Fern delivered her litter of five on the wires, where she attempted to build a nest. One was chewed up and four were cold and still. I brought the four in and warmed them up. It's not dead until it's warm and dead, right? All four made some motions as they warmed up, but then three of them passed away anyway. The photo above is all four of them warming up when they were still moving a little. The one at the bottom that's curled up is the only one to survive. And a single baby will not survive in cold weather. So I made the choice to put the little harlequin baby in with Charlotte's litter and hope for the best. I tucked it in below the warm bundle of kits in the nest, covered them back up with Charlotte's pulled fur, and wished them luck. Hopefully the baby smells enough like the pine shavings and her other babies by the time she goes in there that he will be able to assimilate into the litter without a problem. This will be our first attempt at fostering a kit to another doe. I'm hoping for the best.
As of this afternoon, Gretchen was busy filling her best box with fur. She hasn't had any babies yet, but she's off to a good start! She's nesting in the correct spot and pulling plenty of fur.
And in other news, our basement flood... We figured it was the rain last night but the water has continued to rise throughout the day. Now there's about six inches (or more) of standing water... Turns out it's not the rain... It's the toilet in the basement pouring septic water in (and honestly thank God it doesn't smell like septic water at this point). I don't even know what to do. Tony came home and shut the water off to the house, but it's still coming in. What timing... Just 31 days until we are supposed to close on the new house. What do we do now?