![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo yesterday Ca went down to the animal facility to get a litter of pups and their mother... to find out that their "mother" (who was very protective and maternal towards the pups) was in the middle of giving birth. And probably hadn't been nursing the pups that were in there...
Apparently this happens not too infrequently -- they try to send us the right mother, but sometimes they send us some other random adult female rat. Anyhow, the poor mom was frantically trying to care for the fourteen day old pups, and the new pups, while giving birth. The whole group seems to have settled down.
The fourteen day pups are a little small, but they seem to have nursed well in the last day, and are looking better. Ca was running experiments on two of them, so she brought them up and we both spent a while holding them and petting them... They're quite cute, and we've all become pretty fond of them pseudo-family unit -- the mom is working so hard, and everyone seems to be bearing up well under trying circumstances.
So we play with the little rats, and let them run around the in vivo unit so they can get used to it and it's no longer scary. (One curled up in my hand and settled down for a nap.) And then we anesthetize them, and run experiments on them. And in the end, one way or another, sacrifice them.
Apparently this happens not too infrequently -- they try to send us the right mother, but sometimes they send us some other random adult female rat. Anyhow, the poor mom was frantically trying to care for the fourteen day old pups, and the new pups, while giving birth. The whole group seems to have settled down.
The fourteen day pups are a little small, but they seem to have nursed well in the last day, and are looking better. Ca was running experiments on two of them, so she brought them up and we both spent a while holding them and petting them... They're quite cute, and we've all become pretty fond of them pseudo-family unit -- the mom is working so hard, and everyone seems to be bearing up well under trying circumstances.
So we play with the little rats, and let them run around the in vivo unit so they can get used to it and it's no longer scary. (One curled up in my hand and settled down for a nap.) And then we anesthetize them, and run experiments on them. And in the end, one way or another, sacrifice them.
