Cat Entertainment On A Rainy Day

 It's a rainy day here in the Pacific Northwest and I decided to move my parakeet back into the sunroom. The parakeet enjoys the front porch all summer long .Since she is back indoors the cats took full advantage of her entertainment value. Miss Marple napped on top of the cage ,

 Blizzard across from the cage. He knows he can survey the bird AND Miss Marple from here.

 Looks like a cat stare-down , doesn't it ? But Miss Marple with all her claws intact is no match for a muscle-bound 16 pound cat, even if he is de-clawed. Blizzard dominates her and all our big dogs. Soon the stare-down is over and Miss Marple leaves. Blizzard is ready to...

 pounce ! What grace, what feline precision. He lands exactly where he planned.

In front of the parakeet cage. Betty, the parakeet isn't even startled. She knows what you & I know,

Smarty pants Blizzard can't open the cage door. She'd better watch out though, he can open all the bedroom doors and I see he is pondering the parakeet. Now I'd better go get a wire clip , I don't want my cat entertainment to turn into a cat snack .

Chickens For Christmas !

Our first-born grandchild C.T. is passionate about animals, especially horses, reptiles & chickens.He gets pretty excited when talking about certain breeds of bantam ( tiny ) chickens. He has been raising Mlle Fleurs to show but his parents' hunting dogs have thwarted his loving and hard work by breaking into the pens and killing the chickens our grandson loves. For his Christmas present his grandpa & I decided we would order chicks for him, to raise here. C.T. & I ordered a variety of Mlle Fleurs, D-Uccles, Porcelains, and 5 black bantam Cochins for me.

The chicks arrived almost 2 weeks ago in a box via the U.S. mail.

Aren't they cute? ! ?

C.T. was so excited and very eager to share his enthusiasm over the little bundles of fluff with his baby brother, Little 'J'.

The weather here is very wet & cold. The temperatures have been below 30 degrees most nights, so the chicks are being raised in our sun-room for now.Because we have indoor cats who stand over the brooder and lick their lips, we protect the chicks by placing old barbecue grills over the stainless steel bucket. The aluminum foil is used to cover the bucket to keep the heat in (without risking the fire danger other coverings might cause) as this is the coldest room in our home and baby chicks need to be warm to thrive.

It is kind of hard to decorate for Christmas around a batch of baby chicks who need their brooder cleaned at least twice a day...the parakeets in the cage to the left seem to be enjoying the chirping chicks though.

...but the happy smiles and joy it brings from our oldest Grandson make it more than worthwhile. C.T. is going to keep a detailed record of these chicks and help me at least once a week with the cleaning and set-up involved with keeping them here. His ultimate goal is to move the best of them to his back yard, raising and breeding them for show. Another part of his present is that after Christmas, he and I will work on a joint blog all about our poultry raising endeavors.