There's a Bird in My Shoe!

I guess we are going to have to put all bird feeders in the front yard so the birds won't keep getting preyed upon by big old bad old Buddy. Yesterday I was fixing my lunch (the last of the egg salad) and usually sit at the counter in the kitchen to eat. Buddy was napping on the chair at the counter so I thought I'd be nice and not disturb him, instead eating my lunch at the table in the living room. I'm eating, hear a flapping noise, and then see Pepper jumping off of the cat perch and going over to the corner by the kitchen behind the couch.

And there, in my pink croc shoe, is a tiny little bird. I don't know how it got there, there were no feathers in the house so the bird hadn't been in the house long, and as far as I knew Buddy had been asleep. He is the usual suspect, though, so he must have snuck out and then snuck right back in with that bird.

I covered up my shoe with a towel and took the shoe and bird outside, where the bird sat there long enough for me to get a picture and then flew off.

Then Buddy and Pepper spent about 20 minutes sniffing around my shoes wondering where their new toy had gone.

Another Bird in the House and Kitty Cat Funeral

We moved the standing bird feeder to the front yard in the hopes that Buddy wouldn't be able to catch another bird, but we did leave the hanging bird feeder in the tree so that we can still watch birds from the comfort of our couch. Unfortunately we may have to move that one too, because the fat, kind of dumb doves aren't fast enough to keep out of Buddy's reach.

Early this morning, just about 7:30, I'm on the couch having my coffee and catching up on the news on GMA, and here comes Buddy with a bird in his mouth through the doggy door. I jump up and yell for Keith, who is still sleeping, run down the hall to close the bedroom and bathroom doors, run back in the living room to see what Buddy is doing with the bird, and what Buddy is doing with the bird is hiding in the kitchen behind the island, and then taking it through the doggy door into the garage.

So, I slide the cover to the doggy door on and Keith's phone is ringing while he is running around with me, and it's his work so he has to run back to answer it, and in the meantime I go out into the garage to open the big door so that if the bird is still alive it can fly away. It is indeed still alive, up on some wood on the shelf, Buddy down below trying to get to it, and fortunately it flew out the door, none the worse for wear apparently.

Some other bird in the front yard wasn't so lucky but it wasn't Buddy's fault this time.

Millie was barking at the window even earlier than Buddy was catching the bird this morning, and I look out to see Bad Black Cat sitting in the yard in a position that made me think he was getting ready to take a poop so I yell at him to chase him off and then see a pile of something in the yard, which upon further investigation turned out to be a whole lot of bird feathers. No bird left, just some bloody feathers, so I'm guessing the cat had quite the breakfast this morning.

Keith gave Lucy a funeral worthy of a human yesterday, he dug a deep hole and lined it with gravel and paper towels, we had thought about wrapping her in her blanket, but it is synthetic and we didn't want anything down there that wouldn't decompose. He laid Lucy out and washed her fur and cleaned all of the dirt off of her, sobbing the entire time, said his goodbyes to her and then covered her up with  more paper towels and gravel and then filled in her grave. He planted a shrub over her, one of a couple of plants that he bought a few weeks ago and still hadn't gotten in the ground. A shrub that is fittingly enough called Pink Breath Of Heaven which should bloom pink flowers in late spring or earl summer. We are also going to order a little memorial garden stone for her.

We talked a little bit about when the rest of the animals start to go, which is inevitable, but they will probably die from natural causes and instead of burying their bodies we will probably cremate them and bury the ashes.

It was a hard day for him yesterday, but he certainly gave her a good send off.

A Bird In The House

Keith has been putting in a doggy door for a few days now. It's the kind meant for sliding glass doors that is like an insert that you put in the door frame and then the slider shuts against it. He is putting it in permanently which means lots of buying of metal pieces and stuff and lots of sawing of said metal pieces and lots of taking the doggy door insert in and out. He is at Home Depot right now buying more stuff.

Anyway, the dog learned how to use the door fairly quickly and it is nice not to have to open and shut the door multiple times a day so she can go in and out along with the cats. Most of the cats have sort of figured out the door, having one that goes into the garage that they've been using for years, but this one is a little different and it kind of threw them for a loop. Bear goes out but is afraid to come back in and I don't think Harri has used it at all yet.

This morning I was in the bedroom vacuuming and Keith came running in saying 'You've got to come see this!' and there was a little bird on top of the entertainment center. At first I thought he had flown in the door while Keith was busy messing with it again but then I saw lots of feathers by the kitchen so we figured one of the cats (Buddy) caught it and brought it in through the convenient doggy door.

The bird got scared when Keith tried to catch it and it flew against the side window, Buddy in hot pursuit, and then got under the couch, Buddy still in pursuit and trying to get under the couch to get the bird. I grabbed Buddy and shoved him into the bedroom, shutting the door, and then Keith lifted up the couch and the bird flew out the back door. Smart bird and I'm glad he found his way out.

Then since I was vacuuming anyway the feathers all over the living room got vacuumed up. Buddy was a little disappointed that his new toy got away.

The doggy door comes with a plastic door that slides down into it to close it at night or whenever you don't want animals going in and out, but we didn't put it in the last couple of nights since we don't care if the cats go out and the dog never seems to stir once she's snug in bed. Last night she did stir though, and I was woken up at 1am by her barking and barking and barking out there. I'm sure our neighbors were woken up too, and lesson learned, the doggy door gets shut at night.

Keith's vacation should be over with later today when he goes back to work, we really didn't do much but he says he enjoyed the time off and the time away from his phone ringing.

We took one little drive out to the desert the other day, figuring we could leave the dog home now with the doggy door in place. He had wanted to show me the not so lovely town of Mojave and the desert wildflowers that are in bloom right now. Mojave is awful, he sees it every day because the train tracks run through it, but I can't see anyone actually choosing to live there.

The wildflowers that he was talking about are really small, tiny little daisies and such that turn the ground around the scrub different colors, but the desert is still really bleak looking although the air is so clear that you can see a long long way.

We pulled off the road at Boron, the town by the borax mine, and as we pulled off we could see a ways up the road and saw that the traffic was almost at a standstill for miles and miles. We were thinking of going to Barstow but decided no Barstow for us that day, no reason to be stuck in traffic for hours, so we had lunch in Boron at one of the two restaurants we saw. The railroad tracks run right outside the town so he has seen the back side of it many times and has gotten food from the Mexican restaurant there. We went to the 20 Mule Team Cafe, which had both Mexican and American food. The food was cheap and we got a lot of it for our money so if we are ever in Boron again (doubtful) we will eat there.

We got home and the dog was fine, so I guess we don't have to worry about wanting to go somewhere and what do we do with her anymore or if we do take her somewhere with us will she get carsick or pee on me again.