Places Everyone

hello
Hello! Hello? Hey everyone, I’d like to take a family photo. Can you cooperate and get into your places for me?

good
“Is this good?”
That is pretty good, O’Malley. Yes. Oops. Simon? Can you back up a little bit?

eeps
“MOM! O’Malley is not posing. He’s chasing!”
O’Malley NO! Come back. Chewy, wait! Awww crud.

bug
“I am going on a bug hunt. Let me know when everyone else is ready.”
Okay, Chewy. I don’t think it’s going to work, so maybe I’ll just use this composite photo instead.

aah
Aaah yes, this is much easier. There we go. What do you think?

what
What is it, Flapper?
“Why didn’t you just do that in the first place, instead of making me stand close to O’Malley?”
I don’t know, buster. Good question.

ready
“I am ready for my close-up.”
That might be a little TOO close, Racquel.

better
“Is this better?”
Oh yes. That is very pretty, Racquel.

us
“You didn’t forget us, did you?”
Oh I’m sorry, crows. I wasn’t sure you’d want to pose with us since you’re wild.

this
“Is this my best side?”

this
“Or is this?”
They’re both very dashing, Mr. Crow. Thank you for posing.

Well we didn’t get everyone to pose together, but they all wanted to wish everyone out there a very happy new year.

And now that I have all of my family’s attention, I have a message for them.

letter
Dear feathered and furry family members:

Over the past month or so, many of you have not been feeling well. Simon stopped eating for a while, Chewy got a random infection, O’Malley had feather cysts and Racquel had a cold.

Now that you’re all feeling better and all doing well, please… PLEASE take care of yourselves. Or at least learn to take turns getting sick.

In December we had way, way too many vet visits. So let’s start the new year by resolving to stay healthy, okay? We’ll cut back on treats a little bit, get extra rest when we need it and stay out of the rain (this means you, Racquel). Don’t hesitate to let me know if you’re not feeling well, but let’s do all we can to stay healthy.

Lots of love,

Your devoted human
XOXOX

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Chewy to the Vet

choo
Chewy hasn’t been feeling like himself since sometime Thursday night, so we took him to the vet this evening.

hide
He really, really hates to go to the vet, and he hides in my arms so he’ll be invisible. Chewy has been so healthy his entire life, that he hasn’t had to go to the vet much.

X-ray
[Click the x-ray for a larger view]Chewy had an x-ray, just to be sure he didn’t eat anything metal. I was a little bit worried because I woke up Thursday night to find him standing in the kitchen, instead of in his regular sleeping area. Thankfully, his x-ray looks good. He also had blood work drawn tonight and was given some baytril and sub-q fluids to keep him hydrated.

choo
Chewy will go to his regular vet tomorrow, and his blood results should be back then, too. Hopefully he is just a little under the weather from the cold snap we’ve had and the stress of having to sleep in the dining room for a few days.

Flapper doesn’t like it when his best wingman isn’t feeling well, so we wish Chewy a very speedy recovering from whatever’s bugging him.

In other news, Racquel’s cold is finally better. But Simon has been having health issues too.

vet
Simon had to go to the vet on Saturday because he hasn’t been eating well. I know! Crazy, right? SIMON not eating?? He has been on a special drug for his rashes for about six weeks. He was also supposed to lose weight during that time because he is too fat. But unfortunately that drug for his rashes didn’t agree with him and he ended up losing way too much weight, way too fast. In six weeks he went from over 19lbs to 15.7lbs! That drastic weight loss can be very bad for a cat’s liver. So Simon’s blood results will be back on Tuesday and in the meantime he is on anti-nausea medication, pain medication and appetite stimulant to help make sure he eats enough. I think he ate enough today, but if he doesn’t eat better every day he will need to be force-fed until his appetite picks up again.

In addition to having both Simon and Chewy at the vet this weekend, we also finished up two final papers for two graduate courses that were due at 9pm tonight. Never a dull moment at Flapper’s house!

Thankfully it is warm enough for the ducks to be back outside, and I know Chewy prefers that. I’ll update more on both Simon and Chewy as we get more info, and in the meantime, send a few good thoughts if you have some to spare.

Best,

Tiff and the gang

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Busy busy busy

Hello!

We’ve been a little quiet here at Flapper’s house, but rest assured, all is well. We’ve just gotten a little too busy for a few weeks.

si
Simon is feeling better after having a rash for a long time. He has new food, yet again, and new medication. It looks like this might help!

good
It’s nice to see him feeling well and enjoying the sun when it appears.

racquel
Racquel the chicken is feeling better after having a cold. She is even back to her daily singing.

rick
A few weeks ago we had a fun, unexpected visitor to Flapper’s house. Rick here went to high school with us… TWENTY YEARS AGO. That was the last time we had seen him, but after a day of touring Seattle and catching up, it was as if no time had passed at all.

Spunkie
For the past week or so, we’ve been caring for this kid, Spunkie. She’s the neighbor’s cat. We feed her twice a day and watch her hide from us. She doesn’t like strangers. Hi Spunkie!

school
We’re also still in graduate school here… for just a few more courses. And readings like this one just about send us over the edge. Can’t wait ’til we’re done!

That’s about it for the updates from Flapper’s house. We’ll try to catch up again soon and share some new photos. The weather has been really rainy and windy, but maybe this weekend it will clear up.

choo
Chewy, as always, sends his love.

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Park Kids

These are some ducks we saw at the park. There are a few hybrids and domestics there, but they all seem in good health. They were hanging out with the coots, who have the best feet ever. I’ve never talked to the coots before, so that was fun.

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Bitey Dinosaur

O’Malley demonstrates how all imprinted muscovy drakes can be quite a handful at times.

The audio got a little out of sync with the video and the video lags behind.

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Update: French Fry Tree

“Mom?”
fla
Yes, Flapper?
“Can we check on the french fry tree?”
Sure, buddy. Let’s go have a look.

fa
FLAPPER, COME QUICK! I THINK IT’S GROWING!

it's growing
Here. This one looks ripe. Is it?

awesome
“It’s AWESOME! Nom nom nom. I LOVE IT!”

good
“Oh that was so good. Let’s check it again tomorrow, okay?”
You got it, buster.

knew
“I knew it would grow, Chewy. I just knew it.”

For anyone who missed it, here is the original French Fry Tree episode: http://mrflapper.com/blog/2009/07/07/french-fry-tree/

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Commercial Break

I’m at graduate school all Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I thought we’d take a commercial break. Enjoy these dancing kids.


That’s Snowball! He’s really going places, that kid.


And here’s Frostie. He’s pretty fly, for a white guy.

See you next week!

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Feathery Friday

flap and me
Flapper and I are hanging out today and napping. I got up at 1am and 4am to see what the raccoon might be doing, but didn’t see him either time. And Flapper knocked over my morning latte. So I’m a little sleepy.

The ducks are always safe in their predator-proof night pens, and their day aviary is safe, too. We’re just reinforcing the door jams to be absolutely positive. The raccoon did not try to get into the aviary when the ducks were in there. It tried to get into the aviary when the ducks were in their other night pens. And it’s possible it wasn’t the raccoon who tried to get in, as the space is pretty small. I think it might have been the opossum. His skull is small-enough to fit through there. We have an opossum who hangs around who could have bent the hardware cloth. It’ll be reinforced by the end of today.

We don’t plan on trapping or killing or hurting this raccoon. It’s illegal to trap and relocate them, for one. Also, removing a raccoon just opens up territory for another to take its place. And the next one could be more interested in the ducks. We did trap and euthanize raccoons when Georgie was killed in November, because they kept returning in the middle of the day, and they wanted to hurt the other ducks. There were at least 5 of them and they would crawl over over the pen during the night.

But today there’s a mole digging holes in the yard, a bald eagle who swoops down on the yard, a barred owl visitor, a hawk next door, opossums, raccoons and more. We would like to live in peace with our furry neighbors, so that’s our goal.

We did buy some of this to sprinkle around the aviary:
shake away

It’s supposed to help keep nerdball away.

Flapper hopes it keeps sharks out of his pond, too.

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fashion faux pas


“I should have called you before wearing this today. How embarrassing that we are dressed alike.” – O’Malley Peepers

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Breakfast with Undisclosed Condiments

facon
Today for breakfast we made facon (fake bacon) and biscuits. We wanted to try this special honey, sent to us by Flapper Fan Toni.

see
As you can see, the honey is “top secret.”

toni
Toni runs a blog called City Bees. If you click the link, you’ll see when it comes to bees, she’s pretty well connected.

She used to keep her urban beekeeping pretty quiet. But now that the White House has raised the profile of area beekeepers, she was even featured in an article in the Washington Post.

“The Perfect Pursuit In This Urban Hive”

Thanks to Toni for the super-tasty honey. It made for a great breakfast this morning!

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