Of Weird Wildlife and Puppies

[danceswithgary]

Sorry, no pictures this time.

I'm in a grumpy mood because my sleep schedule (such as it was) is really screwed up. Lately I've been lucky to fall asleep by 2AM then the puppies are up at 6AM. We've gotten into the bad habit of bringing them back into bed with us after they've been out to take care of business and we all snooze until 10ish, which means I wake up feeling like half the day is already gone again. It's actually silly of me because it's not as if we're late for work. *rolls eyes*

To add to the grumpiness, we have an idiot cardinal that has been bashing itself against the upstairs and downstairs windows all day long trying to drive away that rival he keeps catching hanging around his territory. We've closed the blinds to minimize the reflection, but it doesn't matter.

thump

thump

thump

*clenches jaw some more*

I suggested putting up an owl or hawk silhouette on the windows, but Gary insists it will scare away the other birds he feeds. I'm about ready to put them up anyway but, with our luck, the crazy bird would take one look and bash even harder.

"Look, that smirky red bastard has minions!"

To add to the aggravation, Tessa has turned into a YLDFH (Yappy Little Dog From Hell) when she's outside. When I'm out with her, I work on correcting her and even pick her up and take her back inside when she won't obey. Not Gary, though. He'll let her bark away (and sometimes Molly joins in) and I end up slamming out of the house and screaming, "Tessa! NO BARK!!!!" like a banshee.

Gary will then look at me and say something stupid like, "They're barking at the ducks (or squirrels or birds - pick one)," and I try to calmly explain - and usually fail - that I don't give a fuck what they're barking at, unless it's coming to fucking eat them they only get three barks.

That brings me to the rather large male turkey that wandered through our backyard yesterday, adding to our wildlife collection. Now, while I'm really not concerned that a turkey or deer will actually eat the puppies, I'm now looking at the venison, turkey, and duck snacks in our cupboard and thinking I'll steer away from buying them anything bear-shaped in the future.

God, I need more sleep.

Comments

[mecurtin]

Tell Gary I've used predator-silhouettes for decades, and they only make the birds shy away from the windows, not the feeders. The cut-outs aren't realistic enough to truly frighten them, they just avoid the windows.

[danceswithgary]

That's what I've told him. *nods* I figure another week of the cardinal bashing out his brains and we won't have the problem anymore. :-/

[clavally]

Good lord, you'd think the bird would have brain damage by now! Maybe it's more than one? I feel for you, though. It drives me nuts when the birds just sing in the tree right outside my window in the morning. I can't imagine one of them running continuous kamikaze flights.

[danceswithgary]

It really is a little crazy-making. :-/

[bymoonlight]

I really feel for you... I've only seen a bird smack into a window once and that was when I was at work and when it happened and it made an almighty bang before it simply flew off. Of course I was the only one to see what actually hit the window and the proceeded to get funny looks from my work colleagues when i was like it was a pidgeon.

And now I've finished that weird tangent I'll go back to the original point of this post which was I feel for you and maybe if you're lucky it will hit itself so hard it will simply avoid the area.

[danceswithgary]

It was still bashing away this morning. Crazy bird. :-(