Oh Woe, Bo - no, no, no - it's Yo, Bo!

Erk, what a few days it's been. Ms Bo woke up very, very poorly on Saturday morning - so much so that we thought she was at death's door. I sat with her on my lap most of the morning until we could get an appointment with the local vet. Of course, the local vet had never had to deal with a guinea fowl before and kept rushing out to his colleague to ask about various lumps and bumps he found on Ms Bo's anatomy. None of these comings and goings encouraged us very much and Ms Bo was deeply indignant about the whole business especially when the vet shoved a thermometer up her whazoo (cloaca to those of you avian and anatomically-minded sorts). Ms Bo's eyes sort of crossed and she decided the better part of valour was to play possum, which, after a mighty squawk, she did. Then it was a shot of antibiotics, followed a vitamin injection that elicited a shriek of protests. Then Ms Bo was weighed - all of 110g of her.
"Come back tomorrow," the vet said.
And so on Sunday we repeated the whole business by which time Ms Bo was a whole lot feistier and less inclined to cooperate.
"Make an appointment to see our avian vet on Tuesday," said the vet who acknowledged he knew absolutely nothing about guinea fowl. "And bring her back tomorrow for another jab of antibiotics."

So, this morning Ms Bo finally got to see not just one avian vet, but two. And clearly they spoke Guinea. I was rushing about like a headless chicken doing grocery shopping while D did the concerned parent thing. He said Bo was like a lamb with the two avian vets, who fussed her and loved her and told her she was totally wonderful. It turned out all the lumps and bumps are normal to guinea fowl anatomy. They reckoned Ms Bo was doing just fine. They provided hints on how to get her to feed more effectively. They suggested that we get her a "friend" - a chicken chick - or, they said, if another abandoned guinea fowl chick was brought in, could they call us.
"Yes, absolutely," said D, eternally a sucker for a lost cause.
Frankly, I was surprised he resisted the vets' attempts to foist an abandoned hamster on to him. Were it not for the fact that we do have plans to leave SA sooner rather than later, I rather suspect we'd now be fostering said hammie.
Ms Bo had another vitamin shot, she's to get more oral antibiotics, she's been given vitamin powder and we've been told that if she's made it this far, she'll make it, per se. Whew! Relief and cheers all round.
I do, however, suspect that Ms Bo is going to be with us for the long term - her and whatever chicken we get to keep her company. I'm just wondering how Atyllah the Hen and Granny Were are going to take to this bit of news. Will it be praise for the Goddess Vanilla or will it be utter scorn for humans who clearly have no idea what they're doing!

And just to keep you amused - some recent antics from the wild menagerie...

A guinea (the resident pair) got into the cage one day... his wife was not impressed.
"Harold," clucked Maude, "what in the name of all that is corn are you doing in there?! Come out now before they put you in the pot!"

A new crop of chicks have found their way into the garden...

Mom, why's this chick in a cage?

The usual suspect, trying to find a way of breaking and entering... incorrigible!

A gathering of guineas - the new chicks, and Bo's family and all the other usual suspects

But on that note of Bo's happy and encouraging progress, let me take the opportunity to wish you and yours a very happy, blessed, loving and fun-filled festive season - whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Rohatsu, Ramadan and Eid ul Adha, the Winter or Summer Solstice (yes, a bit late on some of those, I know!). And I hope none of you are having turkey...

Reflections from my Christmas Tree