Boyfie proves he is completely recovered

The weather has been warm for the last 3 days so he's been out more often
and for longer instead of lounging on his duvet.
So he went hunting today and presented me with a baby magpie (deceased) this
afternoon, still warm. Now normally I don't like it if he catches birds but
I make an exception for magpies as they rob other birds nests of eggs and
nestlings (yes I know they have to) but I have lost so many songbird nests
to magpies that I was actually glad that this one would not grow up.

It also means the Boy is feeling fine enough to hunt again - or at least
take an interest - but as is his wont it was one just fledged, like his rats
that he only tackles when they are no bigger than twice the size of mice.
He certainly wouldn't have tried an adult magpie in case it pecked him (it
would have done) and he insists I get the terriers in for the big rats.
Anyway, the point is that it's like his injury never happened as far as long
term consequences are concerned, thanks to my brilliant vet, so I have no
need to update his health status again. He's looking a mess with his hair
shaving but so am I.

On Tue, 20 May 2014 01:03:02 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

The weather has been warm for the last 3 days so he's been out more often
and for longer instead of lounging on his duvet.
So he went hunting today and presented me with a baby magpie (deceased) this
afternoon, still warm. Now normally I don't like it if he catches birds but
I make an exception for magpies as they rob other birds nests of eggs and
nestlings (yes I know they have to) but I have lost so many songbird nests
to magpies that I was actually glad that this one would not grow up.

It also means the Boy is feeling fine enough to hunt again - or at least
take an interest - but as is his wont it was one just fledged, like his rats
that he only tackles when they are no bigger than twice the size of mice.
He certainly wouldn't have tried an adult magpie in case it pecked him (it
would have done) and he insists I get the terriers in for the big rats.
Anyway, the point is that it's like his injury never happened as far as long
term consequences are concerned, thanks to my brilliant vet, so I have no
need to update his health status again. He's looking a mess with his hair
shaving but so am I.

Very good news. On the bird front, my cats killed two birds over the
weekend!. It's very rare for them to kill even one since Espy died -
he was the only one who really liked going after birds. The others lie
around and watch them but rarely take a shot at one. Well, I saw some
commotion between the cats so I went out to investiage and Marlo had a
little bird, maybe a fledgling, in her mouth. I got it away from her
and put it in a box but it wasn't in good shape.

I put the box on top of the grill, where the cats wouldn't notice it.
It was looking a bit better later on and I gave it a bit of water. At
some point it hopped out of the box and fell to the ground, then half
flew into the corner of the fencing where I couldn't easily get to it.
It couldn't fly much if at all.

Later I saw that Scooter now was playing with a dead bird and I guess
that he must have found it and killed it. I thought that was better
than leaving it to suffer so I didn't feel too bad about it, and I put
it in a bag and placed it lovingly in the garbage. Later I went out
and saw another dead bird lying in the grass! So my guess is that some
nest must have been overturned by the strong winds and the cats just
found the birds on the ground.

I feel terrible each time I find a dead bird, but I figure that I put
out tons of bird seed throughout the winter and even have a heated
birdbath, so it more than balances out.