I’m glad I’m a fairly sedate person, other wise I would need a tranquilizer…
stack trace:
0 – Sitting in bed, writing code
1 – Ma walks by the hallway on the way to the bathroom: “I thought you were sleeping”, “I was”, “Go to bed”, (walks away), “fuck off” (or something to that effect).
2 – I heard the bird screaming and flying about
3 – Willow jumps off the bed
4 – *sigh*
5 – thinking if the bird doesn’t stop in 3, get up and calm him down.
6 – Ma comes and tells me somethings wrong with Mike (The birds name is Mikey).
7 – Get up, bulldoze through hall, into kitchen, flick on the kitchen and dining room lights on at once
8 – found Willow near the cage, keep visual-scan according to SAS SOP.
9 – Bird found laying on it’s backside on the ground half under the table
10 – Willow lunges a the bird
11 – Bird tries to flee
12 – I try to capture him, until finally nabbing him
13 – move into kitchen for visual exam
14 – bird sinks his beak into my hands in reactitory-fear; hardest bite he’s ever given, but he wasn’t playing.
15 – bird gets loose and is recaptured both by me and the dog a few times
16 – Quick analysis shows lower mid-chest wound and bleeding
17 – switched on the water fosit and let it flow on the wound
18 – dose wound and surrounding area in hydrogen peroxide
20 – Applied flour to his abdomen and rubber it gently on the wound area (to help clotting)
21 – Held bird tightly trying to calm him down
22 – Bird feels warm but beyond having the strength to resist
23 – wrapped bird in dry wash cloth and continued to try to calm him
24 – placed bird in shoe box, wrapping in cloth, to keep him in a secure (hands free) place.
25 – Instructed Ma to prep cage for entry (e.g. remove covers, clear wide opening in the netting, etc)
26 – Bird attempted to flee from shoe box
27 – recalmed bird and began computating contigent next courses of action
28 – Placed wash cloth in bottom of open cage
29 – Picked up bird and wrapped snuggly in my hands, to keep him from flight
30 – Garbage truck arrives, thanks guys, you’re days late and come around 0400 in the morning!!!
31 – Ma, while holding Willow; opens door to verify my audiary senses.
32 – Bird appears alert, aware of changing lighting conditions and the door being opened and closed.
33 – Placed bird in cage on cloth
34 – Closed door quickly as he jumped off, in case of flight
35 – Bird leapt to the cages middle perch
36 – Began search for his cages water bowl
37 – Bird climbed (I think climbed anyway) to the highest
38 – Filled his water
39 – Filled his seed
40 – Rotated his seed and water bowls, just in case he drops off the upper perch… for fear that he might drown in the water bowl.
41 – Resecure netting, just in case the bird figures a way to force open the food/water-dish holding/door things and escape
42 – Check bird
43 – Wash hands
44 – Remind willow she’s been bad, “You can’t play with birds! They’re too fragile”
45 – clean up the mess of feathers and pin feathers on the floor
46 – noted that his missing tail feathers came out at the calamus (quill); reminded me of some duck feathers me and my brother had when I was 5~6 years old.
47 – throw out feathers
48 – check bird, he’s looking as if to say, “Why am I in the cage?”
50 – put out the lights so the bird could rest
51 – wash hands
52 – move laptop (on the bed) so the lower vent is also clear
53 – Remind Willow what shes done
54 – strip down and washed up for the night
55 – check bird, he’s calm
56 – finally free to search google
57 – searches for data (survival rates, treatment) of bitten birds becomes futile
58 – searches for dog health returns positive, he’s always been a healthy bird.
Willow wasn’t trying to hurt him, she just wanted to play. Nothing less then any other dog would’ve done, but she was playful, not predatory. Reminds me, Macy once ate a wild bird, presumably whole, and was fine.
Mike I think is fine injury wise, my primary concern wa the stres of it all. If Willow had really done harm or “bitten him”, I think the birds abdominal injury would’ve looked more like the cut from harakiri or a persons chest slashed with a large knife. Odds are he just had feathers ripped out in the scuffle, b/c I don’t think he’d have survived long if it was a serious cut.
But birds can’t take a lot of torment, they just can’t hold up to it. Extreme fear or stress, or flying into things is really bad for birds. I remember Mrs G (first person we worked for) once told me, that if a humming bird got trapped in one of the orb-webs outside, the thing would die from the ordeal of fighting through it (humming birds are really fragile, nimble creatures with a super rapid-heart-beat).
Mikey must be tough enough to be in this family, ‘cus he managed to survive it without dying of shock. At least, I think he would’ve died a long time before the whole thing ended if he got to seriously into it. Mikey is loud and stubborn enough to prove he’s in the right family, so I hope he’s got the titanium-disposition to… He drives me crazy at times, but I would never wish him serious harm, I love the little critter.
We got him like May of 2000, and he’s been “netted in” to his play area (cage on table, play pin on stack of boxes, cloths rack full of toys) for years. He’s a smart little bugger, so I’m sure he could figure out a way out if there is one. Coco also tends to burrow through into the bottom of the netting and sit under his cages-table when it thunder…
Odds are he’ll be confined to the cage indefintitly, in case of a repeat performance.I think if he isn’t KiA by the time I get up tomorrow, he’ll probably be fine unless he gets an infection. But I guess, Willows mouth is probably cleaner then mine is lol :
It’s about ten after 0600, need to be up for work in a few hours… best try for some sleep.
EDIT: He’s doing good so far, just missing a lot of tail feathers. He was really pissed off when we got home from work, at having been stuck in his cage. The current problem is what to do next….