Daily Drama 43

Hi. My name is Dobby and I’m writing today’s blog post.

We had some serious rain today, and a waterfall magically appeared in the aviary, coming from the neighbor’s back yard. It oozed across my back yard, pooled up by my bathroom, and flushed itself away. Whoosh! Just like that.

The water came and then it went away.

The harness stuck on the picket and broke both of them.

We had another exciting event recently: I broke my harness, and broke a fence, too! Super-Capybara! My super-power seems to be wrecking things.

The blue plastic buckle broke, and the picket welds failed.

My harness caught on the picket and I was running so fast I just broke the welds on the fence! I’m not sure why people think we are slow, lumbering animals. We are SWIFT! And CLUMSY! Not a very good combination.

Grover, from The Seattle Alley Cat Project

This is Grover, and we thought he was sick, but he isn’t now. We all have our ups and downs.

Kitty Hawk, also from the Seattle Alley Cat Project. They are both FIV+ barn cats.

Kitty Hawk is just a downer. He wants to be held and petted CONSTANTLY, and that, of course, takes attention away from ME. Enough said.

RIP sweet Madonna. We miss you every day.

My hens, on the other hand, share their birdseed with me. I’m a little sad about that yellow one, Madonna. She isn’t here any more.

GET OUTTA HERE!

Time to go to the front yard. Watch that birdseed for me, okay? Don’t let the chickens eat all of it.

Mmmm good, chicken food.

There is a snack bar on the way to the front yard, if you go the long way ’round.

Okay, fine, I’m full of bird food right now anyway.

I’m stalling a little bit because we have to use the old standby harness. It doesn’t smell right.

Smells like some young punk.

I just have to mark a few things, I’ll be right with you.

You’re not in any hurry are you?

Really? I have to wear this one? Why can’t you fix the old smelly one?

Dang.

The main reason why we go to the front yard is so that I can eat grass and bamboo. I’ve kind of worked it so that I get an extra corn, but I have to do tricks to get it.

Sometimes I even have to do an extra trick. I have to stand on this black plastic thing.

Why is it so small and slippery?

It tells me whether or not I’m big and fat. I am 130, give or take 5 or 10. I’m a bouncy guy.

Capybaras are not built for going downhill.

Time to go eat bamboo! See you later.

( . . . alligator)

Daily Drama 40

‘Tis the season, and the origin of the term “pecking order” is in full Demo mode. I now have six drakes in the bully pen and only three drakes remain in the common yard with the geese. Emilio is the worst and picks on Vinny and Sal (V&S). Tony can protect them against Boxcar and Boondock (B&B), but not Emilio. Tony picks on poor old Fabio. When I put Tony away, B&B relentlessly chase V&S up onto a brushpile supported by a stump.

The brushpile also conceals illicit activity of a more devious variety: Carmen Miranda is sitting on a nest. I yank a couple eggs every time I see her off the nest. The last thing I need is more Muscovies.

Shamrock is in the bully pen because he is a jerk. He joins in every fracas and encourages any kind of aggression, like a puny feathered cheerleader. Plus he follows Cubicle, my female goose, around everywhere, which annoys the heck out of Norman. Romeo, the gigantic Muscovy drake is in time out because he is after my hens. I think earlier this spring he actually murdered my older hen, Penguin, but no one’s talking.

Shamrock the Terrible

They behave themselves in the garden. I’ve been letting Romeo out for a couple hours in the afternoon, mostly to give the rest of the bullies a break.

Cubicle, Romeo, and Madonna. You can see that Romeo has got his eye on the hen.

It’s much quieter in the aviary with everyone locked up. Norman still takes his job as flock manager very seriously. There’s not much to manage, though.

Norman on patrol, Cubicle swimming. Grover at the fence, Kitty Hawk hanging back, Winky blending in behind.

Vinny and Sal are still shy about venturing beyond their brushpile, and they won’t go out to the yard with the hens. Once their confidence is restored in the aviary common yard, I’ll let the bullies back out, one at a time. Maybe.

Sal and Vinny, checking out the pond. Jello the hen in the distant yard. And that’s Norman’s neck and head, mid-photo.

Dang it. Time to lock up Romeo. He’s huge, but surprisingly easy to grab. Muscovies have really sharp toenails, so it’s all about technique.

Sal averts his eyes as Romeo attacks Madonna the hen.

This is when I threw down the camera and made things right. Darn you, Romeo!

Romeo, professional thug

It‘s really no surprise that the meekest of the ducks are shy about reclaiming their territory. Old Fabio, named for his head pouf, has been here since late 2006. He’s at least nine years old, and walks like your grandpa. His head pouf disappeared about when he lost his curly drake feather. He’s always been scared to death of me, and now that the six ducks he came in with are gone, he’s kind of lonely. B&B are very protective of him, but they attack V&S so they are locked up. For now, Norman looks after him.

Fabio, Vinny, and Sal hanging out near their friends in the bully pen, just out of the photo, stage left.

The other drama queen is Lula, my poor little hen. We aren’t certain what her problem is, but it has been going on now since spring 2014. She’s on Metacam daily, and while she walks like your grandma, she is walking again. She has a hard time getting up to her roost at night, so I have been helping her up if she asks politely. Tonight she did. Other times I discover her up there already.

Lurking Lula

One problem is that we can’t eat her eggs because of the Metacam (meloxicam). She is a very sweet hen, and comes over to get her medicine when I call her.

“Don’t eat my egg!”

So I went back inside for the evening and I think I’m through dealing with bullies. But, NO! Here is tiny Spike the Budgie, terrorizing The Pirate, my handicapped dove. She put up with his pacing and haranguing, and then she suddenly lunged at him! He took off, flew to the kitchen via the dining room, landed right in his own cage! Nice flying, Spike!

“BACK OFF, puny green thing!”

Daily Drama 15

Another big branch fell through the aviary “roof.” The top of a birch tree is dead and rotten and, I guess, on the way down. In the photo below, you can see the apple tree, then the dead top of the birch, then some live birch, and finally, at the right, the remaining half of the maple tree I “trimmed” last spring. I spend a lot of time looking up, now.

Death of a Tree

Dobby has been enjoying our sunny days.

Corn tastes best when you are standing in the sun.

Dobby didn’t seem too inclined to go to the front yard yesterday.

Can’t you see I’m in the bathroom?

He went around to the gate, anyway, though.

Just a minute, I’m busy marking this tarp with my morrillo!

Then he stalled.

Just a minute while I eat this grass!

He’s usually pretty efficient about getting his harness on because he likes to go to the front yard.

On second thought, can we go later? I’m not really in the mood right now.

Fine. We’ll go back and see what the chickens are up to.

Up was the right word!

Madonna and Jello are un-planting pots. I’ve never caught Jello in those planters before, but now I know it might not be the squirrels who have dug the dirt out of those.

Get down from there, Jello!

I guess I need to put some protective screens on those planters.

Get ALL THE WAY DOWN, Jello!

Speaking of protective screens, let’s check on my fancy rattoon.  A rattoon is a sprouted root of sugar cane that can grow into a new plant. In Brazil, they grow sugar can to feed the cattle. It looks like gigantic grass. Not surprisingly, capybaras are fond of it, too.

The protective screen around Dobby’s rattoon.

I bought this one to grow for Dobby. However, the squirrels think it is for them. They gnawed off the top leaves and severed the stem.

Dang it, you naughty squirrels!

Might as well feed it to the Dobster!

Munch munch munch.

Here’s a video of Dobby eating his sugar cane. I love the way it goes in magically. He eats like a guinea pig! You can even see his little tongue in this video. It’s the only thing about dobby that is small!