Birds and Cat

Morning Time.  There is one lone bird singing up a storm.
He's on the tree, the one in front on m window. The trees
are dusted with frost.  It is a cold, lonely winter morn, but
still beautiful.



We found two more  books on hummingbirds by Arnette
Heidcamp, who has become quite the hummingbird
specialist in the Northeast.  In the last book, she ends
with two injured hummers and two female Rufous
hummers.  Made me hungry for summer.



In all of this revelations, her hummers slept at night.
None ever knocked on her window, insistent on
being fed.  Hummers are curious birds.  And
people fascinated.



The chickadees and nuthatches are fascinated
also.  The will light in the window in front of me
and study me as I study them.  It's quite comical
really!



Daisy had a really bad spell with her heart two
nights ago.  We bought her a new toy mouse.
I read the label--no mention of catnip.  But it
did have catnip in it.  And she played and played
with it,  She would toss across the room, then
stalk it.  Watching her was hilarious.  The she gave
out and went to sleep,  Not long after that, she
was wheezing; I had already given her nightly
dose of benazepril for her cardiomyopathy. I hate
to follow it with lasix, because it knocks her
blood pressure down, makes her feel badly
all day long, but it was necessary.  It had been
a week since she required any Lasix, and
within half an hour, her wheezing was gone.



The next day she played with the mouse again
and ended up in trouble again.  I took the
mouse away--Daisy can't tolerate extra
stimulation.   So for the second night in a
row, I was more or less forced to give
Lasix.  I was awake more than I was asleep.
By 0500 I was so worried that I woke my
partner--He has a soothing healing touch.
I was stressed, thus making matters worse.
She had not drank or used her pot all night.




She lay close to me, as she always does when
she's in trouble.  He began to pet her and talk
to her, and I actually see her calming down.
When she began to purr, I knew we had
turned the corner.  After about 15 minutes
later, he asked Daisy if she wanted some water,
She stopped purring, looked at him, and got
up and drank nearly the whole bowl of water.




She came back and he resumed petting.
She got up about 10 minutes later and used
her pot, and I knew she was out of danger.




She settled down to sleep and so did I.
The offending mouse was replaced by
CHUB, a fat little toy mouse that she's had
years.  She is very careful with her toy mice.
She destroyed one when still a kitten--and since
then she cares for them gently.  She even
grooms them.



Regarding Frankie, whom I'm also sure
is female now (It's that or the world's neatest
male possum,), well, there are 3 possums here
now--plus the  feral cats.  Frankie rarely gets his
food.  Whoever the culprit, he or she isn't neat.
Not even close to neat.  There's the huge possum--
I haven't seen it in a while.  There is one other
possum slightly larger than Frankie with short
2-3" wide white stripe in the area of his shoulders.




Feeding Frankie is a real challenge now.
I haven.t given up though.




Daisy is here asking for her morning can,  so that's
all for now.




Kate