Poppy takes a wife!

Last week was a whirlwind of travel and activity for me. I've become very housebound, basically leaving for a couple of hours at a time to teach class and that's about it.  I spent more time out of the house the last half of last week than I have for...I don't even know when.

Thursday I took Sage the kitty for a home visit in South Elgin, IL.  It went well, so she stayed there in her new home with a loving human family, dogs, and a cat friend.  I've had a few updates from her new mom, and she seems to be happy and adjusting well.  She's eating, snuggling in laps, and finding favorite spots to nap in.  I'm still pretty emotional about leaving her and still cry quite often when I walk by her favorite spot, but I'm glad she found a safe, loving home where she won't have to go outside again and only has to share her space and laps with one other cat.

Immediately after returning to town from the Elgin trip, I had to head to Madison for a  board meeting.  My car antenna broke off on the beltline, so until I get it fixed, I can't listen to the radio in my car. :(  It was a rather exhausting and emotional day.  The next three days were pretty good, so that made up for it.

Friday, my mom went with me to pickup a load of birds from a rescue in Waukesha.  I was planning to get five cockatiels, but when I arrived, I saw one lonely ring-neck dove (like Saffron), and decided to bring him home. Cypress and Valentino both miss Saffron, so I thought they would be happy to see another friend for their little flock.  None of them came with histories or names. They had come from another rescue, so all I know is that they think the cockatiels are 2-3 years old.

I'm annoyed that I can't get any really good pictures of the birds right now. I have misplaced my camera's battery charger, and I can't get good pictures of the birds with my cell phone camera.

I spent most of Friday and Saturday in the herbivore room, making sure everyone got settled okay.  The new birds' wings had been trimmed, unfortunately, so it will be months before they can learn to fly competently.  They are able to navigate the room okay, though, because I have lots of bridges and walkways specifically so the birds who can't fly or are weaker fliers are able to get around and stick with their friends.

Max and Elvis had no interest in the new birds. They really are immersed in their own little universe.



Poppy was immediately entranced, particularly with the bird who looked like Franklin (Briar) and the one who looked like his mommy and aunt (Calla).  He spent the first night hanging right in between the two with a special fixation toward Calla (fake mommy).  By the next morning, he had clearly developed a creepy stalker interest in her, sticking within 8 inches and staring at her non-stop. He also started protecting her from any other birds.  She didn't seem to mind at all, but wasn't yet interacting with him. It takes a couple of days for the new birds to get past being overwhelmed by having so much space and freedom.  He sang to her, danced for her, and showed her his two special secret hiding "caves".  By Monday, she was interacting with him and they were sticking together, instead of him just following her like a stalker.  By Tuesday they were grooming each other. They are now officially a pair.

Azalea and Begonia

Acacia and Briar

Even better, all of the eight cockatiels have pair bonded now:  Max and Elvis (of course), Poppy and Calla, Briar and Acacia, and Begonia and Azalea.  I think Max and Elvis will probably remain on their own, but I'm anticipating that now that the other six have paired, they will form a flock.

Vali and Cypress both like Cedar (the new ring-neck dove), and the three of them are communicating and interacting with each other. Each of them is a different type of dove, but they definitely respond to each other and largely ignore the hookbills and finches.  Vali mingles with them sometimes; Cypress enjoys watching them but doesn't really interact or communicate with them.

Saturday, Luce and I went to Jefferson to pick up Wilbur the guinea pig, so Piglet has a little friend.  She loves her rabbit and bird friends, but it's important to have another guinea pig--no species likes to be the only one in their world. Wilbur is tiny for a male, and he endured a pretty awful abusive and neglectful life prior to landing at the Humane Society.  Unfortunately, Wilbur was just neutered yesterday, so he has to spend the next month in a large cage, so we don't risk having a litter of piggies.  I will probably let them have supervised play time in a couple of weeks, and I should be able to tell from that when his testosterone is finally gone and it's safe to let him out permanently.  He is very shy but quite a sweetie. He has the silkiest hair!

Vegan Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, Cookie Dough Milkshake

Sunday, Luce took animal duty so Mark and I could go to Chicago with Dej. She wanted to go to Garfield Conservatory and Chicago Diner. I was really stressed about leaving the animals for so long and almost didn't end up going, but I'm glad I did. We had a great day at the conservatory. It was just stunning.  It goes without saying that Chicago Diner was amazing. We ate too much, brought home lots of food, and I wished we could have eaten twice as much!

Other than my extensive travels, I've been hanging out in the herbivore room getting to know everyone and just observing the interactions.  I had two different large programming projects, a database assignment, and a business plan project (10-12 page papers) all come in this week, so I will be grading pretty much non-stop from the time I finish this post until Monday morning. I may not get everything finished.  I also have several hours of work to get done for my board duties (database data manipulation, database programming, and a website migration) as soon as possible. I'm pretty sure caffeine abuse will be required over the next several days.