 'the least of these'.
Our compassion should not be limited within our own species. All of creation belongs to God, was created by Him, and exists for Him. When we abuse that creation we put ourselves in a very unfortunate position. Think of how you feel when someone abuses something of your's that you care for deeply.
We desire our critters to be well, and are committed to seeing that through, no matter how much time or money that costs us. Many may not understand, but that is not our issue, those living beings entrusted to our care are our issue.

A day or two after we had to put Charlie down :( we noticed that Sonnen's little tail looked quite raw. Thinking she just got it caught in something we decided to monitor it and see what happened. It got consistently worse the next few days but wasn't out of control, so we called the AVC and got advice and continued monitoring her. The rawness evolved into a cut on the underside of her tail which she seemed happy to ignore when she was out with us, so we weren't ecstatically concerned.
When she got up for the night on Wednesday (Jan 4) though things had turned ugly. There was blood covering a substantial part of her backside and there appeared to be a large chunk completely missing from her tail! Dr. Nielsen was on nights at the AVC and told us to come right in. Adriana (we are just about on a first name basis with our veterinarian, and know far too much about her personal life than we should now!) examined her and cleaned her up. She put Sonnen on 2 oral meds; one an anti-inflammatory, and an antibiotic. Then sent us home.
We went to bed (by now it was after 2 am) and got up around 7:30. Sonnen was once again covered in blood, and had been digging at her wound. We called the AVC but there was really nothing they could do except tell us that the meds needed a couple of days to start performing; so, that means we are on the clock, 24 hrs, making sure she doesn't hinder the healing of her wound.
Sound familiar?
She has had a good day though. We have kept her from messing around with her wound and it is looking cleaner and less inflamed than it has in days! We are praying for a speedy recovery, because with a new semester having just begun, reading assignments are starting to pile up already and I've a book review due in a few short weeks. It is unfair to UPEI to have to choose where my priorities lie.
So, we are back on the night shifts until we get out little one back to the place of health that God intends.