Rob and the Animals: Other Stuff

Okay, so my last couple blogs had some big moments for me of late. Now how about a little catch up of the other stuff around here?

We are moving quickly through the month of October. Holy crap! I'm already seeing stores clearing out Halloween stuff and the Christmas crap is bursting from boxes in the aisles. I noticed the OLG is releasing holiday scratch tickets already too. Gawd! But Santa says...

Okay, time for some animal stuff!

Pierre and his flock have been odd the last month. I figure the Hawk activity got them spooked. Much of the flock was MIA for about 2 weeks straight. The returning numbers have been smaller and different birds are coming in at different times. We have 3 that we named "The Helmets" as they look like they have white caps on. They have also returned. Last time I really recalled seeing them was in August.

A peaceful moment with my buddy Pierre and his missus the other day. Here is a 20 second video that you may enjoy from this moment. I acknowledged his 39th month in my head on the 17th.

Petey still makes his grand entrances, much to the delight and laughter from nearby neighbours. He sits up there for lengthy amounts while I fill bird baths and feeders. What a nut!

I have another hand feeder Pigeon I call Mickey. She's still coming as well. I still need to blog about my flock and pay some tribute to the fallen ones. Mickey will be going on 2 years visiting this winter, not entirely certain the date (gotta check good ol' Facebook). Here she is on high alert during the spell of lurking Hawks.

I was having coffee on the back deck the other weekend, Angie was away in Nova Scotia. It was a quiet morning, the birds weren't at the feeders yet, when suddenly this guy came to say "hi". He lives at the back of the yard and over the fence. He is one of the orphaned kids we've been seeing all Summer. I just sat there and it was cool. The kids come around and get pretty close when it is on their terms. If I see one somewhere and I try this approach, they are gone in seconds.

I think this is the same Raccoon who raided my peanut bucket the other morning. I open the shed, put the bucket on the floor and go get the peanut feeder. I am heading back to the shed like 30 seconds later and this was going on! Check this short video here.

There is no petting the wildlife as much as I would like to.

Misfit celebrated her 8th anniversary with us. Angie and I were reflecting on the adventures we have had with her. A couple years ago we almost lost her when she was laying an egg and it broke coming out of her. It was weeks of recovery. She was on one of them egg laying sprees and by the time this one came around, her calcium was depleted so much, this egg was micro thin and brittle. I blogged about this here; it's still one of my top blogs to this day (weird but cool).

Moonie celebrated his 4th anniversary with us. He's got to be the loudest thing in the 'hood. If he hears a bird, he must be louder. If he hears the vacuum, he must be louder. See the trend here? We love him, who is actually a her, but we will never tell him that. Shhhhhhh!

Our rescue Gecko Norbert is doing great, as are our ancient amphibians Ash the Fire-bellied Toad and Ralphie the Newt who is a dinosaur with his age of ??? 18 maybe?

Ralphie

It seems I got on a roll about our pets here. I haven't blogged about our newest family additions since probably around the time we got them... Merry and Molly, the rescue kittens. They just turned 5 months a couple weeks ago. It's been something this summer having 2 tiny furry hellions in the house. One kitten can be pretty nutty. Two kittens is often total insanity. But they have come a long way, still getting into trouble, new kinds of trouble since they are bigger and more agile, but not getting into other kinds of shit like when they were just wee little things.

Little sweeties.

Not so little sweeties now.

We love these 2 so much. Two lovey girls who are great company to us. We're still working on the "don't look at the budgies" bit but we're progressing.

Should we be scared of Molly's choice reading material?

Ya, this about sums it up for Merry.

I am not afraid to admit that I miss Meadow like crazy. I always will. I am also not afraid to admit that the other morning I woke up sobbing about her. This is the third time since she left us that this has happened. Each time, it's the same thing, I am in bed and she is next to me, purring away, head nudges and all those lovey things she did when she was still with us physically. Are these dreams? Is she visiting me in spirit?

Halloween approaches and we always took part in it.

I probably should have saved that for last as I now find it difficult to continue on here.

Back to the yard... Skunk sightings are random now, mostly after dark. It's nice to know they are still around. I almost got sprayed this morning by Lincoln! This is the closest "almost got it" incident to date. I was in a daze out back and didn't realize he was around me shortly after 7am. We've had the return of Dark-eyed Juncos to the yard. First one showed up on September 30th. Golden-crowned Kinglets are present some frosty mornings within our pine trees. A Northern Mockingbird is making sporadic appearances to our bird baths. We suddenly have a small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds among the dozens of Grackles still lingering. I am at a point right now where I will be happy to see the Grackles move on. The fall season they horde and clean the feeders in record time. We don't get much other bird action with them around. I know some say to stop feeding the birds but it's what we do, we like it. The Cardinals come in early mornings and late in the evening before and after the Grackles. The Chickadees find gaps throughout the day to feed. The Blue Jays who can easily knock a Grackle or two off the feeder now come to the back door demanding for a hand-out. And we have an Opossum with us once again. A young one. Angie and I had hoped to see some babies this summer since we had 2 adults but we never did catch sight of such things. Oh well, nice to see this one. We always seem to spot them more in the fall than any other season.

Crap record shot of the first sight of this one on October 21st around midnight.

Red-winged Blackbird who should be on his way south any time.

The Mockingbird who I've yet to see discover the Holly bush. Maybe he's saving them for the cold weather coming?

Lincoln looking great!

If you are still with me, here is another video from the backyard. It's a morning with lots and LOTS of Grackles in the trees. It's really loud! This one gets Moonie screeching as he gets excited and tries to be louder than all the birds.

How's that for a catch up?

Here's something different for yas... how about life away from the animals?

Angie and I went to see Motley Crue's final show ever in Toronto. It was great, and we met up with a bunch of the old crowd I ran with back in the day.

Pre-show festivities at the Brazenhead

Myself with Sean and Jeff. Oh the hell we raised back in the day!

Me trying on my first Motley Crue shirt I bought back in late '83. It almost fits! LoL! As you can see in the above photos, I did not wear it to the show.

Angie and I rediscovered our love for wrestling. It's the best soap opera on tv as she puts it. I agree. We went and saw a live WWE show at Ricoh Stadium a few weeks ago.

I'm a fan of the New Day, they are such entertaining characters. I made this sign and tweeted it. We had a laugh when this photo showed up on the big screen in the stadium. Some people in front of us turned around and said "hey, that is you!"