I was sitting outside with all 3 gliders, like I usually do. My brother was catching some grasshoppers and crickets to feed them. Then, out of nowhere my other brother came up and scared the daylights out of my gliders. Jer and Cher dove for cover under my shirt, but oddly Salem leaped to my shoulder. That's never occurred before, then he ran right onto my back and onto the front wheel of our truck since that's what I was leaning against. I turned right around to grab him before he went any further but I was too late. He made a beeline for the motor and I knew it was still hot. My parents got home not too long before this happened. I was instantly sick at this thought and I felt in my whole body my boy was a goner. I got under the truck right away and tried to get him out but he froze in his tracks, I ran in the house for something sweet to bribe him out, but my brother had other plans. He popped the hood and Salem came right out. I grabbed him, checked him over, and found nothing wrong. Shortly after Sa started licking his toes and I had a feeling I knew what was wrong. Sure enough his toes and foot pads were all red and blistering up. This was just the beginning of a big problem.
     I immediately ran and told my mom about Salem and that he needed a vet. No deal, they said he'd be fine if we just cleaned it with peroxide and put aloe on it. I insisted, they said no. So, for the moment I just ended up cleaning it out and putting some aloe and Neosporin on it. I stayed up with him all night and all day, after all, I couldn't put him in his cage and have him climbing on the wire now could I? That would irritate his toes/pads and rip open his blisters only to have them get infected. The next day Salem was with me all day and finally my mom started seriously considering taking him to the vet. She knew what the possibilities were and she also knew I was not gonna just give up on him. I stayed with him all night that night too, as tired as I was. The next morning I found Salem licking his front paw incessantly. I took one look and found he had an open blister. Boy did that look nasty. I had finally got the parents to agree to take him to the vet and in a matter of hours Salem was at the vet being checked out. He was already starting to lick his toes raw. He does not like his meds or his cream and is fighting it all the way. If this doesn't work he's going to be getting his toes wrapped. We'll find out in 5 more sleepless days.
 

10-04-99
  Turns out after 5 days of struggling to apply the cream to Salem's feet and get him to swallow all of his antibiotic, he was doing great. So well, in fact, that he didnt have to go back to the vet for getting his feet wrapped. All the struggling with him was well worth it. After about 10 days he was completely
healed up. His toes are no longer red, they are pink and look as if nothing ever happened. Salem is back to his old self again!