Feathers, Fur and Fins

I noticed that one of the parakeets was spending a lot of time in the nest box but I really didn't think much of it. The white parakeets like to play in there a lot. Then on Monday my husband says, "have you looked in the nest box lately?" I said "No." He said, "You should." So I did. This is what I saw:

That would be a baby sticking out there. I looked kept looking and saw this:
And this:


That is not one baby but two. Turns out there are three babies in there. Two of them are good sized and the third is a lot smaller. Either he is not thriving or he hatched later and is younger.

From the looks of the older ones they are 8-10 days old. The smaller one could be about 5-6 days. Wow, I have totally not been paying attention. After I saw them I started thinking I should provide more food or more nest material or maybe some heated mattress pads to help keep the babies warm. I finally decided that they are apparently doing a fine job since the babies look great and I would do better to just leave them alone.

I think the pure white is a mutation and I'm very curious to see how the babies turn out. Their pin feathers appear white but they are really small and it's hard to tell yet. Also, I'm not sure if Rocky, the blue keet, managed to get in on the action. So the colors of the babies will be interesting.

I'll try to take some pictures everyday and watch them as they grow.

Hubby has been working nights all week which means we don't get a chance to walk the dogs. Axl is way too uncontrollable still so I can't walk the two of them by myself. As a result they have been playing a lot in the yard. We try to encourage that and play with them to help them burn off some energy. Last night they were playing particularly hard, body slamming each other and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt. We all went to bed around 9:30 and when Hubby got home around midnight Axl and Lola got up to see him. Hubby then woke me up and asked why Lola was limping. Nothing had been wrong with her when she went to bed so I figured she slept on it wrong or something and it would be fine in the morning. Well it's morning and she's not fine. It's her front paw. I've looked it over and I can't see a cut or anything. I've also felt it all over and manipulated it and she doesn't scream in pain or anything. I'm going to guess it's from their playing last night and I'm going to wait a day or so before I go rushing to the vet. I think most likely a day of rest will help it, so I'll just keep them quiet today. Somehow!! I think I'll try to get them to just lay in the computer room with me. Ever since I got that virus on my desktop I've been really worried about identity theft. I think I'm going to do a little investigation into some identity theft protection and they can just chill in here with me. Right now though I need to get my run in.

When we leave the house we put Axl and Lola in the back. We have a gate across our patio that allows them access to the patio and the back yard. We do this because they bark at everything that walks by and I don't want them barking all day long. Also, if another dog goes by or something they can go crazy and I don't want them hurting themselves or getting out or something. So tonight I pulled up to the house and who is laying in the driveway? Axl and Lola. Hubby had left about an hour before I got home and they should have been in the back. I go in the gate to try and figure out how they got out and they go charging into the back yard by a side gate that had been left open. It's a good thing they were only out for an hour or so and didn't get a chance to do any damage. There's a shelving unit in the carport where we put all the things we don't want the dogs to get. Things like antifreeze, car cleaner, windex, bug spray, wrinkle cream - no, that's kept in the house, but you get the idea. Anyway, they were happy as could be hanging out in the driveway all by themselves. Silly dogs..

This may seem like an odd juxtaposition but trust me, these items are related.

I grind my teeth. I grind my teeth a lot. I have done it all my life. As a result all of my molars are cracked and they are slowly going bad requiring me to have a root canal every now and then. Fun!! The dental issues are definitely a problem and a huge expense but I think the worst part of teeth grinding is the jaw pain. I also have TMJ, tempromandibular joint disease. Do I have TMJ because I grind my teeth or do I grind my teeth because I have TMJ?? Who knows. Seriously, no one has ever been able to tell me.

Axl and Lola hate my teeth grinding. I can get pretty loud sometimes and they do not like it at all. One night when I woke myself up because of the grinding, how nice is that?, they were standing next to the bed barking at me. They've done this a couple of times. I've tried all kinds of different things to stop it but nothing really works.

Well, a week or so ago I got the DenTek Custom Comfort Nightguard. It's a dental mouth guard that you can mold to fit your mouth and bite. They wanted me to try it and give you my opinion, so here it is.

First, here's a little video of the whole process of custom fitting it. It's really simple, boil some water, soak it for less then a minute, fit it to you mouth. Well, here, watch:




If you watched you can see I had a couple of problems with it. There is nothing wrong with the item, the problem is with my mouth. I have a huge overbite and getting it to fit right in my mouth was a problem. Also, once I did get it fit to my mouth I found that I couldn't sleep with it in. The back part doesn't go far enough back in my mouth and when I sleep it falls out.

Now the positives of this device. It is much smaller and lighter then others I've used in the past. If I could keep it in my mouth I'm sure it wouldn't bother me at all during the night. Others were so big that I kept waking up all night because they held my jaw in an unnatural position. This is smaller and seems to provide more of a cushion for your teeth and doesn't seem to twist your jaw out of shape. Also, I like the way it's constructed. It has a hard 'bottom' with a softer material inside that molds easily to your teeth. It was actually quite comfortable if it wasn't for the shape of my mouth.

I should say that it says one size fits all so it's not that I had the wrong size. Overall I think it's a pretty good product, not for me, but for someone. Well, there you have it. If you are looking for a dental guard you might want to check this out. Unfortunately, the dogs will continue to bark at me and I'll continue to grind my teeth.

This review is a result of a feedback campaign by DenTek Oral Care, Inc. The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the produce.

I was looking through some old pictures, when your computer threatens to die you tend to do things like that, and I found a picture of Lola when we first got her.




Look at her feet. I absolutely loved her feet. Here, you can see them better here:

Look at those feet!!! So wrinkly!! I loved them. That's the sharpei part of her.

Now here's a more recent one:


Her feet are still a little wrinkly but not as much. It looks like she's been using anti wrinkle creams, but she hasn't. Her body is kind of funny.  She has little short legs and her body is very stocky, not fat, but thick.  Her brother has long legs and is painfully thin though he has gotten much better since we've had him.  She is so adorable, those little sharpei ears on her head.  I just love her.  I love Axl too.  I love all mu animals.

I was reading a dog's will the other day and there was a line that really got to me.

What I would like to feel is that, having once
had me in the family, now she cannot live without a dog!

That's how I feel. I loved Nala and Rocco so much and they were such great dogs that I can't bear to be without dogs around me.

Okay, enough tripping down memory lane. I've done this a couple of posts and it's time to get back to the present.....

One of my favorite birds is the Kolea or the Pacific Golden Plover.  These birds winter here in Hawaii and summer in Alaska.  They are pretty small, about the size of a large dove, and they fly between here and there twice a year.  Amazing.  This one is a male.  Before they leave for Alaska, which is where they breed, the males all don their tuxedos. When they get here in the fall they are mostly brown and kind of scruffy looking. Before they leave in the spring they molt and the males end up looking like this.

The past couple of nights I realized they are all over the place. They are loners here and tend to stake out a piece of grass and spend their time there.  There is one on the roof of a building at school.  I've been so busy I hadn't even noticed they were back, but the other day when I took a breather from classes there it was.  Just standing on the roof enjoying the sun.  I took a cue from it and did the same thing for a few minutes.  A nice break.

see more dog and puppy pictures

Time to remember everyone who serves.....