Training update (and random kitty cuteness)

Our animal-training programs continue to be very successful in our household.  Here are some of their accomplishments:

Rabbits:  Fiona has led this training effort, with her partner Fergus joining in a little later in the process.  Each day when I would go into the herbivore room for feedings, Fiona would hop over and nudge my leg and gently paw me as I was filling bird dishes.  She seemed to be begging for the birdseed.  I thought it kind of strange, but finally one day a few months ago, I put a little pinch of the birdseed down for her.  She scarfed it right up.  Interesting. 

The next day I went in for feedings, and she came over to nudge my leg again.  I ignored her.  She gave one of her very-excited-happiest-bunny-in-the-world leaping twists.  I love those!  I immediately gave her a pinch of birdseed.  The next night, as soon as I opened the birdseed container, she gave her happy jump.  I gave her the seed.  It was this point that Fergus noticed something and joined in the process.  From that point on, it has become an established nightly routine. 

Fiona is no dummy!  She sniffed out my weakness.  She masterfully used positive reinforcement to alter my behavior in such a way that she benefits.  Once it's established as expected, I see their happy, anticipating little faces, and I have to give in.

Birds:  Hurley bird (Poppy's mommy) always flies right over to my head or shoulder when I enter the room.  One time, she was peeking over the top of my head in a very cute way, so I held up the freshley-filled dish that I was carrying, and she loved sitting up on me, eating the fresh food held conveniently right up to her face.  That single act formed an expectation in her that she had a new daily ritual.  The next night, she leaned in toward the food dish, looked at me, chirped and head bobbed, and repeated until I held the dish up to her and stood there while she had a hearty snack.  (Their meal was soon to follow--lots of fresh produce for all of the herbivores.)

Dogs:  Each night I prepare food for the outside critters.  Almost every night involves some kind of food with lots of peanut butter, as I know the poor outside critters need all the fat they can get in this cold weather.  One night that I was doing that, the dogs were begging more than usual, so I let them lick the peanut butter off the knife when I finished. 

The dogs are no stranger to effective training.   They have implemented many such routines that directly benefit them.  They were quick to pick up the fact that I can't stand when they get the disappointed look on their faces.  So the night after the knife-licking occured, the minute I quietly unscrewed the lid from the peanut butter, they were there so quickly I could have sworn they vaporized into the kitchen.  They had their very happy, I'm-anticipating-the-best-thing-ever faces.  Again, I tried to ignore them, because I didn't want to establish yet another food routine.  I did really well until I started putting everything away and I saw their little faces crumble.  When Daisy is sad, her little forehead gets wrinkles.  It's pathetic.  Jezi looks like she's been kicked.  (Chloe did not join this routine, because she doesn't really like peanut butter.)  We have a new nightly routine that they very much look forward to.

Cats:  Their methods are much more subtle, and they rely less on cute manipulations than bullying.  Nonetheless, they've been quite effective too.  They generally just steal what they want as far as food, so they have worked more on service training. 

One of many examples involves Mimosa.  She was taken away from her mommy much too young, and as a result has an intense need to suckle and knead.  For whatever reason, she prefers to do this on the inside of my upper arms (where the skin is very delicate and sensitive).  I had hoped this would abate with age, but it definitely hasn't.  I have been increasingly less accomdating with letting her tear up my arms as she's gotten older, but she wasn't happy with that. 

She learned that my weakest time is during the night, on the rare occasions that I actually get to sleep.  That's when she started showing up, throughout the night, and she would stand right next to my ear and purr loudly.  I of course pretended to be asleep, thinking she would go away.  My arms were covered by sleeves.  Cats don't just give up like dogs do.  She then started pawing repeatedly at my sleeves, tugging on them with her claws.  Finally it just seemed easier to pull my sleeve up, let her do her thing, and then fall asleep.  It's usually only for 5-10 minutes before she snuggles up and dozes off
.

It only took one time.  No matter how many times I tried to ignore her after that, she just kept pawing, purring, and if she did give up, she returned a few brief minutes later.  I'm now so well trained that I barely rouse up when I pull a sleeve up, grit my teeth through the pain and wait for her to go to sleep. Cats do not give up.  Ever.  It is much easier to give in that deal with her persistence.  The insides of my upper arms have permanent marks from the little stinker, but it's a very strong need with her, so I don't mind.  I would prefer to get it down to once a night or less though! 

As a little aside, Mimi really is a stinker.  We call her the garbage truck kitty.  She is very healthy and doesn't have worms.  She eats the same diet as the other cats.  Her teeth are fine.  She is only 13-14 months old.  She stinks.  Her breath smells like rotting garbage for no apparent reason.  She IS smelly cat, but we don't know why.

I had my camera in L's room tonight for our reading time.  I took pics of the cats tonight and that was my intended photo topic for tonight, but then the ratty boys were so cute I had to start with them. 

Womble is especially attached to L.  He's always grabbing at her, trying to climb up her shirt, or anything he can think of to get her attention.  He's quite an affectionate little guy, but not quite as outgoing as Walt.

The moment they hear the rustle of their bag of dried banana treats, they stop what they're doing and run to the bag.  They grab a treat and run over to a different area to eat it.



In other news, my focus has been on getting fit and healthy this year.  I dropped 14 pounds fairly easily, but have now hit a plateau that is very frustrating.  I'm working out six days a week, though when I finally reach my goal, I will drop down to four days a week.  It's an hour every day that I could be doing other things, so I've had to give up one hour of productivity which I really need.  I'm not going to get back to fit and healthy without serious hard work, and I have finally "hit my bottom" and have the necessary motivation to get through the suffering.  I'm not very patient, though, so it's hard to not get the instant results my impatient nature requires.

This weekend we attended the annual Alliance Vegantines dinner.  The wardrobe situation didn't work out so well, and I couldn't make myself look nice that day to save my soul.  Dej looked spectacular, and Mark and Russ looked good, and the food was fantastic (catered by Bunky's), so it was a good night over all.  My friend Julie came with us as well, so we had a great night visiting with friends and catching up with those I don't get to see nearly often enough!

Week 2

Today marked the beginning of the second week of the semester. I'm starting to get the hang of my new schedule and have my classrooms situated (we had two room changes for one very large class)and the necessary software working in all of my rooms. This is the week that we start rolling with the content and I get to focus on getting to know the students. I don't have homework coming in until later this week, so I don't yet have grading to worry about. It's a pretty good week.

One of my classes, Java, has 25 students, which is very large for a subject that complex. All 25 are young men. So far, they seem very eager to learn. It's going to be an adventure! I had two classes last semester with only one woman, but I've never taught a class without one single female student.

Tica, as well as most of the other cats, love snuggling into this afghan. Mark's grandmother made it for him many years ago, and he uses it on the bed. Whenever he isn't using it, one or more cats are.

When L & I went in her room to play with the rats earlier tonight, we found Quince peeking out of his customized tissue box. I love the shots with his adorable tiny mouth open. (Yes, his teeth are orange. Rats have orange teeth.)

His brother Womble loves to play underneath the towels on L's bed (used to protect her bed from ratty playtime), frequently peeking out to see what's going on with the rest of us.

Watercolors

Here is the latest group of art on Luciana's wall. These are all water color or water color pencil on water color paper.

Cool, clear water

Carrie's favorite spot to nap is in the "cat room" on a shelf where we store the quilts. It also happens to be right next to the heating vent, so she's very warm and snuggly.

Petey, Oliver, and Mimosa tend to hang out on the cat tree in the cat room during the day.  It's right in front of the windows, and they can watch the neighborhood and nap, alternately.

Fresh water is a BIG deal to me.  I can deal with hunger but not thirst.  I always have an abundance of water available to all of the animals.  Some prefer still water, where others prefer 'moving' water.  I think the water fountains are cleaner than standing water, so we have fountains on each floor in addition to the regular water dishes.  I also keep fresh water available for the outside critters.

I'm always observing the animals, looking for similarities as well as differences between the various species, as well as between individuals within the species. One of the things that is true of all of the species in the house, of course, is that they live for meals and treats. They are so sensitive to my food routines, that the moment I begin the first step of the routine--and sometimes even before I start--they are aware, tuned in, and gathering around me in anticipation.

That's certainly not a big surprise, but what I have found a little surprising is that their response to getting fresh water is very similar to their reaction to fresh food. Some individuals are as attuned to my motions and as excited as they are to get the first drink of fresh water as they are to get food. In each species, there are members who will appear and start drinking before I even get their water container put down.

Since I noticed this, I've made an extra effort to freshen up their water several times a day.  It's one simple, quick way that I can brighten their day just a little bit, and unlike the food treats I so enjoy giving them, fresh water won't make them fat, so they can drink to their hearts' content.  Except Daisy, who drinks until she gets sick and vomits.  Then she has room to drink even more.  She's special.

Oops.

I made a mommy error.  L.  has no problem calling me out on such lapses.  She made me a bookmark--two-sided, as seen above.  I thanked her and told her how pretty it was.  She put it next to me while I was working in the kitchen, and I asked if she could please take it back upstairs and put it on my nightstand, because I was worried that it would get wet there.  She said sure and went back upstairs.  

When I made it up to bed in the wee hours of the morning, I found this in my bed.  I wasn't totally sure what it meant, because I wasn't convinced that the "p" was a p.  It's a little off.  I asked her as soon as she got up in the morning why she left me a rejection slip.  She said, "Because that's how I felt when you rejected my bookmark."  8-(  I apologized profusely and explained that I loved it and wanted to keep it safe.  I felt horrible! 

I've reviewed the exchange in my head a hundred times over, and still think she was on the oversensitive side.  I will be extra careful in the future, because even if she is oversensitive (and her age may be a factor; she just turned 12), I don't want her to ever feel that way!  I'm happy that she handled it so quickly and maturely.

Three-week overview

L got a package of canvases, and made gifts for Dej, Mark, me, and both sets of grandparents.  She used her favorite media (for now), which is pastels, and of course used a fixative to make sure they would remain smudge/smear free.

My favorite was the one she made for me.  The cockatiels are Romeo and Lily--a couple of very special (and strange!) birds.  They died before she was born, but she's heard much about them from the rest of us.  The picture is hanging in my room, facing my bed, and I enjoy looking at it every day.

Mark got a dragon.

Dej got a fox, because that's what she asked for.

My mom got butterflies.  My dad got a Nintendo DS from all of us, so L decreed that he had to share my mom's picture.  She was also determined that once he got the DS, he would never look up to notice a picture or anything else.

Mark's dad got a duck, because he collects ducks (or she thinks he does--not sure which).

Mark's mom got a picture of their dog, Bentley, who died a few years ago at the age of 21!  Everyone referred to him as Bentley the Wonderdog, because he just kept going and going.  The picture brought Carolyn to tears.

Before the holiday season, she gave me a random sketch of a kiwi.  It's so cute--it's still up on our refrigerator.  (The blue drips are from a little popsicle accident.)

Mimi playing in a dress that L likes to put on certain cats (there are only a few who tolerate it). Mimi was initially fascinated by it, and then quickly forgot about it and started playing.

Basil chilling on the piano.  Notice Beethoven behind Basil.  I asked Luciana to take his gay pride beads off and make him look more festive and seasonal.  This was her rendering of festive and seasonal.  Hmm.

Russ (Dej's partner) and Poppy hanging out together.

I (Finally!) finished the printer's tray shadow box I started working on before I broke my arm this summer.  I've been so busy with work that I haven't had a minute to relax and work on hobbies.  Once I got my grades in and completed the necessary critical work for my consulting job done, I wanted to get this knocked out and off my desk.  I finished and hung it, but every time I look at it, I think it needs something else.  When I figure out what that is, I will add it and maybe be satisfied with it.  It's hanging in the dining room--the one I really want to strip and repaint.  L is vehemently against the idea, and I keep hoping to find a paint color she likes enough that she is okay with the changes.

Luciana has pointed out that the rats haven't received nearly enough blog coverage lately, as they've been eclipsed by Poppy.  So I will talk about the ratty boys today.

Usually I spend my time with the ratty boys at night.  I go in to read to Luce before bed and spend time playing with the rats.  I am usually wearing lounge wear, with one of my garments having a pocket on the right side and the other garment having a pocket at the left breast.  These pockets are important, because they often contain the nightly cat treats, which the rats love.

They learned fairly early on how to check each pocket for treats and to lift them if found.  I now know enough to guard my pockets if they contain cat treats.  The rats quickly figured out a countermeasure to my countermeasure.  They have always enjoyed running up the inside of my sleeves and playing around inside my voluminous lounge wear/pajamas.  I noticed some persistent activity in my right hip area, and found that Quince had climbed into my sleeve as usual but instead of playing like usual, he had zeroed in on the pocket and was working on chewing a hole in the fabric to get to the cat treats.  It didn't take the other two very long to figure that move out, so now I have to be really careful with guarding my pockets from both sides.

Watching the three of them play together and wrestle like all brothers do is so entertaining!  One will take a flying leap at one of their brothers from 2 or 3 feet away, and the two start rolling around wrestling.  As soon as the third sees what the others are up to, he will stop whatever he's doing and launch himself into the pile.  Like all brothers, sometimes it gets a little out of hand and someone ends up getting hurt (not injured), and he gives a loud squeak to let them know.  Usually they settle down at that point, but now and then I have to pick someone up and remind them to be nice, which usually serves as a little distraction which is enough to lower  the intensity of the play.  They have such a cool relationship!  I love the way they all like to snuggle up together to sleep.

The video is of the boys trying to get the jawbreaker out of Luciana's mouth.  They like to inspect your mouth if you have the audacity to eat in front of them, and if they like the smell of what you have, they will try to make it their own.

'Tis the season where everyone on college campuses across the U.S. is stressed.  Students are slacking on thing like sleep and personal grooming.  The halls are filled with students wandering around in sweats with vague, glazed, worried expressions, fueled on only caffeine.  Professors are starting to lose track of what day of the week it is, as all days are all filled with grading and very stressed students (who probably should have started their final projects a few weeks earlier than they did) looking for help.

I'm in my last week of classes, and that means I have many--so many!--final projects coming in over the next few days, which means lots of grading.  Though I don't enjoy the actual process of assigning grades, I do enjoy seeing their projects. Finals are next week. Only one of my classes is actually taking a final exam, and the other three are submitting projects.  Two classes will also be doing presentations next week.

Poppy is still in her very curious toddler phase.  She wants to taste and play with everything.  It's so fun to watch the intensity with which her little tongue explores every texture within reach.  She also likes to sit on my keyboard and watch my screen while I'm working, and that makes typing quite challenging.  My friend Allegrea was wearing a ring with wavy ridges on it, and Poppy just LOVED playing with that.  She was obsessed!

Her parents are still doing a fantastic job at taking care of her.  I am so proud of how well they've raised her and continue to do so.  I wish more humans would be as active, involved, and loving with their children.  She has quite a charmed life!  When she's in the herbivore room, her parents are always near (less than a foot away), with one on each side of her.  If she gets too far away, they call her back to them.  She is getting really good at flying.  I'm quite impressed by how well she is doing.  She is eating on her own.  I've seen her daddy escort her to the food dishes many times, and she is usually the first one to come and get their nightly produce treats.

When she comes out to play/work with me, I try to always bring her an assortment of items to explore and play with, so her brain continues to build neural networks.  Science (and simple observation) has shown us that an enriched environment makes a better brain and a happier being, so we are working hard to keep Poppy happy, healthy, and smart.

When I return her to her parents, they are always so happy to see her come back.  They immediately start chirping to call her over (they have very distinctive sounds that they use to communicate with each other) and when she arrives they check her over to make sure she's okay and then tidy up her feathers.  I swear I've seen them shoot glances my way that make me feel very small for returning their child to them in such a messy state (though she looks fine to my eyes).  She then hits her daddy up for some food.  He tries to escort her to one of the dishes a few times, but usually gives in and feeds her.  Then she goes to hit her mommy up for some food.  Daddy seems to do more of the directing and guiding, where mommy just feeds her without making an effort at getting her to eat on her own.

One of the many very cool things about cockatiels is that like so many other birds, they generally mate for life and share equally in the nesting/parenting.  From the very beginning, Darwin (daddy) has taken equal time sitting on the eggs and later Poppy, feeding, teaching, etc.  They really do work equally hard at parenting.  It has been so fun to watch their partnership through this process.  I wish more humans raised their children with such a smooth, equal partnership.  Darwin and Hurley were so impressive for first-time parents.  I love all of my animals equally and with every fiber in my body--but I have a little extra respect for Hurley and Darwin after watching their self-sacrificing, nearly perfect parenting!  And they did it all without hands!  I am humbled by them.