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5/29/2006 Multitasking, anyone?If I were a computer, I might be able to multitask. But being the creature that I am, my brain is not capable of handling several things at one time. Some folks, admittedly, can multitask. But you won't find me in that category.
Here's a recent example:
I currently have the honor of babysitting M.J.'s birds while she is out of town for a week. I have to drive to where she is keeping her birds (a couple miles up the road) & make sure their cages are clean & they are well fed & watered. I do this twice a day, sometimes spending an hour with them so they don't feel totally alone. In addition, I have my own flock of 10 birds to care for. Besides routine maintenance, I must keep my floors all clean because Sally is over 15 years old now, and having frequent accidents in the house.
Now, back to the birds. I have been working with KiKo on her separation anxiety issues. I have also been focusing on Luther, working with him so that he doesn't spook & fly off of me every time someone makes a sudden move. At the same time, Miss Tacha and I have been working on agression issues. She will bite me if anything comes up unexpectedly while I am holding her. While juggling these three avian friends' issues this past week it has come to my attention that some of the other flock members have been unintentionally ignored. I was vacuuming the floor under Little Sammy's cage & found a whole bunch of feathers. Immediately I started saying, "KiKo, KiKo, KiKo. What am I going to do with you?" KiKo happens to be in the corner cage next to Lil Sam. I just assumed the feathers were hers, newly erupted, and still in their sheaths, as usual. When I adjusted my bifocals, however, it became apparent that the feathers did not belong to KiKo. They were Lil Sam's, and they were not pulled out; they were clipped off clean at the shaft as though he were looking for a haircut. This is called 'barbering' the feathers. Big Sam is the master of this. He has tail feathers that are nothing but the main shaft, because he's clipped all the distal feathers off . The difference between the two is that Lil Sam is clipping everything, and not leaving the central shaft as a souvenir. His chest is all fuzzy now, consisting mostly of down feathers which are normally lying under the main ones. In one spot you can even see his skin, the coverage is so thin.
So, there you have it. An unsuspecting benevolent caretaker who's potentiating problems through neglect. Not intentional, of course. I'm just being pulled in too many directions at once. If I had an Intel chip in my head instead of a biodegradable organ, I would probably be much more efficient, and Little Sammy would have all his chest feathers still.
It took one of the birds mutilating his own feathers to bring the problem to my attention. So, I am trying different things in order to make Little Sam feel better about staying at BoBo's Bed & Breakfast. I put the manzanita tree up to his cage, then put Jerry's cage on the other side of the tree. Once the doors were opened, they could come & go as they pleased, and interact as they pleased. Although Sam was interested in Jerry, Jerry stayed clear of Sam. So I put Jerry back in his cage and moved it back to his normal spot, on the other side of Dinky. Lo and behold, I found Jerry on multiple occasions, climbing onto Dink's cage. Dinky doesn't seem to mind; he appears neither afraid nor elated by his presence. So it looks like a love triangle to me. Little Sam wants Jerry, but Jerry wants Dinky, and Dinky don't want anybody.
Well, as Scarlett O'Hara said, "Tomorrow is another day..." TrackbacksThe trackback URL for this entry is: http://cynthus850.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F962585D80372CC7!529.trak Weblogs that reference this entry
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