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12:33pm nest time. Thanks HLC in Chicago for your last 2 posts in this thread! What an experience you and your family got to have with your cocker spaniel... Talk about the gift that keeps on giving!!! Very sweet. And thanks, again, as well for your kind thoughts pulling for Honey. She is doing about the same today, though she had a hard time getting up onto her hind legs this morning. Once we helped her get going, though, she seemed o.k. She's definately in a slightly "stoned" state, though, as I believe bobdmac (? I think) so aptly described it.

Thank you sooo much, also, HLC in Chicago for Russell's new Thread:

http://community.kjrh.com/forums/thread/3058433.aspx

I'm off to check it out right now... Later, socal

Thanks to everyone who has been pulling for / praying for HONEY!  She's feeling much better! No more siezures since that one awful day when she had 3, and finally her appetite is not only back, it's hearty!!!  You can see a couple more pictures of her, along with some wild ducks in our neighborhood on my new Flickr page:
 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27921002@N08/

Thank you all, again, so much!

Awwe, what a sweetie...So glad everything is going well with your baby, awesome news!!

Socal, Honey's looking great. I got a kick out of her looking out the window at her "dad." I loved the mallard family. Do they come up and quack at your door? Do they just "drop in" at a certain time every year?

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"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one" –– A. J. Liebling

Thanks, bobdmac. She is such a sweetie watching her dad go... I have to watch her watching her dad go every morning, it's so cute...

That mallard family comes to our little section of the street every May or June. They gravitate to the same neighbor's yard each year. They (the neighbors) actually put out a blow-up kiddie pool for them after they settle in... But, periodically we have to shoo them off the street, as they have a tendency to want to hang there... even snooze there at times. I was taking Honey for a walk when I saw them back for the season, and took those pictures.

That is priceless. She looks so beautiful.. It is such a relief when they are feeling better. I know siezures would be very frightening.

I checked out your flickr and really enjoyed it. Great pics! Ducks are a blast to watch. You really wonder what they are thinking at times. The term "waddle like a duck" is so true! Like bobdmac ask do they quack at you?

We have 15 ducks and 3 geese a dog and 2 guinea pigs and .......thats all! I think..Oh I forgot the fish! LOL!!

The geese can get very vocal at times. When we get home no matter where they are they start squawking at us and come running.

My flickr is:

http://flickr.com/photos/modelt/

Thanks, Observer! And thanks for your flickr link! Great pics! And great quality! I really enjoyed them! I couldn't stop saying: "AWWW!" At Thunder... your doggie, geese, ducks... especially the little fuzzy-staged ones... Adorable! And no, Mr. and Mrs. Mallard don't come quacking at our door, but we do hear them quacking overhead during final approach and take-off.

Socal, Honey is truly a honey! She is beautiful. I, too, am relieved that she is doing better.

I went to the back the other day and a Mamma duck and her 4 goslings had 4 lanes of traffic stopped, waiting on them. It was adorable and so funny. We did sit for a while.

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Thank you, wings2c. I do feel so blessed to have her, and that she's so much better. I bet those ducks were adorable. I keep waiting each year to see if this pair is going to make a nest and have their babies in our neighbor's yard... but no dice. I think they vacation here without the kids... or they have a little "getaway" ; )
to get in the mood first before nesting somewhere else. who knows. I hope you're having a nice weekend! Later....

You have a good weekend too, what's left of it. The ducks were so cute. I was amazed at the respect the citizens had for them. In Alabama, they wouldn't have stopped for them. Or, the would take them for dinner. Wisconsin, is so environmentally progressive, to the point of activism. I love that about the state.

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

As I mentioned on the observation thread, one of my three kitties was ill and he accompanied me on a hawk watching side-trip on the way home from his 4th visit to the vet in a week.

He is better but still is sick.  On Father's Day evening, we noticed a huge swelling on the side of his neck.  Fearing an abcess, my youngest (18 yr old daughter) and I took Rajah to the emergency vet clinic.  The vet there could not find any sign of bite/puncture wound and swelling did not feel like an abcess, but running fever.  So antibiotics and call regular vet in the morning.  Took him into regular vet and he tried aspirating swelling but got nothing, so just continue antibiotics and watch him.  By Thursday was worse - face/sinus area extremely swollen (bridge of nose 1 inch across instead of normal 1/2 inch), can't breathe out of nases.  So another trip back to vet. Several days also had lots of vomiting, but never consecutive days.  Thinks maybe having hypersensitivity reaction to insect bite, but continue same treatment - different anitbiotic (pill instead of liquid, both are horrendous to try to get down a cat!!!) and antihistamine.  Recheck on Monday - still feverish, discharge from nases, swollen lymph nodes in neck.  So vet still stumped as what is going on - but did finally locate scab on neck where there may have been a bite wound.  Thinks he could also have feline upper respiratory infection or fungal infection like histoplasmosis.  He will go back for a recheck on Thursday, when they will decide if he also needs head x-rays and tests for the fungal infection.

He is acting like he feels a bit better - swellings have gone down and can breathe more out of his nose.  He is also nicer now to his brother (litter-mate) Mufasa.  They are 3 years old.  Rajah is orange tabby Manx and Mufasa is a goof-ball - he is white with some orange tabby polydactal (6 toes on each foot, with some deformity of them on his back feet) and we had to have his tail cut off at 7 weeks as it had died (was turning black, no muscle movement).  They are normally very affectionate and protective of each other, but sickness throws everything out of balance.  They are pretty much indoor cats.  When they were younger I took them outside a lot on leashes, but now I just try to take them out for a romp once a day and they ususally stay right with me - eating grass and rolling on concrete!!

I also have a 15 1/2 year old grey tabby named Jinggles.  He has kidney failure - on special diet, insatiable thirst and sprays/pees everywhere.  As all our carpet needs replacing after raising 3 kids, I figure I will wait until he is gone.  Since he drinks so much water, at least the urine is very dilute!!  But still stinks - constantly treating spots.  But the time is getting nearer - as more and more bad days.

Thanks all for the concern and interest.

Thank you for the update catgirl. I hope everything goes well for the cats. I know how stressful it can be!

Catgirl: Thank you for your kitty updates. It's torturous to have to wait out these situations. I hope Rajah is even more improved today. I'm sorry to hear about Jinggles. I went through that scenario with my 19 1/2 year old grey tabby last fall. They just kind of slip away. But they and we are blessed to have some very personal time along the way home.

On another note: it must be a universal cat thing--eating grass and rolling on concrete. When I let mine out for supervised outdoor visits, they always hit that concrete patio first thing. (Then the grass--to be barfed back up only after they come back into the house.) I have a 10 month old kitten who loves to roll in anything I sweep up in the house--dirt, fuzz, cat litter--you name it. If I don't defend the pile of whatever, she is plop right in the middle of it, instantly undoing what I just did. She will even chase the mop in anticipation.

I'll be wishing Rajah and Jinggles well. I'm glad they have such a caring person as you in their lives. (And Mufasa, hang in there.)

catgirl and Bville.... I join you in my prayers and concern for Rajah and Jinggles. Thank you, again, catgirl for letting us in on the struggle, so we can all pull for them with you! Bville, I had to smile at your description of your kitten rolling in anything you try to clean up, floor level. I was driving to my Mom's yesterday.. (which I need to leave soon, and go do again)... anyway, on the way I saw some poor, hapless woman pausing to open her plastic bag in order to pick up her basset hound's poop, when he suddenly rolled right over onto it and gleefully wriggled his back around on / in it... She tried (by then in my rearview mirror as I passed the scene..) with much exasperation to get him to stop and then she had to clean up, both him AND the public grass strip next to the sidewalk! Oh dear!
Anyway... as I said before... praying for Rajah and Jinggles... Keep us all posted, catgirl!

Catgirl. Hope your kitties are much better.  All we can do is love  them and take care of them. They depend on us so much.  It hurts so when the time comes, but take comfort in the fact they they know you love them.

We have three cats and all three can't wait until then hit the concrete patio to scratch their backs.  I can't get them to stop eating grass.  All they do is spit it up all over the house when they get inside. Yuk!