Rabies is a Serious Threat

If you are a responsible pet owner (or guardian - the official word in Boulder), your pet, animal, or charge (or in plurals) is up-to-date on its vaccinations. Please be sure that your pets' rabies immunizations are current - whether you own a cat, dog, horse, rabbit, ferret, whatever.... I know that on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, there have been at least 8 attacks made by rabid foxes - and I am also aware that many feral cats and dogs have died horribly in that area. Foxes, squirrels, bats and raccoons are carriers of this dreadful disease - I love all of these critters, and it's disturbing to know that there is the usual summer epidemic breaking out once more. Rabies is known in every country with large populations of mammals. Please keep your pets and your family safe.
Nothing much is going on here - this weekend I will start taking care of two new charges, a pair of 12-year-old cats, originally from Baltimore. Tugger is a very dark tabby, while Sasquatch is a handsome black guy. One has hyperthyroidism, while the other suffers from pancreatitis - so I'll be mixing meds into food and making sure each kit eats only their own food. These kits are about a block away from the Irish kids, so things should work out well. I visited my Lovey and Neddy yesterday evening, and let them go outside to play. About 8 p.m., Bridget, a new neighbor, tied Kitkat, her large cat, out on her patio. We both heard an awful howl, then Neddy and Lovey were inside my apartment looking out, while Kitkat had broken the buckle of her collar and was back inside her house. Bridget and I talked about it, and I offered to buy a new collar for Kitkat; we parted on good terms, and I took my kits back inside with me (they followed me back outside and over to Bridget's patio - it used to be Riley's, the Shar Pei's, patio).