1029th Friday Blog Roundup

Beorn stopped eating his vitamin this week, which is definitely one of his top five favourite things, along with timothy treats, apple slices, head rubs, and when the Wolvog tickles his armpit. Looking at that list, he had been off timothy treats for weeks, moving slowly with the apple slices, and not into moving around, much less popcorning after a tickle. So that left us with head rubs. He still asked for head rubs by leaning into my hand and nudging me.

He also wouldn’t eat a blueberry. That was the last straw. I called the guinea pig specialist, who agreed to see him that day. I jumped in the car to bring him over because I was desperate enough to leave him at the clinic – one of their policies, which makes me anxious. It was my last resort option.

Of course, when I got home, I discovered the stinker had eaten the blueberry without me noticing while I was on the phone.

The vet did not find anything obviously wrong with him. He let her examine his teeth — twice — and they looked normal to the eye. He didn’t have any lumps or impactions. He was clearly thinner. He had a heart murmur that may or may not be connected and some inflammation on his paws. But one big point was that my normal vet didn’t give me the correct amount of critical care he should have been receiving to keep his intestines moving. I was giving him less than half the daily amount.

So that’s what we’re trying now. An anti-inflammatory painkiller + the correct amount of critical care. Hoping this gets him back to normal because I could not concentrate without my baby in the house.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

And now the blogs…

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But first, second, helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Good Advice” (Stirrup Queens) – thank you, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

Slaying, Blogging, Whatever writes about stress and worry. Namely, that dreamlike quality that hangs over unusually stressful times (9/11, the pandemic, etc), and how it normalizes after weeks or months. She fears the dreamlike stress state currently unfolding will one day become normal, which may be worse than the unreal state.

Lastly, The Barreness also writes about the situation unfolding in our country and at the local level. After a disheartening council meeting, she reflects: “To look for the good; I stood beside people I socialize with who were there to fight for more protections for people they don’t know, maybe know, and love. I took heart in that.” I too wish there was a superhero coming and agree that it’s up to us.

The roundup to the Roundup: Still waiting for Beorn to bounce back. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between March 21 – 28) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week. Read the original open thread post here.