mouse-capade...

i come home from yet another rough day at work...

good ol' daddy: did you see r's picture?
me: picture?
r: yeah, there's a mouse in the house...

r shows me a picture of a cute, yet germ- y rodent...

me: well, where did it go?

r: i brought kolohe over and he batted at it with his paw and then walked away... then i brought prada over and she played with it but then it ran away...

great, i thought... now we have germs running around the house...

so i continue on with my evening and was even in snooze mode...

good ol' daddy: prada has the mouse! come quick! i might need your help...
me: grumble, grumble, i'm so tired!!

i get up and go see the commotion... prada is under the tv table waiting for the little mouse to come out... i look underneath... i don't see anything for the little mouse is hiding behind the power strips... i poke around... mousie pops out... prada lunges and grabs mousie with her mouth and takes off...

good ol' daddy: it's going to take all night to catch her! (remember the chicken story? and other food stories?)

we chase prada for a bit and she's still running and chomping on her new found friend... we corner her in the kitchen and as she tries to bolt again, i catch her and scruff her... mousie falls from her mouth and tries to run, but good ol' daddy caught it in a shoe box...

i take the shoe box and take mousie for a semi-long walk... "ok, don't come back mousie... we saved your life..." and i released him into some ivy plants...

prada was quite sad that the excitement was over... good ol' daddy had to gloat "my kitty caught the mouse and yours did nothing!"

i'll give him that much... and rare words: yay prada....

consistent birdies=o)

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San Jose: City Hall's mama falcon lays first egg of season

By Lisa Fernandez

lfernandez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 03/03/2010 09:27:40 AM PST
Updated: 03/03/2010 11:21:55 AM PST

Click photo to enlarge
Clara lays her first egg of the season atop City Hall on March 2. (San Jose City Hall)

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Without any fuss, San Jose's beloved falcon, Clara, laid her first egg this season atop City Hall — a seemingly effortless act of nature to make most human mothers green with envy.

On Tuesday, at 9:57 a.m., a brown speckled egg emerged from Clara's underbelly. Throughout the minutes-long effort, Clara barely batted an eyelash.

"Remember, chickens lay eggs every day," said Glenn Stewart, a biologist with the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California-Santa Cruz.

The egg's arrival comes 11 days earlier than Clara's first egg laid last year and 10 days earlier than the year before.

It's nothing to get your feathers ruffled about.

Stewart said it's not a sign of global warming, and it shouldn't affect the health of the baby falcon, expected to hatch next month.

"Everything's OK," Stewart said. "You know. They're like babies. They come when they're ready."

Studies have shown, Stewart added, that eggs tend to come earlier as female falcons mature. Clara is 5 years old.

And she's not done birthing.

A normal "clutch" of falcons comprises four eggs, Stewart said. Fans around the globe, who can observe the falcons 24/7 on live webcams and on YouTube videos, should expect Clara to lay three more eggs — one every 52 hours. The reason the interval takes at least two days, Stewart said, is that each egg is formed individually.

Last year, the first egg hatched April
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20.

This is Clara's fourth nesting season. She has been living on a ledge outside City Hall since 2007. A falcon named Esteban Colbert — the father of the soon-to-be-hatched eggs — has been her mate for two seasons.

Contact Lisa Fernandez at 408-920-5002.

IF YOU"RE INTERESTED

You can see the falcons via two FalconCams: the City of San Jose Web site at http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=91 and the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group Web site at www.scpbrg.org. The YouTube of Tuesday"s birth is at http://www.youtube.com/SanJosePFA.

recommendations?

we have 2 litter boxes... one is just your basic slightly larger than average litter box, the other, a 1st generation littermaid self- cleaning box... they are located in the garage... we leave the door slightly ajar and the kitties go in and out as they please...

lately it's been really stinky! and the odor is drifting from the garage into the house! we clean it on a daily basis... we used to use the world's best cat litter but i think kolohe was allergic to it, for every once in a while his paws would flair up, get itchy, and he'd lick and pick at them causing them to be bloody... then we'd have little bloody footprints around the house... we changed the litter to schweat scoop... his feet seem to be doing better....

any recommendations for an odor control product? i was looking at clean and green... anyone try it? there was also something i think called clean air... where you sprinkle it into the litter box and it's supposed to control odor...

thanks!

wordless wednesdays

i'm gpoing to cheat and do this idea... just so i can have an entry in for the day...

happy belated new year's....

my most sincere apologies for not having any posts in a while... it has been a hectic last month of 2009 and i've been unusually busy so far this year.... i guess when you work, you tend to forget about other things!

i will try my best to keep blogging... i guess you can say that is one of my resolutions...

the picture is of me trying to enjoy my last days of not having anything to do... the kitties decided to pile on me and take a nap... it is an awkward shot because i took the picture with my laptop camera...

on the last day of 2009, prada decided to get up on the kitchen table and steal some food... 2010, she's still up to her antics... and since i'm not as home as much now, good ol' daddy is spoiling her rotten...

i wish i could talk about work and blog about it... but for the law powers to be, i am not allowed to do so...

i think it's ok to do this though... consider it education=o)

the world's only talking gorilla