And they shall call him Boomer

I have to leave soon for a RAPTOR board meeting, and Blogger is making me wish I had a gun.
But he's here, and his name is Boomer.
When I get back, I will try to get pictures up.

Boston baked beans, Boston creme pie, Boston....terrier?

I took Floyd (the stray cat) to a local shelter today. It was time...no one wanted him, and I wasn't about to ask Rachel and Kevin, since they have 8 cats, some of them temporary, some not. While I was at the shelter, I decided to look at the dogs.

I looked at all the dogs, and also peeked in the cat room.

They have so many animals. My heart kept getting lodged up in my throat.

But something made me go back into the dog room.

As I walked down the aisle, I noticed a dog that had not been there a few minutes ago.

*Insert dreamy, lovey music*

Warning: I took these pictures with my camera phone, and I don't know how to enlarge them. But you will get the idea.

It was like a very skinny Chet Baker, staring out through the bars of the cage.
I asked the staff to bring him to a "Get acquainted" room.

I sat down on the floor as he came in, and he proceeded to climb into my lap, put his paws around my neck and placed his chin on my shoulder. Then he sighed.

About that time Geoff called, wondering where I was. I told him what was up, and to his credit, he didn't yell or faint.

How to describe this small package of dog love? He is, as I said above, very skinny. He was a stray, about 2 years old and unaltered (read male genitalia intact) and dirty.

But I didn't really see that. He is sweetness incarnate. Some kids came down the hall with us and this little guy was a mess of wiggles, trying to kiss them. Sigh.

Tomorrow he is going to the vet, and they will check him out for heartworm (he hasn't been at the shelter long enough for them to do that) and see if he has enough weight to neuter him. Then, if we wish, he's ours.

I will delete any comments that state that we are crazy or stupid for maybe having another dog. I am happy and in love. I'm not hearing anything else.

Picking up chicks

I could have begged off, stating that I am tired, but that would be two days in a row of not blogging and that is unexceptable.

I got a call to pick up an injured bird tonight, and this time, when I got there, the bird was still around. The person who called us had put a large box over it. I didn't know what I would find under there, so I peeked and saw a very red tail.

*First year red-tailed hawk*

(At least it wasn't something dumb like a chicken or turkey)

It had visible blood on its chest, and the woman said that the neighbor shoots starlings and cats. Nice. After a few phone calls, I got hold of who to take it to, which turned out to be Marc and Cindy. They live pretty close to me, and that's a good thing because my round trip tonight was 76 miles. Ever notice that I don't do things small?
The poor guy was checked out, head to talons...
...and weighed...
...and taken to another volunteer's house (Melinda and Irv...that's Melinda holding it)

There was no wound under the blood, but the bird had plenty of it in its mouth and raspy breathing, so it's not clear exactly what happened. I will be sure to give updates when I hear anything.

Now to yesterday and the reason I didn't blog:

My lovely mother, my niece and I went to Cirque Du Soleil. and may I say

OH MY GOD.

It's hard to describe a show like this, so all I will say now is that some people are made of rubber. I was impressed and awed and humbled by these performers. And they are on a tour of North America, so if they come anywhere near you, sell plasma or hock some jewelry, because it's worth it.

Goin' South

Today was my mom's family Second Annual Family get-together down south

in northern Kentucky.

We usually see each other at Christmas, or if we're lucky, the girls' birthday parties.

I think that my family secretly thinks I am a flake (which was probably true a long time ago) but I am proud of what I do at RAPTOR, and thought that some live entertainment would liven up the shindig. I wanted to show them what I do...the coolest job in the world.

I brought the red screech owl, the great horned owl and dear sweet Lucy.

This is the only shot Geoff was able to get on my close-to-death digital camera (it's going south, too).

I remembered a comment on Birdchick

about cheap digital cameras at drug stores. So I went in to look and found this tiny little camera for $10. It's not one of those disposible ones...I checked them out, and they take film. Um, doesn't that go against the "digital" idea?

I just can't go without a digital camera. The girls do way too many cute things, and I have to blog, so we will see how this tiny camera does. It doesn't zoom, and there is no monitor, but it will work in a pinch.

As I drove over most of the Greater Cincinnati area today, I lost count of how many monarch butterflies I saw. And every time one appeared, I looked at my compass, and they were always going south. It was cool.

Want to see the "birth" of a monarch? Check out this post at Laura's blog. That's one dedicated gal!

Have.....to.....blog......

I didn't take any photos today, but blogging is like heroin, so I grabbed some past pictures that were either taken before the genesis of "Susan Gets Native" or ones that I just never got around to posting:

I tried to paint once, many moons ago. My in-laws have this really depressing painting I did back when Geoff and I were dating. I like the cloud, but the rest is just embarassing.
A busy beaver did a number on this tree at Lake Isabella. I have never seen a "beaver tree" before. I can't imagine chewing through a whole tree. I have a hard enough time with a big saw.

Blue moon

Oh, I will catch Holy Hell for this one.

This is my ever-twisted father in law...the one who comes up with comment names like Maude Festermeister, the Yak Herder, etc.

Last Easter, the girls had bunny ears, and I decided that everyone needed to wear them for me to photograph. It took a lot of coersion to get Jim to put them on.

Let the comments roll in...

A near perfect day

Another day, another program. And I rocked, again.

Today, I presented to 11th and 12th graders in back-to-back classes at Wyoming High School. A nice school in a nice neightborhood (it was named a Top 100 School in Newsweek!).

I took the gray screech owl, the great horned owl and Lucy the peregrine falcon. The discussion was about owl pellets, but I thought that since Lucy also produces pellets, she would make a nice bonus bird. And I love her and love to take her places.

And check out my parking spot:

The PRINCIPAL gave me her parking space this morning, to make it easier for me to bring in the birds. Add that to driving a 2007 Saturn Aura, and I felt like a princess.

(sorry I didn't get a picture of it)
I peeked in on Isis, our leucistic red-tailed hawk. I hope others will start working with her more so she can become a perfect program bird. She is fairly calm on the glove, but she startles easily and she is super strong. And since she has bilateral wing amputations, she needs assistance when she bates, to get her back up on the glove.
Our gray screech owl in her newly minted feathers.
And I can't help but laugh a little when they get all squinty-eyed in the sunlight.

Look how well she blends in with seasoned wood...imagine trying to find her in a living tree.

And a day is not complete until you get to see hunky firemen answering the call of duty.

(They were responding to a broken-down car that was leaking something...gasoline?)

Another first day of school, weird wells, birds and fruit

Did anyone notice my absence? I was out late last night doing a program. And guess what?

I ROCKED.

I sounded like I knew what I was talking about, they asked intelligent questions (They were all birders) and I gave intelligent answers. I just may be able to do this!

What you missed the last two days:

Lorelei's first day of school was Tuesday. She was teary and clingy, but I checked in on her later, and all was well. And speaking of wells:
Today, my car overheated AGAIN and didn't cool off when I got on the interstate like it usually does (we have been procrastinating) so we took it in to the mechanic and rented a car, because I have a program early in the morning and the girls have to go to school. I will take a photo of it in the morning...it's a '07! After getting the car we went to the Nature Center. This is, yet again, eerie proof that this land was lived on once upon a time. The well is filled in, thank goodness, so curious little girls can't fall in.
Okay, Mistress Gardener...what is this? It is growing wild in huge patches in front of the Krippendorf Lodge, where the "lawn" used to be, presumably. There are no visible leaves and they seem to do well in the shade of the forest. The ones that are closed resemble mini tulips but they open fully and look very un-tulip like..
Last night, as I gathered birds for my program, I met Junior again. History of Junior: He was brought in as a rehab bird, was fixed up and released at RAPTOR, Inc. Since then, he has hung around and is seen regularly. But last night, he was sitting atop the gate I needed to go through and the gate I would be bringing birds out of. I didn't know what he would do, frankly. He made what sounded like begging noises, and actually HOOTED at me. It's a bit early for nesting, so I don't think that he assumed I was a large female owl he wanted to get with. I didn't want him to land on my head or something crazy like that, so I had to resort to waving a stick at him until he flew off to another perch. He came back as I tried to leave with Lucy, so I had to give him a little poke in the rear with the stick again from below.

He was there when I brought the birds back after the program, but instead of sitting on the gate, he paraded back and forth in the glow of my headlights in the driveway. It was like he was saying, "Look at me! I'm such a handsome bird!" What a goof.
On our walk tonight, we found these weird fruits. They sort of resemble pears, but it didn't look like a pear tree. Pawpaws, maybe? I've never seen them still on the tree, just smashed along the road. I really need to study trees.