Zoo Colors

Our family computer still looks like this:

The white box with the orange and black wires sticking out is the power supply. Maybe the new power supply will arrive in the mail today. Rick will not have fun putting it in when it does arrive. I'm glad he had the presence of mind to label the wires when he disconnected them.

A couple of weeks ago when the Artist's Tae Kwon Do tournament did not happen, our family took the opportunity to visit the Columbus zoo. We had wonderful weather and enjoyed spending our family time here. Most notable on this trip were the beautiful birds.

First we saw flamingos nesting on their huge mounds. A docent told us the bird demonstrating a perfect S-curve with his neck in the center of the photograph is a male sitting on a chick the hatched the day before. He must have heard us talking about him, because he stood up to re-position and we could spot the downy chick. You'll probably have to click on the photo to enlarge it enough to see the gray poof of feathers sticking it's wee head out over the edge of the mound. We walked through a laurakeet aviary too. These bright beauties were not shy at all. Some zoo visitors bought nectar to feed them and the birds lit on their arms, shoulders and heads to greedily gobble the sweet stuff. They had a charming song, but after a while it got too loud as there were so many of them. Later we went into a pheasant aviary. What lovely hats their plumes make. I didn't find any feathers on the ground or I would have been quite tempted to pick them up. This one looks like the one I saw when walking in Mammoth Cave National Park a few years ago. These birds were quiet but watchful and camera shy. This male found a shady spot to rest and I snuck up behind him. We could not leave without seeing Fluffy, the Snake. Fluffy, a python, is the largest snake in captivity. She weighs over 300 lbs. The Artist looks a little freaked out by that!

For the Birds

This is a cat who much prefers to groom herself, thank you very much. Here she is "fixing" the mess I just made of her hairdo. But every spring she must do something to contribute to the household that cares for her. We make her suffer through a grooming with a cat brush. This, so I can collect several tufts of her hair.

And why?

For the birds, in a manner of speaking.

Among the kitchen appliances we have this exhaust fan.

And on the outside, the fan masquerades as a nice shelter for sparrow nests.

Having no desire for a family to be raised in my fan vent; having less desire for a bird to make its way into the house; and if it is imaginable, even less desire for a bird to meet its demise at the blades of the fan, every spring I take a preventive action.

You may have noticed the satchel drooping from the exterior fan vent. That is last years coffee filter full of cat hair duct taped to the inside of the vent. When I get the step ladder out of the garage it will be replaced by this year's fresh cat-hair satchel.