and the world feels good today....

... there is something so basic about spending close-contact time with the dude, apart from his undisputed skill at it. It's weird, but afterwards I can really go out and slay dragons, and still drag them home, skin them and cook them for supper as well.

Today was one of those days for me - picked him up early, brought him home, had an amazing morning, and then we went shopping for camouflage shorts for him. He needs a new pair, and while they can be seen all over town on people, we can't seem to find any to buy. I said to him that I would even do the girlie thing and rush up to men and ask them where they bought their shorts, and he said that guys do that too. After a few more unsuccessful forays into clothes shops, I amended that a bit. Now I'm planning on rushing up to men wearing nice versions and asking them what size their shorts are, and if they are the size the dude takes, I'll draw my gun and make them strip off before running away at full speed...

Otherwise, bird-season still in full swing. Keep taking them to the centre, and keep getting more in. Today's sweetheart is a little weaver found half-dead in a swimming pool. He is now dry, noisy and full of attitude, and wants feeding every 15 minutes. Well, he says that that is what his real mom would be doing, but I suspect he might be stretching the truth a bit!

so sad

- I've been seeing lots of articles online about the guy in California who dressed up as Santa and went and killed a large chunk of his ex-family-in-law. It's tragic, no doubt about that, but the one thread that is starting to come out is that what broke him wasn't the divorce. Or losing his job. Or having to pay his ex $10000 in settlement even though he was jobless and his own sideline business was losing money. What seems to have been the last straw for this man was that his ex-wife took the dog he adored with all his heart. To me that is just pure vindictiveness, and while it doesn't in any way excuse what he did, I can't help feeling sorry for him as well.

the faces change but the bodycount keeps growing...

...am gaining little birds as fast as I ship them through to the centre. The nicest thing though was seeing 'my' red-winged starling on the last couple of shifts I worked. He's been released at the centre, which is probably a good thing given his uncouth behaviour - he flies into the clinic frequently and bounces around helping himself to whatever takes his fancy...syringes, food, a comfortable place to sleep...
On Tuesday I was feeding mealworms to an assortment of babies, and he stood next to me on the table so that he could be included on a 'one-for-them-one-for-me' basis, and if the baby concerned was too slow to grab his worm, the starling had no compunction about snatching it from my fingers! I think I raised a monster...

Saw lots of the dude in the past two weeks, but am currently having a holiday drought, and missing him greatly. Guess that is the downside of this relationship, that at the times I most want to be with him he just won't be around. Missing him, and having my entire immediate family away as well has made this the most miserable Christmas ever. When I was living in Israel I spent Christmas on my own in Nazareth one year, and I thought that was as bad as it could be. This one is worse.

so what's new?

baby mousebirds
baby mynahs
baby pigeons
baby doves (for a bit of variety)
baby sparrows
baby barbet is still thriving and can now stand upright (I was beginning to worry...)
big pigeons
big mousebirds
big hadedahs
big geese
big tortoise.......

- as you can gather, not much new, although some of the faces do change!

And the dude just gets more and more wonderful. Although it's not a long-term thing, having the crisis level reduced financially has made a huge difference to his mood, and I'm reaping some of the benefits....

almost forgot!

how could I not include the long awaited handover! Was thinking about what I should get pdoc for Christmas, since I saw him last thurs just befor he closed shop till Jan. Eventually decided that in the absence of any inspired ideas, I'd go with the one thing I knew he'd like. My med collection. I counted it all out, arranged it nicely in a couple of bottles tied up with a nice ribbon, and gave him my 589 almost-guaranteed pills that have been my safety net for a while. He was pleased, very pleased. I'm more than pleased that I have felt ok enough for long enough that I could give them up. He spent the rest of the appointment ribbing me about the dude. Asked with a serious expression if I thought he could hire the dude as a surrogate therapist and sniggered gleefully when I said that I'd have to refuse the job on dude's behalf. Laughed even more when I told him that since he was the one who nagged me into training in the first place, I was holding him responsible for all the vagaries of the dude-relationship. And then gave me a huge hug before sending me off for two months till I see him again.

This time last year, I was so scared of not seeing him over the holidays, and he made me see his rooms partner just in case. What a huge change there has been....

flooded

with birds, with bird calls, with bird rescues....summer! I have more home dwellers than most of the volunteers at the centre because of my passion for the unloved ferals and mynahs, but it doesn't prevent me from having other species around too. Tonight's total is 30, all needing regular feeding, daily cleaning, and for the mynahs who are being hand-raised as pets, as much cuddling and contact as possible.
Oh, and in between the birdlets, there's still some paid work that needs doing. And some dude time, for which I'd ditch almost anything. He had family visiting last week, so didn't get to see him from weds till monday - and he was sorely missed. Don't know how I am going to survive two long weeks away in Jan, nor the whole festivity of Christmas and New Year when it's likely I won't be able to see him much. Guess the best thing about deprivation is the hugely satisfying reunion.

For fun and distraction on Sunday, I got roped into an Egyptian Goose rescue. Said EG family have taken over a building site on which no building has been done for about a year. So there's a 5 storey deep hole, with lots of murky water at the bottom, random bits of concrete and earth, and lots of steel bars and odd debris. Plus, for the last couple of months, a family of twelve geese who are now approaching flight time. The local offices and security staff have been helping one of our volunteers with feeding and watching them, and a few days ago one of the babies was seen with a broken wing. Rescue attempt was arranged: my boss, two guys in kayaks, and me and my goose-catching buddy because we've already proved our lack of sanity and willingness to humiliate ourselves in public....and down we went. There's a scaffold down the side of the pit, so getting in was OK. Then it was into the chest deep water that is full of yucky things and silt and nice obstacles to fall over. We managed to herd (mostly due to the kayaks) the injured gosling into a corner fairly soon, but all the geese were ducking under the water and coming up in different spots. This one did the same, and we waited for him to reappear. And waited. As we were beginning to think he'd slipped past us, bosslady saw a bubble about ten feet ahead of me. I went closer, tripped over a large concrete block, and as I put my hand down to try recover my balance, I felt something soft. The sensible half of me almost levitated right out of the water before whatever it was ate me. The rehabber half realised it was a goose neck, and that he was stuck under part of the block...dropped to my knees and felt for his body, hauled him out and held him head down to get the water out. Just as I was wondering how many breaths goose-CPR involves, he spluttered and held his head up. And there I was with a soggy gosling clutched to my chest - thank goodness it was the injured one. He has been checked out, and although it's a bed fracture, we all feel too proud of him to consider euthanasing him, so he will be rehomed to a safe conservancy with good grazing and lots of water. After which we all climbed up the scaffold, back down again because one of the others was in a smaller hole with steep sides and couldn't get out, up again, and went home soaked but satisfied. An exciting end to a busy week...