A Miracle for BunnyBoy

Bless the LORD!!! God is so good to me.
Sunday morning I found my rabbit "BunnyBoy" on the floor, stretched out and listless. I picked him up and he was in and out of consciousness and his breathing was raspy. His eyes were rolling back and very glassy. I thought maybe he had pneumonia.
I was so upset!! I just love BunnyBoy. I started praying right away, taking him to the kitchen (which is like a critter ER at my house) and fixed some warm water with sugar and salt, and put it in the little feeding bottle I have on hand  just in case there is a critter who needs feeding by bottle.
As I gave him the water, most of which ran back out of his mouth, I remembered that a friend had given me a bottle of liquid antibiotic which she had gotten for her cat. Her cat had died before she could use the drug and she knows that I have a lot of critters and figured I could use it.
So I gave BunnyBoy a dose with the supplied syringe, way to the back of his mouth. I carried him around for the next few hours, giving him the water mixture every 20 minutes.
When I had to go to work later, I put him in a box on a white towel. 
When I got home from work, I picked him up and could see that he had peed bloody urine on the white towel. I figured he probably had a urinary tract infection, so it was good to give him the antibiotic.
I gave him a dose every 12 hours and today (Wednesday) he is back to his bouncy-bunny-self.
I consider it a miracle that I had that antibiotic on hand. Bless the LORD!!!

Pegleg

I have three varieties of chickens: Rhode Island Red, Black Australorp, and the feisty little White Leghorn.
The Reds are very mellow and friendly. They don't run away when approached. The Blacks are big beautiful birds who are a bit skittish in a healthy sort of way. But then we have those awful, independent-minded White Leghorns! I have never met a more annoying bird in my life.
They love to jump the fence and venture out to greener pastures, even if it is actually the neighbor's flowerbed. It is not a wise thing to do.
Six or seven of my 25 Whites regularly jumped the fence. Gradually this number decreased as some didn't return home in the evening. After a season, there was only one fence-jumper left. She would stay pretty close to the fence, but on the outside, and she always jumped back over when I dished out the evening meal.
One evening a few weeks ago, she was outside the fence trying and trying to leap back in the yard to get her share of the feed. I noticed she was standing on one foot and she just couldn't get that high in the air to make it over the six-foot wire fence. I went around to check her out.
All of the Whites are very difficult to pick up. They run as though being chased by a fox even though I have had them since they were 2 days old and have never mistreated them. There were too many of them to pick up and handle each one every day so they just never got used to being picked up.
After a lot of chasing and cornering, I was finally able to pick up the limping bird. I inspected her leg and it was obvious that it was broken and there was a small cut at the break.
I took her into the house and put iodine on the cut. When the iodine dried, I coated the wound with antiseptic "New Skin" which is like a clear nail polish. It seals out dirt and germs. I made a splint using a plastic Q-tip and some clear, heavy-duty packing tape. Looked good.
Then I set up a folding fence in the living room (thank God I have vinyl flooring) and made a little coral for her. After putting down newspaper and food and water, I set her in the pen.
She held the broken leg up against her body and hopped around on one foot. She had a very good appetite and ate her fill and then settled down to sleep.
After a couple of days she began to use the broken leg for balance when she was eating. But she was still hopping on one foot when she moved around. I began calling her Pegleg.
One morning when I came into the living room, Pegleg was sitting on the top of the folding fence. I said, "Come on, Pegleg. I guess you are ready to go back outside." I put her out and watched to make sure that she would be okay.
Chickens, as a rule, don't take to signs of weakness among their own kind and will pick at any sick or weak one. One of Pegleg's siblings tried this with her and she immediately defended herself and the attacker backed off. I knew she would be able to hold her own.
When evening came and it was time to close the doors on the coops, I saw poor little Pegleg was on the floor, unable to make the jump up to the roost. I took her into the house for the night, set up the pen and gave her a special meal to help her regain her strength.
I put her out in the morning, and that evening Pegleg was again on the floor of the coop. "Back to the house, Pegleg."
This was repeated until five days later when I saw she was up on the roost with the other girls.
Pegleg is still wearing her splint and has a pronounced limp. I am going to leave the splint on her for a while longer. She needs the support on her bone, especially since she has gone back to jumping the fence again.

A link to a story about justice.... you'll have to copy and paste...

http://bit.ly/aN8tNx

Not a Happy Day

I am so unhappy today. My 16 year old dog Noah is very ill and weak.
I hate the thought of losing him.
I raised him from a puppy.
I had seen an ad in the local paper for free puppies and went to see what they had. There were 6 puppies all running around in a fenced-in back yard. They were all playing and dashing about.
I thought, The first one that comes to me will be the one I take home. At that moment one of the pups ran straight to me and I picked him up.
So he chose me for a "mom" and I have never been sorry.
He has been a great dog. He is the gentlest dog I have ever seen in my life. There has never been any agressive behavior from Noah. He does not like to hear an angry voice and would quickly walk away from it.
Noah instantly loves everyone he meets and pushes his head under your hand so you will know he wants you to pet his head.
The only strange behavior he ever exhibited is paper-eating. That dog would pull kleenex out of a box, one at a time, until he had eaten as many as he wanted. I sometimes give him a few as a treat. My other dog just gives me an odd look when I offer him a tissue so he will know what Noah is getting.
He has always been the happiest of dogs, easy to please. A quick swim at a local pond or a simple stroll aound our yard always brightened his eyes.
Now he is just laying there on the floor, waking occasionally, lifting his head and looking around until he spots me. Then he puts his head back down. "I'm right here, puppy," I say to him.
My heart is breaking...

YAY!! Honey and Sweety did it again!

We have 2 new baby cockatiels!
Honey and Sweety (the parents) and Mohawk (the big brother) all pitched in on sitting on the eggs. There was always at least one of the 3 in the nest sitting on the eggs, sometimes 2 of them.
Mohawk is the first offspring of Honey and Sweety. I was really surprized the first time I saw him on the eggs. The whole thing was a family affair.
The new babies are fat and healthy. With all 3 adults doing food runs, the babies get plenty to eat. They hatched a few days ago, but today was the first time I picked the up. They are so cute!
There are still quite a few unhatched eggs so there may be more coming....

Bill and Bella the Ducks

I don't know how to write about this.

My heart is broken.

I will start at the beginning.

One day my friends Angie and David asked me if I would be willing to take in two ducks which they had taken from a man who was neglecting them. I said sure, bring them.

The ducks arrived at my house very early the next morning. They were in a small cage which I carried into my bird room.

I got a larger cage from my back room and put newspaper in it. Then I went outside and took a few flakes off a bale of hay and spread the hay out on top of the newspaper in the cage.

After I had put out food and water near the cage, I carried the small cage with the ducks in it very near the larger cage. I opened the gate on the small cage and lined up the openings on both cages so that the ducks would go right into the large cage when they left the small one.

Once they were in the bigger cage, I moved the smaller one away. This way they would know it was okay to be in the big cage. And because the gate was open the could come out if they wanted .

They did venture out soon enough and discovered the food and water. They had a feast and then returned to the cage. They seemed to like shuffling their bills in the hay. After a short time they returned to the food and water.

Ducks are very vocal and the whole time all of this was going on, they were quacking and quacking. The female was the louder of the two. I just sat on one of the plastic seed bins and watched them.

They began to try to toss water from the water bowl onto their backs. Hmmm....

I went to the bathroom and ran the cold water into the tub and let it get a few inches high. Then I went back to the bird room and caught the female (and I did have to chase her around a bit) and carried her to the bathroom. The male followed us. QUACK QUACK QUACK the whole while from both of them. I put her in the tub and scooped him in with her. How much they loved that was so evident. I have pictures. They had not had a bath in a very long time. I had thought they were dark brown ducks but now there was white showing on the female. I had to drain the water while they were still in the tub and run some more clean water. The photos are from the second fill.

When they decided they were done, they climbed out and I kind of herded them back to the bird room.

There was a lot of wing-flapping and shaking of feather and water was everywhere. When the male spread his wings I noticed that one of them didn't go up very far. He wasn't acting like it hurt so I assumed it wasn't a fresh injury, but I felt bad for him, imagining what life must have been like for him. Birds do like to use their wings...

I left the ducks to groom their feathers and when I checked on them later they were napping in the cage. Well they were napping until they heard me. QUACK QUACK QUACK QUACK until I left the room. I don't think they were too fond or trusting of humans.

I decided that the ducks should have names and I emailed a bunch of people asking for suggestions. I got some nice responses, but decided to go with the names suggested by my friend Raff: Bill and Bella.

The second day I ran water into the tub for Bill and Bella, as they were to be named later. I went in and caught Bella again and carried her to the tub with Bill following. I had to give him a boost in. The outside of the tub is straight up so he could not jump in. The inside is sloped and not as high so it allows them both to jump out when they want.

I left them to splash around.

After a while they came quacking out of the bathroom and headed for the birdroom on their own.

The third day when I ran the tub for them and opened the door to the birdroom they both came right out and headed for the tub on their own. I had to lift the eager bathers into the tub.

I discovered that anything you got the ducks to do twice, they would cooperate the third time. Whatever new routine I devised, they would be right with the program on the third day. My one-eyed duck, Henry, was the same way. Actually, now that I think about it, my chickens have a two to three day training period also.

I NEED TO BREAK IN HERE...
I started writing this post over a month ago and I couldn't write further because it makes me too sad. Let me just blurt out what happened...

I had to find a new mate for Bella... His name is Beanie Baby and I got him from the Animal Rescue League. He is a spunky little booger and Bella likes him just fine. He is totally enamoured of her....

Yes, well, Bill was killed by a hawk. Bella made mournful, pleading quacks all of her waking hours until I presented her with her new companion 3 days later.

I love Beanie Baby too. He's got a great spirit. I was told he is under-sized because of the "competition for food" where he was, but he makes up for it with boldness.

I hope he and Bella have a very long life together.

My dog is smarter than most

Out in my back yard it was pitch dark... no moon... so I had turned on both outdoor lights before coming out to lock up the chicken coops.
The one light covered the area around the door, the other light covered the area around the chicken coops. This left an area in between which was in total darkness.
I was walking fast, as usual, when suddenly my foot hit something in my path and down I went. Somehow a piece of wood had ended up across the path and I couldn't see it because that was the part of the path which the lights didn't cover.
I got up... no injuries... thank God for my strong bones.

My two dogs and I have a nightly routine.
The coops are in a part of the yard which is closed off to my dogs during the day by a wire fence. When the chickens are in for the night, I open up this part of the yard for the dogs.
Noah, the 16 year old shepherd-collie-chow, likes to go to the far side of the yard and sniff and pee all over, marking his territory.
Chipper, the 6 year old black lab-rottweiler prefers to run in and out of the coops, one after the other, before I can close the doors.
First he goes into the smaller one where the Rhode Island Reds and the 2 ducks sleep, and when I reach it, he runs out and goes to the other coop which is occupied by the White Leghorns and Black Ausralorpes. It's the same every night, unless something is amiss.
When Chipper came out of the first coop, he didn't head over to the second. Instead he went back out the gate to the dark part of the yard. I decided to go see what had his attention and walked in that direction.
But he promptly came back to me and stood in front of me. Then he dropped something on the ground. It was shiny. It was not the toy he had had in his mouth moments before. He just stood there looking at me, wagging his tail.
I bent down and picked up the shiny thing only to discover that it was my cell phone!
It must have fallen out of my pocket when I tripped in the dark.
After I picked up my phone, Chipper returned to the dark part of the path, retrieved his toy, and ran into the second coop, business as usual.
I locked the coop and proceeded to praise Chippy for giving me the phone. This seemed to make him very happy.

I can tell you that there is no way I would have seen that phone out there and I probably would not even have noticed it was missing until it was time for bed because that is when I put it on the charger. And even then, I wonder if I would have thought about the possibility that it could have come out of my pocket during my fall. Probably not. I probably would have been tearing the house apart looking for it.

Chippy the wonder dog picked it up and brought it right to me and I am truly amazed, even though I already knew that he is smarter than most dogs.