What happened?

Well, ever since Scout spent the night out on her own, she does new annoying stuff at night. She squeezes between the wall and my side of the bed and pants and drools on my head, pillow, arms, whatever she can get to. That and she stares at me. I don't know what she wants - she has eaten, has water, has her bed, has had a walk, has had the sticks picked out of her fur, she has been hugged and patted, etc. She stays there panting until I can't stand it anymore and then I have to help her back out since she is too big to turn around in the space. She looks worried and uncomfortable backing up and every night I have those truck back up beeping sounds in my head, muffled by the panting of course. Then she pants at the end of the bed or on the other side of the bed, pant, pant, pant. I just don't know what is worrying her, if you have suggestions please share!

Peeve is sleeping just fine as usual, however, the other day he hopped on to the bed where I was readding Harry Potter, and he had a quarter size bald spot on his shoulder with screamingly pink damp skin. He had only been away from me about 10 minutes and the area was totally clean and there weren't any discreet wounds. It was like the hair and the top few layers of skin were just yanked off. Very weird. He didn't seem at all troubled by it and it has scabbed up nicely.

Mimi also sleeps well, but does have a new scratch across her nose. She must have had a spat with one of her boyfriends. We're watching it to make sure it doesn't get infected, but she is completely unphased by it, being a grubby little tom-boy cat anyway.

Lastly, a shout out to Shorty from the Monkeypiewrench animal gang - Shorty Snax, you didn't need those teeth anyway! xoxoxo, 1, 2, 3.

Prepping for the Birds

Last week I messed up during the raptor flight show. Uh oh. The only reason I didn't get in big trouble was because the other volunteer messed up worse than me! Way to take the heat off me, dude. The Harris's Hawk (Cisco) does a routine involving flying over to a perch where I stand on a ladder and give him food. He isn't supposed to fly to me until I blow my whistle and wave the bait above the perch. This bird is very smart. He was over in the middle of the flight area and was looking over at me... then he started flying toward me... I panicked and thought maybe he was right and I was wrong, that it was the part of the routine where he is supposed to come over... So I blew the whistle while he was already on his way AND gave him his food. Whoops. I'm not supposed to let the bird dictate the routine or when he gets his food... I'm in charge. Yes. I'm trying to remember that for tomorrow when just about any of the birds can probably encourage me to do what they want... I must be firm.

Flowerbed Panting

Late on Scout's birthday, Saturday the 7th, I took both dogs for a walk, and Scout, who has already been a wreck due to fireworks, got scared and bolted. She jerked her head out of her gentle leader and ran. Peeve and I ran after her like mad, but it was dark, and frankly, she is faster and stronger than I am (or Peeve). We walked the neighborhood in the dark calling and crying and trying to find her, to no avail. After about 45 minutes we went home because I didn't know what else to do, it being 12:30 am, the Biscuit out of town, etc. We went out looking in the morning but no luck. I had had my phone in my hand all night and barely slept, kept looking out the window, opening the screen door and calling, and just plain worrying. FINALLY, at about 11:00am I got a phone call that someone had found her, hooray. She was in this family's flowerbed in the shade panting like panting was going out of style. The house was just on the other side of the playground from me and the people were really nice and had given her water and hooked her up to a lead and sat with her for the few minutes it took me to get there. When I did get there, she looked REALLY stressed out but also REALLY happy to see me. Peeve did a little dance when she got home and Mimi batted her tail. Scout spent the next 2 days sleeping inside or under a bush; no playing, no barking. She was knackered after her night out. I'm so glad she is back and unhurt, other than emotionally, and on the last couple walks I haven't used the gentle leader (crappy easy to get out of leader) and just used her giant neck and all my strength...

Undercoat

If you need any fur to spin into yarn, or for bird nests, or just for fun, let me know. Scout is blowing out her undercoat right now and this little pile was from only about 2 minutes of brushing and the result was a 2ftx2ft bundle of fur! You are more than welcome to come brush her, ahem, or sweep, vacuum... take home hair...

CaCaw

I keep getting to do more and more at Raptors and it is so fun! Yesterday I *cruised* 4 birds: Coba the Spectacled Owl, Siren the Barred Owl (pictured), Kenai the Gyrfalcon (pictured), and D1 a Peregrine Falcon. Siren is a cool owl and I love the way he looks - I think it looks like he is wearing a pair of fluffy pants which just makes me really happy. Kenai is the bird I am in love with. She is freaking gorgeous and so amazing, watching her fly is incredible, and I almost barfed I was so excited to work with her... I hope I get to next week! It'll be practically all I think about this week. Oh, except for all the time I'll spend thinking about how much I hate the 4th of July and how much of a wreck Scout is with the idiotic fireworks...