Is that an empty bottle of Jack Daniels on the table? If not…what?
…or maybe I really don’t want to know.
Alleluia!
I think it’s hamster Kaopectate.
I think that’s what they refer to as “The Holy Spirit.”
Don’t minimize the moral and ethical crises of owning small rodents! When you love something with a life expectancy of two years, no sacrifice is to great to give them another month and a half of life! OK, actually the maximum sacrifice is about $20 worth of antibiotics.
But I enjoyed having a couple hamsters to entertain my daughter when she was young. And when I worked on the computer in my bathrobe, I’d stick them in my robe and they were happy to run circles around my waist. One died and as the other one got older and blind (within weeks) I’d put him in a coffee cup on my desk where he would tremble before falling asleep for a couple hours. Godspeed Mister Whiskers and Caramel The Commando Hamster!
My little rat would sleep on my desk on a hand towel.
I have doubts about the authenticity of the alleged “hamster” squeaks.
Oh, there were squeaks, all right… but I know what a hamster sounds like, and mister – that was no hamster.
Did he strike Richard Gere dead?
Yeah, having been a veterinarian that treated “pocket pets”, I can definitely agree on the limits that (sane) people have on treating rodents. Most people don’t even come see the vet as an appointment is several times the replacement cost of the pet in question. The parents that are there out of love of the child really lay the pressure on to have the vet say “sorry, there’s nothing we can do”, or “here’s some free antibiotic”… (which I’d often do as the amount a rodent consumes is negligible). The ones that needed tumor surgery etc…
Then there’s the not so sane people… I had one lady come in 7 (yes, seven) times for tumor removals on her rat, spending thousands of dollars over it’s lifetime. It finally developed an inoperable brain tumor (which I had to refer her to both a surgical specialist and a neurologist to explain why surgery was a no-go), and a couple of nights in a row were spent in an oxygen cage at the emergency hospital before the poor thing finally passed away on it’s own.
It is a conundrum for folks that see a rat’s life as the moral equivalent to a human’s, yet I don’t see them ponying up $30,000 to extend the life of their rat for 3 months.
Great band name
Please don´t tell me that the whole miracle healing of hamsters story was made up too.
…listen again: the prophet clearly pronounces it Halelujah
/and the Jack Daniels? You dribble it on the doorways to keep the evil spirits out.
They were talking about “throw away” pets on the radio a couple of days ago… One guy talked about their pet chicken on which they spent over $1k for treatment.
Did you see this?
He tried something else similar recently, too.
I’d argue that most people don’t see a rat’s life as a moral equivalent to a human’s, which is where the financial issues arise from.
I’ve actually had parents bring in a pet rat/mouse with their child not there saying “Listen, I know it’s in bad shape, would it be wrong to just go to the pet store and get one that looks just like it”. My comment is always “If your child loves this animal he/she will know it’s not the same animal, even if they look very similar, or even identical”. (when what I want to say is "or… you could be honest with your kid, and use this situation as a teaching lesson…).
People do occasionally. I’ve seen $35K dropped on a dog with incurable cancer (and a poor prognosis) without a skipped step. (and there’s that rat…).
Sadly, I also see the opposite picture with people who’ve had a cat for over 10 years, who are unwilling to even give supplemental fluids to a cat in renal failure, and want “to wait for it to die peacefully at home” (which means, I want to deny treatment of any sort, and don’t want to feel responsible for the decision to euthanize, and in doing so will allow my companion of over a decade to slowly dehydrate to death in an extremely miserable fashion.)
Yup. sheer awesomeness. Kind of “crazy” in a sense, but awesome nonetheless.
We have a friend who tends to wait way too long, but not to that extreme…
Unfortunately, the wife and I have had to make that decision ~4 times in the past 12 months. Three were relatively easy ancient critters – it is hard to let go, but it is more difficult to watch them struggle/suffer.The other one was a middle aged cat that I decided to let the vet try whatever they could do for her (my heart won out over my gut-feeling and brain) – she died alone and full of tubes that night. That experience certainly helped me check my heart at the door and listen to my gut and brain in subsequent situations.
We are bringing a friend to the vet tomorrow because his ancient cat isn’t doing very well…
With what we spend on our critters (and those of friends and family) I could have a nice little sports car in the driveway backyard shed full of electronics and science stuff. 
