Category Archives: photography

January 14, 2011 · 6:10 pm

New Friends!

A horse named Spirit now lives in the barn as Lunar’s new companion. I met Spirit on my first day in the big barn and learned that he’s food aggressive when he ripped some hay out of my hands. When I found out that he’d be our new barn companion, I admit I was a bit nervous. With Moonie, all I really did was guide his head to his food and give him pats and tell him how much I loved him. With Spirit, I now have to get him into the barn from the outer outer ring and be careful when feeding him. Did I mention he’s stubborn, too?

Deb spent the first day with me and I was proud that after she got him into the back and then he walked back out (we forgot to close the gate – actually, I probably forgot to close it but didn’t think of it when he first went in and Deb was nice enough not to call me an idiot), so when I was able to get him back in by talking to him, I was pretty psyched. Deb told me that unlike the other animals, I was to talk to him in a firm voice and let him know who’s boss. After I demonstrated my “boss” voice, she laughed for a good long time. Hmm. Since my first attempt was too soft and sing-songy (I swear I was being firm), I’ve been working hard at toughening it up. Definitely a challenge.

While Spirit comes easily to the front of the barn and stands in Athena’s area when he’s ready to eat, getting him around to the back is anything but that. And I learned that apparently, it’s also a challenge with Lunar. I’d never had to coral her before and all of the sudden there are two horses standing there saying, “No, thanks. We’re all set.” I spent a good fifteen minutes calling to them from a foot away, from halfway around the barn, and even while standing in the back of the barn staring at them. Nothing. I’d hook an arm under Lunar’s neck and say, “Hey! Yay! Let’s go!” And she’d move her head away and continue standing right where she was. And this is a horse who seeks me out for hugs! I finally cheated and grabbed a teeny bit of food and gave Lunar a whiff. She launched into high gear and practically ran to her pen. (And yes, I made sure that Spirit had NO idea what I was doing. I’m not a complete dummy.) When Spirit noticed that she was gone, he high-tailed around back, too. Sweet! I closed the gate behind him. (Who’s learning now?!) He went into his pen easily and I went about feeding all of them, only, what, a half hour late? Baby steps.

When Deb was helping me last week, she spent a long time in with Spirit while he ate, standing right next to him, speaking softly. I asked her if it was something that I should do when I was by myself and she said, “Yes. Let him get used to you and your voice while he eats. But don’t touch him.” So, while Spirit munched away, I stood a couple of feet away, blathering on in as commanding (yet affectionate!) a voice as possible. He glanced at me now and then. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was thinking, “Wow. This one’s a weirdo.” It took a whole lot of resistance not to dole out hugs.

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Spirit and Lunar are learning to be friends and I think this photo captures that pretty well.

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New water bucket!

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This is Niko. She’s a super cute and affectionate cat who lives in the barn. She has something wrong, I think, with her eyes. She rarely looks at people or animals straight on and when she does, her face is always squinty.

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This is Niko climbing up my jacket and onto my shoulder where she stayed almost the entire time I picked up after the horses with a rake. I am an acrobat.

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Delilah is another cat that lives in the barn. When I first started at the farm, she wouldn’t come near me and avoided me like her life depended on it. She would press herself against the wall and shoot past. I think there was some hissing mixed in. Sometimes I’d even catch her glaring from afar. Over the last week or so, the tides have turned and apparently she’s taken a liking to me. It began with meows. Then she started standing right next to me. Now, she even follows me around!

Right after I found her having a delightful time with the hay (that I was in the middle of distributing), she came running over to say hi. Sure, she latched onto my arm a second later, but she immediately rubbed up against my leg when she was done. Buddies!

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Filed under behavior, cats, horses, humor, lunar, niko, photography, spirit, winslow farm

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January 9, 2011 · 6:27 pm

Extra day, extra work?

I went to the farm an extra day this week and worked in a different part. The twelve year old that trained me and a different fourteen year old were running the big barn where Deb had asked me to help out. Whereas the barn I do on Mondays only has four animals directly associated with it and a couple indirectly associated, this is the barn where all the ponies, the other horses, the mules, the llamas, the emus and a zillion goats live. These two girls had their routine down pat and every time I asked if I could help, I got a sing-song “Nah, I’ve got it” back.

Well, that’s not completely true; I did get to sweep off some mats. For those uninitiated in this task, there are rubber mats in the stalls that are usually underneath the food trough or close by. Horses are messy eaters and and they’ll eat the leftovers off the ground, so it’s necessary to sweep the mats to prevent them from eating sawdust and straw. At least, I think that’s the purpose of the mats. I’ve never actually asked. Another thing about sweeping the mats? It’s a total ocd nightmare! Little pieces of riffraff creep back on them no matter matter how much time you spend sweeping them off. Lacking the ability to just walk away, I can be found going over them with growing intensity until I finally stalk off, forcing myself not to look back and see a determined piece of straw triumphantly take back its spot. Because Lunar knows how much I love this task, she likes to follow me into her pen when she see the broom. While I sweep her mat, she kicks the sawdust right back where I’ve just swept it off. Big giant piles of it! I sweep it off. She kicks it on. I sweep it off. She kicks i-Arrrggghh!

I also offered to take the pee blankets out to hang on the fence. When I asked if I could help, I think that the girl bringing them out of the barn was worried that I might complain about getting dirty. Perhaps my coat is deceiving. I’ve certainly been spotted as an intruder on more than one occasion (many times by the same volunteer) and I’m pretty sure it’s because of how I’m dressed. My coat is a black, hooded, squall jacket that goes down past my knees and keeps me super warm and still looks new though I’ve had it for a while. All the other volunteers wear sweatshirts or ratty clothes. What they don’t realize about my coat is that it’s my “pet sitting jacket”. This means that it’s been a home to all sorts of animal fluids. Too much? Needless to say, handling a bunch of filthy blankets was no problem for me.

While I stood around the rest of the time, being useless, I took the opportunity to take some photos and videos. And away we go!

Out back, I watched for a while as the ponies horsed around (ha!). The whole lot of them kept running back and forth. Some were whinnying and kicking and the rest were running just to stay out of the way. Whenever I’ve passed through the area, they’re just stand there chomping on things, so this was an interesting deviation.

The lineage of ponies is as follows: there is a male, the little tan one, who has a daughter and a grandson in the barn. And then there’s another mare who little tan guy mated with that produced a daughter and they’re also in the barn. I’m not sure which of his relatives made him so angry though because they all look alike. At one point, I watched him back the biggest one into a corner and kick like crazy. Though it may have looked like his young successor had the upper-hand in the video, don’t be fooled. Grandpa can hold his own!

Here are the llamas. Watching them. In the exact same spot. With the exact same dazed look. The entire time. I love it!!

Look at the mug on this guy! Ooh, his ears are pinned back at me! I’m pretty sure we’ll be friends someday. Hopefully.

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Emus are strange, strange creatures.

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Just a smidge of info on this photo: to the left of the emu is a door made up of plastic sheets that are big and awkward and sort of need to be shoved through. These flaps hit him every time a goat or person goes in or out.

Grooming time! Goats lick their feet like cats do. This fact makes me happy.

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As dinnertime draws near, many of the animals start wandering in. Due to the fact that there are about a million goats, they’re the most prevalent random shots of fur in this photo, but look closely and you can also see an emu and a pony. Maybe next time, I’ll get a photo that better represents the chaos, but I’ll have to stop spending all my time petting everyone first.

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January 6, 2011 · 10:00 am

What birds? All I see are pine cones! PINE CONES!

Deb asked me to give Pandy a bit of exercise on Monday as she’d been cooped up in the house all day. Pandy is the one who’s smart enough to use pine cones as throw toys. I’m still impressed that she’s able to find the same one over and over again with all the others scattered about but I know, I know, dogs have an incredible sense of smell. Semantics.

It continues to amaze me that different species coexist so well at the farm. My cats, who have been domesticated since their start, get into fights every once in a while and I’ve seen what happens to mice when they make the mistake of entering our house. There are cats all over the farm, many of whom are feral, and yet I watch them saunter by a group of geese with barely a glance, let alone a hungry one. While Pandy and I played fetch, no less than three different kinds of birds (a lone goose, possibly a duck now that I think about it, the cranky swan and numerous roosters and hens) were all nearby. Plus, one of the many cats was hanging about demanding pets from me. No hackles were raised between the beautiful orange tabby and Pandy. And even though Pandy barreled past the birds a bunch of times in pursuit of the pine cone, never did any of the birds fly or run off. Pandy was completely oblivious to them. If anything, they were just in her way. And when she went clipping by, all they did was give her looks and continue about their business. Entertainment on all sorts of levels!

Here is lovely Pandy waiting for the pinecone:
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Little Miss Gentle retrieving the pine cone:
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It was hard to take pictures and throw the pine cone at the same time so this is the best shot I got showing the bird/dog perspective. But Pandy was much closer to all of the birds at different points.
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This picture was my favorite shot of the day. So ominous! And yet, no threat here. I love it!
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And just because this was so weird and funny, here’s a brief video of the swan walking back to his house. (And that’s happy little Cubbie coming to check out the scene. He’s super cute!)

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December 30, 2010 · 6:49 pm

Nonsensically, With Purpose

Last week, I went to the farm amidst a snowy sort of wonderland. Every time I get out of my car there, a calm washes over me. There are so many different species of creatures who live there and each animal has a different personality. I think that some would argue that the 5 white sheep who look exactly the same are basically that but I see their little idiosyncrasies. There are cranky ones like the loudly honking geese who rush at you until you (I) say something like “HI GEESE!!!” and then they veer off in the other direction honking “just kidding!” the whole way back. I love those geese. There are animals who can’t wait to greet me like Lunar and Napoleon; ones who are a bit apprehensive (I’m thinking mostly of the beautiful swan that you’ll see a picture of a bit later. He likes to shake his tail feathers if I get to close but I get closer each time!) and others that nod from afar (many of the sheep are like this until you have food in your hand. And then, watch out!). When I walk around greeting the happy folks at the farm, my excitement builds until it’s spilling over. It’s an interesting (and very real) challenge for me to contain my enthusiasm when I’m around the more apprehensive, standoffish or shy ones. My frenzied energy bubbles out of my mouth, my pitch climbs higher up the scale (an almost impossible feat), my volume gets louder and I start to flail around a bit. It’s hard to stop myself when all I want to do is give them giant hugs and squeal on the top of my lungs. Learning to control this is an important lesson that I am currently mastering.

The subject of how one talks to animals reminds me of a lesson I learned many years ago. Back in another life, I became certified as a preschool teacher. Because my bachelor’s degree was not in early education, I needed to take a few classes directly relating to the subject and although I don’t remember much of those hours, one concept has stood out over time. The word “motherese”, according to dictionary.com, means “the simplified and repetitive type of speech, with exaggerated intonation and rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies”. Essentially, it’s when you see an infant, your pitch goes up and you talk like a baby. According to the psychology behind it, it’s an instinctual reaction that mothers have to their babies. Among other benefits, it actually helps the baby learn language because the baby pays attention to the tone and therefore starts picking up words. It should be no stretch of the imagination then that animals respond to this voice. In fact, many animals nurture their young in a similar way. Cats are a one example of animals who use motherese n their young. And just to throw something weird out there to mull over, one of my cats, Tabitha, has become more vocal over the years and it’s in response to the way that I talk to her. When she “talks” back to me, she often matches my pitch and intensity like she’s mimicking my words. This was not something that she did as a kitten or a young cat.

So, while many people might come out with this voice sporadically, it’s probably pretty obvious that I have a tough time speaking in a normal voice when I see any animal, be it a mouse or an elephant. I can often be found loudly sing-songing to a random dog on the street while its owner looks on in disbelief. Don’t worry, it never stops me. And I say all sorts of weird things to animals that often make no sense. What fascinates me is how they gravitate toward my voice. If it’s a boisterous animal who has few inhibitions, this is no surprise. What excites me is when someone like Athena, the beautiful sheep I’ve been talking about, goes from a ready-to-bolt position to cocking her head and staying close by. In the past couple of weeks, she’s gone from skirting away from me to allowing me to put a food bowl down without running away to sniffing my hand multiple times. And the entire time I’m around her, I’m essentially chirping words of encouragement and letting whatever comes out flow free. like to think I’m comforting her and her behavior toward me seems to prove it. She stays close by and eats her food without looking scared. If I walk around to do my chores and cross her path, she’ll spook but as I continue to talk to her, she returns quickly to her activity. My hope is that our relationship will progress to the point that she will allow me to pet her but if that goal is never reached, I still know that we’re friends and I am happy with that.

Here are some photos that I love (I wasn’t using a flash so there are a couple of fuzzy spots):
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The swan shaking his tail feathers.

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Hanging out!

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I wish I had these prints in my back yard!

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Lunar on the left and Moonie on the right

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Beautiful, beautiful Athena

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Squee! Napoleon!!

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The Cat House (notice the goat?!)

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This is Lunar stealing hay that she discovered. Later she snuck into the pen when I left the door open. :)

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WATERFORD!!!

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Gulliver, in possibly the greatest photo ever!

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Moonie, all bundled up, eating from his special bucket. I lead his face to it and resist overwhelming him with hugs (especially at dinner time!).

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What the barn looks like at night without flash. So wonderful.

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Not sure it gets happier than this!

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Filed under behavior, dogs, ducks, geese, goats, horses, photography, piggies, sheep, swan, winslow farm

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December 7, 2010 · 6:21 pm

Farm Adventures

My volunteering slot at the farm is on Monday afternoons and I’ve been asked to take on the responsibilities in one of the barns. I spent last Monday and Tuesday afternoon being trained by a twelve year old one day and a fourteen year old the next. The farm is mostly populated by these dedicated kids who spend an average of three afternoons a week at the sanctuary. I envy the life experience these kids are building surrounded by so many different animals and the responsibilities in caring for them helmed by a truly dedicated and passionate person, Debra White, who owns and operates Winslow Farm Animal Sanctuary. I wish I had something like this when I was a kid, who knows where it would have led my passion for animals by this point.

In this particular barn, there are four main animals and a handful of barn cats. The two horses are named Moonie and Lunar; there’s a sheep named Athena and a large goat named Gulliver. Moonie is an elderly male horse who’s blind and Lunar is his sweet companion. I was told by Deb, that he’s a kicker when he’s being moody. Armed with this bit of info, I was a bit nervous when I first met him. Talking in gentle tones with him, I offered him my hand and moved slowly around him. Any time I passed by him, I made sure to vocalize and make gentle contact. He never flinched at my touch, so I was excited. Lunar is an energetic senior horse. At dinnertime, she’s food driven and very sweet even while she nibbles on your hands looking for food. She’s also one of the loudest eaters I’ve ever seen and bangs around her food bucket with gusto. Gulliver is pretty low key and likes his pen which makes him very easy.

And then there’s beautiful Athena with her dark grey body and head that almost looks likes she’s had her hair and makeup done. Athena was found living alone on an interstate median where she’d been for a long time. Attempts were made to catch her which she thwarted. She was finally caught and taken to the MSPCA where she met Gulliver and they were brought to the sanctuary. Athena does not trust humans. This is always hard for me as I’d like to be best friends with every animal. So, while Athena dodged any attempts at getting close, I continued to pursue her with soft speech.

Yesterday was my first solo run. Nervous and excited, I walked into the Barn all set to go and lo and behold, there was 400 pound Waterford the awesome giant pig relaxing in the stall.

(A brief explanation on how the pens are set up since it’s a bit confusing. The horse pen is a large circle. The barn is in the middle of the circle and if you’re looking at it from inside, it has six sections: Gulliver’s stall, a section where the doors to the barn open (this is Athena’s makeshift stall), a section where all the food is kept, behind Gulliver’s stall is the hay pen, then Moonie’s stall which exits out to the back (no doors, just strips of plastic to keep the heat in so that he’s able to go in and out safely), and then Lunar’s stall. Go through Moonie’s area out the back and there’s a special pen for Moonie and Lunar. It’s set up with a rope around it so that Moonie can feel his way. Pretty cool! Waterford’s pen and teeny house is adjacent to the whole area and has a gate so that he can be let into the bigger pen during the day and has access to this part of the barn.)

So, was I surprised to find Waterford in “Athena’s” section of the barn as he’s usually back in his pen when I’ve arrived. I have to say that there certainly is a difference between petting a giant pig over a fence and having him right next to me. Especially when he started bumping into me and chomping on my backside! I went off to find Deb for assistance on getting him in. I walked slowly with him across the pen keeping an eye on him when he got behind me. Deb had also mentioned at some point something to the effect of “he can break all my bones in one fell swoop but he’s a wonderful animal” so I was being careful of the bone-breakage while shooting the breeze. He’s very chatty! After I located her, she needed to free herself up, so I went back to sit with him. I hung out on the top of the fence and he chewed on my foot. He’s super cute and wow is he a big animal with giant teeth!

After he was back in his pen, I worked my way through my chores in the barn. I was still getting the hang of things and since Moonie came in to eat with zero prodding (!!!), I fed him first. I probably should have fed Lunar first since she started galloping around inside the stall right next to Moonie (uh, NOT big enough!) but I managed to get her food to her and Moonie didn’t seem to notice so I’ve learned something for next time. I was still riding on the high that Moonie was completely comfortable with my voice! But even more exciting was Athena. When I went to put her food down, she was comfortable enough to bring her face to the bowl while my hand was still attached. No bob and weave out of the barn. No waiting for me to move. So exciting! Now, maybe if someday I can just pet her…

Since I can’t bring my big camera on my cleaning shift, I used my phone to capture a few images. One of these days, I’ll go in the middle of the day to photograph my lovely friends.

In my last blog post, I mentioned that an emu looks like it’s swallowing a cat while it’s sleeping. Ta da:

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These roosters hang out all over the place. I tried to get closer and he kept scooting further away. Mission!

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I went into the other barn for a bit yesterday where most of the goats live. Wow, do I love the goats. This one was a bit apprehensive of me. I went to pet her and she moved. I finally got a hand on her and started to give her a massage and then stopped. She sidled closer. I continued the massage and stopped again. Sidled closer. And now we’re friends!

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THIS is Waterford!!! Isn’t he spectacular???

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And THIS is Napoleon. In love! I was so excited to meet him and I happened upon him in a pathway. I figured I’d maybe get a pet or two but what happened instead was that right as I went to pet him, he immediately flopped over and demanded belly rubs and made super awesome grunting noises of joy while I did it. I love him!!!

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May 29, 2010 · 4:24 pm

Just point and click, right?

I am spending the weekend with multiple cameras in my hand since I am staying with two of my little buddies, Digger and Coco for a couple of days. I absolutely love these two. I have been walking them weekly for two years, so I have had lots of opportunities behind a camera with them. Although I’ve gotten a few photos that I love, I haven’t quite mastered Diggie.

Digger is an challenging photography subject because staying still isn’t in his vocabulary. He is in constant motion. He has more energy that any animal I can think of. One of his favorite things to do after you’ve thrown a toy and he’s fetched it, is to run straight at you and then veer off and run back and forth and back and forth, zooming past you as he’s good and ready to come back to you. Sure, other dogs do things like this, but not like him. He loves getting a toy in his mouth and then whipping his head around. Be careful if you’re near him though because he will hit you and hit you hard. He has bruised my shins and arms with a basketball (definitely bigger than his head…not a problem), a giant really hard stuffed fish, many rope toys, most recently the green loofa dog from the photo, the list continues. One time he shoved the smaller blue ball that’s in one of the shots underneath my legs on the stairs. No biggie right? I was wearing shorts and it was covered in dripping saliva. He’ll also hold onto a toy with the last breath in his little body. You can lift him off of the ground by his teeth, even swing him around and he WILL. NOT. LET. GO. So that sort of energy does not lend itself to sitting still for a photo. Even if he is sitting down, he’s STILL frantically chewing on a toy, which makes a still photo not so much. If dogs were candidates for Ritalin, he could certainly be the spokesdog.

In addition, he really dislikes the camera. It doesn’t matter which one I use (biggest one, big one, point and shoot, or blackberry), he knows what it is and acts accordingly. Lots of animals will turn their head away but they can usually be coaxed back. Not him. He’ll turn his head or even his body and that’s that. Last night he looked very cute sleeping, so I put the camera over him to snap a shot and before I even pressed the button, his eyes were WIDE OPEN. He just knows!

I adore the little maniac and I’m learning a lot from him. Part of the anxiety that comes with photography is missing the shot. With him, it happens almost every time. He’s teaching me to be craftier. To be faster. To take twenty shots because even if I missed the one I wanted, he might do it again, or something even better.

I have collected a couple of photos, actually all taken on my Blackberry, that I liked. I won’t actually know what I have on the D200 and D80 until I get home. Hopefully there will be some shots I really like. This picture of him was taken while scratching his head. He will calmly sit for scratches but the instant you stop, he’ll bolt. So, I pressed the button on the camera and kept scratching until the last second since the camera takes a bit, guessed when to remove my hand, and somehow I got the shot. Yes!

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Here’s an classic example of his response to cameras. I wanted to get a photo of him on the pillows so I took more than one to get it right. This is basically the photo I wanted:

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This is his response:

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Shh. Don’t tell him I took this:

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This last one is a video when I actually caught him on tape doing two of the things I absolutely love:

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Filed under dogs, humor, pet sitting, photography

May 10, 2010 · 4:45 pm

If not sadness, then what?

I finished watering my garden the other day and went about coiling up the hose. I glanced down and saw a leaf that resembled a fetus or newborn animal. Closer inspection revealed that unfortunately it was a new born bird who’d fallen from its nest. Directly above it was a hole in the side of our house that I’d seen a bird fly into a few days earlier. Devastated, I abandoned my project to attend to the bird. I picked up the tiny body, about two inches long, and placed it on a trowel so that I could look at it up close. Its perfectly formed little body had a tiny little beak and tiny wings that were beginning to sprout the downy feathers that would have covered its entire body during the upcoming weeks. It looked so peaceful, eyes closed, at rest. I was so sad for this little creature. I was just as sad for those it left behind.

I’d noticed one of the parents a few days before flying into the hole. I remember thinking that it was a great place for a nest. It was protected from the elements like the crazy wind that’s been wreaking havoc on our trees. It was hidden away from predators, as the cats in the neighborhood had no chance of getting near it. The mother had sat on her nest, laid an egg and tended to it with her mate close by, waiting to introduce it to the world. The egg hatched, revealing the tiny life.

Then

with the blink of an eye,

it was gone.

What did this mother bird do when she realized her baby had fallen out of her carefully thought out nest? Did she made a sound? Was it quiet? Loud? Drawn out? Did she sit next to her tiny baby? When did she finally accept defeat?

I often think about how animals experience emotion, more specifically how they mourn. We’re told not to attribute human emotions to animals; that they don’t “feel” like we do. Tell that to the dog that risked rush hour traffic to save its friend and dragged it by the collar through the on-coming cars. Or to the cat who tried to bring its mate back to life while people tried in vain to pull him off, viciously attacking their efforts. Or what about the mother in March of the Penguins who cried hysterically over her lost egg and went as far as to try, unsuccessfully, to steal another mother’s egg. Her wailing still haunts me. There are hundreds of examples that have been caught on film by both amateurs and professionals of animals experiencing loss. If not sadness, what are these animals feeling?

I have trouble watching these “mourning” clips that go viral, the Discovery Channel moments that tug at the heartstrings or make me flat out sob. I get sad when I see roadkill, thinking about how lonely the animal must have been during their last moments and who they left behind. These are the thoughts that fill the crevices and jump out at me when I’m feeling my most desolate. I know that animals are not people. That they do not have our cognitive thoughts or our opposable thumbs. But they certainly “feel”. Although anger is different than sadness, it’s still an emotion and to make my point I’m throwing it in here. I often observe my own cats in the throws of jealousy as they brood watching one of the others receives pets and attention. They might not be able to think, “I feel jealous”, but they’re experiencing something and they prove it by smacking the other cat as he saunters by them.

When it comes to loss, perhaps animals are better off not having to experience it exactly like humans do. I certainly wouldn’t wish my sadness on them. But the concept that people project their emotions on animals and that they have none of their own? I’m just not on board with that theory.

I carefully placed the tiny bird in my garden while I dug a hole. I laid it to rest and covered the mound of earth with my birdbath that the parents might visit. And although it probably won’t effect their grief, if they’re even experiencing any, at least it will help ease mine.

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May 2, 2010 · 7:17 pm

A Montage

I had so many clients in the last couple of weeks (YAY!) that I got a bit overwhelmed with the rest of my world like blogging. So, here are a few things that happened during that time at Pippin and Clementine’s (and The Budgies, of course).

I sat with Clementine on my knee at the kitchen table while he groomed himself happily and I noticed that Pippin had finished his peanut butter on rawhide (favorite!) and was kind of sadly sitting by himself. As he gazed forlornly in the distance, I picked up Clem and went into the living room and sat down next to him and gave him belly rubs. He was in belly rub heaven! He rolled around in bliss while Clementine eyeballed him. Pip’s head was near my feet where Clem was too and Pippin started sniffing him. Clementine puffed up his feathers, opened his mouth in a hiss and tried to fend off the affront. Pippin was so happy with the belly rubs that he licked Clementine on the face!!! Clementine did NOT know what to do with himself. He puffed out more, stomped back and forth and tried to shake the spit off of his face. I was hysterical! I thought it was one of the funniest, greatest things I’d ever witnessed. And what was even more interesting was that instead of running up my legs and hopping up my arm and onto my shoulder to the utmost safety point, he remained at my feet. He continued to stomp back and forth and if Pippin moved to quickly or came to close, he’d go into his stance, but he remained there, watching and waiting for his next move.

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I’d like to point out that yes, that is bird poop on my leg. One thing you get used to when working with birds is that they poop on you all the time. Ah, the hazards of working with these awesome little avian creatures.

Next up, one of the budgies is yellow and is one of the newer pair. The first pair was bonded and the second were just acquired at the same time. While his (or her) counterpart has adapted to the other two and fit right in with the bickering, the all yellow one tends to be a loner. I’ll often find him in Clementine’s cage during the day, hanging out and eating his food. I’ve never really seen him on top of the cage with the others, although I have had the unfortunate experience of trying to get him back in the cage once. He’s just as hard to get ahold of as the rest of them. So, again, I was sitting at the kitchen table while Clementine groomed himself on my knee. He likes to hop down from the table and take up residence, while he’s not busy flinging things off of the table, another favorite past time.

I looked over at the cages and it was nap time. Yes, they do nap and it’s really funny to watch them fall asleep because they do the same thing that a child does with the eyes open and slowly shut and OPEN and slowly shut and open and slowly shut and closed. Clementine falls asleep on me sometimes and I find it to be an outstanding experience that he trusts me enough to do it and super cute to watch up close. But back to yellow budgie. So he’s asleep and he’s upright, like most birds are, and he’s got budgies on all sides (one of whom is outside of the cage right across from him on a perch but is awake), and I notice that his two feet are gripped on the cage and that he’s not leaning up against anything and is practically hanging backwards, meaning that his body is heading toward prone, and he’s ASLEEP! I grab my camera and get closer and while his body doesn’t move from the position, he’s awake due to the click of the camera. So, here’s a few shots of him, the first closer to sleep, the second definitely not, and please keep in mind that he’s not touching the perch that you see behind him. Birds. Weirdos.

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A bit more on the budgies:

As I’ve mentioned, I have a somewhat tormented relationship with The Budgies. Last week, while Clementine showed continuous support with his unparalleled affection, I watched the budgies as I often do. They’d spent the evening alternating between pleasant chirps and flat out screams. They ran around and around the top of the cage disagreeing over who knows what. At one point, one of them sat in the snack plate, beat it’s wings and squawked at the one who’d pissed it off. Food and feathers flung themselves in the air and they continued their persistent struggle. Sometimes they just full on chased each other around yelling.Very complex little creatures.

It was time to leave and three out of four budgies were still bickering on top of the cage. Were I my client, I would have just grabbed them up in my hand and plopped them back in their cage. I am not she. I have gone as far as to seek out a step ladder to gain access to their level. It doesn’t help. Once I reach a hand in their direction, they dart off. Another attempt leads the budgie to deftly shoot down the side of the cage and then over out of the reach. No matter what angle I attempt, they are masters at knowing the best way to allude me. And all of it is accompanied by shouts of defiance. They’re like little protesters at a rally, shaking their fists at my giant hand, growing hoarse yelling slogans about oppression. And they are spectacular at it, winning every time. So, gone are the days where I flail around on my hands and knees trying to coax a rogue lost one out from below the giant wardrobe that acts as a pantry. I am done going back and forth and back and forth and BACK AND FORTH attempting to grab one. Now I just repeat the mantra and remember that they have a permanent door open on their cage and that even though there is a sheet blocking it at night, they know where their food is and happily the two shall meet.

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April 21, 2010 · 10:46 pm

Let me out right NOW!

Tonight, when I put Clemmy in his cage for the night, he did something I’ve never seen him do. He started pacing the bottom of his cage at top speed. Usually when I close the cage, he sits on one of the upper perches and pouts. Not tonight! I tried to capture him on film, but he has an uncanny way of knowing that I’m taking a photo or filming him. When I photograph him with my giant camera with its giant lens, it takes him a while to settle into it being in his face. In the blackberry video, he slowed down version and after I stopped, he sped right back up, but this still shows what he was doing. Oh, and that’s not Clementine making all that racket in the video, it’s the budgies.Those crazy birds are loud Loud LOUD!

And here’s a snapshot of Clem acting as little helper. When I arrived at the house, he was hiding on the ground and while I got Pippin’s dinner ready, he hopped on my foot, climbed up my leg, and settled on my dog waste bag dispenser and holder. I took three shots before I got one of his face. He’d look up at me while I was taking the shot and then turn his head away at the last second. What a (super cute) diva!

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April 18, 2010 · 1:02 pm

Birds are kinda my thing…

and yet, I had absolutely no idea a year ago.

When I walked into a new client’s house to meet her family’s collection of pets, along with two dogs and a snake (a new one for me), there were two bird cages. One had a couple of budgies in it (a small colorful semi-wild bird) and the other had a cockatiel named Clementine. The snake was pretty self-sufficient in the sense that all I had to do was give him fresh water, my client or one of her sons would handle feeding him before she left, so no big deal. But I was completely intimidated by the birds. What if one of them flew out of the window? What if I squashed one trying to grab it to get it back in the cage, something my new client did with amazing ease. Just grabs one up in her hand and puts it away. I promise you, the dances I do with the (now FOUR) budgies are comical and frustrating and they are about as big of fans of me as I am of them. Usually when I walk in the room, they start shouting in terror. Come to think of it though, that’s how they talk to each other as well. Always bickering. LOUDLY. As my client kindly put it after getting a note from me that said, “The budgies are out due to non-compliance on their part.”, “Don’t worry. They’ll get in. Or they’ll sleep on top of the cage. Whatever.” And then she decided that she wanted my note laminated. She’s a very laid back woman and I am a HUGE fan of hers.

But then there was little Clementine. Oh my darling. I had absolutely no idea that birds could be affectionate. I remember my aunt once telling me a story about the small birds she’d grown up with and how incredible they were and thinking, really? Now I understand this deep obsession. Clementine loves to sit on my shoulder and cluck in my ear and peck really lightly at me, giving little birdy kisses. He’ll sit on my finger and put his head down. This indicates that he’d like to be pet, please. Yes, pet. He moves his head all around your hand and shows you that he is in bliss. Another top habit of his is that when he hears you come into the house, he starts shouting at you and keeps it up until he sees you. He hops around in anticipation that you are going to hold him. If you go into another room and leave him, if the shouting doesn’t bring you in, he’ll fly into see you. And instead of flying all the way over to you, he’ll land on the ground and RUN the rest of the way!!! This is one of the greatest things I have EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! And then he hops on your legs and climbs up you. I cannot emphasize how surreal and awesome this is! So, Clementine has become the ambassador for birds with personalities for me.

Now, Clementine is very delicate. When he asks me to pet him, sometimes I get nervous that I might hurt him. When you pet the back of his neck and move the feathers around, they go really deep and I think his neck is very very small. I never hold him fully in my hand. I always let him climb on and off, sometimes with prodding as he always wants to stay on and never wants to go back in his cage.

We haven’t seen each other in a number of months and I came singing into the room on Friday night and he was quietly sitting in his cage. I leaned down and put my head close and said hello and he ran over to me and practically tried to squeeze his head through the bars. And he danced around and around. The next morning, when I had time to take him out, he was on my shoulder in a matter of seconds and when he first reached my head, he placed his forehead firmly against mine and just sat there for a minute. A bit later, I was on the ground giving Pippin, the now solo dog (r.i.p. Maddy-Love, I miss swimming with you), giant hugs. So while Pippin was licking my face with my arms wrapped around him, Clemmy was so excited to be around me that his face was 3 inches from Pippin’s and he didn’t even hiss at him! Today, he took a jaunt around the kitchen floor and when he was finished, he climbed up my leg, back to his perch. When I was leaving, I put him on the door of his cage and usually he’ll grumpily stay there as I leave. When I reached the kitchen door to close it, I realized that he was flying full speed at my face and he was about to become the cartoon wherein he smacks into the door, feathers fly around and stars circle his head. Catching him right before it, I promised him I’d be back soon. And although he’s pretty persistent and often threatens to do just that, he’s never actually attempted it. Major attachment on both sides.

Back to Noelle, my new feathered friend, when I got a call from her parents and they mentioned that they have a racing pigeon, I got really excited. A different kind of bird! And what a bird she is! She’s white with beautiful reddish spots. And she’s SOLID. Whereas Clementine is delicate, she is hefty. Where I stick one finger out for Clem to “step up”, I have to stick my hand out flat for Noelle. And where his pecks are not felt at all, she can pull off skin. She certainly has moments where I will attempt the “step up” (Step up is the phrase that Clem’s family uses to get him to “step up” onto their fingers.”), and she’ll start pecking at my hand and I’ve learned to abandon ship for the moment. She’s less confident about being on a hand. Clementine was hand raised at a pet shop so they spent a great deal of time socializing him and acclimating him to being held. While Noelle would have had physical contact with her racer, it might have been just business. (FYI, the reason they know that she used to race is that they found her in their garage and she was tagged.) So sometimes when she’s on my hand, she shakes like crazy. And where Clem is all about the head pets, he’ll bite you (his version, of course) if you pet him on the back. I’m working on petting more and more of his back and have been told by my client that I can get farther than they have been able to when she watched me one time. With Noelle, I can actually pick her up by her body and she doesn’t mind back pets at all. One thing I discovered in my first set of visits to the house was that if we sat out in the living room on the couch, when she got spooked and flew around the room that if I held my hand high in the air, that she’d land on me again. She will climb all over me a lot like Clementine will do. We’ve been having less interaction with Mai-Tai around which is bumming me out but I am thrilled that she is actually is out so it’s hard to get frustrated about it.

Both birds have strong personalities, but with Noelle’s size, she’s capable of bringing more to the table. Clem can talk the talk all he wants but when it comes down to it, he’s about 4 inches long not including his tail feathers. And he only has a couple of them. The other morning, when I was putting Noelle back in her cage, she decided that she was in fact, not going back in. So, she spread out her wings and made herself too big to fit through the substantial cage door. Then she’d jump back on me, then run down my back and stay just out of reach of my hands. Smart lady! We repeated this for about five minutes and she’d alternate between puffing herself out, pecking at me, and dodging me. I thought it was hilarious.

Her coup d’etat was when I cleaned her cage. I was so proud of myself because I used all sorts of folding techniques that would make the newspapers a more unified front. I came up with a cleaning schedule that would include the day of my client’s return so that they would see just what a power house I am in terms of organizational pet area cleaning. I was completely ready for my title of “awesome”. I went into the other room and had my encounter with Mai-Tai and returned twenty minutes later to put Noelle back in her cage. Twenty minutes later!

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Are you KIDDING me???

And there she was, in all her beauty on the top of the cage, going, “Yeah, I did it. What are YOU going to do about it?”
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Oh well. Cleaning dreams shattered. Now I just have to figure out a way of having Noelle in the room without Mai-Tai running for cover at the sound of her wings. I’m up for a good challenge though.

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