happy rabid new year

ok, time for a little catch up.

today my mother departed on the amtrak after a 12 day visit. it was good fun with lots of eating, many drives, a visit to some historic sites (including monticello) and a venture into "first night virginia". the latter was quite a good time, many kids activities including a magician, a couple of witty swordsmen, and a procession that ended with kids dancing on a giant sheet of bubblewrap. lots of good folky mostly local music including the celtibillies, the vulgar bulgars, john mccutcheon, and robin & linda williams. and then some groovy fireworks at midnight.

unfortunately our first week of the new year is not shaping up so well. i discovered yesterday that our orange stripe tabby cat (loki) had a bite on his tail and was displaying signs of infection. i took him to a vet that i chose because he was close by and had a "payment plan." hundreds of dollars and no payment plan later the abcess has been drained, loki drugged and outfitted with a head cone to prevent his chewing at the wound. the really horrible news is that because we were a few months behind on loki's rabies booster, and because we didn't (and still don't) know what bit him, the vet reported the incident to public health. i received a call from said gov dept this afternoon, telling me i have two choices, to quarantine loki for six months with no human or animal contact, or euthanize him.

this is not what anyone who loves their cat wants to hear.

i was relieved to learn that i can actually quarantine him in my own home, though we are supposed to build some insane double walled pen for him. in the mean time he's stuck in one room with a cone on his head. our other cat luna is completely freaked and hiding upstairs (she caught sight of him in his cone and i believe she thinks he's an alien). i'm researching the actual possibility of rabies, which is close to nil. there were four reported cases of raccoon rabies in all of albemarle county in 2005. also, loki has been vaccinated against rabies, twice in his three and a half year life. we were just behind on the booster by a few months because we moved and hadn't gotten our act together yet to deal with their vaccinations. huge mistake. we're paying for it in cat suffering and incredible loads of concern.

loki seems really depressed, though he'll still purr like a motorboat if you even glance at him. a cat really loses his dignity when he can't clean his butt.

the previous attic rag doll entry seems somehow slightly prophetic. it was written before i was aware of loki's bite.

and that is the f*@!ed up news from charlottesville.