Wednesday, December 14, 2005

  • a very very old chinchilla that was dying in front of us. i just helped him along. often times when an animal dies, it takes the nerves and muscles a little while to get the signal. after the chinchilla had died, i sat staring at him on the table and his whiskers started to twitch. then his cheeks, then his neck muscles, his shoulders, back etc. it was as if the life was leaving him in a wave beginning at the tip of his nose.
  • Wednesday, December 07, 2005

  • A pet rat with huge tumors. I never saw the owners but I could hear the little girl crying in the other room. The doctor gave her a toy hamster and I heard what can only be described as the sound of a smile.
  • Tuesday, December 06, 2005

  • A sharp-shinned hawk with a broken wing. The bone was so badly fractured that a piece of it was poking through the skin. It was the first sharp-shinned I'd ever met.
  • Monday, December 05, 2005

  • a tiny leopard gecko with gout. it took him a very long time to go.
  • i feel responsible for the death of the very old ferret because i was his anesthesiologist as he died on the surgery table. his insides were all bad news and though technically i had nothing to do with it, i was the last person he ever looked in the eye.