Thursday 25 July 2013

Beaks, Claws and Paws

Thank you all for your comments on my last blurb. It's been ages since that post. Things have been happening...hmmm where to start?
I can hear it tweeting now so I will start there.
On Monday evening we were in the living room and there was a load of squawking and ruckus out the back. A wide eyed Rocklyn squealed 'THE BIRDS' and we ran through the kitchen and flung open the back door. Butter (my tabby cat) caught her first bird. It is a blackbird chick. We grappled it off of her and shut her indoors, the two blackbird parents were squawking and telling us off. The distraught sound of the parent birds made me very sad. The fledgling just has it's wing feathers and is just a wee bit smaller than a tennis ball. 

...hold on I must pop out for meal worms...

So we made it a bed with some wool and an old towel and put it out the way from the cats. It had a small flesh wound that seems to of  healed now. After some internet searching I discovered that even if it was to learn to fly it will still need fed until it learns to find it's own food. There are sooooooo many cats around here and foxes and badgers too! I could never let it go it would just get eaten.We called the RSPB and they said they couldn't tell us anything or offer any help! They said to contact the RSPCA who's office never seems to be open and so we still have the birdie here in the house. 
Iv made it up some food with hard boiled egg, meal worms and moistened cat biscuits (I found this recipe online) and we are feeding it every hour with tweezers. If anyone thinks we are doing anything wrong please leave me a message because we don't know what we are doing and its a little scary. Of course we have had her here for nearly 4 days and we are getting quite attached. 
Rocklyn seems to have more of a parental instinct that I do because he gets up at sunrise when the bird wakes tweeting and goes to feed it. I don't wake up to anything. Once we had his 1 year old nephew over in the bedroom with us and I didn't even wake to him screaming! If the cats make a noise I'm up in a flash! Ha! 

Oh the reason it's poop is purple is because I gave it some brambles I had in the kitchen.



In other news I had the electricity connected in my studio! Hooray! I had to go down to the estate agents and give them my best evil eyes and angry Scottish attitude and made them all super uncomfortable and call the electrician then and there to arrange a day and time hhmmf!  
I moved everything in straight away - its all very messy and there is still 'shed stuff' lying around but I have my lamps, desks, drawers, kiln and wheel all set in place :)

(corner)

Yesterday was my first day working in there and it feels good. Note the horrid yellow walls...those will need painted asap! It is still hectic and I am using random tables that are around the place but I'm sure over time it will become custom designed for it's purpose. To be honest I'm so used to working from a 'studio' that is mismatched and displaced that this seems fabulous to me. I like to be organised and I have my trusty filing system, bead making and listing processes that keep things from getting lost or pawed under furniture.
I am working on some new bead decorating ideas and its great to have everything where I need it.
Peanut keeps me company and occasionally reaches out to hold my hand with her paw.

There is lots of new work in my shop and there is more on it's way. The kiln is on just now and fingers, toes and eyes crossed; my experiments go well and you will get to see some of it in my shop this week.
Stay tuned.

Toodles




9 comments:

  1. Do they call you Rock'in Robin? Sorry, couldn't resist.
    You're a kind and generous soul. Such a sweet little bird. You must be doing right as it's still thriving. I've been training my outdoor cat to stop snacking on our hummingbirds by booby trapping the porch rails. She's a clever cat and finally taken the hint.
    Evil eyes and Scottish attitude. Do you have a tutorial for that?
    Looking forward to your new experiments.

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    1. Haha! yes, yes they do call us Rock n' Robyn.
      If my cats were snacking on humming birds that would definitely make me cry:(
      The worst thing is they are so proud and happy with themselves and it seems wrong to tell the cat off just for following it's instinct's...so I dont tell them off.
      If everyone could do the evil eyes and angry Scott thing then it might stop working for me ;)

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    2. excuse my AM spelling.. Yes, can't blame a cat for being a cat.

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  2. My little studio still looks like it's been hit by a weapon of mass destruction, it's the only place in my home that stupidly chaotic! I hand reared a dove when I was a teenage and we were able to keep him with a group of other doves. He stayed tame and would always fly over when I called. Best wishes with the cute little chap.

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    1. Your dove sounds like it was a wonderful friend. How romantic!

      I'm afraid the bird wasn't well in the end so it was put down humanely at the vets.
      Studio's take years to get right and I get impatient but I will chip away at sorting it out and it can only get better :)

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  3. i love baby birds! i once found a baby pigeon and it was SOOOO hard to get it to eat! they're so finicky....or i would;ve ended up with a pet pigeon for sure!It's great that you got it to eat.

    i love the cat sleeping on your table. Tabbies are the BESTEST! :D

    i have that same fear...IF i ever decided to have kids, i don't think i'd ever wake up to them crying. I sleep through pretty much anything. Even when the cat tries to wake me up in the morning to feed her, sometimes she resorts to paw fists in my eyes to get me to wake up. VIOLENCE!! hahah

    looking forward to baby bird updates :D

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    1. The bird was eating well then suddenly overnight it started to look disinterested so had to take him to the vets who put it down :(
      The cat on the table is called Peanut, she's a tortoiseshell. Over the years she has traveled everywhere with me. I took her on a long train journey once when I moved across the country and she just loved it. When I moved from Wales to Skye she stood on the dashboard of the car and watched the traffic or curled up on my knee. She's my wee travelling buddy...my baby ;)

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  4. love the baby...all the best with him/her...seems if yu kept it going for 3 days already you have
    a success...rock sounds like a cool man...any guy that would do that is a good one in my opinion.
    and you my lil darlin deserve only the bestest.

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    1. Rocky said he almost felt bad for the worms we were feeding it. He is a gardener and stops digging to move worms and bugs from his path haha!

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