Getting better

Miss Minnie kitty has announced to the world that she feels much better. She did this by finding one of her toy mice, and using it as a megaphone to amplify her voice as she strolled through the house. This REALLY freaks out the birds. And Booker wanted to eat her.

Booker is also on the road to recovery. His swelling is more generalized, but not as severe. He's quite alert, eating and drinking. Thinks the birds might be snacks I have stored for him, and that the house cats just MIGHT be squeaky toys. Told him he might want to leave off that idea, since the house cats have sharp points, and he already has a sore face. Would not feel good.

Minnie got her last injection tonite, sure am glad that is over. That being said, she was much better for the shots than the nose drops. You would have thought I was drowning her.

Things are looking better.

Buzztails

Well, this crap has started early this year. Booker was bitten by a rattler on Saturday. Not once, but twice! Just how hard headed do you have to be to get bitten twice? Both bites are on the muzzle, about one inch above the nose leather. He's quite swollen and the necrosis has set in, but he will be fine. He's drinking and alert, and hopefully a bit wiser in the ways of things that slither.

Minnie kitty is home as well, after spending a week at the vets with what started out as pneumonia. She had a bad reaction to the antibiotics, wound up getting an ulcer and having her gut shut down completely. Everything is working right now, and she is home and talking to us. Obviously, no more oral antibiotics for her, which means chasing her down each day and giving her an injection. After nearly losing her, I am more than happy to give her a shot. She's only got two more days of them, then, hopefully, this will all be behind us.

My checkbook is dying. Fatal hemorrhaging. And my vet is buying a new truck.

!

Life has taken a disturbing turn. I will be scarce for a while, but it will all work out eventually. It's always something.

Spring Pretties to share..........

Just a few of the lovelies that are currently bursting into color in the yard.........


Giant Amaryllis, I have two of these very stunning flowers in my beds. They come in other colors, needless to say, I want.


YAY! Pomegranate blooms.........which means fruits this year! I love them, bet my birds will too.


Pretty, pretty. How do my iris grow? Very well, thank you.

My iris bed in the side yard.


One of the very dark burgundy iris I have. This one is at the base of one of my pecan trees.


The iris bed in the front yard. Wowza, they just popped right out, lotsa them.



This pale blue is found under another of my pecan trees.


and to finish, the Amaryllis that lives in the front flowerbed.


I also noticed blooms on my blackberries today, as well as the plum tree. The honeysuckle has gone wild again this year, the lilac has already bloomed. Sadly, it looks like I lost one of my desert willow trees, but the other has popped out little leaves, so I think it will be fine. More color to come, we are just getting started. And I need to mow the yard tomorrow, before it gets completely out of control.

Observations

I am not sure what makes some folks tick. I had to drive down to Houston yesterday. Apparently that's the yuppie capitol of Texas. I stopped to get a bite to eat, and when I came out, guess what I found? Some yuppie asshole had scribbled all over my bumper sticker. You know, the one that says "I'd rather be coursing". Cowardly asshat. Sneaking around defacing other peoples property. And it's a perfect example of what is wrong with the world. This person apparently doesn't agree with my point of view, so chooses to prevent me from expressing it. Why is it that some people feel if they don't like something or agree with something, that everyone else should feel the same way? Personally, I don't like yuppies or PETA assholes, so does that mean I can try to eliminate them?

If I can't get the scribbles off then I am gonna have to get me a new sticker. Betcha Dan has a few of them around. Maybe I should get a bunch, so I can stick them all over the PETA stickers that I see. Nah, that would make me just like them.

On to other things. Our new regime thinks that everyone should be required to have health insurance. Needless to say, I think that is a personal choice, not one the gubment should be dictating. After all, look how affordable auto insurance is since it has become required (with very little to no regulation). I pay nearly $400 a month for three older vehicles. I have no moving violations or tickets, the son has one minor fender bender that wasn't even filed on. Folks, that's $4800 a year, with clean driving records. And they wonder why people don't have auto insurance. Duh. They can't afford it. Same thing goes for health care. I pay for mine out of my pocket. Went to the doc a while back, saw him for about 10 minutes. He listed to my heart and lungs, gave me the old "stop smoking" lecture, and booted me out. Cost: $150........for TEN minutes. How about making health care affordable again, and not trying to cram insurance down our throats.

And on to taxes, since I am already on a tear. As you know (or maybe you don't), they raised the taxes on cigarettes again, cause, those nasty smokers are costing the health system so much money. Except, oops, it turns out that the non-smokers who live longer lives are costing a ton more due to old age infirmities such as Alzheimers and the need for long term skilled nursing care. Yes, I smoke, it's my choice. That being said, if you want to raise taxes to bring in more money for an already bloated system, then don't base it on lies. The most common lie is that they are encouraging folks to quit because it is so unhealthy with second hand smoke and all that. Well, how about we apply that same logic to booze? You know, drunk driving kills a whole bunch of people every day, so we should be taxing the shit out of alcohol as well if you follow the big brother way of thinking. Of course, the asshats on the hill will never do that, because that would seriously cut into their three martini lunchs. If you want to tax, tax fairly, stop using lame ass excuses. I have seen what it looks like to die of lung cancer, and I have picked up the parts off the highway after a family was cut down by a drunk driver. If I get cancer, it will be from my own choices. Those hit by drunks have no say in the choice, so lets "encourage" folks to quit drinking. And don't start with the alcoholism bullshit. It's an addiction, just like cigarettes. The only difference is that one is acceptable to the general populace (you can get help for alcoholism, clinics, treatments and sympathy), and the other is not (those nasty smokers standing out in the doorway, not running down innocent people with their cars in a nicotine induced haze). Truth be told, both are bad for you, so let's tax both equally.

And one last thing. We are raising a generation of obese children. They are obese, not because of what they eat, but how MUCH. And the fact that they sit on their butts at every opportunity and play video games or stare at the idiot box. Try this............feed them breakfast, then send them OUTSIDE to play. All day, till dark. No video games, no tv. OUTSIDE. It works. If you get them off of their over sized butts and outside, once they give up whining to come back in, they will play, and they will be healthy.

Hey! Since tv and video games are causing problems, we could tax them too! Here's a better idea. Reel in the government spending, stop handing out money to companies that are flopping, and come up with a balanced budget. So GM is going bankrupt. Big deal. When a vehicle costs more than the house you live in, they have priced themselves right out of the market. And GM won't die, they will just move overseas where there are no unions. And the unions that are demanding things that GM cannot pay for? Let me know how well that works out once the company has collapsed. Better pull your horns in before you have no job.

Coming soon to the intarwebz

A new website from yours truly, this one is for the birds. Literally. I am working on a site listing for my exotic birds. Will let you know when it is up and running.

The Princess of Wales are already courting, hopefully it won't be long. The are such pretty birds with their bright pink bibs, I hope they lay soon.

More bird updates coming tomorrow. Time for bed.

Can I have your attention PLEASE!

Please take note, if you are driving on the freeway and you have cars passing you on BOTH sides, you are driving too damned slow. You are not being "safe", you are being a hazard to yourself and others. If you can't handle your minivan at posted highway speeds, please take an alternate route. Todays theme for slow drivers was older folks in Sienna minivans, including one who was going 40! in downtown Houston. Good way to get run over. Of course, these kinds of folks are never in the accident, they just cause them.

Something else, to those folks who designed the Houston road system. The road signs should be BEFORE the damned exit, not right on top of it. And what is it with large cities that feel you should be able to cross five lanes of traffic in order to make the exit you need, when you just got on a quarter mile ago? Has to be a better way, if they would just apply themselves to it. Dallas has this affliction as well, and it's just nuts. And it makes me nuts. And from the looks of the snarled traffic, there are a lot of other nuts out there too.

And just for the record, there isn't enough money in the world to convince me that living in Houston could possibly be a good idea. Way too many folks in too small of an area, and they are all trying to go somewhere at the same time. On the same road. I am sure glad to be home, where a traffic jam only occurs if someones' cows are cruising down the main drag after escaping their fences. Oh, and the holdup last year, when the bank was visited by a wild turkey. I don't think he was trying to open an account, but in this economy, who knows.

Next weekend, I am not going ANYWHERE. For any reason. I have logged way too many miles the last three weekends. I am tired, the van is tired and we are both staying home. So there.

A special kind of crazy

I have an ex mother in law. A CRAZY ex MIL. One of the many reasons that I have an ex, instead of still being married. This crazy woman called the son today. See, he turned 18 today. So she called. But not to wish him a happy birthday, because she wouldn't do that. She called to tell my son that he will never amount to anything, even in the military. Because that isn't what she wants him to do. This woman, she has control issues, bad ones. She and her husband move quite a bit, to "be close to family", the only problem is, family gets sick of her and moves away. Her own sister went to California to die (cancer) in peace, without being harassed by crazy MIL.

What she wants is for son to move in with his dad. Now, please understand that his dad has seen him less than a half dozen times since we divorced in '03. Not particularly interested in his son, more interested in getting his ass busted for drugs, screwing around with motorcycle assholes (and not all folks who drive bikes are asses, but these particular ones are), and taking care of his new family (new wife with two kids). Of course none of his plans included paying child support or medical bills. And he didn't plan on the fact that I refused to just go away. So, even is she wants him to move in with dad, that's not going to happen. Why, you ask? Because all of my bitching and hell raising finally paid off, they issued a warrant for his no child support paying ass yesterday. Of course, his not paying child support will somehow be my fault, just like every other screw up he has made since we split.

But she is beyond crazy if she thinks for one minute I would allow the son to move in with a deadbeat father who is a druggie. Particularly when he has a bright future ahead of him no matter what he chooses to do. And she can't stand it, because it's her nature to tear people down. But she will not tear the son down, because I won't let her. And if it takes a court order and the love of a mother bear to keep it from happening, then so be it. She would love nothing more than to see the son fail, to be able to claim that I raised him wrong. She won't get that satisfaction. But I will get immense satisfaction out of telling her to go to hell. Of course, I am sure they have a seat with her name already on it. You have to be a special kind of crazy to wish for your grandson to fail in life. And a sick person as well. Of course, like most lunatics, she thinks that she is perfectly normal, and everyone else has something wrong with them.

Whew!

What a drive. Left here Friday at 11:00 ayem, arrived back home last night at 7:30. Over 1000 miles, and I had time for a nice sleep at the hotel Friday night. Not bad at all, but now the van needs an oil change again. Since it has over 200,000 miles on it, I am pretty damned religious about keeping the vital fluids nice and clean. It might be "high mileage", but it's really not. Since the early 90's, it's very reasonable to expect 500,000 out of a well maintained vehicle. Mine's a '94, so I expect at least another quarter-million out of it before it needs a new engine. Also sounds like a rear brake shoe is dragging, so that will get dealt with tomorrow.

On to the two main reasons for the trip. Kona was going to his new home, and they just love him. He was a Very Good Boy for the trip, and in the hotel room as well. No barking or whining, and only one pee accident on the way. It's a long drive, so I think he did very well. He stayed in the hotel room with his new owners, and I had all the birds in my room. I felt like I was in some kind of rain forest, with all the whistles and chirps going on.

And the birdie trip was a roaring success. I took Julie some birds, she brought me a lot of birds, and I got some more at the bird fair. I didn't go looking for hookbills, but when I found a very reasonable pair of proven Red Rumps, well, they came home with me. I also got some Lady Gouldian males to pair off with some hens that Julie brought me, and an absolutely stunning pair of Lutino Parakeets. Julie also outfitted me with abreathtaking pair of Scarlet Chested Grasskeets and another pair of Parrotlets (this pair is a green male and a blue female).

It's Sunday evening now, and the Red Rumps are courting, my original pair of parrotlets is in and out of the nest box, and there is lots of singing and dancing coming from the new pairs of Lady Gouldians and the new Society finches too. I bet I have some new babies before long.

I am picking up the Princess of Wales grasskeets this coming weekend. I can hardly wait.

Run free!

Gah, people make me sick. You see, we have a new arrival here. A young calico cat, she showed up yesterday evening. She's quite obviously someones pet, or was before she was dumped here. She is very sweet, extremely emaciated, and I am guessing, still intact. I get a lot of "dumpee's" here, people think they can turn Fluffy or Kitty loose and they will "be ok". They will NOT be ok. I have cat killing dogs, there is a two lane highway not far from here, and your housepet has NEVER had to fend for itself'. Assholes, every last one. So anyways, Miss Kitty seems to have taken up residence here, and the resident cat, KitKat, seems to have accepted her. She is very gentle, so if she proves to be dog smart I will catch her up and have her spayed and vaccinated, and she can stay here. KitKat has an access hole to get under the house, Miss Kitty seems to have already found it and moved right in. No, she will not be in the house, my two ancient housecats would lose their minds, but she is welcome to stay here, be nice and warm and dry under the house, and will find that there is a ready supply of cat food at breakfast and dinner.

And to the bastard who dumped her out here to starve, you suck big rocks right up off the ground. If you don't want an animal, take it to the shelter, hell, euthanize it. But for pete's sake, don't just dump it to starve, be run over by a car, or be killed by dogs or coyotes. Asshole.

A little down-time

The schedule has been insane lately. Between work and other commitments I haven't had time to breathe. This weekend I am headed to Lousiana to meet up with some good friends and deliver a pup to his new home. Then, finally, I will have some downtime this month. I don't have anything planned until the Big Spring shows the first part of May, two trials to judge in May and then shut down for hot weather.

The son and I will be taking a trip to the coast in June for a couple of weeks before he ships out. He has decided to join the Navy, and will be leaving in August.

This fall will be a crazy time for me. I have several new youngsters to get started on the coursing field, and I plan on hitting the hunting scene hard and fast with some of my best dogs. Of course there is the NLCC in December, I sure better be there since I am one of the lure operators, I just have to figure out which dogs I want to take. It's going to be a real blast. I also have a trip planned in September and I will head to CT in October to judge. I am looking forward to that, I hope the leaves are still in color, as I have been told that it is beautiful.

A couple folks have asked if I am breeding this year, since I did have a couple of litters planned. After looking at the number of litters that are on the ground this year, I decided no. And I may not breed any litters myself next year. I have a couple of different folks who want to use my stud dogs, so I will be getting pups back from those breedings. I see no reason to breed litters here when I have several young dogs to start, I will be getting pups back for stud fees, and it would be a struggle to find the time to take off in order to whelp a litter in the near future.

That all being said, I really do want to get Bo bred next year if everything works out. I think it would be a fantastic performance litter. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. Who knows.

Talk about looking stoopid

Trying to move birds around tonite, separating out the ones who will be going with me this weekend to La. Now, if you really want to look stupid, just let a little society finch get loose in the house. No, I didn't know where it went. It took three people to locate the little thing, and two of those three to catch it. And yes, we did look stupid, this I know for a fact.

Bird - 1, humans - 0

Yeah, I know, pretty pathetic.

At least the birds are sorted out, cages are ready, van is loaded. Friday morning I will put the birds in their transport cages and load Kona. Then we will head out for Lafayette. Should be a fun time.