My summer has been very interesting so far... Sorry that I haven't replied to a lot of peoples comments, or seen some peoples artwork, or really been on that much at all. The past couple weeks have had me tired and kinda bummed, but all should clear up now ^ ^

I have a new volunteer job at a state park, where I get to care for all of their small critters. It's really quite cool, only bad parts are the 30 minute drive to get out there, killing the mice, and sorting the dead chicks for the raptors (that one really gets me since I love chickens). But otherwise I get to care for the feeder mice, mudpuppies, newts, snakes, geckos, turtles, catfish, etc. Fun stuff, and good references for job applications.

Then three weeks ago, as my sister and I were taking the dog for a walk on a rainy day, we found an abandoned litter of four kittens. We had found another kitten there about three years ago, same type of coloration. I think someone uses it as their kitten dumping site... but anyway, we have spent the past three weeks trying to find homes for all of them, and finally with the help of my friends, all of the kittens have been adopted. They were very cute, and very very playful. It was hard to wear them out while we had them XD.

It was kinda sad that they were dumped, because they loved people, were litter trained, and really were quite afraid of being outdoors, especially with all the rain... Does it really cost that much in the long run to neuter or spay your cat? I mean for all the cost the kitty food would be and the extra litter and perhaps complications that could occur, a $30-60 fix doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Especially since, as we were trying to find some place to take them, all of the shelters, pet stores, internet and newpaper ads were full... no... OVERLOADED with kitten and cats. And how many of those will actually find homes? Bah anyway... enough with the rant. I do love cats, but when choosing between cats and birds, I am a bird person at heart.

Sooo birds? Well... pretty much the week after class ended, my dear baby bird Gunther took a turn for the worse. He couldn't stay on his perch, he wasn't eating very much, medicines weren't working even with the new vet. After nearly three months of fighting his illness, Gunther pretty much gave up. At around 10 pm on May 12 he started having seizures, and we rushed him to a 24 hour vet hospital. They stabilized him, then told us (in the kindest possible way, which I appreciated) with a little guy like him there wasn't much hope and we should consider euthanasia. I have to say that was one of the toughest decisions of my life, but anyway we put him out of his suffering. Needless to say that kind of put me out of wack for a while.

Anyway for once in my life, I did not want anymore birds. I did not want to see any birds, I didn't want to talk about birds, no more birds that I may be responsible for, that could die because I failed to find out what was wrong...

But about a month later when we went to the pet store to get more parakeet seed, the employee offered to let the conures out for us to handle, and I have to say the cuddly green-cheeks really can warm the heart. X3 They love to snuggle, kinda like cockatoos only downsized. My dad had been talking about how much he liked them for a while, and I suppose my parents felt bad about Gunther? (I don't know why they would have agreed in any case) but they were willing to get a green-cheek. So the next bird fair here comes Osiris, the pineapple mutation of a green-cheek conure. He is two months old, very cuddly, a bit nippy (but he just got weaned and is learning), but very sweet. Very cute.

He may be my last bird too... I mean I may try to keep at least one quail, and one parakeet, once all of mine pass away. But I don't think I'm going to breed anymore, or have the whole flock of them like I do now. Soon I will have a full time job, and a lot of other things to consider... and it really does hurt to lose them. So anyway...

On a happier note! Hopefully I can finally finish those UBER SUPER SPECIAL LATE GRADUATION THANK YOU CARDS!!! that I have been working on for a year, get some more art and pictures up, and FINALLY start the comic that my friend wrote for me! Off to work!