Category Archives: Pets

I blogged recently about my female parakeet Moonpie passing away leaving her male mate Ginger alone. (Goodbye Moonpie. We will miss you very much.)

I mentioned at the time that Ginger was in a cage with three single female parakeets, and one of them would probably make a move on him soon. I was right. Shelly has made a move on him.

Shelly’s mate Pipsqueak, a lovebird, died last year this month. (Goodbye Pipsqueak. We will miss you very much…) Shelly is on the left below, with her lost love, Pipsqueak:

Shelly is being very sneaky! Shelly has been sitting on the floor in the corner of the cage. She is pretending she is sitting on eggs! She is trying to trick Ginger into coming to her and feed her (mouth to mouth) as male birds do when their mate is busy tending eggs or babies.

Apparently, Ginger is falling for the Shelly’s ploy. I’ve seen Ginger sitting face to face with Shelly on the floor.

This is making the other females in this cage upset, and there has been some loud squabbling …

I previously had to put another couple, Beady and Gumby, in another cage just by themselves. Shelly wanted Beady very badly, and was squabbling with Gumby over him.

You would not think that cute little parakeets could squabble over mates. But, they are hardwired by God to mate for life. When a mate dies, they want to find another mate to fill the void.

Human widows and widowers often marry shortly after a spouse dies, so it is hard to fault a little parakeet to want to find love again, also…

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As always, when one of my pets dies, I write a tribute as therapy…

Moonpie, in the picture on the left below, was the loving mate of Ginger, one of the crippled baby parakeets I adopted. Moonpie and Ginger were the sweetest couple. Ginger had a very bad case of splay leg, a condition where parrot-type birds’ legs do the splits permanently.

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I share a fence with a neighbor and this fence is starting to lean over really far. The weight of all the snow we have had lately has pushed on it more and more with each storm.

There is no snow on the ground right now, so it would be a good time to fix it. (It snowed yesterday, but it did not stay on the ground)

I’m expecting a fence contractor any minute. I’m hoping that a couple of posts can be replaced and the panels can remain. A new fence is NOT in our budget right now.

This fence keeps our dogs safe in our yards. The frustrating thing is that I’m sure that my neighbor will not want to share the cost of repair even though we share the fence.

My neighbors don’t care if their dogs get out, as I ranted in another post recently:

• My irresponsible neighbor and her lost little bitty doggie…

But, fixing this fence is a major concern for me as a big time animal lover. My dogs getting out would be a major catastrophe.

Since I never got around to being having children, my God-given maternal instinct only gets used on my pets. Keeping my pets safe is very important to me. ….

Oh, well. You gotta do what you gotta do.

I had this fence built several years ago before those neighbors moved in. I had other irresponsible pet owner neighbors before them. I had to pay the whole cost of construction last time even though they got half the benefit.

The previous neighbors also had dogs but did not love them enough to take care of them. The would get a puppy, play with it until it grew up. Then, give it away and get another puppy till it grew up. They also took their cat to the pound because it had fleas.

Pets were replaceable to them. It was not worth it to have a fence to keep them in their yard. Ooh. I just can’t understand people like that.

Grrr.

Edited to add:

The fence guy just left. We are getting our fence fixed tomorrow – ugly but cheap – for $400. We are getting new posts put in a foot away from the broken posts. It’s a lot cheaper if they don’t have to dig up the old posts. Plus, the panels don’t have to come down. That’s great, because now we don’t have to “coordinate” with the neighbors to keep their dog (the other is still lost) in the house during construction.

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UPDATE: Next morning:

OK. Now I’m mad. The fence contractor guy who came out and gave us a bid on our fence got fired from the company he worked for. I just called to see when he was coming out, and they said he was fired. I have a feeling that good old Larry was working under the table. He said we could have a discount if we paid cash for our fence repair. In retrospect, that sounds pretty shady. I’ve been really stressed about the fence falling down and not having the money to fix it. It did not register at the time that good old Larry might not be on the up and up. Dang. X

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UPDATE: The morning after that:

I talked to the owner of the fence company yesterday. He came out and gave us a legitimate estimate of the work. But, surprise surprise, he decided to honor the price Larry had given us! Apparently he’s happy we let him know what had happened instead of going with Larry. I was willing to pay a couple of hundred dollars more just to make this right, but we get to pay the low amount after all! Thanks, fence company owner guy! The crew will be here to make the repairs sometime “mid-morning”, and then my doggies will be secure in a safe yard. 

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I do not know how Rufus knows I am trying to record him. He talks a lot, and responds to things I say. We play “Marco Polo”, he says his name when I ask him, he whines like a puppy when I ask him, etc, etc, etc. But,  I can never get a video of him talking. The second I hold up the camera, he stops talking.

Also, he will dance up a storm, also until he sees the camera. Who ever heard of a bird who is camera shy? Well, Rufus is camera shy.

My African grey parrot, Rufus, dancing to rock and roll – until he sees the camera:

Rufus loves hanging out on his “Boing Boing”. When he dances, he really boings up and down, and makes his bell ding a lot. Rufus loves doing it, right up until we point the camera at him…. How does he know?

That is my hubby encouraging Rufus to keep dancing. Rufus is usually a ham and loves to entertain us and make us laugh — unless we are trying to record him. Then he gives us the Evil Eye, as shown in the video.

Silly bird.

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I am irked.

Yesterday, my hubby and I saw a little bitty Yorkie with a little bitty white jacket out loose. I squatted down to try to coax the doggie to me, but she turned around and ran all the way down the street lickity split.

My hubby ran to their house to tell them their doggie was out. I headed of down the street on foot (the adrenalin was replacing my need for my oxygen, good thing because I totally forgot my oxygen). When they caught up to me in her car, my neighbor said:

“I think I know where she went. She always goes the same place when she gets out.”

WHAT????

“She always goes the same place when she gets out.”???

I did not say anything to her, but that really bugged me…

I have had a dog get out once in my life, and I have taken the proper steps to make sure that never happened again. My dogs are never outside without a leash and we keep the backyard fence in good repair.

The doggie ran off right before dark last night, and she was not where my neighbor thought she was going to be.

This morning it is sleeting. It’s really cold, and really wet. I just hope the little bitty doggie was able to find her way home during the night.

I get so bugged when people do not take care of their dogs. I just can’t relate to somebody who lets this teensy weensy doggie get out time after time after time.

Grr.

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Edited to add: I just talked to my neighbor. They have not found the dog. It is 11:00AM and it is 34 degrees. That is just above freezing, and it is snowing, and it is going to keep snowing or sleeting all day.

This is yet another opportunity for me to practice not worrying. (If interested, see my “Do Not Worry” blog)

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