Life Goes On... With Lynyrd!

Hello,

In case you didn't find out from Facebook, our sweet little Ivy passed away a couple weeks ago.  She was 16 and 1/2, blind, nearly deaf and having trouble with strength in her hindquarters.  She wasn't suffering really, just sleeping and eating, then peeing and going back to sleep.  She still patrolled the yard, followed the chickens into the fenced area for breadcrumbs, sunned at the side of the house and refused to be penned up.  We gave her baby aspirin and she had a lot of good days or good long stretches during a day.

It's a miracle one of us didn't break our necks because she would be one place, then underfoot to trip you the next minute.  She still panicked at the possibility of a storm, right up until a few days before she died.  She is buried next to Tucker, between him and Jordan the Golden Retriever, because those two never got along...that was Mark's idea.  That 45 day disappearance last Fall really took a toll on her and we consider her return for a short time a bonus.  Plus, we aren't left wondering...

"Ivy unhappy about sharing a bed with Carrie and vice-versa"

However, another sweet being is now patrolling our yard and at times can get slightly annoying like any other pet.   Audra and I leave for work around 6:30 a.m. to the multi-versed mockingbird that has adopted us and our yard.  Since we think he is here to stay, we decided he needed a name.  Mark instantly named him Lynyrd.  Pretty fitting as Lynyrd is definately a "free bird."  He has a loop he makes, singing all the while.  He never stops for very long.  He seems to love performing for us.  He is very athletic and swoops, jumps straight up and lands in the same place and I swear he can fly backward.  He is also very pretty, but it's hard to get a photo of this ever-moving target.  So, here is a photo of one...I plan to try and record his song for you and report on it in a future post.

"Northern Mockingbird"

If you are interested in learning more about mockingbirds, here is a nice link:  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/id

Now if I can just discourage him from pooping on my swing...

Until next time,
Gale

PS:  Mark found a quail on our picnic table yesterday.  It's the first he's seen since the Blizzard of '78!  He took it some of our chicken's crack (umm, I mean cracked corn...but if you saw how crazy it makes them you'd think it was really crack!)  Maybe that's why all these birds are showing up???