ducks

My house fronts a creek, and in the creek live 250 ducks. I enjoy looking out my window and seeing them happily floating along in the water.

Unfortunately they're a bit of an unnatural construct. I think years ago it started out with a handful of them. My next door neighbour began to feed them (that's why most of them reside right in front of our houses). Now there's 250, and she still goes out every day with a bucket of seed and feeds them. She loves those ducks, and they love her. She spends thousands of dollars each year on their food.

But I worry about what will happen one day down the road when she is too ill to care for them, or worse. It's like a snowball rolling out of control... feeding is what caused them to become such a large colony, and they depend on being fed for their survival. I worry it will fall to me, as I know my neighbour has no succession plan and she's getting quite elderly. It's a human-made situation, the kind I'd rather not continue perpetuating, but to discontinue feeding them would equate to killing them. So that's not an option either. I care very much for them, and want to do what's best for them.

I feel like the fate of these beautiful ducks may be in my hands someday, and it scares me.

Nursing my bunny back from surgery

Tippy underwent a spay procedure on Tuesday, August 29. Her attending surgeon was Dr. Thom of the Glebe Pet Hospital.

I was worried sick for days leading up to her surgery. I did all kinds of reading about the process, and what to expect with Tippy's recovery. I was braced for the worst, as I tend to be in most situations. It's different for rabbits than it is for cats, and there aren't many doctors who are qualified to perform the spay on rabbits. Dr. Thom is qualified.

Fortunately Tippy seems to be well on the road to recovery. She scared the daylights out of me by not eating in front of me for well over the 24 timeframe within which she should start eating again. I think she was sneaking a few bites here and there while I wasn't looking. Now she's anxious to get out of her cage and hopping around with her feline brothers and sister. They were very concerned about her well-being, taking turns watching her as she recovered.

As much as I felt terrible for putting Tippy through this experience, the reality is that female rabbits have an extremely high chance of getting cancer of their reproductive organs, in the neighbourhood of 50-90 per cent. Spaying, while it is painful and uncomfortable for her for a few days, eliminates that risk, and should allow Tippy to live for 7-10 years.

I should also add that we used a spay/neuter voucher that we purchased from the Humane Society. It cost us $100, but I learned that it would cost closer to $200 without the voucher. I am grateful to vets who participate in these programs.

father and daughter

Tippy shares a snuggle with her dad.

Brownie goodness

This is a Nature's Path brownie mix brownie topped with Peanut Butter organic Soy Delicious, Santa Cruz chocolate syrup and Soyatoo whipped cream! We just got the soyatoo in my city. It was pretty good, but expensive ($6).

My three little angels

It's not really fair to only have pictures of Tippy on here.... here are my three little kittens, L-R Mooey, Chewy and Pesty Girl.

Tippy Switzer: carrot inspector

So things are going well with Tippy. She's really come out of her shell, and loves to hop around her little play pen (it's attached to her cage) and throw things around. We're doing all kinds of reading about rabbits and fashioning toys etc. for her that will keep her entertained. She's still in isolation in a spare bedroom, but we're beginning to introduce her, one at a time, to the cats. They are dying to know what's in the room! She's really cute, and we love her.

Indian feast

I actually made these dishes the same day of the seagull attempted rescue, but it didn't seem right to post them immediately afterwards.

One thing I like to do is take a couple hours and make 3-4 dishes that can be easily reheated, and a pot of rice, and then eat them "buffet style" over a few nights so I can have a few nights off from making dinner. I bought a new cookbook called Indian Vegetarian Cooking at your House and made four recipes from it. We loved three and weren't crazy about the fourth (the black eyed pea curry- bottom dish). The three we loved were a curried vegetable recipe (first), chana chickpeas (second) and curried potatoes (third).

my heart is broken

tonight around 6 pm my friend Gen called me, frantic, because she had just found an injured seagull in the parking lot of Home Depot. His wing was almost fully detached. Her car is dead, so she needed me to come and get him, and take him to the bird sanctuary. Unfortunately it was closed though, so I would have to leave him there in a box. But his wing was so badly injured I knew he couldn't wait.

I went and picked him up (she lives about half an hour away) and called my neighbour Pat who called some other people and got the name and phone number of the founder of the sanctuary. When I got home we called Kathy, the founder, and she agreed to take the gull in and see if there was anything she could do or if he would have to be euthanized. At the very least she would take him into her care.

So we drove there (another half hour away) and took him in, but sadly, he had passed away during the car ride there. She said his wing was so badly injured there would have been no way to save him; he was likely run over by a car. He was such a sweet gull, didn't make a peep through all of it.

I just got home, and I am so sad tonight for him, but glad that he at least died in the presence of somebody who desperately wanted to save his life. I quickly took his picture before we left for Kathy's because I never want to forget him.

the latest addition to our family

Meet Tippy!

We adopted Tippy from the Ottawa Humane Society on Monday. She was submitted as the shelter's "Pet of the Week" for the pet guide column I do as part of my job. The minute I saw her picture I loved her. We decided if she was still available for adoption after we got back from our Farm Sanctuary trip, we would adopt her. Sadly AND happily, she was still at the shelter, so we brought her home with us!

She is in isolation for two weeks as per the shelter's orders, and is settling in quite well. The first two days she spent most of her time inside her log hutch, but now she's out and about and exploring, enjoying her nightly salads and dried apple treats. We gave her a toilet paper roll filled with straw and she has a ball with it.