And then everything happens at once.

I’m just going to apologize right now--this week’s post is going to be short.

Last Wednesday, Blossom (my pink-eyed Marten fancy rat) had an attack of exacerbated mycoplasma. There can be a number of reasons for this, and in the past, when this has happened to one of my rats in such a quick and dramatic fashion, we have taken a quick trip to the emergency vet and let them go. Timing didn’t allow for that this time around, which turned out to be a blessing. I pumped Blossom full of antibiotics (I keep them at home) on Wednesday night and went to work Thursday morning, fully anticipating the dreaded vet trip on my return Thursday afternoon.

To my utter surprise, when I got home on Thursday I found Blossom not curled into a ball, fluffed up, and laboring to breathe, but sitting at the bottom of the cage eating a piece of kibble, looking at me as if to say, “Hi, Mom. Why are you home early?”

This is highly unusual. I was floored. I have never had a rat bounce back like this. Now, this is not to say that Blossom is completely out of the woods--far from it. She’s still on the meds and her breathing is shallow. If you listen to her chest you hear the congestion, the rasp. She’s making a honking sound. I know we don’t have much time left, but as long as she’s eating and acting more or less like a normal rat, I’m going to let her go on as she is until it’s obvious that something needs to be done.

I’m really grateful to have the extra time with her.*

And then, just as I’m settling into the idea that I’ve got a while longer with Blossom and the world is tilting back onto its axis, some pathetic excuse for a human being decides to indulge in a ‘shooting fish in a barrel’ exercise at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Gilroy is my home town.

At this point, everyone I know who still lives in the area is accounted for. At most recent count (Monday 7/29, 9am-ish) three were killed and fifteen injured.

Was I surprised that this happened? No. Sadly not. Not in this day and age.

Do you know what did surprise me, though? How immediately angry I was. I still am.

Fucking. Livid.

This is going to take a while to process.



*Sadly, Blossom got worse on Monday, 7/29, and I had to let her go. My everything hurts.