Blue Bird Tragedy & Chickadee Hope

So yesterday Sean and I went to do our weekly nesting box checks a bit late due to rain. We excitedly opened the first box to find the nest abandoned. Where did we go wrong??? So we pulled the nest out as instructed and photographed the evidence.


The empty nest box:

The empty blue bird nest:

A discarded blue bird egg, that looks like a baby bird failed to hatch from:


We suspect foul play and would love to know what happened. We hope the blue birds return and try again building a new nest in the box we just cleaned out.

Sadly, we trudged to the next box expecting nothing. But when we looked into the little hole, I spotted some animal down caught on a splinter. We opened up the box and were staring right at a momma chickadee. We glared at each other for a few moments before she took off in a huff and decided to give us what for from the safety of a nearby branch.


Leaving us to photograph her beautiful clutch of five eggs! Aren't they gorgeous? Our hopes soared after the blue bird tragedy. Maybe we will have baby chickadees!


Doesn't the nest look cozy and warm? It is constructed of moss, lichens, grass, and animal down. Each egg is about a centimeter long and too cute for words!

Our Bluebird Box Has Tenants!

I am so excited! I was walking home as usual and checked the bluebird boxes and guess what??? I saw a male bluebird fly out of one!!!!!! At least I thought it was a male bluebird, but these things need confirmation.

So, I went and got Sean, who brought his camera (the good one with the zoom lens). He stood outside patiently and waited to catch the female as she brought nesting material to and from the box. Isn't she gorgeous? This is confirmation that indeed, what I saw was a male bluebird, because this is a female bluebird. Her blue head and tail feathers combined with her ruddy chest and white abdomen are the telltale signs of what kind of bird she is.

I only put them up last Saturday! These birds wasted no time moving in. The box that is now occupied is the one that I am pictured holding the drill up to. We'll be watching them and reporting developments!!!

Deer Wandering Our Property

Just incredible! We live in a complete wilderness here! I just glanced out the window and noticed a deer wandering around our vehicles looking for something to eat. I ran for my camera, but could only take shots from inside the house because they startle so easily. It is not like where my sister lives [Westchester] where you can walk right up to them and they stare you down, due to overpopulation. You might have to enlarge the photos to see the deer.

I Put Up Blue Bird Boxes Today

Don't they look cozy? If you were a blue bird, wouldn't you just move right in? We were going to put up three, but we only had two poles. I was going to do it earlier this week, but I was too tired. The green thing that is larger than the metal pole is a predator guard. It is a plastic cylinder that hangs loose and rattles around when a predator tries to climb the pole. You can see that Spring has not sprung much here yet. We do have snow drops and some daffodils have broken ground, but not bloomed.

Here is more information on Installation of Blue Bird Boxes.

Winter View With Snow

What the fuck!?!? Where did all this white shit come from? Ugh! Anyhow, this is what our view looks like with 10 inches (25 cms) of the white stuff on it. The cove is not frozen, nor is my koi pond, as they thawed over the warm weekend. But this snow will probably stay, with temperatures predicted to remain below freezing for much of the week. Lovely, just lovely.

WE LOST BIG!

UPDATE:

I guess we got overconfident after the Town Hall Addition was defeated so resoundingly. We live in a very small town and about 1800 people voted. For all of the town's positions, the votes were about 1050 to 750 in our opponent's favor. We were all caught off guard by the loss.

This was our first time running a campaign and was our experiment in democracy and forming a party. We had a great time and I met lots of neat people who were very dedicated to making a change for the better in our town. We did get a third Selectman in. Now he has to sit there with the two incumbents and be in the minority. We have vowed to be there and support him. I am sure we will.

The fight continues to protect our town from going to hell in a handbasket. Unfortunately, the government stays the same, and now it will have the same first selectman for 20 some odd years, or grows in incestuousness. We just heard that a new position has been formed for the sister of the second selectman who has just been elected to serve for his 18th year.

The people of our small town are just not ready for change. To a large extent they continue to be uninformed of the issues and satisfied with the status quo. They will stay with a government that has given them one of the 5 the lowest credit rated of all the towns in the state, a Planning & Zoning Commission that has broken the law on the gas station proposal, proposed a $3 MM addition to Town Hall that was rejected, a $3.7 MM addition to the firehouse that will come up for a vote in November, is currently building a huge ugly Walgreens on Main Street, proposed a horse crematorium, has approved a large 200 per day ton rollover waste facility for construction garbage from all over the state (soon to be increased to 5oo tons), and our major money earner is a sewage treatment plant that processes sewage from other towns. Frankly, our quaint little berg earns its money from taking garbage and sewage from all over the state.


We sought to find a better way for our town, but not enough people heard us. We fought the good fight. Maybe this explains the problem with the USA today. Not enough people are informed of the issues. Apathy rules the day. George Bush is President for two terms. I think I understand now how he won.

Back to the hot guys.

A Big Day for the Campaign

We had a tremendous win on the campaign trail today: a proposed addition to Town Hall that would have cost nearly $3 million was defeated by a vote of 308 to 646!

That is me standing in front of my Jeep that I plastered signs on saying "Avoid tax increase VOTE NO on TOWN HALL". My Jeep was parked in front of Town Hall last Sunday. What a commotion it caused! The first selectman showed up around 10:00 am to photograph it and I ran down there. Sean followed me to make sure I wasn't making a scene. Moi? Make a scene? Then the architect walked in, followed by the town clerk and right behind her was the cleaning lady. (The cleaning lady???) So, I told Sean that I was going in there to take a pee and see what was going on.

So I went in and there was no one in sight. So, I did my business and when I came out the town clerk was standing there with the cleaning lady. I told them that as a citizen I was exercising my constitutional right to free speech using my Jeep and if there was any problem with it, I was right here and just let me know. The clerk said that if this was part of the campaign, I needed to say who purchased the signs. I indicated that I got the signs for free (which I did) and that they were not part of the campaign. (Actually, I had to go rogue to do this because the campaign did not think this was a good idea. They thought it was too risky. Fools!) Then the cleaning lady (!?!) said that my Jeep had been out there for 3 hours and I was going to get a ticket because the signs were for 2 hour parking only. I pointed out that I was not parked in between the signs. She countered with, then you are parked illegally. I said, well it is not posted, but I will move my car. So I went outside and backed my Jeep in between the signs. From then on, I moved it every hour.

Also, we had teams at the town dump handing out cards with bullet points on why not to vote for the Town Hall addition.

Then Tuesday, I parked it at our polling place, the library. Everything was fine until Sean went down to check on it at 5:00 pm and called me to say that someone had ripped off the signs. I ran down there with the one extra sign I had and we filed a police report immediately on the stolen ones. Then we both stayed there until 7:00 pm and he stayed on until the polls closed at 8:00 pm and called us with the results.

This result bodes very well for our campaign overall. The people have spoken and they want no new taxes. This is what we have been saying all along. If all the incumbents can muster is 300 votes, they are in big trouble come November 6th. There is still lots of work to be done before then. But, the future of our town looks far brighter than it did this morning.

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 7, Down to 3 & Close to a Choice

So here are the final 3 puppies being considered (click on any image to enlarge):


In the photo above, The puppies can hear their food being prepared and run to see. The puppy on the far left, formerly known as White Head, has been renamed Winston by the breeders. This is because he reminds them of Winston Churchill. He is one of the finalists. The next mostly white puppy to his right is 4 Spot who is also a finalist. The large puppy to his right is Black Head and is the biggest pup in the litter and also a finalist. However, now that they are older, the temperaments are beginning to be noticeable. Black Head, as the largest pup, is also the most dominant and aggressive in the litter, Winston is the most loving, and 4 Spot is the most timid.


In the photo above, the three finalists can be seen playing with other litter mates. In a recent email to the breeders, Mom has said:

...but Winston (the white guy) is growing on me. My daughters prefer him, hands down. While any of the three we discussed would make me happy, I am leaning to the dog you say has the best personality rather than the one I fear may be too reserved for me (4-spot, gorgeous as he is) or the biggest bruiser, whose name escapes me. (The feistiest one. He might be a handful.) What I like about Winston is that you can easily see his eyes and his expression. Whether or not he gets "eyeliner" around his eyes is insignificant to me.

Anyhow, there's lots of time for you to think it over and do what's best for all of us potential mommies.

In the photo above, Winston is happily playing by himself and Black Head is harassing one of his litter mates. Of course, Evie and I just want what is best for mom. We think that a loving dog that welcomes people to her house would be perfect and easy for her to handle.


Above is a close up of Winston. Mom will get what ever dog on June 23rd. She will rename him Vasco as planned. Then she will be flocked with visitors coming to see her new puppy. When all of that dies down, I will go and visit her for a few days to see the puppy and visit with her friends some of which I have known for my entire life. It should really be lots of fun, and I am really looking forward to it. I promise to blog all about it.

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 6, The Puppies Grow Up

The breeders have sent us new photos showing that the pups are growing up! Above you can see that they are now eating! Yes, they have begun being weaned from their exhausted mom. Though sometimes they end up wearing their food.


The pups are beginning to interact with humans. That is important, because that is why they cannot be assessed by the Volhard test earlier. Also, their eyes are open all of the time now. In the two photos below, the pups are with the breeders.


The puppies are far more active now during playtime. As you can see:


Portuguese Water "Dish" Dogs?

A group shot during nap time. What a pile of puppies!

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 5, Mom Visits the Pups!

Just a quick post to update you on the puppy situation. I spoke with my Mom yesterday and she was really excited that she was going to get to see the puppies for the first time Monday night. Here is her email report:

I saw the puppies today, held 4 Spot, think he's designated to be mine, assuming his temperament is suitable. We didn't take pictures since their eyes have been open for such a short time, we didn't want to subject them to discomfort. I should get my puppy on June 22 or 23, when school is over.

I emailed back that she failed in that she didn’t take any photos. But here is an old one of 4 spot to remind you of which one he is.

He sure is cute, isn’t he?

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 4, The Final Four

Here are the four puppies that Mom will have to choose from in close up photos at 11 days old. All are males and predominately white.

Puppy no.1. - Black head

Puppy no. 2. - White head

Puppy no. 3. - Spot

Puppy no. 4. - Ears

See close ups of all of the puppies here.

Isn't it just so exciting!!! Aren't they the cutest little baby puppies???

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 3, Good Puppy, Bad Puppy!

Of course Mom wants a gentle and loving puppy that is good with company. Ideally, when company arrives, the dog will come to the door to greet them with licks and good behavior, not by jumping up on them or shyly running away to another room. One way to assure desired behavior is to find a breeder that uses the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test. Mom’s breeder does! So what is it and how does it work and how old does the puppy have to be for the test to be administered?

The test scores social attraction, restraint, following, social dominance, elevation dominance, retrieving, touch, sound and sight sensitivity, stability and structure. Behavior scores range from 1, which is very aggressive, to 6, which is extremely submissive. Here are some sample questions.

SOCIAL ATTRACTION

TEST: Place puppy in test area about four feet from the tester. Tester kneels, leans backwards and coaxes the pup to her/him by clapping hands gently.

PURPOSE: Degree of social attraction to people, confidence, or dependence. Pack Drive.

SCORE:

1. Came readily, tail up, jumped, bit at hands.

2. Came readily, tail up, pawed, licked at hands.

3. Came readily, tail up.

4. Came hesitantly, tail up.

5. Came hesitantly, tail down.

6. Didn’t come at all.

When my husband and I went to look at German Shepherd Dog puppies, the whole litter of 12 ran to us. Three of them ran up to him and attacked his hands, biting them ferociously. He was like, “Wow! I want a bitey one!” One puppy came to me calmly and sat down next to me. She licked my hand tentatively and that’s the one we got. Layla is a really great dog.

FOLLOWING

TEST: The tester stands up and slowly walks away encouraging the puppy to follow. Make sure the pup sees you walk away. Coax puppy to follow by talking to it and attracting its attention.

PURPOSE: Willingness to follow a person. Pack Drive.

SCORE:

1. Followed readily, tail up, got underfoot, bit at feet.

2. Followed readily, tail up, got underfoot.

3. Followed readily, tail up.

4. Followed readily, tail down.

5. Followed hesitantly, tail down.

6. Did not follow or went away.

RESTRAINT

TEST: The tester crouches down and gently rolls the pup on its back and holds it down with light pressure with one hand for 30 seconds.

PURPOSE: Degree of dominance or submissive tendency, and ease of handling in difficult situations. Fight or Flight Drive.

SCORE:

1. Struggled fiercely, flailed, bit.

2. Struggled fiercely, flailed.

3. Settled, struggled, settled with some eye contact.

4. Struggled then settled.

5. No struggle, no eye contact.

6. No struggle, straining to avoid eye contact.

SOCIAL DOMINANCE

TEST: Puppy sits or stands on crouching tester's left side and tester gently strokes it from the head to back. Continue stroking until a recognizable behavior is established.

PURPOSE: Degree of acceptance of social dominance by a person. Pack Drive.

SCORE:

1. Jumped, pawed, bit growled.

2. Jumped, pawed.

3. Cuddled up to tested and tried to lick face.

4. Squirmed, licked at hands.

5. Rolled over, licked at hands.

6. Went away and stayed away.

ELEVATION DOMINANCE

TEST: The tester cradles the pup under its chest, with both hands, fingers interlaced, palms up and gently lifts it two feet off the ground, and holds it there for 30 seconds.

PURPOSE: Degree of accepting dominance while in position of no control. Fight or Flight Drive.

SCORE:

1. Struggled fiercely, tried to bite.

2. Struggled fiercely.

3. Struggled, settled, struggled, settled.

4. No struggle, relaxed.

5. No struggle, body stiff.

6. No struggle, froze.

Any adult dog should be okay with this kind of handling.

RETRIEVING

TEST: The tester crouches beside the pup and attracts its attention with a crumpled up piece of paper. When the pup shows some interest, the tester tosses the paper no more than four feet in front of the pup, encouraging it to retrieve the paper.

PURPOSE: Degree of willingness to do something for you. Together with social attraction and following, a key indicator for ease or difficulty in training. Prey Drive.

SCORE:

1. Chased object, picked it up and ran away.
2. Chased object, stood over it, did not return.
3. Chased object, picked it up and returned with it to tester.
4. Chased object and returned without it to tester.
5. Started to chase object, lost interest.
6. Did not chase object.

This test gets very interesting because it can be expanded to test for police work and other uses. By the way, both of our shepherd dogs score very well on the police dog tests, especially our Malinois mix. I am going to not cover the rest of the Volhard test, because I think you’ve got the gist of it. But for those of you that are interested; you can go to the link to read it.

So Mom doesn’t want to visit her puppy until the breeder has decided on one with the right temperament for her. When will that be, you might ask? The Volhard test can be given at 6 weeks and up. Six weeks is a long time for me her to wait.

By the way, she has decided to name the puppy Vasco, after Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer who re-established a sailing route to India. Isn’t that a great name?

A Puppy for Mommy - Part 2, The Birth

Mommy's puppy has been born! It happened this past Saturday, April 28. The litter had 12, you heard right, 12 puppies. Four of those were the kind my Mom wanted; black with white, male with wavy instead of curly coats. Here is the photo:


I wonder which one my Mom will end up cuddling with? Here is the proud mother suckling her brood:



Aren't they tiny compared to their mom? This was an email from the breeder that my Mom got:

Hi again, I may take you up on your offer eventually. This is how it is in the beginning. Constant rotation of puppies to nurse. Feeding mom all the time and about 8 -10 loads of wash a day to handle all the towels and rug mats that are in the two puppy warming boxes and the whelping box.

My knees are so raw that one actually has blistered and both are swollen.

Are we having fun yet. Either Joe or I are in with the litter to be sure that mom doesn't sit on any that are in with her. They are between 8 and 12 oz she is 45 lbs.

Oh then there is the part that I've been up since the start of labor on Wednesday. napping on an air mattress beside the whelping box. So I haven't actually slept since Tuesday. On Friday Joe got lots of Chinese Food Take Out so we could keep picking without much thought involved. The Restaurant gave us 14 fortune cookies Probably though we were having a huge party!

I must have forgotten something. It's quite humorous . In the end we hope to produce healthy stimulated happy pups.

Will send pictures. They look like mice.

A Puppy for Mommy

Euphemism ahead: God decided that Mom had her sweet dog long enough (14 years) and decided to take him to dog heaven.

Reality: Mom’s old mutt had a stroke and she took him to the vet to have him put down. She was too upset to watch and called me in tears.

Okay. Moving on. So Mom needs a new dog. She is interested in a Portuguese Water Dog (PWD) for the following reasons: they don’t shed, they are a good size (about 40 pounds or 18 kilograms), are highly intelligent and high energy. They are usually black or chocolate with small patches of white acceptable on curly or wavy coats.

A Champion Portuguese Water Dog

So, like a good daughter, I did a Google search and low and behold, there is a breeder who lives really close to me. Who’d a thunk it? So I arrange a visit for my Mom.

So Sean and I go out to dinner at our favorite Italian place and it turns out that the owner imports and breeds Lagotto Romagnolos. The Lagotto was bred from the PWD, but to search for truffles. So it is a smaller dog, only about 30 pounds or 15 kilograms and has a milder temperament. The coats are curly, and more colors are acceptable, but the dog should not be black.

She came up for her visit to look at dogs and we spent the entire afternoon looking at them. The PWD breeder had a two litters of puppies that were spoken for. The litter pictured below is a different one than the ones we saw but gives you an idea of what they look like and how puppies look as they mature.

Then we looked at the restaurant owner's two Lagottos with brown markings (see below). The brown was the male and the brown head with the white body was the pregnant bitch. She was so sweet, I just wanted to sweep her off her feet and take her home.

Here are photos of other Lagottos that live in the US and Italy:

So, in the end, Mom decided that she wants a PWD and has arranged with a breeder near her to get a puppy from a large litter that is expected soon out of this bitch.

If it were me, I would get a Lagotto because they are so sweet and way cuter. But it is not me. Good luck Mom!