4. Are you ready to surrender? #5
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 where you get our eggs, isn’t it? I noticed you didn’t get ours from the grocery store.”
“Right. I get them before processing, too. That’s why we can keep them on the counter.”
“Gorgon-incubus doohickeys require a great deal of specialized care. Do wolves eat mice?”
“Yes.”
“So, the mice could have been used to spread rabies in other animal populations?”
“That wouldn’t explain a thousand rabid raccoons in a town in a month.”
I went to a search engine and searched for rabid raccoons in Long Lake, and to my astonishment, I found only one relevant result, which claimed there had been an unusual surge in rabies in the area, but that it had petered out quickly.
“Only one news site reported about it that I’ve found during a quick search. ”
“You’d think a rabies outbreak of that level would hit the news.
There were more rabid animals in town than people.
” Shaking his head, Quinn retrieved my work laptop and resumed searching the internet for any clues that might help us.
“I’m going to end up calling my grandfather back and telling him to have all feeder mice sent to a lab for testing. ”
“You should, especially from the hives with deaths. And pull their purchase records to find out where the mice came from.”
“I’ll need my phone back for that.”
“You may have it back, but you may not throw it. The only thing you’re allowed to throw is me, and only if you’re throwing me onto the bed.”
“Don’t cry when you get what you ask for later,” my husband promised, accepting his phone back and calling his grandfather to begin the tedious process of learning if the feeder mice were infected with rabies and who might be behind the outbreak.
I returned to churning through the CDC’s data in search of more clues on when the rabies outbreak had begun, so we might bring a permanent end to it.