oh is it #introductions time again already?
* furry-adjacent saurian/dragonkin
* bitey, with feathers
* green hair
* #agender (they/them or zie/zir)
* currently ace/aro
* historically #polyamorous
* intermittent #writer mostly of #fanfic
* lifelong depressive disorder, currently mostly in remission
* #oneiromancer
* occasionally posts about "woo-stuff" (magic/spirituality/weirdness)
* frequently posts about wildlife (birds, coyotes, squirrels)
* 2 adorable #cats
* 1 adorable #spouse
gun violence, death, minors, USPOL, TX
*points to CW* :| headline I'm seeing on Birdsite: "At least 14 children dead and multiple injuries reported after shooting at Texas elementary school." this seems to be happening *right now*, so the facts may change quickly. again, please *please* be careful, take care of yourself and curate your news feed. 💚
***CURRENT UNITED STATES NEWS ALERT CAUTION--PLEASE BE CAREFUL!***
I won't say what it's about but there's a big news story I saw headlined on birdsite that *will* be getting a lot of attention, it's Quite Bad, *please* be *careful* with your media intakes today (5/24/22)! if you want to know what it's about, I will be posting a reply to this with a CW, but... the CW itself is bad. if you're feeling at all emotionally fragile, this might be a very good day to take a break from *all* social media, or be very *very* careful with where you go and what you read! 💚
Ukranian war, LGBTQ refugee donation link
“Please donate to initiatives that are helping queer refugees from Ukraine. We are expecting about 100,000 queer refugees in the coming weeks, entering Poland, Hungary and Romania, but in the past, refugee camps have proven not to be safe spaces for LGBTQ persons.”
https://www.forbidden-colours.com/2022/02/26/support-ukrainian-lgbtiq-refugees/
re: volunteering report: Crow No Go
on the drive back to PAWS I made up a little song about "Crow No Go," the crow who would not go, but I didn't sing it out loud because you're not supposed to talk while there's a wild animal in the car, which makes sense. I brought it back to the office with a verdict of "Crow No Go," and it was taken into the exam room for rechecking. best case scenario, if it seems fine on exam and continues to be fine in the mews, it'll get put back on the board for release in a more secluded area. worst case scenario... well, we can't release a crow that won't survive on its own.
I feel bad about it. I did what I could, I feel like I absolutely did my due diligence and made the best of the situation, but still--I was supposed to *release* the crow back to the wild, not give it a brief field trip and possible death sentence. :/ I'm pretty sure that's the crow with the head injury we had in the nursery for a couple of months, too, who I was able to get to eat a couple of times when nobody else could. I don't know for sure, but still. doesn't feel great. I'll check the records to see what happened with it when I go back next Monday.
here's to you, Crow No Go. *tosses some peanuts in the parking lot* (end)
re: volunteering report: Crow No Go
there was no "isolated spot" to take the crow to, so I brought the carrier to a ledge under some trees, opened the box, and stepped back. the last crow I released was out of the box and away in two seconds. this one... just sat there. I stepped back, peeked in--yeah, it was alive, upright, and looking at me--and stepped back, and... it continued to not leave the box. I tapped the box, jostled it a bit... nope.
a couple of other crows meanwhile had come to perch in the trees above us and were yelling, so I closed the box, moved it to directly under the trees where there were some low branches, opened it again, and stepped away, and... nope. I tilted the box on its side so it could see the ground; the crow seemed perfectly content to stay in the box. by this time I had something of an audience, so I closed the box up, put it back in the car, and went back to PAWS.
if there hadn't been people around I would have felt better about manually taking the crow out of the box, putting it on the ground, and letting it scoot off on its own; but with lots of people around and actively watching, it seemed like a bad idea. (not as bad as if there were a bunch of children around, but still, bad) (cont)
re: volunteering report: Crow No Go
lots of cleaning... mostly the ward and the raccoon cleaning pad, which didn't have much on it anyway. things tend to slow down in winter, and it's definitely trending in that direction.
when I logged in that morning I checked the release board and claimed a crow that was being released to a park just off Aurora that I was familiar with. at the end of my shift I got a rehabber-in-training to catch the crow for me, which was... a little concerning. it was in a raptor mew with two other crows, and it flew fine, but when she put it in the box it just kind of rolled over on its side. she said "huh, that's... not good," picked it up and put it on the ground in the mew, where it stumblehopped on one foot a bit, then fluttered around before being caught again and put in the box. she figured it was just a slow starter. so off I went! on the car ride there were some pecking sounds from the carrier, but nothing alarming.
the park was unfortunately rather crowded with tents, and people hanging around--at least two people were watching me the entire time I was there--which *could* have been fine for a release site, if... (cont)
volunteering report: Crow No Go (feeder mice mention)
Monday's volunteering gig was fairly unremarkable. I did get to help with meds & tubings in the Ward, which meant holding a Swainson's thrush, a spotted towhee, two juncos, and another bird that I cannot for the life of me remember what it was (song sparrow??) while they were weighed and got oral medications, which also meant being thoroughly bitten by several small birds and also catching them again after they managed to wriggle loose (the thrush got loose *twice*). oh and one rock pigeon and two glaucous gulls, which were super easy in comparison--the pigeon was pretty sedate, and the gulls were bitey but also big, not terribly mobile, and easy to hold onto.
while this was going on, the vets came into the ward to check the condition of the merlin that we had in there and move it to an outdoor enclosure, so I got an up-close look at a Very Peeved merlin, which was even more bitey than the small birds but didn't do any damage because the vets know how to deal with raptors.
after that I cleaned the feeder mouse enclosure and updated the count, from 22 to... 23. not a new baby mouse or anything, they were all similar-sized adults... I guess somebody miscounted them the first time?
(cont)
for some reason I have that song "tell me I'm pretty" stuck in my head, despite having heard it casually in the grocery store like four times, and now I'm going to have to filk it.
maybe sometime long ago
I forgot what I should've known
I need you to give me a treat and tell me
tell me I'm kitty
meowing too much all the time
scratching the furniture that you like
I need you to pet my head and tell me
tell me I'm kitty
re: wildlife rehab volunteering report (even shorter, a thing I forgot, mild and temporary animal distress)
I was hanging around in the wildlife center office watching the bobkittens on video--there's video feeds for each of the runs and the raptor mews, so the vets can check on critters' behavior without having to disturb/sedate them--and one of the kittens was earnestly fishing around in a hole they'd chewed/clawed in the wall, and got stuck. we weren't sure if she (it was the female) was actually stuck or not--you know how it is with cats, she was kind of still playing around and casually dangling from one paw, "hey no this is fine, everything's fine, I meant to do this"--until the other kitten wandered over and play-attacked her. when she *still* didn't disengage from the hole after this, three rehabbers were watching and starting to talk about how to fix the situation, because unlike with cats you can't just pick up a 25-pound wildcat and unhook their paw unless you want to get *severely* punctured, and they'd prefer not to put them through the trauma of separating and sedating them--when she suddenly managed to get her paw unhooked and immediately began zooming around the enclosure like her tail was on fire. it was worrying and adorable and hilarious. XD
aka Sprackraptor, Rasha, elynne, Yahvahzensil, & etc.
40-something white ace/aro
an identity under construction in a badly-fitting human suit.
pronouns: https://pronoun.is/zie/zir/?or=they/.../themself
~follows are curated. if I'm already following you, follow-back is automatic; otherwise, I'll need some kind of interaction with you to accept a follow request.~
|*|*BLACK LIVES MATTER*|*|
hello yes I am transgender nonbinary. trans rights = human rights <3