Shrew Flu

 
This past week has been a challenging one in the Rat hovel: everyone has come down with a case of Shrew Flu. You humans have your scare of the dreaded H1N1 influenza strain which attacked with particular ferocity back in 2009, and we rodents, too, have our own vicious virus to scuffle with, unfortunately.
 
It started with the octuplets. First, Harry, Barry, Larry, and Jerry brought it home after a day of scampering in the sewers with neighboring rodent pups, and soon Mary, Kerry, Sherry, and Terry were scuttling around with drippy little rice noses themselves. The dreaded Shrew then crept its way up my nosy rat whiskers, and soon all of us were laid up in our nestlets nursing fur aches and fevers, the latter compounded by the thickness of the former. My poor wife, Bobette the Mouse, has been scampering around like a chipmunk with its head cut off, doing her best to care for everyone.
 
Perhaps it’s just as well, coming on the heels of one of Ratlanta’s worst snow and ice storms, which I discussed in last week’s blog. And while I’m of the strong ratty opinion that cold weather does not cause colds (or, in this case, the Shrew), it is well known that the dryness of winter air, compounded with rodents being in such close quarters during the chilly months, produces a pertinent ratalyst for the transmission of such illnesses. And after being all cooped up throughout the storm, all of us experienced no shortage of burrow fever as the days went on. It was very difficult indeed to entertain eight very energetic pups at a seven-day stretch with nothing but a board game of Mouse Trap to occupy their ricey fancies. Consequently, when the boys were able to scamper out a couple of days ago with the initial thawing of the city, they took flying rat leaps at the chance. (Bobette was happy too: she doesn’t really care for Mouse Trap.)
 
So while Ratlanta continues to beat back the cold and we in the hovel equally battle Shrew Flu, I hope you and yours find it possible to stay healthy. Just remember to keep that air humidified, and try to get out of the burrow as much as you can.
 
Keepin’ it squeak,
Bob