I'm starting to grow gills...but it could always be worse

I hope everyone is faring the weather okay. Thank goodness the electronic pump is still working to prevent my basement from flooding. It's never been the same since the flooding from Sept. '09. I'm glad I was able to be home today so I can go down and check on it periodically because you never know and I seem to always be having water issues with my house, starting with the dreaded polybutylene coming from the road. A Feng Shui lady told me that the money part of my house was in the wrong position. Uh, ya think? She has no idear.

I was supposed to release a hawk back to his territory last evening, but I have postponed it until this stuff pushes through. Providing him with a few more good meals won't hurt, either.

Male adult Red-shouldered hawk from the John's Creek area.


They are so beautiful, but are nervous in captivity and NOISY, which is why I don't have one as an educational bird. The more you shush them, the louder they get!

Notice the yellow on the cere, gape and around the eye?

That is due to the beta carotene (constituent of Vitamin A) in their aquatic vertebrate diet. Cool huh? If you ate too many carrots, this is what you would look like, sans feather, of course...

This is what they look like as a baby...

Starting to yak already...

Then they grow into these beautiful creatures... This is Georgia, from three years ago...

She stayed with me through the fall. Maybe she knew I was about to lose Mina and needed to keep me company...

She came back to visit the following spring and she was molting into her adult plumage. "Just dropped by to say KREEEYAH!"

We had a delightful time helping Lynn Coulter launch her newest book entitled "Little Mercies". She started writing for us many years ago and included our story as her first chapter. How cool is that? I wept like a fat dog as I read her inspirational words. Nigel and I attended her first book signing in Douglasville last Saturday and will be at Barnes & Noble this Saturday, up the street from Town Center Mall from 2-4. Please drop by if you can.

I put the glove on Lynn and she was a pro!

One of my chicky-poodles has a bum leg, so Dr. Martinez is trying to help

The nice ladies at Loving hands animal hospital are so kind to us!

I would take her out and keep her in my lap when I would work at the computer, attempting some passive motion physical therapy. She's much better, but her leg isn't normal...


She has grown so much! She is a Mottled Houdan and I call her Motley Hoo.

You can see that her tibia-tarsal joint is twice the size of the other one and so she walks like a cross between Walter Brennan and Charlie Chaplan.

It didn't take me long to realize that my current brooder was not going to be able to accommodate my growing babies, so as luck would have it, I scored a large storage box after Christmas for only 15 bucks, so one sunny day, I went to work!

You have to have a cool end and a warm end, so I'm cutting out a square for the heat lamp. And no appendages were lost in my endeavor!

Here is the finished product and I have a passel of happy girls!

Chicken butts on parade! Woot!

The other evening, I went out to say goodnight to the girls in the coop and Carol, the Saipan Jungle Fowl was sitting in the nest box and wouldn't get up. I was thinking the worse possible thing, so I brought her in the house so that if she died overnight, at least she would be warm. When you think they're about to keel over, all you want them to do is eat, so we had a nice selection of meal worms, scratch grains and cat food...

See that thing half way over her eyeball? That's called the Nictitating membrane. Since they can't reach up and wipe eye boogies, this little gizmo sweeps debris from the cornea, contains the tear glands and provides protection. Cool huh?

Well, thankfully she's fine, just broody! And I'm glad. Although not outwardly friendly, she is still one of my favorites because she has such a neat voice and you should see her literally fly down the trail when I toss mice to them. She's always the first to get the prize. Here she is when it snowed in January...up to her fetlocks in the white stuff!

Bill's reaching for the escape key!

You would think I never feed him...

Well, it's no use saving all that money you have socked away because it isn't worth as much today as it was yesterday. May as well send some of that Mouse Money to HawkTalk. We'll take good care, yes we will! You can go over to www.hawktalk.org and click on the 'donate' button for PayPal or you can drop a check to us at P.o. Box 130, Holly Springs, Ga 30142.

We are still in dire need of a vehicle, so please keep us in your thoughts, K?

Also my wonderful vet has a mobile practice for check-ups of ALL kinds of critters. He's your go-to guy! Dr. David Martinez's site www.semobilevet.com

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and I hope you have a great what's left of your day....m.