A last kindness

Nellie came into our lives in February 2001.  A two month old mix of big head, big feet and sweet puppy charm.  Her mother had been a German Shepherd, and it looks like her father was a Lab and/or Rottweiler.
Whatever her lineage, I thought she was the best thing ever.



Until it came to house-training her.  I thought she was brain-damaged.  She just.  Didn't.  Get.  It.
After five months of sopping up accidents from the carpet, I sort of gave up on her, and told Geoff that she was his dog.  He was responsible for finally getting her brain to learn what "Go outside" meant.

I never thought I would love her the way you're supposed to love a dog.  She wasn't a dog you could hug...she wasn't smart, I thought.



And like I said, I had given up on her.  But she never gave up on me.

When I was heavily pregnant with Isabelle, I was finishing the nursery preparations.  I had just steam-cleaned the carpets in her room and the hallway.  Wearing Keds (the only shoe that would fit on my swollen feet), I started down the stairs.  The combination of wet carpet and stupid shoes caused me to fall.
Somehow, in the 1.5 seconds it took me to stumble down 3 steps, Nelllie was there. She materialized out of nowhere and I threw my arms around her and stopped myself from pitching all the way down.  As I came to a screeching halt, I sat down on that wet carpet, and gasping for breath, put my arms around Nellie and shook like a leaf.  She sat there and let me hug her for the first time.
She had saved Isabelle.  That was the day Nellie became my dog.

Nellie had a neurotic fear of tree swallows, afraid to go out in the backyard every year they nested here.
She was always gentle with Isabelle and Lorelei, even when they weren't.


She accepted a wide range of new animals into the house over the course of her life with us.


(Everyone remember Boomer?)

Her life was completely intertwined with mine.  Never completely confident with her status in life, she looked to me when she was scared, or happy, or lonely.  She was my shadow, always watching for where I was, what I was doing.

I never could get a really good photo of her and me, since she never wanted to look at the camera...not when I was around.




Nearly ten years is a long time to love a dog.  And not nearly long enough.
We aren't completely sure what was wrong with Nellie at the end, but she showed symptoms of transitional cell carcinoma, cancerous cells in the lining of the bladder.  No cure, just treatment of the symptoms.
And we tried.  We worked the pills as long as we could.
But every day, she got thinner.  She stopped enjoying her food and her toys.  And the final thing, the moment I knew we were going to lose her...a look.  Just a look that she gave me, telling me that it was time to let her go.
And since I loved her, I found the strength to say goodbye.

With the help of a dear friend, I listened to her last breath and felt her slip away.  Away from the pain, and away from me. 
A last kindness to a soul that deserved the peace we were able to give her at the end.

Nellie Bly Williams

November13, 2000 - September 22, 2010

We love you.

Just trying to get a nice photo...

Nellie just looked so cute sitting there. I wanted a nice photo of the two of us.

I sat next to her on the floor, turned the "Burst" function on and started shooting...

Little did I know that she was creeping in....



...to plant one right on my neck!

Real things I saw today, even though it's April Fool's Day

I love being a birder. I think I've said that before.
Being plugged in to the avian world makes us privy to a whole host of interesting things. We can marvel at a new bird, ponder a behavior. I saw lots today.

It started with a new yard bird:


Yard bird #59. Brown thrasher. It was kick/scratching under the feeders, then took off for the big maple.
And it was singing. Glorious.

A yellow-rumped warbler landed right next to my car at Lake Isabella, and just looked at me.




Three red-shouldered hawks were circling the yard and calling out in their wonderfully screamy voices.

Gratuitous cute kid/dog photo:

Lorelei was singing, as usual, waving her newly-acquired dandelion. And Hooper leaned in for a sniff.

Nellie was keeping her eye on me, as usual.

"Where's Mom? Oh, there she is. Is she going to get up? I better be ready. Mom? Need me?"

She is my shadow...always near and always worried that I might disappear.

This is Roxy:

She is a Tibetan Yak-Dog.
April Fools. She belongs to Swami. (And she's a Shetland Sheepdog)

Being a long-haired breed, this dog makes lots and lots of loose hair. Lorelei and I brushed her, Hooper, Nellie and whatever cat we could grab and stuffed all that hair into a cardboard tube and hung it outside (birds will use it to line their wee sweet nests)

I wasn't back in the house 10 seconds before someone landed and started plucking:

Tufted titmouse


Bearded titmouse



It was so cool to watch. I've left hair out there before, but usually I just brush the dogs outside and let the hair float away. This was fun!

The titmouse left and a white-breasted nuthatch took its place.


Each bird would grab some with its beak, then maneuver it around, grabbing some with its feet, then rearranging and grabbing it again with the beak. All this grabbing and rearranging helped them carry as much as possible. Birds are just so efficient.

The suckiness of....oh, Hell with it.

Yesterday was a study in adventure.
My program began at 3:15. The good ol' weatherman said that we could get 1 to 3 inches of snow.
When my program ended at 4:20, that had been upgraded to 4 to 6 inches.
The program was only 12 minutes from RAPTOR. It took me a solid HOUR to get the birds back.


This particular snow was thick and fluffy like feathers. Very pretty as it fell silently. Onto the old snow and ice from last week.

Sylvester disapproved of the forecast.

Click on the photo....that dusting of snow on his big sweet head just does me in.


By the time I had redeposited all the birds in their mews (and almost ending up on my ass while holding Priscilla), the forecast had been upgraded to 6 to 8 inches.
Okaaaaayy....
My trip home usually lasts about 30 minutes. Last night, it took 3 hours.
One of the local radio stations was taking requests from people stuck out in the mess on the highways. Someone requested a good one:


I didn't get above 9 miles an hour. For 3 hours.

This morning, with my good humor restored, we were able to go out and enjoy all the annoying loveliness:


That's a foot of snow on the table behind Isabelle.



Lorelei enjoyed herself, until......

...while making a snow angel, Nellie went in for a kiss and pushed a quart of snow into her face. That was that for Lorelei.


What is it about snow that makes dogs go out of their minds?

"Let's play, Nellie! RRrrrrrrrrr!"

Hooper's a big dog. The snow was hitting his shoulders:



It did my heart good to see Nellie romp and frolic like she was a puppy, instead of a geezer 8 year old:





The pictures don't do it justice. It was a yard full of diamonds.

And now....the goofiest pic I got today:




Hooper in full "Snow Gritties" mode.

happy endings

A random wind blows through the blog tonight....

It's Autumn, that time of year we give pumpkins to captive animals:

I don't know if Earl is enjoying these or just staring at them all day. I will check back often.


A "pearly" beak for Lynne.

Fall, a time we bury our kids in bright red, freshly fallen leaves:

(That's Lorelei under all that)


*slurp*...."you taste like leaves and cookies, Little Human"

The sun is nearly gone by 5:30 pm:

This is what is called the "Mile Marker 14 Bird", a red-tailed hawk seen at the Ronald Reagan Highway exit off I-71. It always seems to be here, and this is the first photo I have ever been able to get of it...and I have been trying for 3 years. I was on the phone with Geoff while waiting at the light, and when I saw it, I yelled, "The Mile Marker bird! Call you back!"...and hung up on him. He understands.
Is this the same bird that everyone has been seeing for so many years? Maybe, maybe not. Choice hunting grounds like this are filled quickly when a resident hawk disappears. And highways are choice hunting grounds...if you take away the traffic. Lots of perches, wide open spaces (in between the cars going 70 mph). A good place to look for injured birds, too. I've gotten into the habit of glancing at medians since discovering RAPTOR. Most of the time, it's long-dead piles of feathers, but I check anyway.

A sign spotted the other day....


"Happy Endings Nailz"? WTF?
A nail salon that gives happy endings? I don't even want to know...

Here and there, this and that

Nothing exciting is afoot around here, but I have snapped a few good pictures lately.
***

Someone please tell my dog she needs to relax:

"Zzzzzzz...........snort......Zzzzzz...."


"Talk to the paw."





The last scene of Charlotte's Web is being reenacted on our front door:

Tiny, perfect little predators.


But zoom in and it's kinda nightmarish. Feel anything crawly on your neck right now?


Oh, here's some fun news. RAPTOR, Inc. has a new program bird:

A female American Kestrel. Kestrels are one of the few raptors you can sex by color. Males have pretty blue-gray wings, and females are rusty and barred all the way across.
A very relaxed bird, at least as far as kestrels are concerned. A usually spazzy species, this lady is nowhere near as nuts at Steel.

Hmm. I guess this one needs a name, too? Anyone have any ideas?
She was our kestrel foster mom last year. She came in during the nesting season (blind in one eye) and was still hormonal enough to be able to brood and feed some orphans we had. She decided not to assist us this year. So now she has her spiffy jesses and will soon be on our permit.

Let's just soak in that face....

That's a fairly adorable bird right there.

Yeti

This time of year makes me want to run around the yard screaming my head off...in a good way.
It's a thrilling time, with a freshly arrived migrant around every corner, or a sleepy overwintered butterfly.

I get all mushy with field sparrows. Those girly pink legs and bill. Oooooo.


I remembered today how fun last summer was, when I discovered "butterflying".
(Eastern tailed blue)


A crescent? I need to dig out my butterfly field guide. I'm rusty.

Gratuitous Nellie photos:

Running. With one of my nice hanging baskets in front of her face. Der.

And the reason Nellie failed the Emily Post class:

Good grief, Nellie. Can you ever act like a lady?
(There's also a female cardinal on the feeder right outside the window)


The newest member of the Yard:

This is a weeping willow...no, it's not a native tree. But I wanted one anyway. This spot is where the pond will go, when Geoff says it's okay to do it.
On the way home, Lorelei was in the back seat with the tree (sticking into the car from the trunk...it's like 7 or 8 feet tall), playing with a doll and the leaves. She started acting like the tree was a yeti, and I thought that would make a good name for a tree who will someday be 40-50 feet tall and 40-50 feet in diameter.
So let's all give it up for The Yeti.

Hey, Nellie....your buddies are back

Pick any day, and you can go about it thinking that it will be just an ordinary one.
While getting ready to take Lorelei out for the day, I glanced out the back windows, as I have been doing since March 25, expecting to see an empty spot on the martin housing.
But there was someone there:


A tree swallow.
I said in a quiet but persnickety voice, "Where the HELL have you BEEN?"



It even checked out the TRES digs. They failed last year, but the year before they raised and flew off with 5 young. May we have a normal amount of rain this year. We need bugs, and lots of 'em. I can't wait until Nellie sees them. What a wuss.

A new yard bird was nice...but with a sad twist:

A female purple finch. But she has mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. Dammit.
(It looks like that goldfinch is staring at her, doesn't it?)


There's also a male house finch with both of his eyes nearly gummed shut. So that's three birds who are affected...at least that I have seen. Looks like it is time to take down the feeders for awhile. The most I have seen with the disease at one time is just one bird. So this is a 300% increase. Dammit.

Let's cleanse with a happy little chipping sparrow. I never get tired of looking at this tiny bundles of sweetness:




And for your additional cleansing enjoyment, a quickie Nellie video: