Dive Bomb

I don’t honestly know what’s gotten into the morning doves today.  I have a couple of window feeders on the french doors that lead out to my back deck and they normally eat what the goldfinch leave on the ground.  The goldfinch have moved on for now, seeking a place to make a nice nest and raise a family, leaving the doves a bit on the desperate side.  See, they are too big to eat at the window feeders – they can only sit at the bottom and wait for the leftovers.  Normally, they are satisfied with that.  Today, though, not so much.  I’ve had as many as four doves divebombing the backdoor at any given moment, begging me to spill some seed on the ground for them.  To tell you the truth, they’ve scared the crap out of me a couple of times!

But it was Petee that took the “let’s see how fast momma can move” award this weekend.  Yesterday I let the two of them outside between rainstorms and Petee went flying to the middle of the yard to take care of the day’s main business when, suddenly, I see him hopping into the air over and over again, yelping as he hopped.  I tore out across the lawn (tore out?  Who am I kidding?  I walked fast.  Okay, I walked faster than I normally walk…) to find Petee in hot pursuit of a baby robin that had fallen out of its nest.  It would flutter momentarily in the air, Petee would yelp with surprise, leap after the robin and come down within inches of this sweet little bird.

I hollered at him to stop once I realized what was going on.  That poor bird…he’d be dead if I hadn’t finally broken out in a trot.  (Broken out in a trot?  Who am I kidding? Nevermind…)  I finally got up next to him and had to PICK HIM UP OFF THE GROUND AND CARRY HIM ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE HOUSE AND UP THE STEPS AND IN THE DOOR in order to get him to calm down.  The dog was possessed – of that I’m sure. 

I went back out with my camera in hand, even though the sky was ready to break loose at any moment.  I found the baby bird in the crook of a tree, shaking and squawking for it’s mother to come and get him.  I reached in to pet him to calm him down and to try to figure out if I was going to need to make a rescue 911 or not.  He seemed okay physically so I let him be.  I snapped a few photos and that’s when I realized that the pretty leaves that were growing up the side of the tree where I had just stuck my hand to pet the baby bird were none other than poison ivy.  Greaaaat.

Came in, got out the Tecnu, poured it liberally over most of my exposed limbs and prayed for God’s mercy that I didn’t get too much on me.  Only time will tell.  It usually takes me 2-5 days to break out if and when I do.  Darn dog.  Grrrrrr…

I am happy to report that was the big stir for the weekend.  The rest of it remained eerily calm and quiet.  I got a lot of stuff done, including filing away all the stuff I had stuck in nooks and crannies and bookshelves – it’s amazing how people ever lived without paper, isn’t it?  But now mine is all neatly filed away, or thrown in the recycle bin, depending on my mood.  The bathroom floor never did get cleaned but I just came in from mowing part of the backyard (it’s gone a whole six hours without raining!) so I’m going to give myself a break on the floor. 

And now I’m off to make dinner, finish up some of the projects I’ve been working on between filing and laundry and grocery shopping and what not.  The final thing on the agenda tonight is to get my computer files cleaned up and backed up.  I’m about four months behind and that’s as far as I care to get.  The thought of losing all those photos sends shivers up my spine! 

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I’m actually ready to get back to work but I’m sure by Wednesday I’ll be squawking louder than that baby robin for the weekend to come around again.  Oh well, whatcha gonna do?