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!

Most of my parakeets live outside for the majority of the year. There are four that stay inside. Gluttony, Gaul,--> [link] Mochi, and Redux --> [link] And these are some of their tales. >W<


Tale One

So it was the last five minutes of Iron Man, an epic epic movie and all that was heard was:
*chirp chirp chirp squwak chirp chirp* (etc.)
My sister and I:
"Shush! Guys its quiet time. No chirping during quiet time!"
*tentitive chirp*
"No. No chirping. Silence. That is quiet time. SILENCE!"
*chirp?*
"No. Shhhhshhhhhshhhhhhhhshhh!"
DEAD SILENCE
Gluttony: *you're weird*


Tale Two

A nice 'quiet' evening as peaceful as it can be with the four dorks out. My sister and I playing video games, dog at our feet.... when out of no where a periwinkle blue bomb falls from the sky to land on unsuspecting dog.
Dog not happy.
Dog run to humans for solution.
Humans laughing to hard to help.
And so for the past two days Mochi has landed on poor Mia when ever she is in the room. Wither it be head back or tail, the poor dog is ridden around the room like a rodeo horse. Poor poor puppy.

Finals o' finals
I hate you soo much!
I think I may fail you
which would not tough
I study and study
but it won't be enough!
So I think I may leave it
and sit in the muck?

Woo! An A+++++ in poetry (if I were taking it)!!!
Huzzah!

Mohawk died today, one of my older quail. T-T I was giving out mealworms and he didn't come out, he's usually the first one there. I found him under one of the ferns. Not sure how he died, but I'm really sad... I really have to stop telling people who my favorite birds are... Every single time I have, they have died within the month... so yeah...

Well as the school (or well.. college) year creeps stealthily around the corner ready to pounce on its dreamy-eyed, summer-high victims, I have remained deep in hiding trying to elude those evil claws of schooldom. It has already claimed several of my collegues dragging them to far off or rather close institues, but I have dreams I can elude it.
Bah yeah right...
As doomsday comes I have tryed to find anyway to keep my mind off it, which in this case means braving my many many deviations to look through...

And still trying and failing to make all my thankyou cards for graduation. I was told to just make one and copy it but I wanted to make them personal: the persons favorite or influencial animal on the inside, another on the back, and a creatively written thank you note on each. But for around 30 people its getting to be a bit much T_T
But I'm proud of them and even if it takes me until next year I hope to do them all that way ^ ^
My Great Aunt couldn't even tell that it was hand drawn! XD.... but whether that is due to quality or old age remains questionable.

I'm sad I didn't get to do nearly as many things as I wanted to this summer, which flew right by and left me in the dust. But I suppose it was 'ok' overall...

Highlight: I got to hand-raise my baby bird. Unfortunately, I meant to raise around five for the friends of the lady I sold Tako to, but due to the soapopera that is my aviary I only got one hatchling who the first time mother sat too long on and gave the chick half-splayed legs. They would have been all splayed but we got them realitively back to shape before her hips hardened. And thus we have Mochi, the most adorable hand-raised bird yet. An only child she is a bit spoiled but still cute. She lets you scratch her head, and when you roll her up in paper towels she goes totally limp and falls asleep. Since she is slightly handycapped we are keeping her, or rather I convinced my parents that we should keep her, or rather she convinced my parents we should keep her...-_-

Anyway Mer is my hero and I wish her sister a happy birthday...