Silly Windows

This is what I got to do the day before Thanksgiving!

The Story of Maggie Mae

15 years ago a little Solomon Island Eclectus was hatched. She spent the first 6 years of her life with one person, and little is known about that other then her behavior indicates that she was used for breeding purpose. Her behvior indicates such by her constant hiding in a breeder style box. She moved in with a woman who lived only miles from us. She stayed with her till the woman passed away. It was a nine year love affiar for the two of them. Maggie Mae was the "mother hen" of 12 other birds. The woman was not a collector, she was a rescuer. She took in needy birds, and also had ones that she had hatched in her home. There were two pair of breeders, and solitary birds as well. Maggie was one of 3 female Eclectus. There were also Amazons in the house. Every time that the breeding pairs would lay, Maggie would become the nanny. She would go and check on the cages and make sure that not only the babies were ok, but that the parronts were ok. When the woman passed away (about 2 months ago) Maggie took the loss the hardest. She began plucking, and lost almost all of her feathers. She still had her beautiful head feathers, but that was about it. We were informed about the womans death through the PD and called to see if there was anything that we could do to help with the birds. We went and met Maggie and well we took her home. She came to us with the condition that we would keep her to try to get her beyond the greif and allow her to be able to regrow her feathers. We knew that we were going to try to find her a new home as soon as possible so that attachment did not happen (for her or us). We got her to the point where she was regrowing feathers rather rapidly. Within about a month, she was already getting fluffy again. We did try to find her a home with a family through a few different adds indicating everytime that she was a special needs bird, and would need more attention that most in order for her to have a happy life. I spoke to a few people and there were a few that I didn't even bother responding to. One woman wanted me to drive her to Maryland. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I have frequently looked online at various different sancutaries (I am a sucker). There is a sanctuary in Lancaster PA called Lair of Dragons Bird Rescue www.lairofdragonsbirdrescue.com , they work with reptiles and birds. I decided to call and see if they would be able to take Maggie. They had the room and the time. We make the arrangements, and brought her to them last Wednesday. We donated her cage, Oscars original cage, three bags of toys, and some food. Jo, who runs the sanctuary with her husband, takes care of all different types of birds, from Tiels to Macaws. She has a 3 yr old Scarlet Macaw named Mika. This is the bird that greeted us when we walked through the door with "HI MIKA" and "High Five" this immediatly put me at ease. If her bird is this happy, Maggie should be fine. In the room that Maggie was to be placed, there were three Soloman Island Eclectus (2 female, 1 male) a Sun Conure, 2 African Grays, and Amazon, a Blue Crown Conure, and another breed that I don't remember. In the front room, with Mika there is a Double Yellow Headed Amazon named Chit Chat, he loved me, and I adored him (if we had the room...) another Scarlett named Chili Pepper (cantancerous old man of a bird) a B&G Macaw that I don't remember her name, but she waas there for 3 months, and arrived bald, head to tail bald, and is fully feathered at this point. There were two birds in quarentine in there basement as well. Maggie Mae did not need to be quarentined because we had her vet checked and were able to provide the information for Jo to verify. I didn't have the number with me, so I called her with it. When I called (less then 24 hrs later) to give her the number, she was able to give me an update already. Maggie did not pull a single feather overnight. She spent the day talking to the other Eclectus, and was eating everything that Jo gave her. This tells me that she is in the best possible place that could be found. Jo promised that no matter what, she would never have Maggie in a breeding situation again. As we get updates from Jo, I will place them here so that everyone can see.

Kylee

This is Kylee! "She" is the newest addition. "She" is a 3 month old green cheek conure. Oscar likes "her" and that is all that matters. She seems to be getting her bearing and is already ruling the roost by bullying Dodge.

Things that are the same and yet different....

Well, I am working for a child care facility. It has been an up and down journey, but it is enjoyable. I was hired for a full time assistant teacher position, and ended up as part time floater. I am looking at going back to work part time with Snelling Staffing and concentrating more on my schooling for now.
Dodge is now 6 months old and leaning new ways to get himself into trouble. He found himself hanging upside down by one little claw about a week ago and has since recovered from a sprained toe. It has not slowed him down though, even when he was dealing with the initial pain, he was still getting himself into trouble with his curiosity.
Oscar is doing fine, and his eye seems to be on a level at this point. He is still getting a bit goopy, but we work to keep it clean, and it seems to be working. Every once in a while we have to do a "major" cleaning, but it is no where near what we were having to do. We are letting his flight feathers grow in for the winter since he won't be going out till spring. He has one feather that is almost pure white. It has a little bit of yellow, but not much. When it first started to show, we thought that it was an albino feather.
I have been sick for almost a month now, but i am finally starting to get better. Last night was the first time in nearly that long, that I have slept almost a full night through. I am on two steriods, one inhalent, and one tablet. I am on a third type of antibiotic, and a cough medicine with codine (to help me sleep). I think that all this together, is finally starting to help. This does make the part time hours benificial because it gives me the opportunity to rest and relax to get better. It also gives me time with my hubby! The hours that I had were making it near to impossible for us to have any time together. Now that I am part time, we have had a lot more time, and it has been very nice!

Hello, my name is Maggie....

This is Maggie, her people mommy died two weeks ago, and it has devastated her. She has plucked her beautiful red and blue feathers down to the downy gray underfeathers. We have taken her into our home in hopes that she will realize that her life isn't over. With any luck she will stop plucking, and get her lovely feathers back. She is about 15-20 years old, and is in great health other then the plucking. She stole our heart, and we are hoping that we can help her overcome her grief. She was the only one that her auntie Peggy was worried about because of her plucking, not many people would want to take that on. We felt that we maybe able to help her. She is currently residing in the kitchen so that she can have some time to get used to the sounds and smells of the house. We are hoping that this will help her to adjust. She will be able to her the guys, but is able to have some peace and quite as well.

Totally NOT bird related

So I got a call from Kiddie Academy, (I interviewed there on Tuesday) yesterday and I got HIRED! I start my new job as a Teachers Assistant on Wednesday Sept. 24th. This was the first place that I interviewed at, and I was told that I would hear from them by Friday, and they called me a day early. I am SOOOO unbelievably excited. It is a pay cut, but it is worth it. I will be working in the Pre-K class, on the high days it is 14 kids and the low days no more then 10 kids. They are all around the age of four. This is going to be great, I get to go to work in jeans and sneakers again ( i have really missed that), and I get to have the experience that goes along with my education. I gave my notice at the Quarry when I got the call so my last day there is on the 19th. I did it this way so that I would be able to go into the school before hand and fill out all the needed paperwork. Also between now and then, I have previously scheduled days off that I didn't want to start the new job saying "by the way I need these days off" this way, they are paid for through my vacation time. I am still waiting to see if there is any backlash from the boss here, I don't think that he knows yet. It will be interesting to say the least. But for now YEAH YEAH YIPPIE!! I am so excited!

More Randomness in Pictures

Perched right on Daddy's Head
Just cause he was being cute

At night in the backyard by the firepit (well watched the WHOLE time)

Randomness in Pictures

"Please no Pictures" (but you can just see the crop burn)
Cuddling with Daddy
Smile Pretty :)
My battle Scar - it is about 4 inches or so
This is only two days after the surgery.

Sorry about the absence

Ok, so it has been a while since my last post. Dodge has gotten his test results back, and he seems to be doing better. However, since that happened, we have been back to the vet to deal with Crop Burn. What is crop burn you ask?... Think about a 3rd degree burn in your stomach that burns right through to your outside. We are waiting for the "blister" to pop so that we can take him to the vet to have it surgically fixed. At this point though, he is almost fully weaned, and the only reason at this point that we are still feeding him formula is to be able to get the antibiotics into him. He is learning how to hold food in his foot, but still hasn't quite fully figured that out. We have found a new cage for him and it will be here by Wednesday. We have to re-arrange the furniture so that it will fit, but I am looking forward to having an appropriate cage for him. Once we have it set up, we can clean the other cage and give it back to Oscar. We will put the other cage back onto the front porch and that way there will be a safe place for him to enjoy it outside. Right now, we have a concern, there have been rumors floating about that there is a 6 foot python swimming in the canal behind our house, so I don't want the kids unsupervised out side. Now of course, I don't know if it is true, but I don't want to risk it either.
On a non birdie note, I am doing really well with school. It may only be three weeks into it, but I still have a 100% in my Intro to Early Childhood Education and Curriculum class, and I have a 97.75% in my Academic Strategies class. So this is very good new for me, I had not enjoyed school before, and I am really enjoying it now. That is about it for now, and I will let everyone know what happens with Dodge.

I called the Vet last Thursday to see if Dodge's test results were in, and he ended up having to go back. His WBC was over 23000 and his hemoglobin was elevated as well. So now it is a sit and wait. The results should be in tomorrow. However, he isn't acting sick. He is active, curious, and talkative - and for bird wise people, his poo looks normal for a baby bird. In fact it is starting to look more and more like adult birdie poo. Ok, enough about poo. He has decided that even though I cut his wings, he is going to do everything that he can to still fly as much as they will allow him to. He is doing SO well. And Oscar seems to be trying to adjust. He doesn't attack every time he sees Dodge near me. Just when he thinks that Dodge is to close to mommy for his comfort level. Or if startled - which is understandable.

On a side note, we have taken on the project of planting a garden in our back yard. This is a bit more extreme then I thought it was going to be. We have inlisted the help of one of our neighbors to remove the sod (and reuse it in the areas that don't seem to grow grass). Now we are waiting on a good day to go and get the mulch from a friend of his (free is GOOD). Then I have to figure out what I want to plant. Wish me luck!

Also my first class of college is this Thursday night!

"Belle" went to the Vet on Thursday and it was confirmed that she is not a she, but a HE. Oh well, so now it is official that we have Diogenese, or Dodge for short (sometimes even Dio). We have been flying all over the house, and in fact we just flew from our perch to the window sill and was quite good at it actually. Oscar was the perfect little boy. I covered Oscar so that he wouldn't try to attack, but instead he just curled up and sat with mommy. I am SO proud of both of them.

New pictures of Belle! She is 10 weeks old, and almost full grown. She weighs nearly 2 pounds at this point. She has started to try to say things like "hello" and "hi". She did say something that sounded suspiciously like "uh-oh" the other day as she was slipping from her perch.

Our newest baby continued

Our newest baby is a 8 week old blue and gold macaw. We are no sure if it is a boy or a girl, so we have not officially named our baby. We will be getting the DNA sexing done when we take the baby to the vet. For now we are just saying things like"beautiful baby" and "pretty bird". So there will be LOTS of picture updates to follow!

Our newest baby

Baby Birds

Marley

The new baby that is comeing home on Sunday

Baby Robbins and stuff

The above images are of the nifty new tree stand that I made over the weekend for the Fids to play on. It consists of PVC piping and cotton twine.

The above is the baby robbins that are in a nest in my neighbors ivy. I am pretty sure that there is 3 in the nest. I was able to take these pictures while the mommy robbin sat only a few feet away. As soon as I was done, she calmly flew back into her nest. There wasn't a sense of urgency to her flight she just fluttered into the nest. I felt honored that she let me near her nest with no fuss. I will do my best to capture images periodically while they grow up.

This is our new cage for Oscar & Odo. It is a side by side that is great for the two of them. Oscar is having a time trying to get used to the new surroundings, but he will get there. This is the cage that I have wanted for at least a year now.

Its not fair!

I hope that he is ok, and that everything works out.


But at the same time, it isn't fair.


We miss him, he was a part of our family.


I didn't get to say a goodbye.