This is a thing!

I've seen a few Batfam driving the Batmobile shenanigans so I need Wonderfam flying the invisible jet nonsense.

Obvious disclaimer that you shouldn't have wild animals as pets.

But like, cheetahs are the only large cats that keepers will do free contact with. Hell, even most small cats don't get free contact. (Because small cats can be VICIOUS. They'll have a baby pallas cat wearing thicker gloves than when handling an owl. Because small cats can just be vicious.)

Like I think the only other cat at our zoo where I've seen free contact with was servals? Because I know they've used servals in shows to demonstrate their natural jumping ability. But I know servals can sometimes have a mean temper as well. Meanwhile they'll do the cheetah run and afterwards put the mic by the cheetahs and it's just like an engine with them purring. It's fascinating to watch when the message in every other large animal is "no free contact because it's dangerous even when they're born in captivity".

Bert: Bert and I

Ernie: Bert and I, we've been best friends forever, but we're also something else too!

So then a nurse comes over and goes "Okay, I've got some stickers I'll put on your things so we know they're yours" and I'm like "OK cool" so she puts a sticker on my coat and stickers on my bags of clothes and then she turns to Shamu and I'm like "oh I guess he gets a sticker too"

But no. She pulls out a hospital bracelet that's an exact copy of mine and slaps it on his tail, like so:

And i was delighted by this, so I took a picture to send to my friends, who were equally delighted, and were cracking me up with their reactions (like so:)

Anyway, they take me back and put me under, and when I awake groggily a few hours later it takes me a minute to get my bearings, so I don't notice Shamu at first. But then I realize he's tucked up next to me in the gurney, so I grab him, and my hand touches gauze.

And I'm like "huh?" so I look at him and I realize

- Like a legitimate veterinary medicine lecture

- A monster hunter’s quick and rough notes

- Detached/Retired academic assuming you’re about to do something stupid

I'm not sure what exact trigger you have for the werewolf transformation in your setting; magical, mystical, incredibly advanced science/tech, but the strain on a body completely shifting form like that (and often also increasing in size) is tremendous.

By rl standards one transformation should put them in the hospital for two to three weeks. Even with enhanced regeneration it would take them out for, say four to five days at least.

The fact that the transformation, even if shown to be painful, usually has a werewolf functional again almost immediately suggests magical, mystical or incredibly advanced tech compensating for that strain, allowing a werewolf's physiology to push way past anything resembling a normal reaction to it.

And if the transformation process is understood well enough that vetrinary students are taught how to gauge the right dose for a sedation (and what goes into it in order for it to work) that implies a broader understanding of the paranormal in that setting, because something that can compensate for a strain on the body at the level of a complete physiological transformation should also be able to make short work of any sedatives.

Ergo, if sedatives do exist for werewolves it in turn implies something paranormal is invloved in making it/making it work.

I mean, it will probably invlove very small/exact doses of wolvesbane and powdered silver, but you might also get some solar-related stuff to partially negate or calm the lunar aspects of the werewolf's nature.

Unless it's a post-it note saying "Don't bother trying, just knock them out with brute force and use silver shackles."

...

Because, yes, something is no doubt supernatural in a werewolf, the process doesn’t matter so much as the output. A werewolf is still alive; it has a pulse and a respiratory rate, a brain where the consciousness resides, a liver and a digestive system. And honestly, in an emergency situation, that’s great. I can work with that, if I have to.

Metabolism is still a physical process. It requires molecules to physically bump into each other. And molecules take up space. At some stage, underneath anything ‘magical’ a werewolf might have going on, there is still a living system under there. And that’s what I’m working with.

(And really, what is ‘magic’ other than a science we don’t understand enough yet?)

Like yeah, a couple of Valium tablets is going to do diddly squat with a werewolf hyped up on adrenaline. And fentanyl is so short acting that if a werewolf does have extremely fast metabolism, it’ll be processed in about 2 seconds. But a whole bottle of zoletil? That stuff can knock out polar bears, and a whole bottle knocks a human down for about 20 hours. Even in a werewolf, it’s a reasonable hypothesis that it’ll do something.

I’m not talking about wolfesbane and spiritualism. I’ll be talking about what I can lay my hands on in a vet clinic. For legal reasons though, dosages are just going to be ‘lots, and do your best’.

“Beating” mental illness is actually the norm, not the exception. Most people who have a major depressive episode never have another one. 80% of people who survive their first suicide attempt never make a second attempt. 93% of Borderline Personality Disorder patients achieve remission. Up to 74% of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder achieve significant clinical improvement in their symptoms, and 20% achieve full remission. Half of Generalized Anxiety Disorder patients achieve remission after the acute phase of treatment. Even disorders with relatively low rates of remission - bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoid personality disorder - generally become milder and easier to manage as you age. Psychiatric symptoms tend to peak in your 20s and generally drop off as you get older, especially if you seek treatment. 

This is why the narratives we use to talk about mental illness matter so much. Right now, the dominant narrative is that mental illness is “an imbalance in the brain” and that it’s largely something that people are born with. There are upsides and downsides to this. The upside is that it promotes the idea that mental illness is not the ill person’s fault, and it helps us understand that mental illness can impact anyone, regardless of their life circumstances. The downside, however, is that it’s sort of given us this idea that mental illness is inborn and unchangeable. People have taken on the idea that “that’s just how my brain is”, when the reality is that, for most people, mental illness is less of a stable trait for them, and more of just a shitty thing that they are going through for a little while. The idea that mental illness is just “in your brain” also erases the very real connection between your life circumstances and your mental health - while it’s very true that a wealthy person in a happy marriage can become depressed, it’s also very true that living in poor conditions and being in an abusive marriage can be the cause of depression, and that improving your life circumstances can lessen or eliminate mental health conditions. 

If you have a mental health condition, it’s very important that you not resign yourself to the idea that you’re going to be like this forever. Chances are, you won’t. Even if you have a mental health condition that is associated with low rates of remission, it is possible to make leaps and bounds in your functioning, and to get to a point where managing your condition becomes second nature to you. Our understanding of mental illness is improving every year, and new therapies and treatments are becoming available all the time. If you seek treatment and do your best to manage your condition, you have every reason to believe that you will make huge improvements.