No TV, Just Life: The Menagerie expands

I wonder what woke me up this morning. Was it Ziva wanting to go out before five? No, I ignored that. Was it the alarm going off at six? No, I ignored that. Was it perhaps Lady Jane, plopping off the curtains straight onto my face, drawing blood? Oh, yeah – that was it!

Now I’ve got Ziva and Shadow talking my head off and four kittens zooming around like pinballs! So I kicked the mommies out and let the Mip Mips zoom.

An hour or more and they are going to sleep. So, guess what? Ziva comes in and wakes them all up again! Sigh. I fuss over her and whichever Mip Mip is in reach until Ziva goes out again.

Another hour later and she wants to come in again. With a feckin’ bird in her mouth! Again! This time a smaller one – also still alive! I had one heck of a time trying to get the poor thing away from Ziva, the Mip Mips and Shadow! Ziva is really, really fast and got hold of the poor thing a few times before I finally managed to rescue it. Got a towel, placed it in the towel, got the pipette, gave it some water, locked the Mip Mips into the bedroom … during which birdie hopped out of the towel and Ziva is on it again. Get the bird, toss Ziva out, bird back into towel, and toss Shadow out – both sit in front of the door protesting loudly!

Male Starling, missing it's tail feathers (which will grow again) and with a broken leg. Which I hope will mend.

This bird behaves very differently to the pigeon – I’m afraid I’m completely ignorant where birds are concerned, so I’m sorry to say it got away from me again. Then I finally got wise and closed the towel over its head.

So, now what do I do with this bird? It’s evidently injured and – unlike the pigeon – won’t be flying off anytime soon. In Natal they have CROW – Centre for Rehabilitation Of Wildlife. Rose is out – and I don’t want to bother her. Vet? I doubt they’ll be open – it’s Saturday, after noon and a Public Holiday. Most probably it will only need some time to recuperate. And it is not the first bird, so I doubt it will be the last. So I decide to try a Pet Shop, there’s one in Cape Road I know deals ONLY with birds and fish. No puppies, kittens or such. I’ve often seen birds congregate outside their door pecking at seeds the staff has put out for them. I figure the best solution would be to get a bird cage. I call and they are indeed open, so off I go – bird in towel going with me.

Good thing I took the bird with me, too! The guy at the store not only identified it as a male Starling, but checked it for injuries, too. Both wings are fine, it’s missing its tail feathers – but one leg is broken. At the joint, which is bad. He puts a splint on the bird and I buy a cage. The small cage they bring would be adequate for the Starling, but I ask for a larger one – adequate for a pigeon. I pay only for the cage – he doesn’t accept my offer to charge for splinting the leg. He suggests keeping the perch out, and placing the food and water on the floor. I don’t think any vet could have done more.

So now my menagerie is increased by one Starling! He’s quite happy in his cage, eating the grapes and kitten-mousse I put down for him. When I get too close, he tries to fly away – so I’ll leave him in peace in the spare bedroom, where he’s safe from all felines! Now I just have to figure out where / how to hang up my laundry without disturbing the bird!

During Rose’s visit Mewthos had us literally laughing tears! He jumped onto the flower pot tray – which I’ve put inside the flower pot. Walked around on the lid, till it swiveled and he plopped inside! Then one of the twins investigated, effectively shutting Mewthos inside the flower pot, then, when he fell in, Mewthos shot out on the other side like he was ejected! Later he fell head first into the bin – we were laughing so hard, we had tears in our eyes!

Mewthos inside,
Ziva investigating

Ziva keeps sniffing around the spare bedroom door – I guess she can smell the bird is inside. I’ve played rat-race with the Mip Mips again, hopefully they’ll be tired when I want to go to sleep.