Swingkat Update

I visited this afternoon and talked to one of the keepers.

He told me that Swingkat was fed seperately from the rest of the mob and got cat food and a big mouse.

He ate this mouse, but it took him a long time and a lot of effort. The keeper also told me that one could see that something inside his mouth was wrong and that Swingkat will see the vet tomorrow morning.

The whole mob will be taken inside so that Swingkat can be treated.

As he had the opportunity to eat properly today, he was not quite as apathetic and moved around in the enclosure always in search of more food. I could sneek in some additional piece of boiled egg, which he ate greedily.

I touched his chin, a thing he normally would tolerate or ignore completely, but today he moved away quickly from my touch as it was obviously painful for him.

The complete underside of his jaw felt swollen and hot and his fur, which is normally shiny and will only stand up when he is in his winter coat, is all tousled and his sweet little face it a mess.

I hope that the treatment will be sucessful and he will be back to normal again soon.

If time permits, I will pay a short visit tomorrow in the later afternoon and hopefully talk to one of the keepers again.

Something nice and unexpected happend as well today: I touched little Sayuri.

She was on one of the tree trunks close to the fencing of the enclosure and I could not resist to put my hand inside, close to her. She was very interessted and relaxed and came up to my hand, sniffing it and trying to sit up to inspect it more closely.

As she still has trouble sitting up and doing something else simultaneously, it ended with her chin on my hand and then with her rolling down the tree trunk ;-)

To my surprise she had no intention of biting me.

I would not try this with the other two pups, they look so intent on biting into anything they can get...