Sunday, June 01, 2008 , terribly early in the morning

Let me tell you what I did

I finally got around to trimming the palm trees last week.  It had been two years since I’d cut off the dead fronds, and they were both ugly and a fire hazard.  In the process of cutting off dead pieces, I cut off a small “ledge” of dead fronds that mourning doves had built a nest on, and the nest had two eggs.  I tried to place the nest on the ground, beneath the tree, but by the time darkness fell the parents hadn’t returned.  To make matters more complicated, it was cold here… all day it had been about 58 degrees, and the temps at night were lower.  Given that I feed stray cats in the backyard, and the cats like to lounge right under those palm trees, I figured those two little eggs were doomed.  I brought them inside, stuck them in a cardboard box with a shallow dish of water and a hot light bulb (from a crappy, dangerous desk lamp), and I set out to wait two weeks to ensure the eggs were “dead”.  I could tell they were fertile at one point, but I assumed that being out in the cold for so long, they would have frozen.  Or maybe, I would have baked them over the few days it took me to adjust the lamp properly.  Whatever, I was positive nothing would hatch from these eggs, but I turned them dutifully, multiple times a day, so they would develop properly.  Today, something is hatching from one egg.  There’s a small pip mark, and if I hold the egg to my ear, I hear small “chipping” sounds.  The other egg is making some tiny noises too, although it should be about 12-36 hours behind the first egg.  Regardless, I’m about to have two live mourning dove chicks, I think, and they need to be fed “crop milk”.  Ack!  I’m off to hunt down some mourning dove feces for my crop milk formula… (really)… Leave it to me to find the only wild birds which are apparently as hardy as hell, but which need to be fed something other than baby parrot formula from Petco.

Things like this are among the reasons I’m not more depressed than I already am.  Little scenarios like these give me bursts of life and energy, and without them (and the pets), I’d just be an inconsolable fetal ball, waiting for the repo man to put me out in the streets.  At least among the animals, I still feel joy on a daily basis, and it’s kept me from going off the deepest end.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 06/01 at 03:22 AM
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