Monday, June 12, 2006, 20:20
Good News & Bad News
I took Charlie to the vet this morning. Ended up with good news and bad news.
The good news is that the drain tube was able to come out today. Nothing to it. The vet just clipped the sutures and pulled out the drain tube and that was it.
The other bit of good news -- which I got last week when the vet called -- is that the tumor inside Charlie's ear, the one that the vet who did the surgery could not identify, turns out to be a benign tumor called a "plasma cytoma." Makes sense, actually, that it's a plasma-something-or-other because I thought it looked like a big blood blister.
The bad news, I found out this morning, is that Charlie has to keep the rest of the sutures in for another week to 10 days.
After the surgery (two weeks ago tomorrow), the vet said the sutures could come out in two weeks.
"I don't want to take the sutures out now, though," she said. "I want to be sure he's good and healed up, because if I take them out and it all opens up again, we'll be right back where we started."
Far from it for me to insist that the sutures come out so that I end up being the instrument of going "right back to where we started." I would really rather not!
Poor Charlie, though. He has spent the last two weeks tied up. Charlie has never spent a day tied up in his entire life. Sure, we have tied him sometimes for a few hours, like if we were going to be gone for the afternoon or something, but he's never been tied up for days at a time. He is used to being out in the yard on his own and wandering around at will. And he is used to going for walks on his own without the leash.
On the other hand, maybe it is a good thing that Charlie was tied up Sunday evening.
A neighbor, who lives on the other side of the hill from us, stopped by our house. She had been out feeding her horses and young stock, looked up -- and saw a bear walking along the side of the road. That's right. A bear. As she watched, the bear walked up over the powerline hill -- right toward our house. So that's why she got in the car and came over.
We walked around the house, and although we could not see the bear (it must have gone into the woods), Isabelle and Kajun had MOST DEFINITELY seen it. They were running around with their tails up, highly alarmed, snorting and whistling and blowing and acting like they were frightened out of their wits.
As we stood there watching the horses, they gradually calmed down. I figured that meant the bear had left the area and had moved on.
Too bad we didn't get a chance to see the thing. But as I said, I am very glad Charlie was tied up. Otherwise I might have seen more of the bear than I wanted to if we had to try to keep Charlie from attempting to chase it away.
Bears must be on the increase in this area. A number of people have said they've seen bears.
I haven't seen any bears -- but what I am seeing is fawns!
This morning when I came back with Charlie, a doe was walking across the powerline hill (the same hill where the neighbor saw the bear) and there was a tiny fawn skipping along behind her, leaping through the tall grass.
This is the third newborn fawn I've seen in the last week. Unless, of course, the one on the powerline hill this morning was the same doe we saw in the hayfield last week with a newborn, except that by now, I think the newborn that was in the hayfield would be bigger than the newborn I saw this morning. Fawns grow very fast. And the one skipping along behind momma on the powerline hill was awfully tiny. I never cease to be amazed that newborn fawns are really about the size of a large kitty cat.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Sunday, June 11, 2006, 20:19
Foiled Again
It's a good thing Randy spent some time Saturday afternoon raccoon-proofing our bird feeders.
Raccoon-proofing involved removing the heart-shaped trellises he had built for me last year, putting up a single post for the platform bird feeders and then fitting a stove pipe over the posts so the raccoons can't dig their claws into the wood.
Saturday night just after 10 p.m., we were sitting outside in lawn chairs, watching the fireworks that were squirting up over the hills briefly many miles to the west before disappearing again. I don't know who had fireworks. I don't think it was a city or a village. Most likely it was at someone's house.
Anyway, as we were sitting there, I heard a noise on the other side of the yard. I turned my head and saw a raccoon trying to climb the bird feeder post. He could only get as far as the stove pipe and appeared to be somewhat perplexed.
"Psssst!" I whispered. "There's a raccoon trying to get in the bird feeder."
My husband turned to look at me, then slowly, ever so slowly, he turned to look at the raccoon.
The critter saw the movement and was instantly on guard. He melted into the bushes next to the yard.
As we sat there, I heard a clatter from the lean-to down by the barn. My little tabby, Bobby-Cat, had come to sit on my lap, and she heard it, too.
"Pssst!" I said. "I think there's a raccoon in the barn, too."
Randy went into the house to get the big flashlight, and then we tiptoed down to the barn.
Seeing as Randy is taller than I am, he was able to see over the tractor.
"ARRRRRRRRRRRRG! ARRRRRRRRRG!" he growled, running around the tractor.
A moment later he came back.
"A raccoon was sitting up on the kitty food shelf, eating kitty food," he explained. "It ran under the wall out to the back."
We went around to the wild grape arbor in the back to see if we could find the raccoon. Then Randy happened to think that maybe it went up the elm tree by the corner of the barn.
Sure enough.
On the way out of the barn, he had grabbed the horse whip.
"What's that for?" I asked.
"Maybe I can scare it," he said.
Well, okay. It's not like I ever use the whip for anything anyway. Certainly not for the horses. Sometimes the fringed end of it becomes a kitty toy. But that's about it.
Randy whacked the tree trunk with the whip -- and the raccoon climbed higher in the tree.
My husband found a stick to throw at the raccoon. Then he tossed handfuls of dirt into the air.
"You should really go somewhere else to eat," I said to the raccoon, who was huddled against the tree branch, watching us. "You should go eat what raccoons eat and not the cat food in the barn that I put out for the barn kitties."
When my husband grew tired of tossing things at the raccoon, I was able to convince him to come to the house.
"I think you've scared it enough for one night," I said.
"Good!" Randy replied.
It's not that I am opposed to raccoons, necessarily. They are cute with their masked bandit faces. They are also intelligent and highly resourceful creatures. It's just that at any one time, I have seen as many as five of them around here, scavenging for bird seed and cat food. And one raccoon can eat its weight in cat food in a week.
The articles I've read on the Internet about raccoons say that they do not like noise and light and commotion. And since the articles also say they will kill kittens (and puppies, too, if the opportunity arises), and seeing as we have kittens in the barn now, I would just as soon that the raccoons stay away. So we're trying to provide a little noise and light and commotion whenever possible. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph