Herbivore room

 

We've had 2-3 vet appointments per week for the last couple of months.  Mostly it's minor stuff, but with so many animals, it can quickly get overwhelming.  At this moment, Bea is on meds for a UTI, Silas just finished meds for a UTI, Jezi is on meds for a staph infection (and her usual thyroid meds), Raf is on meds for anxiety, Ferrero has to be on meds in perpetuity for pastuerella, Scarlett is on meds for an eye infection.

Cressida, my sweet green mommy parakeet died on New Year's Eve day.  She has had a tumor since spring, and it finally overwhelmed her little body.  I'm sad for her loss but am more sad for her family--her bonded partner, Troilus, and her babies Ra, Caliban, Ariel, Tristan, and Isolde, loved her immensely. They groomed her, fed her, and fought for her attention.

We adopted two additional parakeets this month, Sky and River. They're fairly young and very small.  Their wings were clipped when I got them, so I was concerned about their ability to navigate the room and keep up with the other parakeets.  I've been impressed by their eagerness to explore and pleased with their efforts to fly despite the clipped wings.  The room is designed so that birds who can't fly can still get to all of the desirable areas in the room and hang with their flock.  We have several very old birds and disabled birds who are not able to fly, so the various climbing structures and "bridges" in the room are really important for them.

These are the herbivore-room residents as of the beginning of 2021:

PARAKEETS

• PZ Myers - green, old
• Dawkins - green, old
• Hawking - blue, old
• Ada Lovelace - white, middle aged
• Grace Hopper - blue/white, middle aged   
• Sky - white/blue, young
• River - green/gray, young
• Troilus - green/yellow, middle aged (recently widowed from Cressida)
• Caliban - green/yellow, young (C & T's baby)
• Ra - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Tristan - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Isolde - yellow, young  (C & T's baby)
• Ariel - green, young  (C & T's baby)

FINCHES  

• Mercury - brown/gray, old  
• Gaia - gray/purple, old
• Callisto - gray/burgundy, old

DOVES

• Valentino - white, old (really old!)
• Julian Assange - white, middle aged (bonded with Nikola)
• Nikola Tessla - indian ring neck (gray), middle aged (bonded with Julian)
• Aaron Swartz - indian ring neck/white, young (N & J's oops baby)

COCKATIELS

• Max - pied, old (bonded to Elvis)
• Elvis - gray, old  (bonded to Max)
• Begonia - gray, middle aged?  (bonded to Azalea)
• Azalea- lutino, middle aged?  (bonded to Begonia)
• Acacia - lutino, middle aged?
• Rizzy - gray, young-middle aged?
• Aspen - pied, young
• August - pied, young (bonded to Anais)  
• Anais - gray, young  (bonded to August)
• Ailish - pearled, young  
• Ashti - lutino, young
• Akshay - lutino young

GUINEA PIGS

• Wilbur - black/white
• Anjali - brown/white
• Wim - white/brown

RABBITS

• Scarlett - Holland lop, one-ish
• Ferrero - California white, six-ish  

2021

I've never been so happy to see a new year roll in! I have high hopes for 2021 (or my bar is now really, really low).

We survived an entire year's worth of non-traditional holidays.  It was my first Christmas Eve without our traditional family party at my mom's, Christmas without having dinner with my parents, New Year's Eve and New Years at home instead of with the parents.  It was certainly different but not terrible.  Though we weren't physically together on the days that we typically are, we were still able to communicate with each other.  It was nice to be able to stay inside with the animals and the immediate family for the first time.

We were able to get together with my parents for the holidays--just not exactly on the holidays.  We all quarantined for ten days, so we could spend two days together.  Our first day together was "Christmas", and the second days was "New Year's Eve".  We ate good food and played games together both days and have an absolutely lovely time.  We haven't been together in each others' homes since March.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend time with Dej & Chris, because they are working and couldn't take enough time off to quarantine.  We were still able to talk of course, and they came to drop off and pick up gifts.  Dej brought us all food--the best gift of all. :)  She may gyros for Mark, empanadas  and magic bars for me, and cinnamon rolls for her sister.  Everything was delicious--she makes such good food!

So though the holidays were very different and rather distant, they were still full of family and love.

One of the great epiphanies of old age I've had recently is the knowledge that nothing bad has ever happened to me, so I have to believe that will continue.  It's not that I haven't had tragedy, loss, stress, etc.  It's that, with the passage of time and acquisition of wisdom, I can see that even the things that felt like the worst had some benefits--I learned something important, it made me stronger, in some way or another, every really "bad" thing had some positives to offset the negatives.  This year with Covid has been the same.  While we've lost many things and endured great stress and uncertainty, we've also been able to slow down, have more time with each other and our animals, and focus on what's really important to us in life--the relationships we have with each other and ourselves.

Much love and wisdom to you all in this new year, and may you all have a warm snuggle buddy to keep you warm!