なみのり ピカチュウ (o^ : ^o)

I'm still feeling terrible, no matter how much I sleep I can't seem to shake the blah feeling and waves of sickness. Maybe I have a virus or something, on top of my fatigue. I don't know... u____u I drag myself to work and I take minimal care of the animals, but that's about my limit.

Anyway, on a happier note, here are some gosling photos. I have some video of him following me around, jumping up and down the stairs, and so on, but none of it is all that remarkable so I don't know if I feel like uploading it. (I call the gosling a him but don't actually know the gender.)

( Gosling, plus a few cockatiel/lovebird pictures and a Bob (cat). )

I have tons more animal pictures but I gotta sort them first and then upload them. Still need so many chicken names.

Ugh, so many things I want to do, and so little energy... ;____;

( Have some chicken/duck pics! )

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

This very well might be the end for Princess.

Princess is my fifteen-year-old cat. I got her from the Nevada County Shelter as a kitten when I was six years old. I had always dreamed of having a cat, and my parents had promised me that I could get a kitten when we moved from Santa Rosa to Nevada City. She is the oldest of our living animals, and she has been through so much with me.

She has been steadily losing weight for a long time. Now she's like a walking skeleton, even though we give her canned food daily like the vet recommended. She was active and happy and even would go outside for an hour or so, until about two days ago, when I think she stopped eating and drinking. I'm not entirely sure--we noticed today that she's been sluggish the last two days, and now as I've observed her I've noticed that she's very dehydrated as well as terribly thin. I tried giving her water with a 1 cc syringe orally, but she threw up the water I gave her. I sat in the room and petted her for a while and she purred and purred, but eventually began to growl and wanted me to leave her alone. I'm respecting her wishes and leaving her alone for now. I want to stay close to her, to sleep with her and cuddle with her, but she just gets angry if I try, so I might as well just leave her alone because that's how she seems most comfortable.

We'll take her to the vet sometime this morning. No matter what happens, I won't regret how it turns out--she has had a long, happy life, and I will make a decision based off of her quality of life. She does not deserve to suffer. Of course, if this is the end, I will miss her terribly, but I also know her life has been good.

I suspect she may have renal failure, based off of her symptoms. Apparently with renal failure, there is a chance that when she is rehydrated regularly subcutaneously, she may be able to live for a while longer (months), but we'll see what the vet recommends. I don't mind giving her subcutaneous hydration if the vet thinks she still has enough quality of life to keep going...

Anyway, I'm going to go sleep for a few hours. We'll see what happens later.

( F-list, I need your help! )

( Other fowl and corgis! )

FFF, I felt crummy this morning, proceeded to sleep all day, and now I feel better. :) I had such a crazy, epic dream this morning! I wish the dream had continued. ;; I'll post about it later, as I actually wrote it down after I woke up so I wouldn't forget it.

PET PICTURE POST

Not MY pets, though--YOURS! :D

I periodically like to let everyone on my f-list post photos of all their pets so we can "Oooh!" and "Awww!" at each others' critters. So, if you have pets, post them in the comments! :)

If you don't have any pets, post what pet(s) you would get if you could have them!

And yes, I do have a pet photo post coming up somewhat soon--I got some pictures of the new chickens, the three guinea fowl, Tux Duck, and I'm going to take pictures of the remaining pets that have not been photographed once I find some batteries to put in the camera.

Have fun! 8D

It's super stressful dealing with bird diseases, ugh. D: I think the crows are going to go off and live with one of the raptor rehabbers who has no birds in his home, because otherwise the only other options are basically to find another volunteer with no birds at their house (unlikely, based off what's happened so far) or euthanize them. And I'd hate to euthanize them, especially seeing as they're bright, alert, eating well, and other than their lesions from the avian pox--which don't even seem painful--they're in good health. They have a good prognosis, too, as long as they don't go into a different stage of the virus that has a high mortality (so far, no signs of that at all). But I need them out of my house, as I have my parrotlet and the magpie at risk and it's really, really scary how easy it would be to spread it to them. I'm doing some intense sanitation stuff and being careful, but it's just... UGH. Disease sucks.

But now, what you're REALLY reading this entry for...

( Corgi Pictures! Mostly Honey because I've been around her the most lately (plus you guys haven't seen her yet.) )

Yay waiting list paid off! We now have a room in the Hilton for Fanime. :D Let me know if any of you are staying at the Hilton, too, and we will scheme to do ridiculous things at ridiculous hours maybe we'll be lucky enough to be neighbors.

ONE WEEK.

ONE WEEEEK!

Also, got my massive box of Pokémon! I'm amazed at how fast it came. :O It's epiiiiic and I'll post at least one picture of the things that were in it tomorrow. This sales post is going to be intense and I need to do it...today. (Today as in the day that just started, not the day that already ended.) @___@

Now I'm exhausted, so time for bed and snuggling with Honey.

Thank you so much to everyone who left a comment on the last post. I feel so fortunate to have friends like you guys. ♥

We put Tia down this morning. Dr. Schuff said that it was either neurological damage or cancer, and that we could have put her through a battery of tests but the chances were slim that she would ever be able to walk again regardless, and the tests would probably just tell us that the problems were too severe. She whined and whined all night (which broke my heart) and by the morning she could hardly even lift her head. I sat with her head in my lap in the car on the way there, and I stayed with her as she fell asleep before they put her down. I left the room when they gave her the final injection--because I had some memories from putting Lily down that haunted me, and I didn't want to go through that again--but I was with her until the moment that she fell asleep for the last time, petting her and telling her over and over again that she was a good girl. Mom stayed with her through all of it. The whole process was very peaceful.

Honestly... I'm in denial about it, I think. I just can't understand that she's gone except in fleeting moments where I understand it in little bits and pieces. It's going to be a while until I accept it all the way, and it's going to be extremely tough. It was just so sudden, and unexpected. I miss her so much already, and the parts of the house she frequented seem so empty and lonely. I've already cried myself into near sickness and I know the tears aren't anywhere close to being over.

But, ultimately, I feel good about her life. She had behavior problems, so it would have been so easy for her to have been put down long ago, without the happiness of having a family who loved her around her, and without having lived out her life. It was obvious that all she wanted in her life was to be with someone who wouldn't leave her. Her first family dumped her when she was five, and if we hadn't saved her I have few doubts that she would have been put down at the shelter due to her problems with other dogs. Instead she had five and a half years of sleeping on our beds with us, playing with Lily and Hana, and going on walks, and so I will never regret how she lived, nor how she died--she went peacefully, in her sleep, surrounded by those she loved, and she didn't have to suffer for very long.

The thought of never getting to see her again, though, never getting to pet her, snuggle with her, play with her, take her for walks... It's so, so hard. I feel like she'll still look in my bedroom door any minute, asking with her eyes to be let in, and wagging her tail when I tell her she's a good girl.

I'll probably be doing a more detailed post on her sometime in the next day or two.

I must admit, I've been wanting to make this post for quite a while. Only I am geeky enough to be all crazy over chicken pictures, but I hope you all find some enjoyment in them regardless! These are my babies. ♥ Chickens are actually surprisingly beautiful, diverse, and interesting animals despite the sorts of attitudes towards them I'm sure most of you are accustomed to. Perhaps this will give you a slightly different outlook toward them!

This is not nearly all of my chickens (and I honestly feel bad for excluding any of them because I love them all that much and I want to babble about ALL OF THEM), but I'm just putting in some of the better pictures. And trust me, chickens are TOUGH to take pictures of. They rarely stop moving!

( SUPER IMAGE HEAVY. REALLY. )

I was so tempted to bombard all of you with MORE chicken pictures and then I almost put in duck/pheasant/guinea fowl pictures, but those will have to wait for another post. (The floodgates of bird pictures will open if I start into the other poultry as well.) I need to take pictures of the adult guinea fowl anyway, as I haven't taken pictures of them since they were babies! And Cornelius has never had his picture taken.

[/JUST LEAVES BEFORE SHE TRULY DOES SUBMIT THREE GAZILLION PICTURES]

* My hen Fawkes died yesterday. :( I can't say I'm devastated because I kind of expected it, and she lived a good long life... But it's always sad to see an old member of my flock go, and I had her from the day she hatched through her entire life so it'll be weird not having her in the coop any more. She was also one of only three larger-breed chickens that were still alive, so now only Dandelion and Constantinople the buff orpingtons are left as far as large-sized chickens go. Her mother Brindle died about a year or two ago at about the same age and with the same symptoms. I named her Fawkes after the phoenix in Harry Potter because I thought she was a phoenix (one of my favorite breeds of chicken--see icon) when she hatched. Then she grew up and turned out to be an easter egg chicken instead, so the name didn't seem as clever any more. :)

It's always weird when a chicken I've had for more than seven or eight years dies, because it almost feels like a little bit of my childhood dies with them... I mean, that's not true, but I grew up with them and my friends and I spent so much time with them when we were twelve, thirteen, fourteen, so there are so many memories associated with them. I don't know what I'll do when The Salula dies, or Yami, or Timber, or Ilikeayou... It feels like they've always been there, a constant part of me, and my life won't seem the same without them. I already lost The Other Other One several months ago, and I still have to consciously remind myself not to list her on my pet list any more. And even Brindle, who died at least a year ago, and to a smaller extent Lace, who died a week or two after Lily did, about two and a half years ago.

( Fawkes )

It's probably weird for some of you who are newer to my f-list how much I love my chickens, but to me all lives are equal and to me they are all wonderful individuals. And yes, chickens do have personalities, they are (or can be, anyway, though it's been bred out of some breeds) intelligent, and they do think and socialize and care about one another and have their own language and behave in surprisingly complex ways at times. People can try to refute me on this if they'd like, but I've spent countless hours in my chicken coop throughout the last nine years so good luck to anyone who would try to tell me what I've observed about chickens is wrong. ;)

* I forgot to write about it for some reason, but I went to the Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release Annual Meeting on Saturday. It was an awesome meeting, it really was. ♥ It reminded me yet again of why I rehab, even though it's stressful and devastating and time-consuming. My fellow rehabbers are some of the friendliest, most compassionate people I've ever met and they are so dedicated. Linda, from the songbird team (my team!), gave such an amazing speech on why we rehab and it nearly made me teary.

Last year our group rehabilitated over 900 animals. Pretty incredible, especially considering when I joined the group three years ago I think we did somewhere between 300-400 and our group was very small and not all that well organized. Now we're an awesome group with a lot of amazing rehabbers, programs, educational animals, and so on. Now we just need a real center and we'll be set!

We did some reviews of 2008 from each of the team leaders (songbirds, raptors, fawns, small mammals), discussed some general business/leadership/funding/classes and so on matters, watched a slideshow of animals from the previous year (including some of my babies ♥), and finished the meeting by watched a video of the rehabbing process and then release of a golden eagle from last year named Talksalot. There was hardly a dry eye in the place after that video. I was quite close to being teary as well for the second time in the meeting. (Wildlife rehabbing is a powerful emotional experience, what can I say!) I wish I could show it to you all.

Anyway, I'm so glad I went to that meeting. It was great. ♥ I watched some of the beginning of Earthlings again late last night (just the beginning, which is before it turns horribly gruesome and stomach-churning and painful) and cried my eyes out. Just...because. I feel like I have such a strong purpose, and such a strong love for animals and desire for them not to suffer. It is empowering and crippling at the same time. I...feel as though I can't fully expound on how I feel about it. Not only because it's such a deep feeling, but also because I think it's so intense and different and because it's so at odds with how most people live... It's hard sometimes. It really is.

* I watched Pokémon 11 this evening! It's a Pokémon movie so you can't expect Oscar quality out of it or anything, but I really enjoyed it. There was something about the animation and art direction that I appreciated a bunch though I can't put my thumb on why. I guess it just seemed more creative and well-done and high quality than I'm accustomed to Pokémon being, I don't know. I say this even though I know the Pokémon movies DO get prettier each movie, haha. It was somehow slightly even noticeable taking that into account! Also, there were so many adorable/fun/awesome/pretty moments in it that I just adored--the sorts of little, silly things that I always look forward to in Pokémon movies, and I think there were a lot more of them than usual. The movie was just so pretty and cute and it made me smile and laugh and make a *___* face! ♥

I don't know, I felt it had more character and personality than a lot of the movies and I just fell in love with it for some reason. I think the plot got a bit stale towards the end and I wasn't interested in the villain at all and some of the plot as a whole was just like "Oh, uhhh...whatever," but I had so much fun watching this movie. I think I'm going to watch it again soon because I enjoyed it so much! ♥ I think my overall favorite Pokémon movies are 3, 5, 8, and 11. But then I list that and I always want to include 2 and 1 for nostalgia and because I adore them, and I loved 4 quite a bit too, and 6 was sweet/adorable as well, and I liked 10 a lot... Really, the only ones I didn't care for all that much were 7 and 9, and even then I still got some degree of enjoyment out of them.

I'm such a Pokénerd, ahaha. I can't even give a coherent Pokémon review because it always degenerates into me just babbling about nothing and getting all excited over weird things. XD Oh well! I do love me some Pokémon. In case no one here has failed to notice. XDDD

...I overuse ♥ so badly. IT IS AN ADDICTION.

Games for everyone!

First one is Nanaca Crash. Addictive and somewhat strange game that's actually more complicated than it looks. Great fun. http://megami.starcreator.com/nanaca-crash/

The second one is about equally bizarre--fighting Victorian-style girls? Again, quite fun and worth your time. http://nigoro.jp/game/rosecamellia/rosecamellia.php

Another pretty uneventful day watching the pets while Mom worked dayshift. I just cleaned the house, took care of the animals, doodled some Pokémon, and that's about it. There's construction going on across the street, and for some reason asphalt was just put on the road early in the morning. The construction was loud, and the asphalt smelled pretty strong.

We went to where Rivi (our horse) is boarded about an hour ago, and I stayed in the car playing Pokémon. I opened the door for a second because I wanted to hear the crickets, and the orange cat that lives there crawled into my lap. It was so cute. He kept purring and purring and rubbing his face on me and such. I still have his fur all over me. XD

Currently hoping to get the Pikachu DS. I have my fingers crossed!

I'm probably getting in a baby bluebird tomorrow. I don't know if I'll transfer it to another rehabber or not, but it sounds really cute. It'll also be my phone day tomorrow, which will mean lots of intake and slight insanity.