Funeral for a friend...

Hey ya’ll,

Well, it’s been a few weeks and actually, I’ve been able to catch my breath as far as rehabbing goes.

It’s official; ‘Goliath’ the van has passed away. A big HawkTalk hug goes out to Chuck and Vicki for donating it last February after the Waffle House waitress with the Mickey Mouse insurance company totaled my 4Runner. The engine started smoking last week and that’s never a good sign, so I took him around the corner this morning to a local mechanic and it has leaks EVERYWHERE; looks like Swiss chess underneath and he said with 270k miles, it wouldn’t be worth it to repair. Both the oil, coolant AND transmission fluid are leaking on the exhaust and is posing a safety concern. If it were just me, I could pull over and leap out of the burning heap, but I can’t take that chance with the kids. I am working on getting another truck donated, but the timing isn’t quite right, so I will just have to sit tight for the next couple of weeks and trust. You know it’s a bad sign when Enterprise remembers how to get to your house… I have two gigs this week, so I’ll rent something, make a little less Mouse Money and call it George. It is what it is and sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches.

I cared for a lovely little creature recently, in the form of a Red-shouldered hawk and fortunately, her stay wasn’t long…just some reconditioning and BOOM, off she goes. It’s a good thing, too because as you can see from the pic, she’s about to launch herself at me. The shit I go through for those National Geographic shots! You know they’re feeling better when they want to tear your head off…


I didn’t keep her in this chamber very long because of the pea gravel. It will dull their talons over a period of time. I had stashed her in here so I could make ready the other chamber with a sand floor.

Her cere (that yellow part above the beak) is yellow because her aquatic vertebrate diet is rich in beta carotene. Cool, huh?


Johnson the goose is hale and hearty. He likes to chew on me and YES, those are pig socks, what of it???

This is ‘Richard’ my newest patient. A very skinny Great Horned owl with pale mucous membranes. He was delivered to my house this morning and I’m working on trying to get him a ride to the vet’s office either this afternoon or tomorrow. I skinned some mice and injected some Ivermectin in the food to start on the probably parasite load. That is the first thing I consider when they come in like this. This bird was picked up yesterday by a local service that provides transport for pets to area veterinarians. In the next photograph (and sorry about the mouse hanging out of his mouth) but you can see how the cere has been damaged. This rarely happens in the wild, so I would imagine whomever had been housing this bird before surrendering it was keeping it in a wire cage. Wire + raptors = Bad news. If this bird had had any more energy, his plumage would have been compromised, too.


He’s very polite, which tells me he ain’t feeling so hot, but what a beautiful boy… Check out the cere, just above the beak and you will see the damage… Again, sorry for the dangling food, but I want him to self feed, rather than me jamming it down his throat. much less stressful that way… “What’s for dinner? Rats-a-roni, darlings!”


Nancy and I attended the 1st annual Chicken Swap and Meet. A good time was had by all…

Boy, do I know how to have fun, or what? I crawled over a ditch for this shot.


The dress was ‘casual’.


I repeat…CASUAL.


Chickens make fine pets and if they misbehave, you can eat them.


What a cute little kid…they have the same hairdo.


There was some serious chicken bidness being discussed here…


The young man in the overalls connected us with a local man that we met yesterday and who is gathering me up some large hens. Ya’ll remember the problem I had with the roosters talking to Nigel all night long, so my next batch will be a all-girl group…

On the way to the swap Saturday, we passed by a yard sale and lo, and behold, I found just the couch I was looking for. Ya’ll remember Cargo furniture from the 80’s? It ain’t Broyhill, but it’s sturdy AND this one is a sleeper sofa. Thanks to Michael, Nancy and Kim for coming over to help me move it into the house. As you can see…it’s cat tested AND approved. That’s David’s daughter, Cristobel, on the left and her mom on the right. I can touch Cristobel’s tan fur and be closer to my David…


OK…that’s all for now. Ya’ll take care of yourselves and each other and thank you for taking the time to read my blog… Oh, if you know anyone who has a vehicle, even a little car that they would like to donate, we sure would appreciate it. Although the little car wouldn't hold my ed birds, it would help provide necessary transport for the injured ones to my vet's office....m.

Monteen McCord
770-720-1847
POB 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142
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