As the situation with my newfound smurf babies continued, it took all I had to stay awake and focused. The second I arrived at the vet's office I became swept up in a whirlwind of activity which would consume the rest of the evening. The first problem which presented itself was taking care of the smurfs without further traumatizing them. Easier said than done as the bigger one, a female, was using the last of her energy to protect her smaller brother. We had no choice but to hold her down and sedate her with gas. She struggled under the medic's grasp, eyes darting around and her little legs kicking feebly until she went under. Once her little arm fell to the table, we were able to properly move and manipulate her into position. Her little brother looked around innocently as the doctors works, unsure as to what the giants around them were doing with his sleeping sister. Eventually the time came where they needed to separate the two so they could salve the females back. He kicked and screamed loudly as he was pried from her, hooting and calling out for her as he was taken from the room.
I watched from a separate room as an assistant relayed to me what information they were able to deduce. The two where related, most likely recently orphaned due to the location I found them in. From the scratches on the females back as well as the relative youth of her brother, it was assumed that a bird had attacked them and either killed their parents or separated them. I watched as an attendant took the sobbing baby smurf and cradle it while she prepared him a bottle. He eagerly accepted the milk, drinking great gulps of it through chirps for his sister. The whole time he drank, great big teardrops continued to flow down his cheeks. I had felt some relief that they had managed to comfort the bawling little blue infant but my joy would be short lived. No sooner did he managed to sip the last drop did he resume his crying. The attendant tried her best to soothe him but it was to no avail. The poor little creatures face turned a sickly color and he then proceeded to throw up his milk, getting the mess all over his face and the poor attendant. He fell back weakly onto the attendant's lap as she did her best to clean up.
Turning away, I asked to see the sister smurf and was then led down the hallway to another room. There I was able to see a group of people huddling around a table while a bright light shown from the ceiling. There on the medical table lay the female smurf, unconscious and prone on a small pillow. Her arms and legs were tapped down so she wouldn't move around while she was getting worked on. I could see that several tubes run up the table leg and into her nose and mouth. A nearby heart monitor beat occasionally. The extent of damage on her was moderate but on particular scratch was worrying the lead vet. While the female's overall health was not good already, the scratch had gotten infected and the trash she was found in couldn't have been good for her. A vet took a ball of cotton dipped in alcohol and iodine and gently ran it around all the scratches on her back. Then after, they spent a great amount of time carefully sewing each wound. All the while, another vet ran an iv through her arm with a very fine needle and gave her a saline solution for hydration.
The work was expensive and time consuming, running into the late hours of the night. Dave already new the spiel and took care of Gus and Daisy for me while I was away. The darkness grew outside, only pierced by the moon as it slowly rose from the horizon. After the work on the female was done, she was bandaged and then swaddled so she wouldn't hurt herself when she awoke. A vet took her to the kennels where she would be placed with her brother. The little scamp, now dressed in warm cotton pajamas, scrambled over to his sister as soon as she was placed down. He cooed and purred as he clung to her chest, rubbing at her with his tennis ball sized head. It was heartwarming.
I gave my credit card to Dr Folme and immediately started the procedures for their adoption. From the second I laid eyes on them; I knew they would be mine. While I might have started with Gus for companionship, my hobby had grown into something else. Maybe it was the naps or the play times. Perhaps it was talking to Dave and his smurf group, seeing their passion and hearing their stories. Or it could have been when I saw Gus and Daisy playing nice for the first time. Regardless, I had found a passion within me, one which I did not know I had before. I knew it was weird and different but I didn't have a problem with it any more. I had something which brought me joy and cut through the dull grey monotony of the depressing world I lived in. Now that I realized this, I couldn't just let the brother and sister go into the smurf pet system, possibly to be separated or abused.
The treatment for the two would include them being monitored for the next few days, just in case one of them got sick or the stitches came out of the female. It would be enough time for me to get prepared and have the paperwork done. I knew Gus and Daisy would be shocked at seeing our family double over night but I figured that it would be for the best. After all, smurfs did live in troops in the wild and they do best when they can socialize with their own kind. With some more people in the house, I hoped that they would be less lonely while I was gone at work. That and being a great big party when I did come home. I had even thought out their names already, Lucy and Leo. As I lay in my bed, with Gus to one side and Daisy to my other, I sighed with happiness, feeling happy with my achievement.