Post by lenke on Nov 7, 2013 23:28:19 GMT -7
so winter's still hanging around here in Cape Town and on Tuesday night we had a helluva wind & rain storm.
Wednesday morning, our gardener, Julius, comes to me;
"Me'em, come see!"
"What's it, Julius?"
"Me'em, Me'em, come look! Come!"
so off i toddle and wriggling there on the paving is a little lump of ugly
its a pigeon chick. At a rough guess, i'd say between 10 & 15 days old, wing feathers JUST coming in (actually quite funky coz the shafts still have their sheaths on, while the tips have opened, so it gives a really pretty lacy type look!) and only one teeny little tail feather sticking out from its bum, and the rest is ugly black with little yellow bits.
But talk about ATTITUDE!
OH.
MY.
GOODNESS!!!
well, i pick it up, and put it into a plastic tub lined with loo paper and covered with a dish towel....
Now, i've already packed and shipped my heater to the new house, so barring my own body heat, i have no way to warm this little thing, and its cold...cold right through.
So, i put on one of my work waist coats - like a photographers waistcoat, with lots of pockets - and line my left boobie pocket with loo paper, and then stuff this little bundle of peeps into the pocket.
Heating sortof sorted, i now need to sort out the food challenge....i don't have ANYTHING even remotely suitable except some kellogs corn flakes and rather stale white bread. I also don't have wheels to get to the shops - my car's in for a service.
So i moosh up some cornflakes and white bread with some warm water and get one of luckys syringes. One of the non-chemical ones.
Then, i start trying to feed this monster....well, it was having NONE of the good manners thing....it HOGGED down everything i could give it. Literally climbing into the bowl i'd used to mix the food in.
OK. It was clearly rather hungry....
Now little crop full, i bed it back down in the plastic tub while i get on with my day.
Wednesday night, again, a dilemma. I dont' have a way to heat the birdie except for my fishtank, which i keep at a constant 25degrees c. So rationalising as follows - water helps stabilise the immediate ambient temp, and if the water's at 25 degrees, the layer of air above the tank should be at least 18 degrees. I wrap the little one's whole tub story in my polar fleece dressing gown and then balance this tub over the two glass drip filtration trays in my tank.
As i laid down in bed, it occurred to me that i was actually being a bit of a genius! By putting the tub over the tank like that i'd both managed to warm the little thing AND prevent either of the cats getting too close.
So i fall asleep. During the night, i woke several times to check on the little one, who peeped up a "FEED ME SEYMORE" storm every single time, and noticed that the evening was really really cold. So cold, in fact, that i went and got my last unpacked blanket out for my own bed! on checking the little one's temperature, it too was getting cooler but i didn't have any way to do more, so sent a little word up to the dude upstairs in which i told him that if he chose to take this little one this night, it was cool, but i'd expect a good reason if this happened.
well, woke up thursday really early, and "FEED ME SEYMORE" was quite deafening coming from the fish tank!
duly fed and re packed i had to shoot off to the new house (a drive of almost 2 hours) and spend some time with the construction guys etc. I finally made it home just after 3pm, by which time, "FEED ME SEYMORE, NOW!!!!" was rattling the ceiling boards of my little cottage!
And that's when i decided on the name...i don't know if its a male or female, so covering ALL the bases...Boudicca Ivan the Atrocious the First...meet the world. World, meet Boudicca Ivan the Atrocious the First!
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201798621759056&set=pb.1587304321.-2207520000.1383892083.&type=3&theater
Wednesday morning, our gardener, Julius, comes to me;
"Me'em, come see!"
"What's it, Julius?"
"Me'em, Me'em, come look! Come!"
so off i toddle and wriggling there on the paving is a little lump of ugly
its a pigeon chick. At a rough guess, i'd say between 10 & 15 days old, wing feathers JUST coming in (actually quite funky coz the shafts still have their sheaths on, while the tips have opened, so it gives a really pretty lacy type look!) and only one teeny little tail feather sticking out from its bum, and the rest is ugly black with little yellow bits.
But talk about ATTITUDE!
OH.
MY.
GOODNESS!!!
well, i pick it up, and put it into a plastic tub lined with loo paper and covered with a dish towel....
Now, i've already packed and shipped my heater to the new house, so barring my own body heat, i have no way to warm this little thing, and its cold...cold right through.
So, i put on one of my work waist coats - like a photographers waistcoat, with lots of pockets - and line my left boobie pocket with loo paper, and then stuff this little bundle of peeps into the pocket.
Heating sortof sorted, i now need to sort out the food challenge....i don't have ANYTHING even remotely suitable except some kellogs corn flakes and rather stale white bread. I also don't have wheels to get to the shops - my car's in for a service.
So i moosh up some cornflakes and white bread with some warm water and get one of luckys syringes. One of the non-chemical ones.
Then, i start trying to feed this monster....well, it was having NONE of the good manners thing....it HOGGED down everything i could give it. Literally climbing into the bowl i'd used to mix the food in.
OK. It was clearly rather hungry....
Now little crop full, i bed it back down in the plastic tub while i get on with my day.
Wednesday night, again, a dilemma. I dont' have a way to heat the birdie except for my fishtank, which i keep at a constant 25degrees c. So rationalising as follows - water helps stabilise the immediate ambient temp, and if the water's at 25 degrees, the layer of air above the tank should be at least 18 degrees. I wrap the little one's whole tub story in my polar fleece dressing gown and then balance this tub over the two glass drip filtration trays in my tank.
As i laid down in bed, it occurred to me that i was actually being a bit of a genius! By putting the tub over the tank like that i'd both managed to warm the little thing AND prevent either of the cats getting too close.
So i fall asleep. During the night, i woke several times to check on the little one, who peeped up a "FEED ME SEYMORE" storm every single time, and noticed that the evening was really really cold. So cold, in fact, that i went and got my last unpacked blanket out for my own bed! on checking the little one's temperature, it too was getting cooler but i didn't have any way to do more, so sent a little word up to the dude upstairs in which i told him that if he chose to take this little one this night, it was cool, but i'd expect a good reason if this happened.
well, woke up thursday really early, and "FEED ME SEYMORE" was quite deafening coming from the fish tank!
duly fed and re packed i had to shoot off to the new house (a drive of almost 2 hours) and spend some time with the construction guys etc. I finally made it home just after 3pm, by which time, "FEED ME SEYMORE, NOW!!!!" was rattling the ceiling boards of my little cottage!
And that's when i decided on the name...i don't know if its a male or female, so covering ALL the bases...Boudicca Ivan the Atrocious the First...meet the world. World, meet Boudicca Ivan the Atrocious the First!
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201798621759056&set=pb.1587304321.-2207520000.1383892083.&type=3&theater