So tired...

I have learned that when I am this tired, my posts tend to suck.
I did a program today at Chilo Lock #34 Park way far away, down the old O-Hi-O.
I drove over 200 miles today.
I am going to check out everyone else's blog and post tomorrow.

Sweet Mother Mary, he has a blog

I don't believe it.
I must be high.

Jim, my oh-so-weird father in law, has a BLOG. And it has been registered since 2004.
2004? A year before I started mine?

All the times I have told him, beseeched him, begged him to get his OWN blog, and he's always had it? What a stinker.

You know, there will be no living with him now. You know that, don't you?

14 Things you may not know about moi

No idea why I am listing these...maybe because I am at a loss at to what I should post about?

1. My maiden name is Susan Kay Kailholz. (and no one could ever spell it...thank goodness Geoff's name was Williams)

2. I am totally addicted to a show targeted at teenagers: Degrassi: The Next Generation.

3. I can recite all 50 states in alphabetical order.

4. I can say " Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" backwards. (You know, from Mary Poppins?)

5. I was born a little bit premature and I have a hole in my back where my spine didn't fuse.

6. I have Gone With The Wind memorized. (the movie, not the book)

7. My favorite color is green...not that you could tell from my blog or anything.

8. I was in a pageant once.

9. My first car was a 1981 Chrysler Cordoba. (With fine, Corinthian leather....) And it had T-tops...I was so cool.

10. I can play the alto sax.

11. I was in accelerated education in grade school...someone actually thought I was "gifted". That ended in high school.

12. I don't like vegatables.

13. Geoff and I honeymooned in Great Britain.

14. I am an ex-big haired, rock 'n' roll concert-goin', head-bangin' chick.

He's gettin' there...

Everyone wants "smiley" photos of Boomer.

Today, he got real close.

So close...

Even closer...

As far as dog smiles go, this was the best we could get today.

(In this picture, he is dancing on the couch.)

Ha ha! Busted!

He is a dog of good manners, but ignored chicken patties are irresistable.

Hero of the Year

Animal Planet has 10 finalists in the "Hero of the Year" award, and a fellow Ohio rehabber has made the top 10.
I met Mona Rutger up at Crane Creek in northern Ohio during our annual bird trip. She and her husband Bill run Back to the Wild, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and care of injured wildlife. They do a great presentation every year on International Migratory Bird Day at Magee Marsh with raptors...bald eagles, golden eagles, all kinds of hawks and owls. When I met her, one of her volunteers had just brought in a great horned owl nestling a birder had found off the bird trail. I came away from the meeting thinking that this woman was intelligent, dedicated and just a nice person. I thought, "What a cool job. I wish I could do that."
And look at me now!
So...go to Animal Planet's website and check out the finalists. And I would consider it a personal favor if you vote for Mona. (she is in the lead right now!)

A visit to the vet And 100 Mile Birds

Lorelei and I took the injured barred owl back this morning. Lorelei demanded to see Lucy, and I was more than happy to oblige.

Lorelei also wanted to see Earl, so I shot this from the doorway. I didn't have my gloves, and was not up to wrestling a old geezer vulture.
I had to do this to Lorelei: We went up to the RAPTOR house, (which needs renters, if anyone is interested) and told her to look up. Her face was priceless. She was startled, but curious at the same time. I'll bet my FIL will have comments from local taxidermists?

The aisle between mews for the program birds.
Top floor of the RAPTOR house.

This house has so much "cool" potential. Three floors, with the top floor like a studio...three bedrooms. All the renters have to do is feed the birds during the week and pay a very reasonable monthly rent.

100 Mile Birds:

The last two injured birds I have picked up, I have racked up 100 miles or more, each, round trip.

Some people would choose not to do that. And that's okay. It's what you care about that matters to you, and birds just happen to be my thing. Some people would drive 100 miles for a sea turtle (my mom, for example), or a croc, or a groundhog...you get the message.

A "100 mile bird" has become a sort of justification system in my head. I care, so I take the time.

So, everyone, what is YOUR "100 mile bird"?

This came in the mail today. Boomer's first mail!

Wendi, who frequents this blog and occasionally leaves very awesome comments, was cooking up a batch of doggie cookies for Chet Baker and asked me if Boomer would like some, too.

What a sweet gal. Thanks, Wendi! The dogs LOVE them. If you give me the recipe, I would like to post it here.

It was time to visit the vet with Boomer. He didn't seem to be gaining much weight after a week of decadence.

I so love this dog. He was as calm at the vet as he is at home.

Stats: No tapeworm, as far as we know.

He now weighs 22 pounds, up from 19 pounds last week. Not bad, but not good enough.

He was dewormed again with a broad spectrum dewormer, given his first heartworm preventative and is to return in 2 weeks for another weight check and vaccines. He is close to the dividing line of dosages in reference to poundage, so we have to wait for his weight.

I swear, I try to get smiley face pictures of this dog. But...this is how he looks a lot of the time. He gets happy and bouncy when we come home, come out of the bathroom, lay on the floor. But get food out and it's Mr. Pitiful Face. I just know he has been beaten and/or neglected. He is "head shy", so we treat his head and face gently as we kiss and chew. I was carrying a stick out of Isabelle's room (from a wall map that fell) and Boomer saw the stick and hit the floor, cowering.

Ever want to clobber someone with a skillet? I wish I knew who threw this boy away.

Instead of bats in the belfry...

...I have an owl in the garage. But let's get to that in a minute.

Tired of Boomer yet?

Too bad.

His new favorite place to sleep in on our old Boppy pillow. At least someone is getting some use out of it...the girls never liked it.
He somehow curled himself tight enough to fit into our old doorway bouncer. (For those who don't have kids, this is something that you attach to the top of a doorway, plop a baby in, and let them bounce...and bounce...and bounce.
Okay, now the owl.

I got a call about an injured bird for RAPTOR. It was a barred owl.

(I didn't get photos of today's owl...too busy wrestling it and trying to convince it that I was there to help)

Aren't they just striking? They look all cuddly and sweet, but let me just tell ya...they are still PREDATORS.

I couldn't get hold of any of our rehabbers at first...two are in Europe, one was in Columbus, and the others didn't answer their phones.

I finally did get hold of one, but by that time I was home. So I will take it to RAPTOR tomorrow morning after it spends the night in our nice, dark garage. No worries...it will be fine.

When I drop it off, I will try to get photos.

A walk in the woods with Boomer, and a glimpse of Eden

Boomer's first visit to the Cincinnati Nature Center was wonderful. Warm sun, a cool breeze, two cute kids and one sweet dog. Outside the visitor center is a holder for the current season's wildflowers. I can't remember them all, but the far left is Jeruselum Artichoke, Cattails, Asters, Tall Goldenrod, Clover, Colchicum, and I don't remember the white flowers. The last holder was labeled "Mystery Larvae, 07-07-06. Eeewww.

***I was all set to go through the visitor center to get to the bird watching area, but this sign was on the door.
HUMPH.

***

A bit of snuggle time with Isabelle and Boomer presented me with this photo op.

Yum...kid and dog butts.

***

They will all be gone soon, but this monarch gave us a nice moment as it rested on its way south.

***

I was tired as we came home, and I started to clean the living room and stack up laundry. I saw that Geoff had brought in the mail, so I browsed through the pile. At the bottom was the thing that has had my heart singing out loud all afternoon:

Letters From Eden, by Julie Zickefoose.

And not only did Julie inscribe it, but Chet made his mark, too!

Don't you just LOVE Julie?

Boomer has dibs on the book after I am done with it.

Baby Boomer, Meeting Nona and Grandpa

It was time for Boomer to meet his other grandparents, Jim and Rita.

While we waited for Rita to return from a trip to Cumberland, Isabelle took a few nice pictures.

Here's one of them:

Boomer is an extremely tolerant dog. Case in point:

He lets the girls put their baby dolls on his back so they can ride him like a horse:

Boomer had no trouble relaxing at Jim and Rita's. The poor guy sleeps like he has never slept before now. Jim had a good point that when you are out in the wild, it's harder to get a good night's sleep at all. Boomer seems to be making up for lost time.

Oooh...I loves me some Boston Terrier!

He found a stuffed badger (I tell ya, Jim has a thing for weird animals...once, when Isabelle was a baby, he gave her "Baby's First Weasel"). I felt shades of Chet as I watched him try to remove the stuffing.

He also found one of Roxy's rawhides. He was enjoying it immensely, but I had to take it away, because he was way too possessive of it. But to his credit, he didn't give me any grief when I took it.

Warning: Cute dog and bird faces

Boomer can now march proudly forth as an "owned" dog: We got him a spanking new blue collar and a nifty tag.

This dog is totally as ease in our house. He is practicing how to best hold down our couch.

"Please, Mom? Treat? Treeeeeeet???"

Boomer looks like a puppy here. Couldn't you just chew on his jowls?

Since I consider this a birding blog, I thought I would add a picture of Lucy from a four-hour program at the Cincinnati Nature Center today.

Marc brought the birds for us, which makes it nice for me.

He brought:

Isis (leucisitic red-tailed hawk)

Lucy (Peregrine Falcon)

Sylvester (Great Horned Owl)

Hudy (red eastern screech owl)

Steel (Male American Kestrel)
5 birds...whew!

Boomer meets Grandma and Bailey, Swallowtail caterpillar

Today we took Boomer to meet his new Grandma (my Mom). As you can tell, she just can't stand him.

Lorelei hates him too.

BOOMER BABUSHKA!

Bailey and Boomer make a cute set...black on black.

When food is present, Boomer has this adorable way of blowing drool bubbles.

Look how scrawny he is. But I bought some yummy fattening treats and some bacon-flavored gravy to pour on his food. He approves. And today, he got a bath and he is a little shinier, a little smoother.

I took him to the RAPTOR board meeting with me, 1. To show him off and 2. to show him off.

And he fell asleep in Lorelei's car seat on the way home.

This must be how he survived on his own. Aside from blowing drool bubbles when food is around, he also hits the floor and has this endearing way of looking pitiful. Who wouldn't feed that?

Non-Boomer segue:

I found a great caterpillar in the dill yesterday and showed it to Isabelle when she got home from school. She was so enchanted, I got choked up. My girl is full of such wonder, and gentleness. To use an Isabelle-ism, "I do so love her!"

A cool thing about having a new dog is all the time I spend outside at night, waiting for Boomer to bless every tree. I got to hear our resident Barred Owl, and that plaintive, lonely sound makes me happy.

Last night, driving to a program, I saw a sun dog. I didn't get a pic, since I was going about 70 mph, but if you want to see a well-done pic of a sun dog, go to Bill's blog.

And by the way, I rocked yet again last night, presenting to a group of 50 Cub Scouts and their parents. To use a phrase of Birdchick's:

WHOOT!

Just to give you something to read

Blogger is yet again being cranky. I have some cute pictures of Mr. Boomer, and stories to tell.
I will be at my Mom's today, so hopefully by this evening I will be able to upload photos.
There's a lot to post about:
Sun dogs
Swallowtails
RAPTOR
Boomer
Kids
Boomer
Owls
and Boomer

They shall call him Boomer, Part Deux

Oh, fate has brought to our door and hearts a champion against sorrow, against loneliness.

He has been neutered (ouch!), treated for a case of hookworms (itch!) and is on antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection (sneeze!).

On the way home from the vet, he split his time between the seat next to me, and the seat between the girls. I had nothing to worry about when it came to Nellie and Boomer meeting for the first time. Nellie instantly became the submissive one, and all is well. Food growling happened a little bit, but I'm sure once Boomer realizes that he can have all that he can hold, that will disappear.
The girls love him, Geoff loves him and all those feelings are mutual. Boomer REALLY likes Geoff. We should all go over to Geoff's blog and congratulate him on being a new "daddy".
There was a lot of butt sniffing going on. But look closely at Boomer's back and ribs and hips. He is not just thin, but the vet used the word "emaciated". He has a sharp hourglass figure.

"Hey, new big sister...let's play!"

It's one big love fest here at the Williams'.