Here's part 2 of playing with Pippin: when he calms down some, he can enjoy loving scritches when he's on his back:
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Bye Bye Bubble...
Scott and I have decided to take down our Red Seas Max nano-tank and be done with fish keeping for awhile. As summer is coming on, we need to save energy bills and a $400 chiller is not in the budget!
We're slowly finding some buyers for corals and such, but the market is slow. We've sold a couple of pieces, and the main buyer for most of them is coming this week. Honey, the beloved Midas blenney, will be picked up by her new owner sometime this week, too. While I'm sad to see them go, I'm ready. It's been a good run, but we're so happy with Pippin that we don't miss the fishies much. This economy is so hard on fish keepers, though. I'm wondering how many will survive it! A year ago, I did a similar sale and had stuff jumping. This time, I barely sold half my stuff. Still, most of it is hardware and I can continue to advertise it. I'm just noting that things are slow in the bubble world.
Here are the most recent pics of the tank, for posterity:
Front:
Left side:
Right side:
Sigh. I sure can't wait for Heaven. :-S
We're slowly finding some buyers for corals and such, but the market is slow. We've sold a couple of pieces, and the main buyer for most of them is coming this week. Honey, the beloved Midas blenney, will be picked up by her new owner sometime this week, too. While I'm sad to see them go, I'm ready. It's been a good run, but we're so happy with Pippin that we don't miss the fishies much. This economy is so hard on fish keepers, though. I'm wondering how many will survive it! A year ago, I did a similar sale and had stuff jumping. This time, I barely sold half my stuff. Still, most of it is hardware and I can continue to advertise it. I'm just noting that things are slow in the bubble world.
Here are the most recent pics of the tank, for posterity:
Front:
Left side:
Right side:
Sigh. I sure can't wait for Heaven. :-S
Pippin play
Mom and Pippin are learning to play together. It took about three weeks, but he's learned to trust us enough that he'll lay on his back and wrestle. Here's the first of three videos starring Pippin the Wrestler:
Monday, May 18, 2009
Hair surfin' girls
Well, it was a normal Sunday morning yesterday. My college girls are home for the summer, and they are enjoying Pippin... or is he enjoying them?
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Bath time
Pippin loves his bath every morning. We all ablute together. Mom and Dad take showers, and Pippin has his bath on the counter near the mirror. Afterward, he sports his punk look while shakin' it and also towel surfing.
Monday, May 4, 2009
False positive!
When I picked up my brand new beautiful baby Pippin from the breeder after a month of visiting and waiting on a Monday morning, I was so excited (natch). But wanting to be a responsible new bird mom, I went to the vet on the way home. We had a lovely visit, and wanting to be thorough, I had all the tests done without asking prices first.
FIRST WORD OF ADVICE: Ask prices first! We had severe sticker shock at the end of this lovely visit. But I digress.
Anyways, we brought him home, gave him our whole hearts, and proceeded to both train and spoil him. On the next Monday, my vet called with test results. In a kind way, he eased into the news that Pippin had great results in all areas but one: he had tested positive for PBFD (which stands for Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease) and is basically AIDS for birds. Some survive it, but a goodly number don't. If Pippin had it, there was a good chance that he wouldn't see his third birthday.
Wow. It was a shocker.
Furthermore, it's highly contagious. And you can't get rid of it by washing cages, toys, etc. No antiseptic known kills the disease. The test would seem to be nearly foolproof: it's a DNA test (like a pregnancy one) that picks up on elements that are either in the blood or they're not. Sigh.
Our first thought was really for our breeder: what about all their babies? When I called Tammy, though, she reassured me. The disease is indeed highly contagious, but they have a state of the art air purifier that catches a lot of diseases and kills them (hospitals use it). She told me that they swab for this and other contaminates five times a year, as a precaution, and they had just swabbed his cage area and the air purifier and had negative results the week before we took Pippin home. Furthermore, two green-cheeked conures had just gone from the adjacent cage to our vet's for the same test and come back negative.
We had Pippin retested last Tuesday, and sent the blood to Tammy's lab instead of the one our vet uses. Tammy independently sent blood from Pippin's two sisters (still in his cage) and a swab of the cage. Through a series of events, we all had to wait through the weekend. Trusting God can be a challenge, but God was gracious and I was filled with peace from the start of this trial that this was for our good and all would be well, according to his grace.
Well, the results just came back: NEGATIVE on all counts. No one has it. Not Pippin's sisters, not his cage, and not Pippin. We are SO relieved and happy: first for Tammy and Dave, but also for ourselves. We had really fallen for our boy; he is the sweetest bird ever. He sleeps late (first flocking calls at 8 AM!), cuddles and interacts, and is cute as they come. We just would have a hard time giving him up! No need though: all is well!
All this to say: if you are reading this blog for information, there are false positives for this test, so by all means have your bird retested if this scary result is given for your baby on the first well check!
FIRST WORD OF ADVICE: Ask prices first! We had severe sticker shock at the end of this lovely visit. But I digress.
Anyways, we brought him home, gave him our whole hearts, and proceeded to both train and spoil him. On the next Monday, my vet called with test results. In a kind way, he eased into the news that Pippin had great results in all areas but one: he had tested positive for PBFD (which stands for Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease) and is basically AIDS for birds. Some survive it, but a goodly number don't. If Pippin had it, there was a good chance that he wouldn't see his third birthday.
Wow. It was a shocker.
Furthermore, it's highly contagious. And you can't get rid of it by washing cages, toys, etc. No antiseptic known kills the disease. The test would seem to be nearly foolproof: it's a DNA test (like a pregnancy one) that picks up on elements that are either in the blood or they're not. Sigh.
Our first thought was really for our breeder: what about all their babies? When I called Tammy, though, she reassured me. The disease is indeed highly contagious, but they have a state of the art air purifier that catches a lot of diseases and kills them (hospitals use it). She told me that they swab for this and other contaminates five times a year, as a precaution, and they had just swabbed his cage area and the air purifier and had negative results the week before we took Pippin home. Furthermore, two green-cheeked conures had just gone from the adjacent cage to our vet's for the same test and come back negative.
We had Pippin retested last Tuesday, and sent the blood to Tammy's lab instead of the one our vet uses. Tammy independently sent blood from Pippin's two sisters (still in his cage) and a swab of the cage. Through a series of events, we all had to wait through the weekend. Trusting God can be a challenge, but God was gracious and I was filled with peace from the start of this trial that this was for our good and all would be well, according to his grace.
Well, the results just came back: NEGATIVE on all counts. No one has it. Not Pippin's sisters, not his cage, and not Pippin. We are SO relieved and happy: first for Tammy and Dave, but also for ourselves. We had really fallen for our boy; he is the sweetest bird ever. He sleeps late (first flocking calls at 8 AM!), cuddles and interacts, and is cute as they come. We just would have a hard time giving him up! No need though: all is well!
All this to say: if you are reading this blog for information, there are false positives for this test, so by all means have your bird retested if this scary result is given for your baby on the first well check!
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