Jackie is still steadily licking a spot on his hind end, where Irving spotted a little scab. We still think he was the victim of a nasty insect bite. But his frenzied licking kind of alarms us.  Early this morning we called around to see if we could get an emergency appointment for him. He just had his annual physical a week ago, so there isn't likely to be anything fundamentally seriously wrong with him. He behaves quite squirrelly when something bothers him and that bothers us. He ate all his meals yesterday, but refused breakfast this morning.

 

He's evacuating normally, but behaving abnormally -- correction, occasional nutty behaviour is just like him. We decided that getting him out for a ravine hike through the forest a little earlier than usual might pacify the little demon that is haunting him. We had had no luck whatever trying to get an examination for him, not at our usual veterinarian clinic, nor any others nearby, much less the two emergency animal hospitals in town.

 

On the positive side, he's somewhat less obsessive now, his licks seem cursory, brief and slight, the product of sheer annoyance. So we hope he's on the mend. He was normal throughout our ravine hike but for occasionally stopping very briefly for a lick. Jillie is oblivious to her brother's distress. She entertained herself by making runs at robins that at this time of year tend to settle and run along the trails.

 

When we returned I then resumed my usual Friday pursuits. Decided to bake mocha cupcakes. And to make them a little different, I added dark rum flavouring and snipped up glace cherries to include in the cake dough. Irving wanted a chocolate cake for a change but I find cupcakes keep better and they're easily equivalent to a slice of a two-layer cake.

 

We were advised by our veterinarian clinic that if the problem with Jackie persists we might try calling again tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. and see then if we can be squeezed in for an emergency appointment. We had heard about the difficulties people experience trying to access veterinarian assistance on an unscheduled basis; seems it simply cannot be done.

Meanwhile, we think whatever it is that's troubling him is ameliorating and hope that by tomorrow the signs will be sufficiently positive that we can just wait for him to no longer fixate on his rear end; at least that tiny portion of it that seems to be the source of the problem.

 

We did a little tour of the garden at the front of the house. The planting done yesterday in the various garden beds, I think, will complete it for this year. I thought I might get a chance to do some planting in the backyard, but decided that tomorrow's another day and likely I'll tackle it then.