Public Service Announcement

If you have a dog or cat, please check the pet food recall list every day or so. Today, a variety of Science Diet dry was added to the list. Here's a few sites containing updates:

Orlando Sentinel
Menu Foods
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

I'm Cuckoo for Ratty Rats!

Simone McSkitterson really got into being close up to the rats while I did some maintenance on their cage. I don't know if twisting around on the floor and contorting herself like a pretzel was suppose to impress them or what.

Mother's Day

I've posted several pictures of the hummingbird eggs and babies, so I thought it was time to feature a photo of momma hummer. She looks so sweet sitting on her nest!

We've been trying to figure out which species (?) she is. Any hummingbird experts out there?

Hummer Babies

Baby hummingbirds look more like the offspring of space aliens than the hatchlings of the vibrant, beautiful birds we see at nectar feeders. I doubt their photos will ever be featured on a jar of Gerber's. But I'm thrilled with these two little birdlings who hatched on our porch last weekend. David took this photo about an hour ago.

Catz 'n' Ratz 'n'...Hummingbirdz?

One Saturday afternoon earlier this month, I noticed that a female hummingbird kept landing in the wax plant I have hanging from the porch roof. Upon closer inspection, I saw that she was building a small platform between a couple of vines and leaves. By the next day, that platform was shaping into a nest. Later that week, two tiny white eggs the size of Jelly Bellies appeared several days apart. This photo was taken after the first egg was laid.


David set up a tiny Web cam in the vines over the nest, and we've been watching the progress of nest building and egg laying and momma's comings and goings for several weeks now. Despite the semi-public location of the nest, momma hummingbird doesn't seem too bothered by people or our cats watching her from inside the sliding glass doors. When I have to water the potted plants near her nest, she remains very still, and it's hard to tell where she ends and the nest begins.

The eggs hatched on March 25, and we now have two baby hummers. It's going to be fun watching them grow!

By the way, David named momma hummer "Elizabeth." The babies have yet to be christened.

Epilogue

Armand was put to sleep around 11 a.m. on January 22, five weeks short of his 17th birthday, due to cancer. I literally cried for weeks, and I still get very upset when I think about him much. I tried to watch a short video of him a month after his death, but it tore me up. He was my kitty soul mate, and I feel his loss so deeply.

I was almost certain that I would be ushering Elsinore into the next world shortly after Armand, as she was so sick. But Dr. Slossberg had a few miracles up his sleeve, and he must have used one to bring her around. It took a week's stay at the vet's and a week at home until she was truly "back on her (four) feet." The vet did discover that she has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which someday will kill her, but the systemic infection is now a thing of the past. By no means is she springing around like a spry young thing, but Elsinore is eating well, walking around, seeking attention, and enjoying life. She'll see her 19th birthday, which falls around the first week of April.

I'll be back to blogging normally next week. This past two months have been too painful to write about until now.