summer_jackel

I'm busy but happy, and spring is beautiful. To distract myself while working out, I am posting a random collection of animal pictures. Most of them are pretty poor quality, but they are cute and illustrative. Here, for instance, is a rare shot of Trucker somewhere other than the couch, the cushioned chair, or the food bowl! Vivid proof that she actually is a cat!



( cats, birds and dogs! )

I got some really lovely shots of my pack, Nikolai and one of Josephine the tarantula.

( About a week to Equinox )

When I got home today, Mr. Greybird was happy to see me, hopped right onto my hand and wanted pettings. I'm so touched. I introduced him to his play area and cage in my bedroom (essential to maintain household harmony; most of the sounds he's produced so far aren't any more obnoxious than my little birds', but Nicki isn't quiet, and he can project). He wasn't nervous or hesitant at all; he's hanging out on the tree, watching me ride now. What a sweetie.

Kyn called me this evening, and we both happened to be in the room with birds. Nicki and Ninja started whistling at each other over our conversation; it was hilarious. It is probably for the best that I'm seeing someone who also keeps parrots...

Gavin is regrowing breast feathers, which makes me happy. He still Wants Kaya More Than Anything. Kaya is seeming a little jealous and a bit needier than usual, so I'm giving her extra attention and taking care to handle her before I take Nicki out. None of the other pets seem to care, although of course the dogs immediately added Nicki's cage to their list of areas to check regularly. The area that skirts my birdcages is spotless. This is not because my parrots eat neatly.

Coba and I did a practice obedience trial, and he did very well! We have a real one next month, and I hope we pass it.

I finished a couple more pages of Bone Shard, which you can see here and here. I'm rather pleased at the coincidence that had me finsihing the pages which introduce Travis's Scottish Deerhound, Ghost, on the same weekend that a gorgeous Deerhound bitch took Best in Show at Westminster, for the first time ever. One of my favorite breeds taking BIS is not something that happens much!

I'm very pleased; Gavin's shiny new cage arrived today. It's a nice, roomy yet space-efficient model that appears to be the favorite of nearly everyone in my extended social sphere who keeps small parrots, and I am hoping that it, coupled with some other impending life changes, will rock his little birdy mind enough to knock him out of the hormonal haze a bit. There's hope; that sometimes works. He's in that 4-5 year age range where parrots more or less his size tend to enter actual sexual maturity, and (Sally Blanchard, parrot guru, reassures us) his hormonal behavior should level out a bit in a couple of years. I hope so. I REALLY HATE IT when Gavin picks his feathers out. Plucking is my least favorite parrot sin, though of course I might not say that if he was a biter or a screamer instead.

He's plucked a bare spot in the middle of his chest, for the first time in two years (WAUGH!!!!), but he has left alone the contour that grew back in that spot. Hopefully, that's a good sign. Bird.

I was really pleased to see that Gav's swanky cage is very nearly the same medium white-grey color that Kaya's is. The two will look good next to each other and be as attractive an addition to the decor that something as innately butt-ugly as a birdcage possibly can be. There's no real good solution; dark/cold greys are just too suggestive of jail cells, black is too visually harsh juxtoposed upon a small bird (though it may be the best option for a big one imho), pure white is too stark and hospital-y, green looks like it's trying too hard to pretend it isn't an ugly birdcage and draws attention to its ugliness while clashing with everything, even the bird, and blue just looks dorky.

Yes, you can all laugh at me for thinking about the harmony of my decor. My home is arranged, after all, in NorCal Hippie Modern, with tasteful accents of Coyote Den, featuring mismatched, scavenged couch-pillow dog beds, various rocks, bones and assorted geeky kitsch disarrayed on shelves and sills, and sufficient duff on the floor to always remind one of the redwood forest surrounds.


...Also, I painted Bliss, so have some art:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5236399/

Bitty jaybirds. I don't usually paint freehand, without any sketch, and I like how these came out anyway:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5236357
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5236324

The scanner mangled it, of course, but I painted Bliss.