RIP, Oopsie Bear - 4/27/2015.
Sorry for the spate of utterly non-snake related posts, thus rendering the title of this blog beyond inaccurate as it is most definitely not all about the herps. On the plus side, though, this means all the snakes are doing well.
Sarah and Slither, the Kenyan sand boas, are eating and growing as they should. Actually they're a little chunky. But still very cute.
Lucy and Scales, our cinnamon ball pythons, continue to thrive. Scales is on an eating run right now, as opposed to his eating strike of about a year ago. He's much smaller than he would be had he not gone through that. I may start feeding him more often to see if that puts a little more size on him, although he doesn't actually need it. Lucy is luxuriating in her greater size, and is a delight.
Leonard is utterly, gorgeously Leonard. My favorite thing to do is get him out of his enclosure and let him sit around my shoulders. It's a bit difficult to do since the dogs are quite interested in him, and at everyone's current sizes I'm afraid my precious snake would be in more danger from my dogs than the reverse. That won't always hold true, but for now I'm really working to make sure my sweet scaly boy is safe from his furry, yappy housemates.
And Sheldon remains Evil, which is not coincidentally his former name. Actually he's not awful, and some days he's fine with coming out of his enclosure. Other days I think he's wishing for hands just so he could flip me off...
We're down to just two rats: Bella, and the Sarah Rat. They're right at 28 months old, and both have mammary tumors. I've talked with my vet about options, surgery vs. palliative care, and at this point we're at the latter option. If they were just a year old or even a healthy eighteen months old I probably would opt to have the tumors removed, but at this age it is major surgery with no guarantee they'd even survive it, or that they would survive the recovery. They're just two very old ladies, getting ricketier as the days pass, bless their little hearts. So I'm watching their tumors and their movement carefully, and should the need arise we will take them to the vet for one final trip.
I'll be sad when all our little rats have died, but in a way it will be a relief. I've had enough pet death in the past six months, thank you very much. I don't want to have to bury anything else I love for a few more years.
