LITTLE PEEPS!!!

Yesterday, Tom and I moved these little peeps to a new home in a much larger cardboard box. My brother-in-law raises pheasants, quail and pigeons for sale to various people for hunting and for eating purposes. One of my tasks has been to periodically help maintain the birds by feeding and watering. At the same time I look for any new eggs and bring them into the house for later inclusion in the incubator Tom has in the garage. This batch has both pheasants and quails, about 70 babies in all. Most of what you see here are the quail, but the larger black and white bird you see here is a pheasant. Tom says it will be all black when it gets more fully matured.

The day before we moved the birds to their new home, I had quite the adventure. It seems one of the pheasants figured how to get out of the box and was sitting up on top. I kept hearing a peep-peep-peep noise and looked up to see it running across the top of the box. I jumped up and ran over and caught the little guy and put him back into his home containder. Moments later I saw, out of the corner of my eye, something running across the carpet and looked at it only to realize it was another pheasant, probably the same one. Again I jumped up (don't tell me I'm not getting any exercise) and chased the little devil behind the couch where I promptly lost him. I searched everywhere and never saw him again. Now, keep in mind Sandy and Tom raise German short-hair pointers who do what --- retrieve birds. In the same living room where this little guy is running around lives a rather large dog, in his kennel, called Lightning. A few moments later Tom comes in and I tell him what has happened, so we both start the hunt again for the bird and do not find him. The little peeper is not making a single sound and we neither one can find any trace of the little rascal. Tom then goes out to take care of the puppies and I get the flashlight out again to look one more time behind the large aquarium in the living room and lo and behold, there he is just sitting there, not moving or making a sound. As I lay down on the floor to reach under the tank, the bird dashes out and runs straight into, yep, you guessed it, right into Lightning's cage. He is so surprised by this he jumps up and does a 180 in his cage and goes after the bird and I'm in the process of screaming, LIGHTNING, DOWN!!! I can't figure how to get the door open and the bird is running back and forth. I hear Tom come in the back door so I yell at him about what's happened and he gets the kennel door open and Lightning out. I'm holding the dog, Tom is trying to capture the bird who is running in and out of the kennel and finally, finally we get the bird, none the worse for wear, and put him back into the box. The little guy has no idea how very close he came to being an appetizer that day!!!

Bet you now wish you were here!!! I'm marking things off my "bucket list" right and left!!! The rest of you are going to have to travel pretty far to catch up with me.

So, all is well that ends well and I would say this day ended well!