Sunbeam Has Spring Fever

Yesterday before she'd had her breakfast, Sunbeam appeared at Steve's back door with a ground squirrel in her mouth and wanted to come in. When Steve told me this I said, "Bad girl!" Then he said he told her she wasn't coming in the house with that thing in her mouth. She went to the edge of the porch and released the ground squirrel. It ran away. She returned to the back door and indicated she still wanted to come in. I said, "Good girl!"

Update: a week or so after this charming incident, Sunbeam was lethargic and not eating. We couldn't get her into her usual vet, so I took her to Valley Animal Hospital. We had to wait in the car for two hours before they came out to get her, and after I waited another 90 minutes, I was informed that Sunbeam had a puncture wound on her throat and it had abscessed. I had noticed gunk on her throat, but I thought she was so depressed, she had gotten food on her chin and didn't feel like cleaning it. 

The vet anesthetized her and cleaned her wound and sent me home with narcotics and antibiotics to shoot into her mouth at 12 hour intervals, an ointment to put on her wound, and, worst from Sunbeam's perspective, a "cone of shame" around her neck to prevent her from scratching her wound, which she definitely wanted to do. She didn't want to drink, so twice Steve took her to the vet for subcutaneous electrolyte injections. 

Twelve days later, her wound has healed, the cone is off, and she doesn't seem to be scratching her wound as we feared. She has spent most of her time cleaning herself, which she was unable to do for twelve days. 

We're pretty sure the infected puncture wound occurred when she released the ground squirrel. Now Steve is wondering if it's safe to let her outside by herself. I never thought it was, surrounded as her house is by snakes, bobcats, coyotes, hawks and vicious rodents. Now maybe he'll be convinced, too.