Day 298 - Animal Control

new dog stuff

Difficult photo choice today...a horribly under-exposed snap of new dog stuff, or alternatively, a horribly over-exposed snap of new dog stuff.

I've gone with the horribly under-exposed version...and ignored the third option, that I didn't mention, which was to light the damn subject a bit better...and conveniently overlooked the fourth, which was to get the DSLR out and take a better photo.

Photo quality wasn't really the point, you see...the point being, of course, New Dog Stuff!

We have lots of old collars, leads, and one thing or another...but most of it hasn't been used for years, and smells of Jazz and Bluez, and is probably covered in cobwebs or stiffening with age in a crate in the loft...

So we nipped out to PetsAtHome to get some New Stuff for our New Dog...a new collar and lead (nice Red collar!), an extendible lead (which we'll need for a while), and a name tag (which he's legally obliged to wear).

Now that it's all confirmed, and we're collecting him tomorrow, I can share his name with you...he's not actually Batman - he's Robin!  

robin

I think that makes me Batman, probably - and makes Anna Batgirl!  That works - we've already got the tee-shirts and everything... ;-)

Anyway, I don't know how long the name Robin will last, but we'll go with it for a while...as the rehoming officer pointed out: everything is going to change for him - all he really has is his name.

So we'll try to resist giving him too many nicknames straight away...although the phrase red robin keeps flitting across my mind like...well, like a little red robin...that might become simply Red...maybe.

But maybe Robin will stick...we'll see.  I feel that his real name will emerge as we get to know him. 

I've installed a dog gate cordoning off the kitchen from the rest of the downstairs, in order to introduce him gradually and give the cats the option to escape should they venture in with him. 

Loz has already twigged that something is going on, and has been charging around, wide-eyed, and looking at us with an accusing glare...I'm sure she's reading our minds!

Before tomorrow night I'll move the gate to give Robin additional access to his bed...he has a choice between a brand new bed, only used once (by Loz the other night), and a stinky old dogged up bed that Jazz and Bluez used to use...it will be interesting to see which Robin prefers.

Right, I'm just burbling along, preoccupied and distracted by the imminence of Robin's arrival, so I'll sign off there.

Just one more night in a dogless house...

:-)

Day 296 - Teaser

home fire

A sudden turn in the weather, from mild and warm, to cold, windy, and wet, prompted us to light a first fire of this new Autumn...a milestone each year, symbolically bidding farewell to the warmer months, and welcoming the colder.

It was a truly impulsive decision...I hadn't even considered the possibility, until we were getting changed in a chilly bedroom after work...we should put a fire on, I thought...

We should put a fire on!

Once that seed was firmly planted, there was no getting away from it...and so I set about clearing out the grate, finding fire-lighters, kindling, logs and coal...

Everything was covered in cobwebs, which wasn't fun...for one thing, they just stick to everything...but more importantly, I feel bad about whichever poor little spider has just had his home demolished, and is possibly about to get set on fire...

Anyway, before long I'd dropped logs on the carpet, got cobwebs stuck to my sleeves and trousers, and had soot on my hands and probably my face too...but I also had a lovely fire burning in the grate!

It wasn't long before the crackling attracted the usual suspect...

ooohh yeeaahhhhh

Now all we need is Anna and a dog lounging by the fire with Loz, and we've got our full traditional Winter Mode on!

I find I'm quite looking forward to the darkening of the days, the lengthening of the nights, and the deepening of the cold over the next couple of months...

Winter is coming...and I'm quite excited at the prospect!

The changing of the seasons has also served to remind me that I'm on the home straight with my blog now...nearly 300 days done, more than 80% of the way through this epic journey we've been on...

It has been a fun and inspiring project, don't get me wrong...but I am tired and on some levels looking forward to a break.

But hold on a minute, sit yourself right back down there...

Don't go thinking it's all over bar the shouting...somewhat unbelievably, I still have a few things yet to say...can't remember what they are, of course...but if I do, I'll try to stay remembered long enough to get them blogged on here - it could happen!

In any event, there are all sorts of exciting times ahead, over the next 10 weeks, and I have a number of plans for the blog, before we're finished with this thing. 

So don't got sneaking off before the final chapter, huh?

In fact, you should sit and watch all the way through the fifteen minutes of credits (probably fifteen days in my case), in order to catch that last little teaser right at the end.

You know full well it won't have been worth it...it never is!

But this time, it might...mightn't it?

Best sit right there and see....

;-)

Day 293 - Moon Rising

half moon

Friday night again, and I've got a pretty random collection of photo's for you...and I'm completely distracted by something else entirely...

The top photo, whilst not so dramatic, made for a nice contrast with last night's sunset...looks like we're halfway through the lunar month!

In other news, I cleared the hole in the hedgerow this evening, after it had been blocked by a large pile of hedge trimmings.

hole whole

All ready for the Autumn Edition, in about two weeks time...

Whilst clearing it, I came across some of the tree from the bottom of my 50@50 post...somebody had used it to block up the gap. 

For reasons that will be revealed over coming days, I was looking at another hole in the hedgerow, within the garden, that I wanted to block...remembering my promise to the little tree we had to cut down, I gathered all I could find of it and used it to create a bit of lattice-work to fill in the hole.

manweb

As I was doing this, Loz started to stalk and pounce on the end of one of the sticks where it lay on the lawn, so I quickly grabbed the camera.

target locked

That stick is so going to get it - and probably much faster than I know how to photograph!

lightning strike

Yep, sure enough, she homed in so fast that everything is in focus except her!

For those of you who are unsure of the joys of owning a cat, allow me to demonstrate...

Warning, not for the faint-hearted...

deadv0l3

This is the kind of thoughtful present you can anticipate coming home to on a regular basis, when you share your home with an active feline - it's the back end of a vole...when Loz eats a vole, she always starts with the head, and works her way down the body until she loses interest.

Much as I've worked my way this far down the blog before losing interest!

If anyone's still paying attention, I'll give you a clue as to why I'm so distracted...there may be an opportunity looming to tick off a significant Challenge for the year...it's a really important one, and I could get the tick within the next couple of weeks...

Watch this space...

;-)

Day 281 - Lazy Day

disturbed

I've had a lovely lazy day today, watching the Grand Prix, sorting out video's from our Font trip, and even playing on my Xbox for the first time in months.

At one point I had to take a break from all this sedentary activity to go and sit in the sun for a few minutes with Anna and the Cats (there's that band again)...

Loz took up what has oddly become her usual position - under the kitchen window, just next to the drain chamber, in the mud of the border.

She looked so chilled basking in the sun that I took the opportunity to take a quick snap of her on my phone (the decent camera is still packed!)...or at least, I intended to - then the sun went in, prompting Loz to open her eyes, stop looking quite so chilled, and start looking annoyed at both the loss of warmth and at being disturbed by me.

So I just got this photo instead.

In keeping with today's theme of idleness and inactivity, I'm going to leave this one right there...

More tomorrow, of course...see you then!

:-)

Day 263 - Mobius Loop

deadmau5

Much as I love the cats, the constant death gets wearing by the time September comes around.

This is the cutest little baby mouse that was dumped unceremoniously by the back door this evening, by the Killer Queen herself. 

There was another one at the top of the stairs, by our bedroom door, so I guess this one was left out as a warning to the others...kinda like Omar's boyfriend in Season One of The Wire.

Have you seen The Wire?  Best TV show ever...in fact it's an insult to call it a TV show. 

Although set in Bodymore, Murderland (Baltimore, Maryland), it's Dickensian in its keen wit and sharp societal observation, epic in terms of both scope and drama, and packed with some of the best characters ever written...

There's Omar of course, and Bubbles, and McNulty and Bunk...Avon and Stringer Bell, Prop Joe and Cheese...Ziggy and Prez, Herc and Carver and Kima, Daniels, Rawls and Burrell...D'Angelo and Brodie and Poot and Wee-Bey and Wallace...

Not forgetting Slim Charles, Cutty, Marlo, Bunny, Carcetti, Snoop and Freamon.

Oh man, what a great show, I'm so nostalgic for it. 

Going full circle, who remembers the episode where a drunken Bunk is recounting the tale of how his wife had called him home because there was a mouse in the closet?   Bunk ended up shooting the poor little thing with his service handgun (and taking out one of his wife's shoes in the process)...

Now I think about it, that's where I got the line above from, the one about leaving it out as a warning to the others.

How odd that this post has gone on such a curiously circuitous route, only to end up folding back in on itself....from dead mouse to The Wire to The Wire to a dead mouse...it's like one of those endless mobius strips, looping in on itself into infinity.

Best not go back to the beginning and start reading again - you could be here until eternity...and whilst this blog can provide a moment's fleeting amusement now and then, there's definitely not enough substance to last you forever.

Just don't do it...

:-/

Day 245 - Predator and Prey

spider eat spider

Our house is full of spiders at this time of year, but this is one way their numbers are whittled down.

We have no issue with having spiders around...the alternative is to have an abundance of flying insects, which is infinitely more annoying.  At least the spiders just get on with their own business and don't get up in your face all the time!

There are two main species or genus in our house - the house spider (Tegenaria) and the cellar spider (sometimes known as the daddy long legs spider, although personally we reserve that name for the Crane fly)...

This photo shows a cellar spider predating on a house spider, as is their wont...the house spider is thicker in the leg and a little hairy looking, and looks squat and strong, compared to the long, skinny, feeble looking legs and body of the cellar spider...and yet cellar spiders regularly prey on house spiders, and not the other way around!

It's as though Jason Statham is easily taken out by Stephen Merchant, through the careful application of lanky limbs (and possibly a sharp wit).

This cellar spider is fairly large, with a leg span of about 2 inches, and it was hiding on the side of the toilet cistern this morning.  

It's notable that the cellar spider proliferates at certain times, when it has a lot of young, and for a while our bathroom will be teeming with them...but then their numbers gradually diminish (coincidentally?!), just as two or three of them get really big in the body...and of course their growth rate is directly correlated with the amount of prey they consume...

I'll leave you to work out what's going on there!

In other news, one of the more disturbing elements of both living in the country, and cat ownership, is the extensive killing that you have to witness...

deadvol3 II (or is it III?)

This morning, Loz had only been out for two minutes when she unceremoniously dumped the large, very pregnant female vole, twitching and choking, on the floor in the doorway.

Momentarily, the poor little mite gave up and passed over, but just to add a final flourish of horror to the situation, for a few seconds I could see the young writhing in her belly...

Not the most pleasant way to start the day...

Finally, brighter news - the BirdZombie has today been flown back to England, and by now he should be in Nottingham Burns Unit...we'll be taking a trip up there tomorrow to see how he is...

So far, our worst fears have not been realised - here's hoping things continue in that vein...

:-)

Day 241 - Soul Food

eye to eye

All day I've been lurching from intense emotion to intense emotion...whilst my exterior probably appears fairly calm and stable, my insides have been tugged all over the place, as if there's a tiny rollercoaster running through my core.

My heart is absolutely aching for my nephew Chris, his mum and dad, and his siblings.  I know Jools and Siobhan are both strong, capable, confident people, and they will fight fiercely for whatever Chris needs - and they'll get it.  But of course, he's on my mind and wrenching at my heartstrings constantly...

On the other hand, I interviewed a bright, young candidate for an apprenticeship today, and we're going to take him on, which is a great opportunity for him...a potentially life-changing event.  It's really nice to be able to give that chance to someone, so that has given me some proper satisfaction in my job, for the day at least.

Then at the same time, I'm intensely angry and frustrated with our landlords who are letting us down on every front.  It feels as though we're living on a building site, and we can't seem to get any remedial work done at all.  It's very depressing, and I'm fuming with our estate agent, with his endless yet entirely empty promises.

I felt a vague melancholy as Anna and I were chatting about the house situation whilst walking the dogs, and we gradually realised that our time here is ending.  I've lived in this little cottage for nine years now, and Anna with me for the last four or five...and our little menagerie, ever present of course.  

However, since losing both Bluez last Autumn, and now Jazz this summer, it feels as though the heart of the house has gone...it's lost its warmth, and its charm...and now the garden is ruined too, and suddenly we're running very low on reasons to be here...

But then we started to talk about buying our own place, and suddenly the mood turned to excitement as we realised that we should pursue our dream, and look for a place of our own...somewhere we can have however many of whatever animals we like, and make a home for ourselves.

And then we arrived back home, to be greeted enthusiastically by Loz...and that reminded me of how wonderful it is to have animal companions in your life...

catface

So I find that in spite of the all the other trauma, tension and discontent in other areas of life, it's still possible to be happy in the moment...and however worried I am about other people in my life, my worrying isn't going to help them or me in any way.  

Better to get my own soul food where I can, in order to support and strengthen me to be a shoulder to lean on, to stand my ground in the face of adversity, to be whatever I need to be for whomever needs me...

In fact it behooves me to be happy whenever I can, to find joy in the small things, and to use that powerful energy to positive effect in other situations that could well do with support...

It would be rude not to...

Day 237 - Vole Hoovers

vacancy

Friday night sure rolls around quickly of late...

This evening we found that they've now finished harvesting the fields around us, which frees up the access to the hole side of Barney the barn owl's tree. 

As you can see, it's a lovely shelter, with a solid platform inside a big old tree.  I've seen three young perched in here in the past, but they haven't nested here this year. 

Bizarrely, the tree is actually still alive, albeit much of it is hollow...

entish

We've had glimpses of Barney in several of these holes, and he seemed to be able to move around fairly freely in there. 

It's a very cool old tree, anyway.

In other news, the Killer Queen is on the rampage at the moment...

ritual sacrifice

I found this vole on the rug in the kitchen when I got home.

Within 5 minutes of opening the front door, Loz came in with a live, squeaking juvenile vole...I chased her out and got her to let it go, but within minutes she was back with another one. 

I shut her in for a bit, which she was really offended about...but later in the evening she was back out, and bringing more struggling young voles back, to the extent that we've had to shut her in again.

At the moment she's prowling the window sill, looking out into the night longingly, and miaowing at me in a frustrated tone. 

I presume the harvest has flushed lots of small animals into the hedgerow, and Loz just wants to go out there and sweep them all up, as I'm sure Barney would be if he were around...he's a vole hoover too. 

I've watched him hunt in the meadow (the next field over), and he was getting a kill every few minutes and brining it back to his young in the tree above...he must have killed a couple of dozen a day, at least. 

Hopefully the tidal wave of death and torture will subside in a day or two...

impressive

Speaking of which, my 'boarding injury is now a large, swollen bruise on my forearm...suffice to say, I wore a short sleeved polo shirt today in order to impress everyone with my war wound. 

I'm sure that will have had the desired effect, won't it?

One of my staff asked me what I done, and when I told him he said (as predicted),

"How old are you?!  There's some kids out the front doing loads of tricks on skateboards and bikes, it's crazy...they're about ten years old...".

So I'm fairly sure he's impressed with my youthful energy and enthusiasm.

I think that was his point anyway...

...yeah, that's probably it...

;-)

Day 233 - Death By Cat

deadvol3

Cats are great and all, but they do have a bad habit of assuming you want the same things that they do. 

Anna was away overnight, so I got up and fed the cats before work this morning.  They were both hassling for breakfast, and once I put their bowls down, they went after it with gusto.

Not five minutes later, I heard the unmistakable sound of a cat wretching, and found Loz being sick in the doorway to the lounge.  I shooed her outside and set about cleaning it up.

Not five minutes later again, and I sat in my chair briefly to have a slurp of coffee...as I turned round to stand up, I found this poor, dead little vole slumped on the carpet behind me...

No cat to be seen.  

Picking him up, it was immediately obvious that he was very freshly dead.  As I took him out to the garden (for the crows), there was Loz, back on the hunt again around the borders of the lawn. 

She must have gone out and chanced upon the vole, and quickly taken it...as it was an easy kill, she then decided to present it to me before nipping out to pick up another one...

I know she's just a cat being a cat, and that the local vole population remains as healthy as ever, despite Loz's voracious kill rate...but I still feel bad every time, and rescue them when I can. 

It was too late for this little one...if it's any consolation, at least in death it provided me with a photo of the day (once my brain kicked into gear).

Voles are the most common prey for Loz, but there have occasionally been more impressive (sort of) kills.

Once or twice she's brought a baby rabbit home, looking immensely pleased with herself.

And one memorable day two years ago, I got home to find spots of blood here and there on the carpet, and this very dead weasel in the middle of the rug in the lounge...

deadweeze1

Weasels commonly take prey such as large rabbits, many times their size...they're ferocious warriors - it must have been quite a battle!

Beautiful animal, in any case...I still have guilty pangs about his unfortunate demise...

Still, the price of every life, and all that...

:-/

Day 226 - Make It So (Please)

nice cat, though...

Those of you who are paying close attention will have realised that over the last few weeks, our lovely summer garden has been essentially destroyed by a team of inept and careless drainage contractors.

I haven't talked about it much because it's been fairly painful, but they've "finished" (and I use that word in its loosest possible sense) and gone now, so I'll just give you a brief update.

For context, you should know that the house we've rented for the last 8 years or so, is a small, semi-detached farm cottage in the corner of a wheat field in a small hamlet in South Warwickshire.

It's very plain, with no mod cons, but is a beautiful place to live, especially in the better months of the year.  

Two significant mod cons that it hasn't got would be a connection to the gas supply, and a connection to the sewage or drain systems.

With only electricity as a power source, we at least have the benefit of open fires all winter, which we really love, so we've learned to live with that one. 

For drainage, our house and the one we're attached to are on a discrete system, with all of our storm water and foul waste feeding into a large, brick built septic tank underneath our car parking area. 

There have been minor issues with this system for years (rodding blocked sewer pipes is not funny, believe me), and the landlord has now decided to replace it entirely.   That is, a new, large, modern septic tank, and new pipework to both houses.

So far, so good...

But then as it turns out, that's as far as the good went - from that point on it has been a painful descent into what has now become kind of a hilarious purgatory.

The photo above shows our lawn where we socialise the most, and the little patio area where we (used to) barbecue.  As you can see, the lawn is pretty much ruined, stones all over it, dead patches, nothing cleaned up - they didn't even brush the mud they got all over the decking off...

at least it's sunny

...here's another section of the garden, which really doesn't do justice to the ridges, holes, dips and lumps that cover it all...

mud path

...this is our main route in, the path from car park to house...the slabs are all broken or missing, and the ruination of the lawn continues throughout...

why, exactly?

...this is where Anna parks her car - or where she used to park her car, when all of these slabs were intact...

That's just a few random samples - and I can tell you it looks much worse in real life...I could easily take another 20 or 30 shots of additional examples of the damage and destruction...

But it doesn't stop there...check out the ridiculously amateurish joining of the old system (the green downpipe) and the new...

seriously?!

The whole job has been done to this shockingly laughable standard, supposedly at a cost running into five figures...

And these shots are how they left the job, when their remit was to leave it as it was, to make good the usual upset of laying some pipes.

As a reminder, the photo on this page gives a hint of how the garden felt before...watch the video with sound for the full effect of how lovely, peaceful and pretty it was here just a couple of short months ago...

Anyway I won't dwell on it, what's done is done.  I'll hopefully have some more positive photos of whatever remedial work we can squeeze out of the landlord, before we give up and think about moving on.

Maybe we'll get a new lawn out of it...and a gate, and the car park resurfaced?!

It could happen!  

I'll take that image forward with me, I think...if I expect it all to get sorted, and act and behave as though that will happen, it can only help to nudge the universe towards making it so...

It's going to be really nice when the carpark is mud free for the first time ever, and the lawn is smooth and easy to mow!

Can't wait!

;-)

Day 221 - Catwalk

divas

Since losing Jazz, I've become aware that I'm as conditioned into the daily routines of dog-life as he was.

An obvious manifestation of this occurs around early evening each day, when I consistently experience a strong urge to go for a walk.

For 13 years I've been tied to the dogs (both figuratively, and literally at times)...it no longer felt like a chore, but I sometimes wondered what it would be like not to have to get home for 6pm every day...I thought there might be a sense of liberation, but there really hasn't been.

Well, there is an occasional realisation that I don't have to rush home, but it seems like something of a surreal notion, so I ignore it!

I feel institutionalised...like the man who's been in prison for 20 years, shut in a little cell...when he reaches the end of his sentence, the door is opened, and the guard pronounces that he's free to go...but the outside world seems big and scary, and it turns out he prefers to stay where he is, where he knows the routine and therefore feels safe. 

That's how I feel - I'm free of the commitment of having a dog...but I don't want to be!

Anyway, luckily the weather has been beautiful, so we had a lovely warm wander down the lane. 

As would often happen, Loz chose to follow us, so I got this lovely photo of Anna and Loz on their catwalk, in the hazy evening sun.

Entertainingly, a yellowhammer followed us up the lane, all the way stridently alarm calling about the presence of Loz...

disappointingly, no bananas

It really sounded as though it were actually saying, "Cat! Cat!!"...

Anyway, enough of all that, I must get off - it's time for my after dinner treat!

:-)

PS See below for a special bonus post on steep bouldering...you know you want to!

Day 207 - Troublemaker

lookout point

This little lady has been the cause of much trouble around here...in fact, such is her significance, I think she's featured on my blog before!

The Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) makes it a criminal offence to disturb a nesting bird. 

This protection stands regardless of whether the bird is nest building, or the nest contains eggs or young dependent fledglings.

In one of the hedges between our cottage and next door, a pair of blackbirds have been nesting for some weeks...for the last two or three weeks, they have been diligently feeding their young on juicy fat worms and other insects that they find around the garden. 

Our garden makes for a wonderful food rich territory for them, and we believe this is their second brood this year. 

One drawback, however, is the Killer Queen, Loz.  At the weekend, as Queenie was hunting voles around the decking, something in the hedge caught her attention. 

The blackbird nest is low in the hedge, maybe only 1m above the ground, although the hedge is so dense that the nest is not easily visible - I haven't managed to spot it yet. 

Anyway I found Loz totally focussed on the hedge in the approximate vicinity of the nest, in full on targeting mode.

As I shooed her away, she hardly even noticed me, instead treating me like some kind of roadblock and merely adjusting her position without losing focus on the nest at all.

We had to shut her indoors (much to her chagrin) for 48 hours, before she seemed to forget about the nest when let out under our supervision. 

The blackbird has a variety of strategies for defending itself against predators such as Loz, of which the Prime Directive is:

Never let the predator discover the location of the nest.

The blackbird achieves this by only entering the nest when they're sure they are unobserved...if a cat is around they will sit on the lawn in full view, just a few feet away, and wait for the cat to pay them some attention...at which point they'll take off directly away from the nest.   This both draws the predator away (both physically and psychologically), and as a side bonus, offers their mate a chance, quietly and unnoticed, to enter the nest.

To some extent they are testing the predator, to see whether it is in hunting mode, such that they can adjust their tactics appropriately.

For pure prey animals, they are remarkably brave where their young are concerned.

Anyway, as I briefly mentioned in an earlier post, we had to interrupt the drain digging operation in our garden because the new underground pipes were to be routed directly below the nest.

For several days now works have been halted (although in fairness, the nest is not the only reason), and we are watching and waiting to see what develops with the nest. 

I should note that we're not keen to protect the bird because it's illegal, but simply because it's morally right - the Law is simply a convenient way of forcing the uncompromising and uncaring drainage workers to cede to our personal standpoint. ;-)

A couple of days ago, our neighbour claimed that the young had fledged...but since then we've seen the mother and father blackbirds go back to the nest, and they're still making the soft clucking sound they make to reassure their young...so they don't seem to have fledged just yet.

Somewhat worryingly, this morning I saw the mother blackbird in the photo above enter the nest with a beak full of dry grass...nesting material!

We're hoping this simply means they're making a few running repairs...and not that they're starting Round Three!

I'll keep both my eye on them, and you posted...

:-)

Day 195 - Slug and Swallows

birds on a wire

I'd like to think that one of these little fellows is the one who had the lucky escape from Loz the other day. 

In fact, I think it's the one on the left, the one who's looking at the camera.  I imagine he's looking at me with gratitude, for saving him from the jaws of the beast...that's probably it, don't you think?

That's my theory, and I'm sticking with it!

Otherwise, I have that Friday night thing going on again, where I'm tired, my brain is fuzzy, and writing is hard...and writing anything interesting is even harder!

Fortunately (for all those who won't read this), very few read the Friday night entry...and who can blame them?

That said, there are benefits to having a lesser read post now and then.  

For instance, here's an interesting photo of a strange and slimy creature, which many of you may find somewhat unpalatable. 

So I'll sneak it in here where nobody's really looking...

terrestrial gastropod mollusc

I get to add another cool creepy crawly to my collection of critters, and you all get to keep your dinner down...

Double bonus!

B-)

Day 192 - International Swallow Rescue

bird on a wire

I'm on a roll with my challenges lately, even if I'm only half ticking or repeating them.

Today, as I was pottering around unpacking bags and stashing gear away after our weekend adventures, I noticed a little commotion in the lounge as I was passing.   All the animals seemed interested - the focus of their interest quickly became clear, when I found a swallow flying around the lounge!

Loz was on the arm of the sofa, looking for a chance to leap, and the bird was suitably panicked, flying round the room in desperation, whilst Jazz and Maisie watched with interest. 

My entering the room only served to panic the bird more, and push it towards the far windows, even though I tried to keep low to give it passage above my head...

It flew into the window by my desk, and dropped down onto the window sill.  I dashed over to open the window for it to escape, but somehow Loz beat me there...

I swear she has the reflexes of a cat!

Before I could intervene, Loz had the swallow in her mouth, and made to depart with her prize.   I blocked her exit, and hassled her into putting the little bird down, whereupon it immediately tried to fly away.  As Loz began to paw (claw!) at it, I grabbed her and pulled her away, and the swallow took to the air again. 

This time it flew into the opposite window, but with better anticipation, I just about caught Loz before she got there...holding her away (as she wriggled frustratedly), I opened the window and tried to nudge the swallow out.  

Unfortunately, it panicked and made a dash for the darkness and cover behind the curtains...and then dropped down behind the sofa before taking refuge in a dusty corner behind the bookcase.

I shooed all of the animals out, shut the door, opened all the windows, and cleared the furniture out of the way.   Once done, I took this quick photo (I had the wrong lens on, natch), as the bird had clearly decided its best bet at this point was to hunker down and hide where it was. 

As I was pondering how to tempt it out, Loz came back in through the open window, so I scooped her up and threw her out again.   Maisie discovered that the door had opened a couple of inches, so she snuck in too, and of course this prompted Jazz to follow on, to see what was happening.

Shooing them all out again, I used a short bamboo cane to nudge the bird out of its corner, at which point it gave me another brief, poorly lit photo-opp, as it landed on the Kinect:

bird on (x)box

It was covered in cobwebs at this point, but seemed in reasonable shape...there were no obvious signs of injury, and it could clearly still fly. 

Sneaking in closer, to try for a better photo, the swallow spooked again, and took off once more...this time, after a couple of near misses, it found the opening in the window and flew off into the great outdoors, a little shaken up no doubt, but still alive and flying...with a smidgeon of luck it should be ok to resume its life on the wing.

So I (literally) rescued a swallow from the jaws of a dangerous predator...that's at least two ticks for my rescue an animal challenge, after the successful rescue mission a few weeks ago.

Maybe I can offset this extra challenge point against some of my recent half-ticks?

Mi juego, mis reglas, I reckon!

B-)