there she is...

Missus Owl has started roosting outside the nest on a branch opposite Mr. Spock. She thinks she's clever, hiding behind that wing. Since we've started hearing lots of owlet noise in the box, I'm betting she's spending time outside the box due to all the crying and pooping going on in there. Just kidding. That would be why I'd be out of the nest. I'm sure Missus Owl is just doing what her DNA tells her to, guarding the nest and giving the owlets room. She has to be tired. Every time I go out there her eyes are wide open and her stare follows me everywhere I go. When does she sleep? When she doesn't have me to stare down, the robins and blue jays are screaming at her and dive bombing her head.









Just like a man, Mr. Spock gets plenty of shut eye on the next branch without a care in the world.

I'm trying to guess how many are in there. I know there are at least 2, and maybe 3. I'm also trying to figure when they will fledge. April 18th was the 1st time I heard them, so by May 18th at the very latest, but likely a week or so before that. I'm gonna camp out evenings with my night vision monocular and wait. Wish I had a night vision camera and video camera. And a nest cam. If you'll excuse me, I need to go and buy a lottery ticket.

spring, sprang, sprung and a ramble

It's here, and never soon enough. Warm enough to sit in my rocker on the back porch for more than a minute and I couldn't be happier. Really. The Eastern Screech Owls are back, despite a squirrels best effort to oust them. It is with glee that I tell you that the missus is in the nest box making noise and laying eggs. Naturally Mr. Spock is busy standing guard and giving me the stink eye.



I mean...serious stink eye.



Not to worry though, my friend Renate has gifted me a special gnome that stands guard under the owl tree. His name is Boudreaux and he's come straight from the bayou to keep watch over the owls and my happy place.



Things are starting to green up and flower.



And we have the special treat of what is shaping up to be a bumper crop of dewberries thanks to our birds...I think. They weren't there before and I can only imagine that the birds were enjoying them somewhere else and deposited the seeds here when they were finished with them.


When we were kids my Dad used to take us to a field in our neighborhood to pick dewberries. That was always a treat and a memory that I love. That makes having them in my yard even more special.

Last but not at all least, Mavis Pearl wants you all to know that she's ok. Almost fully recovered from the meningitis, and nursing her collapsing trachea like a champ. She's a spunky young dog again and for that I'm very grateful.



Welcome back to my happy place.

read in a fortune cookie

To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose is the next best.

read in a fortune cookie

Your smile is a curve that can get a lot of things straight.

What this isn't.....

It isn't an Eastern Screech Owl in a nest box provided specifically for the Eastern Screech Owls.



This isn't the view we typically have from our back porch, even in the most wintry of winters. We got twelve inches of snow in one day when we're usually lucky to get a dusting all winter. This one's for Kimberly out on the East coast. I promised her I'd do the "stop snowing dance" for them. It backfired. I've never been much of a dancer.

What this is...it's a beautiful diversion from the hurry I've been in lately.

Perhaps I'm back. We'll see. It's been good here, but priorities have shifted.

read in a fortune cookie

Treasure what you have.

Snap!

A whole month? Really has it been that long? I've been very busy taking care of the doglet (she's doing very well) and taking care of myself too. Between the 2 of us it's a whole lot of high maintenance. First, the doglet. We've been at this treating the disease thing for a little over a month. The doggy neurologist was very impressed when we went in last week. I got a little optimistic and asked how soon we could taper down the meds. He said not any time soon. Boooo. She's taking prednisone which makes her CRAZY. And hungry. Bad combo for a doglet. No sleepy sleep for me. Over all it's good and I'm grateful to still have her here.

The biggest reason I've been MIA is this new thing/life/journey I've started. I've dubbed it "operation truth in love". You know, from where it talks in the Bible about speaking the truth in love? Ephesians 4:15-16. I like the "Message" translation best. My friend Renate TWICE spoke some truth in love to me regarding my health. I'm dense like that. It took 2 heart to hearts and one more trip to the urgent care clinic with a crushing migraine for me to snap out of it - or in to it. I've committed to making a life change for the sake of my health, which frees up my energy to be a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. It's totally Biblical. I'm not always certain of what the will of God is for me, but I'm pretty sure He would like for me to take good care of myself so I can be a better me. I'll just say that the first step was seeking the help of a nutritionist, and making some radical changes in my diet. I'm saving most of those details for my next post. It deserves one all it's own. I'm just sayin' it's taken a lot of focus and I'm all in. So the blog, Twitter, and Facebook have all gone by the wayside, till now.

Now, especially for Vicki, I will leave you will some delicious video of my juvie owls. This one is of a goofy, wobbly juvie. It was a great rainy evening with lots of thunder and lightning.


If you don't have 4 minutes left, then don't click the next video. If you do, enjoy the visit to my backyard with the lightning and thunder. Listen close to the owls trilling and whinnying, and the bill clacking. All three (the 2 juvies and adult female) were in attendance. I'm pretty sure at the point the bill clacking started mom was trying to break up a sibling spat. Priceless.


Today my adult female Eastern Screech Owl returned to her old roost. Same branch, same spot on the branch. I've missed her while she's been out rearing those younguns.

read in a fortune cookie

Nothing. Nada. Zip. I got an empty fortune cookie today. First time ever (a shocker considering all the fortune cookies I consume). It may not seem like I'm eating them all the time...but I'll share a secret with you...there are at least a dozen that I don't post for every one I do post.

wonderful distractions part 3

I hurried back from Tampa and wonderful distraction number 2 so that I could chicken sit. My friend Renate has 4 hens that free range in her yard, and she needed sitter while she was on vacation. Every day for a week I let them out in the mornings, and put them up in the hen house every evening.



I loved it. And by the time Renate came home, my desperate need for distraction was over. It was perfect timing, and I made some new friends...Chiquita, Geeba, Jemima, and Matilda. Great girls all of them.

Flashback Friday

Seven years ago this month I married the man. My friend Kimberly over at Petroville had me thinking about it this week when she asked "where did you go on your honeymoon, and how much did you spend on the wedding?". After digging through some old files I found the wedding budget spreadsheet, and some snapshots from what seems like a lifetime ago. We spent $2,620, and that included EVERYTHING. Even the wonderful honeymoon to Cozumel. Thrifty me!

The kids were our wedding party. Brannon the best man, and April the maid of honor. They're all grown up and out of the nest now. Seems like just yesterday we were talking about drivers licenses and curfews.


*wonders...is that piece of frozen cake still in Mother's freezer?*



Who is the skinny girl? WHO? And with the bare feet. Some things never change. The curled toes give away the giddiness over all the presents. I love presents!

Cake, presents, unconditional love. What more could a girl ask for? It was perfect.

wonderful distractions part 2

Right on the heels of wonderful distraction number 1, I left on a business trip to Tampa. It was a lonely boring business trip, and I was pretty blue, but I had at least two things to look forward to. Dinner with my cousin Lindsey...who I adore, and almost never get to see...and special plans with my bloggy friend Vicki.

I had some free time one afternoon, so Vicki picked me up at the hotel and graciously spent her whole afternoon showing me the best of St. Petersburg. It was great to meet another bloggy friend face to face, and I felt like I'd known her forever. To quote Vicki, "you meet the neatest people here in the neighborhood". Ditto Vicki!

I got the behind the scenes tour of the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve where Vicki is a volunteer. Lucky me to have an up close and personal introduction to Stretch and Wheezer, the resident Eastern Screech Owls at Boyd. Stretch was the only one to grant me a REALLY up close hello. Wheezer was busy protecting the last owlet in rehab as all good mothers would. They made great foster parents I hear.


Another new friend made was Spirit, a magnificent Bald Eagle. I'm pretty sure I will never get this close to another Bald Eagle without a fence between the two of us. I really was that close, almost no zoom used for these photos.
It was really sweet the way Spirit recognized Vicki as we approached. They had quite the conversation. She volunteers regularly with the raptors, but had been out for a few weeks with Mohs surgery on her nose. I think Spirit really missed her.


Here's a shot of Vicki at Boyd Hill showing me a Red Rat Snake, who had just shed his skin and was unbelievably soft.

We also took in a quick tour of the fabulous Salvador Dali museum in St. Pete, and dinner at the 4th Street Shrimp Store...which was satisfied my craving for some good ole Florida seafood...with Vicki's daughter Abby and her husband. A rather enjoyable dinner, really.

On my last night in town, Lindsey and I had dinner at my now favorite place to eat in Tampa, Datz Deli. I had an egg salad and smoked salmon sandwich for which there are not words. And the wine? Oh man the wines. I chose an incredible French Rose (it was sweltering after all). Also no words.

So thank you Vicki and Lindsey, for the wonderful distractions from my blues regarding a sickly doglet. Vicki, I am better for knowing you. And Lindsey, I am proud to call you family.

she's home with her little chicken leg...

...and her bald neck. Her little leg was shaved where the IV was, and they had to shave a patch on her neck to do the spinal tap. I know from past experience that IV's hurt, and can't imagine how uncomfortable it was in her little bony leg for 3 days. Her legs already look like chicken legs, but with the hair shaved off, wow, naked chicken leg. She has to feel like crap just from the IV and spinal tap alone.

It was so good to pick up our little doglet and get those sweet kisses and tail wags. It quickly became apparent though that we have a long road ahead. She is better, by just a little. Her balance seems better but she is really weak. We'll give her 2 meds daily for months (an possibly life), and she will go back to the vet once a month for an injection.

I am hopeful.

read in a fortune cookie

A single kind word can keep one warm for years.

inflammation of the meninges

Meningitis that is. The doglet has Meningitis. This is good news because it's treatable. The doggie neurologist says that about 2/3 of the dogs that have it get better, and some even recover completely. Apparently dogs get a type of the disease called Steroid Responsive Meningitis. It's an auto-immune illness that is highly treatable with steroids - umm - hence the name.

She is at the hospital tonight, and tomorrow night. It's very strange being here without her. I don't know how I'll sleep without her giant 5lb presence in the bed. I'm hoping she's resting ok. I left her with her big pink stuffed FiFi dog and her 2 favorite binkies. And a tiny pink backpack with cookies and treats and some other stuff.

I'll say it for you, I win crazy dog lady of the year I'm sure.

That's ok cause I love my little girl named Mavis Pearl.

update on the doglet

The visit with the doggie neurologist went well today. I really love the doctor. She was compassionate, and thorough, and gentle. It's too soon for me to tell if she's a genius, but I have high hopes.

Her hunch is that this may be something like meningitis. Not bacterial like us humans get, but something auto-immune. Or hydrocephalus. I will take her back for an MRI tomorrow morning. They will also draw spinal fluid and test that. On a normal day I would be upset that she had to endure all this. But today, I am hopeful because it may be something treatable. The doc didn't think it could be a brain tumor since the symptoms were multiple (affecting more than one part of the brain).

Thanks for all your caring, my bloggy friends. I will keep you posted.

ps.. if it wasn't wrong to rip off cool stuff from other bloggers, I would call her Dr. Nerve. Isn't imitation the highest form of flattery? One of my favorite bloggers names all of her doctors that way. I won't call her Dr. Nerve. Not here anyway, but in my head I will. That's not wrong is it?

read in a fortune cookie

Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.

wonderful distractions part 1...a gratuitous photo essay

Last weekend we had our 2nd annual family bash at Lake Grapevine. It was the first of several wonderful distractions from what's been ailin' me. In my family we keep each other close. They mean the world to me.







The Muscovy Duck. Ugly duck, or rare beauty?

she's not even 3 years old

I've put off having this conversation for days. My heart is broken. I am so very sad, seriously depressed I think. The doglet is slipping away from us and I feel powerless to help her.

It started a couple of months ago when she appeared to be suddenly going blind. The vet looked at her eyes and couldn't see anything other than very dilated pupils. We were having a bumper crop of mushrooms in the backyard, and he assumed it was mushroom consumption. He said to watch her, and if it didn't improve soon to take her to the doggy opthamologist. It didn't get better so we did, and he agreed, no eye disease. Perfectly healthy eyes, but blindness in her left eye. After some expensive, extensive tests the eye specialist said "it's neurological in nature, you have to see a doggy neurologist". I put off making the appointment for a few days. I just couldn't wrap my brain around it, and it didn't seem to be any worse than some vision trouble. Then, in just a matter of days Mavis began to have trouble walking. She could no longer make it up and down her little stairs by the bed. No hopping up on the couch with her foot stool. In just a few more days she merely stumbles around, her legs often just going right out from under her causing her to fall. She wants to play but can't function. I just don't understand. There are moments when she seems to be better, giving me hope that we might get her back. But just moments. One good thing though is that her appetite is great. She really perks up for her scrambled egg, and as recently as 2 days ago still enjoyed the trip to her favorite restaurant for plain grilled chicken.

I feel really guilty getting so upset and sad about this. I have friends whose children have serious diseases. Potentially life threatening diseases. I know they feel like life is over some days. I also have friends who have lost their children too soon. I can't begin to imagine that pain. I wasn't able to have children. I just can't imagine how hard having a sick baby would be. Or, oh my God, to lose one. Mavis is the closest thing I've had but I feel ridiculous loving her this much. But I do.

We have an appointment on Tuesday to see a neurology specialist. We have health insurance for her. Doglet health insurance. I'm so grateful I made that crazy decision. I don't know what he diagnosis will be, and I of course have been googling like crazy. Until Tuesday my imagination will be cranking overtime. I've had little energy to think, write, or talk at all about other things. So if you haven't heard from me, that's partly why. To you it may seem crazy. She's a little dog. How did I get so wrapped up?

I've been busy with some other things, wonderful distractions and very busy days. I'll write about that soon, maybe even later today. I just had to get all of this off my chest. There, I feel a little better already. Thanks for being here.

7 years

Seven years ago tonight I married my one true love. Tonight we sat hand in hand to watch the sun set on one of our favorite places. A place we visit often to sit and enjoy each other.

Christopher, I love you.

why I can't sleep

It's nearly midnight. I've been sick as a dog and I'm exhausted. But, steroid shots = wide awake. I've had a monster case of Strep Throat, and visit #2 to the doctor today resulted in 3 shots. 2 steroid and 1 antibiotic.

So here I sit on the back porch with half a watermelon and a spoon in my lap. It's a yellow meat watermelon. Had one? I grew up on these things. It's comforting. I'm also yearning for ice cream or a Venti iced decaf extra shot skinny latte. Anyone? I'll wait for you to get here.

I could sit out here and rock for hours. I've got all the citronella buckets lit and the new rocker/glider chair is like a drug in itself. There are lots of tree frogs and one very confused Cicada. No owls, just me, the watermelon, and the cicada. Still that's ok. I'm happy here. If I have to be up there's no place I'd rather be.