A couple rodents

Poor Lorenzo has been a bit under the weather lately. Two weeks ago he had a little fall, and it took us a day or two to notice that he wasn't chewing cardboard like normal, and he wasn't really drinking water or going after the bird seed we feed him. We soon realized he busted at least one tooth in his fall and we gave him some time to see if it would regrow. In the meantime we began feeding him a mash of soft foods mixed with a bit of water, which he seems to really love (who wouldn't like soggy unsalted bread with oatmeal, banana, wheat germ and fiber pellets?).

After a week and a half Lorenzo still didn't improve. In fact, he had been rubbing his nose a whole lot and sleeping more than normal, but we figure Seth just passed on his cold to the little guy. However, by Monday we did notice for the first time the big broken tooth, slanting awkwardly in his mouth, so we found a vet who specializes in rodents and exotic animals (like gerbils) in a town outside Florence. We packed up the guy with a busted tooth (Lorenzo, not Seth this time), and we trotted a mile through a sudden downpour to the train station. We road the train, soaking wet, to Sesto Fiorentino, about 30min away.

The vet, a young guy with lots of piercings, was very nice and handled Lorenzo very well. I think Lorenzo even charmed him (I could tell by the way the vet giggled!), and he didn't even charge us to pull out the broken tooth. Everyone in the vet clinic, including a little boy, also admired Lorenzo, oohing and awing, calling him bellino (beautiful little one). Indeed, not many people in Italy have ever seen a gerbil, but we won't tell Lorenzo that is why he got all the attention.

Since Monday we hoped Lorenzo would go back to his normal chipper self, but he still refuses to chew hard foods and drink from his water bottle, even though the vet said he should be fine. Since he doesn't even want to chew cardboard, he has no other way to occupy himself and just sleeps all day and looks miserable until we let him out in the bedroom for a few hours in the evening (when he really perks up). Poor Lorenzo! Maybe we should send him to a counselor... Hopefully he starts chewing again before his other teeth get too long and we have to send him back to the vet to have them clipped, too!

On to another type of rodent. After waiting a respectable amount of time after Easter, this week I finally tried coniglio, rabbit, for the first time. I really want to eventually try roast rabbit, but for now I settled for a jar of bunny sauce from the grocery store. Rabbit is actually very popular in Italy (like it is in most of Europe), as are pigeon and horse. I think I would like to try pigeon before leaving, but I don't know about horse...

Not sure why Annibale Carracci's The Beaneater is used as the image on the label, but I do like how the picture of the bunny on the lid helps to clear up any confusion.

Pasta con ragù di coniglio