of them that had moved in. Maybe hunting the eight hundred rabid raccoons? How many wolves can eight hundred raccoons feed?”
“Considering how much Sunny can scarf down for breakfast, I’m going to say not as many as you would think.”
“Don’t say such terrible things about my puppy. Sunny is the best puppy. So is Blizzard. We have the best puppies.”
“And I’m going to guess our new wolf will also be your best puppy when she’s ready to come home with us.”
I grinned at my husband. “Absolutely. She can become a little pack with Sunny and Blizzard. Blizzard is a wolf trapped in a husky body.”
“I have no idea where we’re going to find a house big enough at a decent distance from work to have an entire animal sanctuary, but it looks like I’m going to have to figure that out. Is it only raccoons and wolves on your list?”
I checked, and once I determined some people had been infected, I checked their treatment status, relieved to discover everyone had been successfully cured. “A few humans, but they were treated. No deaths.”
“Gorgons?”
“Not in Long Lake.” I restored the sheet settings, filtered by species, and selected gorgon. My eyes widened.
According to the CDC, over three hundred gorgons had been reported as infected with rabies, and according to the treatment status field, there were precisely two survivors. Cringing, I included the name field, and sure enough, I found Beauty and Sylvester listed. “Three hundred and sixty-seven gorgons have been infected with rabies, and only two have been listed as successfully treated, and they’re our kids.” I checked the other records. “There are twenty gorgons listed as actively being treated, so that number may go up. How are gorgons getting infected with rabies, Quinn?”
“That is a very…” With a frown, my husband grabbed his cell phone, dialed a number, and held it to his ear. “Grandfather, ask Beauty or Sylvester what their hives fed their snakes, please.”
I blinked. While I slipped Quinn’s serpents bacon and other treats at a shameful interval, he made certain I didn’t overfeed them, and once a week, they were fed a proper meal. The details on the proper meal turned my stomach, but we made a trip to a butcher once a week for chicks, which he cut into several pieces and fed to his cobras.
They ate everything, including the feathers.
“Okay. Thank you. Please tell the children we love them, and we’ll see them as soon as they’ve finished their basic schooling with you.” Quinn hung up. “Feeder mice.”
“Can mice get rabies?”
Quinn made another phone call. “Police Chief Samuel Quinn with the NYPD. I need to speak to someone regarding rabies infections in rodents and small mammals, please.”
While he waited to speak with someone, I continued my search through the data, making a list of places in Vermont with higher-than-usual infection rates.
“Hello. Is it possible for field mice, feeder mice, and rabbits to become infected with rabies? Specifically, can captive mice or rabbits be infected? Let’s assume they aren’t killed by whatever rabid animal attacked them.”
Whomever Quinn spoke to had a lot to say about rodents and rabies, and I watched the play of expressions on my husband’s face with interest, which ranged from annoyed to surprised. At the end of the speech, his surprise darkened to disgust and anger. “Can you provide me with a list of suppliers for feeder and lab mice and rats, please? Email it to me along with the names and numbers of any relevant contacts. Thank you.”
Quinn looked like he wanted to fling his phone across the room, and having witnessed him do such a thing before, I snatched it out of his hand. “You will not fling this phone. You can have it back when you promise to behave yourself.”
He sighed, and he slumped against the couch. “Yes, mice and small rodents can get rabies, but they’re usually killed by the rabid animals that attacked them, so transmission to other animals is exceptionally rare. Grandfather said most gorgon hives use feeder mice, as they’re cheap, readily available, and do not offend humans as much as chicks or other small animals.”
“And you use chicks because of your wings.”
“Right. Magic helps with that, but chicks are a better choice for my serpents. I have a deal with a butcher and an egg farm; whenever they have an incident with a rooster, the male chicks are frozen for me. They try to prevent that from happening, but it does happen from time to time.”
“That’s