More Bird Stuff

 I got these cushions from Aldi- Budgie loves them- they recognise pictures of other macaws!

I come home from church and there is Bill asleep on our bed with budgie on his head, he has put Jack up on the bed and let Luna up as well. We have a baby gate on our door to keep the dogs out to avoid dog hair in our room to stop Bill's allergies- you can see it is not very effective. I wonder why?

Amy wants to make sure that Budgie is getting plenty of socialistion now that Ziggy has gone, so she doesn't get too dependent on Bill, so last week we put Budgie on a harness and went down for brunch at the Lanyon Shops. Budgie certainly got plenty of attention and was very friendly with everyone that came up to say hello.

RIP Ziggy our Beautiful Macaw

I have been neglecting my blog for the last 6 weeks or so., it has taken a while for me to be able to put up this post. About a month back, Ziggy had flown onto my back as I was cleaning up, I took a couple of steps out the door before realising Ziggy was on my back, I quickly took some steps back but it was too late, he flew off. Bill was away in the middle east on a work trip, Lachlan and Amy where home so we went out searching, and after about 2 hours spotted him in a tree nearby our house, but it was dark and we couldn't get him to come down. We called the fire brigade, they came around and were reallly helpful but they couldn't get him down either as he was too high up. They put up a ladder and one of the fireman climbed up with Budgie ( Bill's macaw on a harness) on his shoulder to see if that would persuade him to come down but to no avail. Something spooked him and he flew off, there was nothing we could do that night apart from make up posters to put out, posting on Facebook, Lost Pet's Database, emailing friends asking them to keep a lookout.

The next 48 hours were heartbreaking, wondering where he was, if he was safe, if he would come back. Then on the Friday afternoon, I heard a squawk as I went to check the mail and went to investigate and there he was up in a tree across the road. Amy managed to coax him down and we had him home, we were so overjoyed, so happy. Budgie his mate was so excited as well. We had him booked in to get a check up at a bird specialist vet later in the week. Unfortunately after 4 days he appeared to be very tired, so we managed to get him in to the vet practice where he was going to be going on Friday, but with another vet. Bill took him over, they did some tests, gave him some fluids and checked him out. It appeared he had an infection which was treatable, but they were concerned there was some underlying cause so he was started on antibiotics and they felt it was okay to bring him home and bring him back on Friday for a check up. 

He seemed to perk up at home and seemed a little better that night, but overnight he obviously deteriorated and Bill rushed him to the vet the next morning. They worked on him for a while, tried different things but there was nothing they could do for him so Ziggy passed away on on the 28th February. He was only 3 years old and they can live for 70 to 80 years. It was a devastating blow to us all and such a roller coaster ride. We  took comfort from the fact that he came home and we had those last few days with him. If he had died while he was out in the wild we would have never have known what happened to him. We also appreciated the messages of support, phone calls, people dropping around to help look for him, that meant a lot to us. 

We had an autopsy done as we needed to make sure there was nothing contagious that would impact the other birds. The results show that he died of kidney failure, which was highly likely to be

untreatable so there was nothing much we or the vets could have done for him. The vet felt it was highly likely he may have eaten something toxic to him while he was out in the wild. It was good that Budgie  had also seen him very sick as she would have realized that something was wrong.

He is sorely missed, he was a part of the family and was like a toddler on wings, into everything and very curious. It has been a rough ride the last 3 or 4 weeks.

If you cut and paste the link below there is a lovely tribute to Ziggy done by a photographer who had taken some photos of Ziggy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqdypW_oOPY#action=share

Below are some photos of our birds in the last few weeks before we lost Ziggy.

Here is Ziggy with a empty can of sparkling mineral water. He would play with the can then destroy it!

Below are Budgie and Ziggy once he returned home, she was so happy to see him and barely left his side for the next few days.

You can see the look of joy on Amy's face when Ziggy came home, I love this photo of the two of them together.

Ziggy and Amy chilling out together after his adventure

The two partners in crime back together

 A happy pair of birds

Looking very cheeky and mischievous

I love these photos of the two of them together

 I am pretty sure Budgie gave Ziggy a good talking to!

  

We took Ziggy and some chocolate chip cookies around to visit the Firefighters who helped us out. They were just so kind to us and  this officer rang us the day after to see if Ziggy had come back, he was also very concerned for Amy. They were delighted when we brought Ziggy around for a visit.

 Bill brought me back a beautiful silk scarf from Dubai, here is Ziggy checking it out.

Bill had been away in with work when this all happened and then he had to go to Adelaide to sort stuff out for his mum so when he got back the birds where very pleased to see him.

This is when Ziggy must have started to become unwell, as he was having little sleeps, we thought he was just catching up on sleep after his big adventure and visit to the fire station.

The two partners in crime!

Bike Riding in Bright

Bill and I headed down to Bright for the Australia Day weekend, it must be close on 20 years that we have been going down. Originally Bill used to go down and ride and the kids and I would hang around and do stuff in the area, then as they got older both Bill and I would ride, then the kids stopped going down, and then Bill stopped riding and would volunteer and I would ride. We had decided this would be our last Bright trip as there have been changes with the ride and not so many of the group were going down any more. So it is a bit of an end of an era. I have no doubt we will return to Bright to do some riding but maybe at a time that is not the middle of summer when it can be pretty hot. As usual we had a great weekend and enjoyed riding and the company of our friends.

 Here we are at the end of the bitumen at Buckland Valley, we do this the day before, it is a nice flat ride and a good chance to turn over the legs and make sure everything is okay with the bike.

Bill set out with us and then turned around and met us back at the coffee shop- he hasn't been doing much training- his last training ride was a year ago in Bright!

Bright really is  a lovely place and it seems wherever you ride there are lovely views of the mountains.

 This is an early morning picture of the water park at Bright, later in the day it was packed with people - kids and their families having a great time.

 On Saturday the day of the ride I did the 70km ride which was to ride from Bright to Mt Buffalo and back to Bright. In the past I have done the 130km, the 140km ride and once I did the 200km ride where  you rode up Mt Buffalo, Tawonga Gap and Fall's Creek. I decided to take it easy this year and just ride up Mt Buffalo, you ride in the morning before it gets too hot, it takes about 2 hours to climb and leaving at 6:30am you are there before it gets hot. The mountain is lovely in the morning and then it is down hill. I enjoyed riding up until the last 3 km which are a bit steeper and when you are tired from the climb it seems to go on forever!

Bill was up at Fall's Creek the mountain I was not climbing! He had a long and busy day but had plenty of free food up there for him to eat so he was happy! It was another great weekend.

January Catch Up

Here are Ziggy and Zoe keeping an eye on what is happening outside. We got some replacement chairs which are metal so they cannot chew them ( apart from the plastic stoppers!) So we have left a wooden chair for them to sit on with a view outside and they are allowed to chew this one as you can see!

Above Amy is giving Bill's macaw Budgie a head scratch. She just loves in and just collapses into you and looks like she is dead! She just loves it which is not hard to tell from the photo.

Amy thought Jack could take us for a drive!

This years sunflowers before the birds and the heat get to them. It looks like it is going to be over 37 for about 5 or 6 days in a row, we have had 35, 39, 38 and 39 with more to come- yuck!

  The produce from the garden, I have been picking zucchini, tomatoes and for the first time eggplant. The other night I spiralised the zucchini and stir fried it with olive oil and ginger and then added roasted egg plant, garlic and tomato all from our garden- very nice.

Here is Bill the pirate with his pirate patch. He got home from work and opened up this package that had arrived, he proceeded to put on this eye patch and wander around with Budgie on his shoulder and wouldn't respond when we asked him what he was doing. It turn outs out he brought the eye patch so when he looks through the telescope he doesn't have to close on eye- he wasn't really going to turn into a pirate!

In my new role at church as Stake Relief Society President I was assigned to  speak at Merimbula Branch. Bill came down with me, we drove down Saturday, stayed at a motel which is right opposite where they have church. We headed down to the beach and went for a nice long walk, it had been 34 in Canberra when we left (got to 39 degrees) It was 26 degrees in Merimbula, just lovely. Bill went for a swim and I got us some fish and chips, then later we had some yummy icecreams. Sunday morning I went to church and Bill joined us at the end for their 3rd Sunday Munch and Mingle before we headed home. It is around a 3 hour drive, was a nice little break away.

The Malamute Gets a Wash

Amy and took Luna down to give her a wash at the local dog wash at Pet Stock. What an effort it is to give her wash, is definitely a two person job! It took ages just to wet her down, her double coat is so thick. She wasn't particularly pleased about the whole process. We then shampooed her, conditioned her and sort of dried her. It was amazing how much  hair came out while we were washing her and then for a number of days afterwards, but she certainly looked very nice after her wash.

 We were both covered in dog hair and soaking wet after giving her a wash.

Canberra Christmas 2017

 As per the last few years we spent Christmas in Canberra- it is too hard to go away now with  our menagerie- finding someone crazy enough to look after 4 inside birds is a big ask! Amy and I went for a few walks before Christmas and enjoyed the Christmas lights in some of the nearby streets.

The last few years we have gone out Christmas Eve, we did a few years at the Hyatt but have branched out to a few more places. This year we went out to Kokomo's in the city- has a South Pacific theme. We had a lovely evening, we enjoyed their banquet menu, lots of tasting plates to share and the food was very nice. Service was friendly and quick. We invited our neighbour who lives on his own to join us and he had a great time.

Desert for an extra $1 if you had the banquet was Key Lime Pie and it was very yummy!

Christmas Day was very low key, we had a Christmas Brunch and then it was just get your own for the next few days. It was nice and quiet and very relaxing and very little work.

 I had brought a turkey buffet so kept the carcass for the birds to enjoy, we let them join us at their end of the table for a Christmas treat! They enjoyed pulling the meat of the bones- especially Beau- he had a great time!

Time to open presents about midday on Christmas Day- gone are the days when the kids were up at 5am.

Bill looking is usual excited self about Christmas present opening.

I made Christmas Pudding this year, here it is all ready to steam. We joined our neighbours on Boxing Day for a BBQ and I took Christmas Pudding. We had done it with them last year, so they were happy to have us come again with our Christmas Pudding. They had a 7 year old, 13 and 15 year old who enjoyed the whole process, it was a fun evening.