ticks

The other day I blogged on how good our kitten was on catching flies and spiders. and how it was that time of year on hearing lots of screams from bathrooms etc  well its also that time of year when our pets  such as cats and dogs also get unwanted guests , they do not know about the perils of other bugs such as ticks who will try to devour them by sucking their life line blood.

After my drive about on getting home I went for my afternoon nap  and as usual one of the cats came to sit on my sleeping corpse  while stroking here I felt a lump on her back half asleep after taking my medication I shouted for Pam to make a closer inspection of the lump  usually cats pick up ticks on the neck part of the torso.

After a closer examination of miss Sparkle, I was told to wake up,  pam had the kitten in one hand a teaspoon of mentholated spirits and tweezers in the other  so she wanted me to hold the cat down firmly so she could get the offending freeloader off her back, going to get the cat drunk I asked  no I am hoping to get the tick drunk so it gets its head out of the skin when I pull it with the tweezers. work it did as You can see from the photo the complete tick  with the marks of the tweezers.

after the  anaesthetised tick came around  it was promptly got rid of in the proper manner by squashing it between two thumb nails, then it was time to inspect the rest of the cats for any more free loader bloodsuckers.
4.30. this blog was brought to you cos I cannot sleep as its 24 hours since I took the new steroid tablets  and the effect was wearing off  half an hour on the computer takes my mind off the pain while the drugs work on killing the pains .   a nice cup of tea and as its raining now  its back to bed for a few hours before I decide what to do with the rest of the day , now I have decided to buy a car I can just go off when I want. the decision on buying and not renting was an economic thing I would have liked to get myself a BMW as thats the car I had for the last 12 years of driving before it was sold to go live in Egypt
 but after hearing my granddaughter had got her place in  equine science studies collage Aberystwyth.
 I bought a VW polo automatic , if she does well in her studies we will give her the polo.

 Pam chose the colour  Dad paid half  as we take him every day to see Mum in the  old peoples home , and the insurance is only group 1. making it one of the cheapest cars to insure, the beamers are group15  that would put it out of the question for my granddaughter to drive, its not going to be long before I am either bedridden or gone from this life  something I will know for sure on the 19th  after my flexible sigmoidoscopy. I know thats a bit technical but it means they want to give me an anema clean out my bowels  to put a camera in my colon (bowels) check n the extent of the cancer they already know its in the liver.  and now Saphy has come to sit on my knee telling me its time to switch off and go back to bed,













will tell you later where I went yesterday on my first trial run of the car.

birds and seeds.

Yesterdays glimpse of the moon between the clouds

Mistle thrush 

House sparrow  found a crust

this is a quick post for  Mary , I find the birds do not eat the coconut unless I put sun flower seeds in the half shell.
 once the sunflower seeds are gone they tend to pick at the coconut

Sylvester  looking as if to say "think them birds can see me behind the dried grass"

two male chaffinch the one with the feathers on the legs is here all the time and nests in the back garden

Saphy enjoying a bit of morning sun  watching the birds on the feeders.
 and me I have to go get some more  fat balls for them.
" dont I have a hard life"

Bird rescue

Sitting at the computer this morning I heard a bang against the front window, a noise I hear all to often in the summer when the young blackbirds hit the window usually knocking themselves out most service and fly off after a few minutes, but today it was a female Chaffinch she lay motionless on the paving rather than the cats getting to her I climbed out of the window to see if she was ok even though she looked dead, on picking her up she moved her legs, rather than give it beck to mouth I resuscitated her by stroking with my finger then she flapped her wings , I cradled her in my hands for a minute before putting her in the cat basket on the radiator. then she started to move a bit so lifted her up again to se if she wanted to fly off seemed quite happy where she was perched on my hand covering from her ordeal. after a few more minutes I put her outside on a wire then she flew off, but not before I took her photo.

Whewn I first picked her up I thought she was dead

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The finches are Such tiny birds

Here she is in the cats cradle on the radiator

Almost recovered but still looks a bit dizzy

Here she is almost ready to fly off again.

Long-tailed tit,Aegithalos caudatus,

First time I have seen the long-tailed tits 

Description

The Long-tailed Tit is an adorable, small, fluffy pinkish bird.

The shoulders and underparts are pinkish. The head has a white crown with black marks above the eyes and into the nape. They have red eye rings and a very small black bill. The black and white tail is very long, over half the length of the bird and the longest tail of any British bird in proportion to its body. The legs are black-brown.

Juveniles lack pink and have grey-black cheeks.

Long-tailed tits are not really members of the Tit family but of the Aegithalidae family.

Feeding

They feed mostly on insects and their larvae, and spiders, but also on berries.

Increasingly, Long-tailed Tits are feeding from peanut feeders and suet cake in gardens.

These came in fed for a few minutes and left.

Male Blackbird we have about twelve birds  feeding on the apples and berries in our garden at this time of year,

Usually this grey squirrel is in hibernation at this time of year. but its so mild with only two mornings of frost in the past month. here she has found the corn seeds the tits do not want.

The siamese hates being cold  so cuddles up to the main coon for warmth  and of course has to be groomed first.

Cats,Tonkinese,maine coon,siamese

Sylvester is a maine coon he is just turned eleven  loves the outdoors but sleeps on my bed  usually comes in about 1.00 and plonks himself on the pillow near as possible to my head without waking me up,  but when its wet and he is wet its usually on my head. he is such an adorable Cat but as big as he is  the siamese are the boss.

 

Opel is a 13 month old siamese  and is full of play very talkative and lets you know when she is around 

 

 

No I did not pull the cord

Tonkinese are a medium-sized cat breed distinguished by points as with Siamese and Burmese breeds. They are lively, friendly, often talkative cats,and this Is our tonk Saphire   she is an eleven year old Queen , pulls a tounque when she is happy and more to the point when she is comfy in my bed ,