Accidents (or the four letter word that starts with S and means ‘poop’) happens.

December 28, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

It’s been a hectic couple of days.

The teenager is pet-sitting for our FURR foster godmother. So she’s in and out of my house several times a day.

I have misplaced Fern’s adoption paperwork, which is totally not like me. Luckily Fern went to a friend of mine so I can asked her to send me a photo.

Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo, has been upset and stressed and plucked her flight feathers off her one wing.

It’s really sad to see the confusion in her face when she tries to fly and just falls.

Speaking of Nala, I met her a year ago today.

We had a devil of a time containing Boo-boo last night but since we did Wink and Yo-yo seem much more relaxed as parents. I think it was the right call. Video: catching Boo

And here is a video of the parakeet chicks: Budgie babies!

I also finally got a good picture of Loki:

While three out of my four cats were cuddly and cute.

Then I headed out to work for the first day since Covid. I stopped at Dunkin for a coffee and discovered there were no more good deals. So I didn’t get my coffee.

No one explained the protocol for my return so I don’t have the proper paperwork from my doctor. I’ll try and get that started— already called the doctor— but am waiting on their end of the paperwork.

I’m annoyed— mostly because I was ready to go back but also because I don’t know if this lack of communication will mean I lose income. With it being the holiday week, I probably won’t get rapid cooperation from the medical folks. And part of that is because there are people sicker and needier than I am.

After everything I’ve been through this year, I won’t complain.

It gave me time to do some grocery shopping and cook for the other teenager.

I even helped her make a smoothie.

One more week of 2020.

Birdie baby mama drama

December 27, 2020December 27, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Today we had some baby mama drama in the bird cage.

Too many things happened at once to understand for certain what went down but here’s my best take:

I dropped Nala’s food bucket and spilled a pile of cockatoo/parrot food. As any of you that has a bird feeder may realize, bird food is not cheap. Imagine having a large bird that tends to discard more of her dish than she eats…

I picked it up and put it back the best I could and ran the vacuum. But I think I ran the vacuum when Mama Wink had left her nest for food, a quick fly and some attention from Papa Yo.

My other female decided to babysit but she wouldn’t let Mama or Papa back in the nest.

Now at this time I couldn’t tell if Boo was trying to protect Wink’s babies or steal them or hurt them. Video: Sunday morning chaos

So I set up the small parakeet cage and wanted to separate Boo from the family. But she wouldn’t cooperate. They were all fighting so badly I was able to take the coconut shell of babies.

I was able to keep Wink to the side of the main cage and allow her to get into coconut at which point I moved the whole coconut and Mama into the small cage. I had to leave for an appointment.

When I returned home, the teenager and I put the coconut and mama back in the big cage and tried to get Boo into the little cage.

As a consequence I got to see Mama bird spread her wing over her babies to protect them. My heart melted.

Boo is how free flying because she’s too stubborn to get in the small cage. But Mama and Papa seem much calmer.

Really, budgies?

December 26, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

I started my day-after-Christmas in a peaceful frame of mind.

Those are such lovely sentiments. And then I went upstairs to care for my birds and Papa Parakeet slipped out under my arm and started flying around my room.

I give him a lecture, text my daughter and toss all kittens out of the room.

Here is my panicked video: Escapees

And then I think— well, maybe there is something missing that he thinks he needs for his babies. And he goes to the cockatoo’s cage and steals her rice cake. And Boo boo joins him.

Which, by the way, Nala the Goffin has almost finished unwrapping her final gift from me.

But I digress.

I wash all their bowls, get fresh water, the fancy food, some treats and fresh banana.

And about 20 minutes later…Budgies go home

And then I get this text:

It’s going to be a long day.

The highs and lows of Christmas 2020

December 25, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Christmas is always hard for me. Having a second teenager, a houseful of kittens and brand new budgie chicks helps me escape a lot of the pain that surfaces during the holidays.

And no matter what I try, I can’t escape it. Instead, I work to minimize it.

And every year it gets a little easier.

It’s 9:30 pm now— I am listening to Rachmaninov on my brand new AirPods and at first I was very disappointed to discover that they didn’t have buttons.

Imagine my shock when I discovered they automatically turn on and off when I place them in my ear and take them off. And so far they don’t fall out as easily as the cheap ones do. (When I saw cheap I mean cheap— I got my previous set for $10 at Family Dollar. I had no problems with my $10 set either except I broke pieces off of them within the first couple days).

So to continue writing about my holiday backwards, teenager #1 received kitchen tools from teenager #2 and a new hand mixer from my mother-in-law. She’s baking banana bread now.

Apparently piles of cookies and fruitcake aren’t enough for her.

I’m journaling, blogging, and about to watch another episode of The Tudors. I can’t believe Vale of FURR’s Norse Pride is going home tomorrow— and I am bringing three other kittens to the adoption fair as well.

Fern-Edie is doing well in her new home. And I am starting to hyperventilate a little thinking this might be the last night my bed looks like this:

As I came up to my bedroom to start the animals’ night routine, I noticed all three budgies were out. Mama Wink showed me that all her eggs had hatched and I watched her clean shell off her newest chick. We hope to name them Yule, Winter and Christmas if they all survive. I hope they do.

Other highlights of Christmas:

The big Christmas mission for the teenager’s mysterious package earlier this week was… her varsity jacket!

YouTube: Teenager opens her varsity jacket

We listened to some non traditional Christmas carols extremely loudly in the car. Including “The Christmas Tree’s on Fire.”
I earned a place of honor in this year’s Christmas Grace, “Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe from Corona, well except for Angel.” Ever burst out laughing during a prayer? Now I have.
I was asked to make the broccoli for Christmas dinner. My step mom doesn’t trust anyone else with the green vegetables I guess. I sautéed them golden brown in butter with sea salt, too much multicolored peppercorns (I grabbed the wrong jar— oops!) and herbs de Provence.

Christmas was much smaller than usual because of the pandemic, so my stepmom decided we would get fresh cut steaks from the butcher. She even ordered one for my brother’s dog. And she wanted to grill them. The temperature dropped drastically while my dad was at the grill and then all the steaks went up in flames. I learned that a good blue cheese dressing can cut the taste of charcoaled steaks.

I guess the last thing I’ll mention is that the teenager got a pet play pen which will come in handy for our work with Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab. Of course, I’ve discovered it houses cats and teenagers.

It’s a pets’ Christmas

December 24, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Today has been a peaceful and special Christmas Eve. Unwrapping presents with Mimi before breakfast. Breakfast via the Dunkin Donuts drive through.

Breakfast on Christmas Eve was $6.66 before tax

But the best part of the morning was when all the kittens vacated my room. Mama Periwinkle (Wink) let me see her baby chick! I see there is only one egg left— and I’m still not sure if there is a younger chick in there under the older one.

Periwinkle and Peek-a-Boo (Boo-Boo) were bonded females, and even now Boo-Boo seems to protect her “sister” and guard her nest. Yo-yo is a devoted father, but the three birds seem to be raising the family together.

Around lunch time, we video-called the teenager’s grandparents and both teenagers opened their gifts. Teenager #2 cried when upon discovering that my mother in law bought a custom made ornament personalized with name, the year, a musical staff and a drum. The fact that practical strangers were able to discern that many little personal details became a little overwhelming.

But the biggest moment of my Christmas Eve was finally escaping the clutches of Covid enough to deliver Fenrir of the Norse Pride aka Fern aka Fern-Edie now to be Edie to her FURRever home through Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab. The fact that one of my favorite people adopted her certainly made it even better.

Because she went home with a friend, I made a little care package to introduce the two of them.

And I also gave Nala a Christmas gift. After a nap on my shoulder. The gift—A new bell to replace the one she brought with her from Bird Mania. She broke the clapper out of her old one. She’s already unwrapped it, played with it, and rung it for me.

Update on babies— whether furry or feathered

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Today was definitely a day of taking care of animals.

For a good deal of the early morning I didn’t hear any baby bird chirps so I got nervous, but when I do hear chirps sometimes it sounds like another budgie has hatched.

Yo-yo— the green parakeet and the daddy— is a good parent, checking on mama and bringing her food and sometimes helping around the house. Boo-boo is the yellow bird, the female who is usually the alpha and a bit of a bully. The teenager picked Boo-boo and Periwinkle out for me in January 2019. And the two females were best friends.

Boo-boo helps protect the nest.

Around 9 a.m., I took a drive to the Poconos to visit my dad and deliver a Christmas present I helped order for the teenager.

He took me to breakfast and I stood outside the diner puzzled by this sign:

They meant it to say “open” and the servers were trying to convince the customers that it was right.

It’s not. It’s clearly “Nepo.”

Upon my return, we crated seven kittens into two crates to take them to visit our cat foster godmother for vaccinations, dewormer and claw trims. The teenager is pet sitting for her as of Saturday.

Fern, who will be known as Edie, is going home tomorrow. Her new mom, a friend whom I met working at Target, will be picking her up tomorrow and they have never met so I am nervous and excited.

Vale has an approved adoption application and will be going home Saturday at Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab’s adoption event at Petsmart.

Loki, the other sibling from the Norse Pride, will be going to the Petsmart event too. The organization has other approved adoption applications but hasn’t matched everyone yet so my bedroom may be kitten-less by Saturday night.

At the minimum we are hoping Vesta of the Roman Pride (and maybe Mars) will go to Petsmart, too.

And someone needs to consider Hermes. He’s about nine months old now, sweet and smart and great at socializing younger cats, but he still doesn’t trust hands.

Yuletide whirlwind

December 22, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Yesterday was the winter solstice— Yule— and the great convergence of Saturn and Jupiter that may have been the Christmas Star of Christian Heritage.

Sugar Cookie and Candy Cane Hershey Kisses

My neighbor Jan and I went on a Christmas season road trip to pick up a package. I wasn’t sure I could make the 90-minute drive alone.

I am grateful to live in such an old fashioned neighborhood that I know what neighbors will have adventures, which will grab me groceries, and who won’t mind grabbing me a coffee.

We stopped at Target and I got my annual bag of Candy Cane Hershey Kisses and treated myself to the new Sugar Cookie Kisses. They have real bits of cookie inside and the white chocolate kiss tastes like icing.

When I got home, the teenagers drove me over to Dollar General and Twin Rivers Music. Dollar General to get the pickle Doritos that are apparently a Dollar General exclusive and Twin Rivers Music for valve oil, a mouthpiece brush, ukulele strings and kazoos.

Teenager #2 thought her kazoo was broken, so teenager #1 had to teach her how to play it (which she did while driving the car!).

YouTube: Christmas Kazoos

YouTube: Review of Sour Pickle Doritos

In honor of Yule, and to celebrate the longest night of the year, I let the teenagers unwrap their stockings (which included some traditional stocking stuffers and some non-traditional items). A lot of make-up, gift certificates for Hyperion Salon and Lucha Bella skin care, candy and snacks, and activity books.

Teenager two got her first paint-by-water book which I bought for her because it featured Sponge Bob. I also got them coloring books of cosmic cats and uni-creatures and a robot faces sticker book.

YouTube: Dumping the stockings

Lunchables Dirt Cake

Activity Books

Teaching the Art of Paint by Water

Review of Oreo Candy Canes

We ate too many of my mother-in-law’s cookies and finished the bag of Doritos so I shouldn’t be surprised that I gained more weight.

Today is a new day and it feels like a clean start thanks to the energy of Yule and I feel a little stronger and more like myself, though still very easy to exhaust.

I got up, cleaned up after one set of cats, shoveled the path for a heating oil delivery, saw my friend Gayle, loaded the dishwasher and started a load of laundry. I tried to pick up some garbage from the house strewn with wrappings and about 5 loads of clean laundry.

Then I worked with Nan by phone. The Fluffy Norse kittens decided to join me on the sunporch and, of course, climbed the Christmas tree.

I got the laundry out of the washer and hung it, and teenager #1 made me an egg sandwich, even though by then it was noon.

I tried to clean up the bathroom. Started the dishwasher. And came up to check on the birds.

YouTube: Do we have baby budgies?

And we have one tiny bald, baby budgie!

I am so terrified I will do something to hinder Momma Wink from taking good care of her eggs and baby. I’m especially worried everyone isn’t getting enough to eat.

So finally that brings me to Nala— she’s afraid of something and it might be the parakeets. She’s barbering badly.

Morning Fog

December 20, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Routines in this house have changed since I contracted Covid.

Today I have completed the 10-day isolation period recommended by the CDC and can now leave the house. I want the teenager to take me to the Dollar Tree and Petco.

It’s 7:40 a.m. Because of my job on second shift and then my illness, I haven’t been up this early in probably months.

My room is typically a cat free zone. Nala, my Goffin’s cockatoo, and my three budgies (and now three budgie eggs) are in there.

But the Norse Pride ended up with me— in part because the teenager worried the Roman Pride were making them nervous and in her words they were too small to bother the birds.

The kittens, after a month in my room, decided they want to be with the big cats, so when I come in and out of my room, Vale leads a charge.

Because of this I leave my door open more soon they can come back. And now my cats and Teenager #2’s cats like to gather here. Her cats want to watch birds. My cats want to enjoy a warm bed with me and watch the birds.

Now dear Fog was my bed mate before cockatoo and before kittens. He and the three-legged old man liked to rest in my room and minded their own business.

And now Fog has taken to opening my bedroom door and joining me in bed in the morning, which confuses the Norse Pride kittens who don’t understand the magic of how a cat opens the door.

He doesn’t like the kittens— but he wants to be with me as I have my morning coughing fit. He’s got to be checking on me.

But the kittens are fascinated and confused by him and run to me. And it’s been a while since I had an 11+ pound cat in my bed. So it’s a jarring way to wake up.

I’ve also missed my Fog cuddles.

The Tudors, sweating sickness and Covid whiners

December 19, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

Today is day 10 of my post-diagnosis Covid 19 isolation. I am now watching The Tudors on Netflix, struck by the similarities between the Coronavirus pandemic and the 16th Century sweating sickness.

I feel like there is so much not known about Covid-19 and I suspect many people know more than they can admit. But the medical treatments, anecdotal layman wisdom and people’s behavior remind me of these scenes depicting King Henry VIII’s medical crisis.

My symptoms are still dizziness and a dry cough, a congested head and weakness. And chapped lips.

I catch a chill easily, and sometimes the smallest actions wind me.

I think the general populace puts too much security in flimsy masks, and gives not enough thought to social distancing. I think the various government tactics to curb the pandemic cater to major corporations and starve small business.

And it saddens me that people will flock to WalMart or order from Amazon, but not mail order from a small local business or buy gift cards for small merchants.

It also saddens me that so much of society can really on DoorDash or GrubHub, but not call your favorite local restaurant and order take out.

I believe I caught the Coronavirus at work, despite all the precautions to “keep us safe.” Because despite the gloves, the masks, the nurse, the sanitizer spray, and working socially distant, the reality is there are 70 or more of us in one room at the same time, unmasked, eating and talking for each of our three daily breaks.

The vaccine has arrived. And I wish it were — what do they call it— a reactive vaccine vs a mRNA vaccine. Perhaps I am old-fashioned in my thinking.

So I suppose I am grateful to have caught Coronavirus and see how my body reacts. I have had the chance to develop my own antibodies. And no one else in my family for sick so I am also grateful for that.

I am deeply saddened that others have not had the same privilege that I have. I am saddened that people I love have lost people they love.

It is a confusing time.

So my best advice would be to do your own research, think about how viruses work and make the decisions that keep you and your family safe. And care for your neighbors and support local business in ways you can.

Quest for Watermelon

December 18, 2020December 18, 2020Angel Ackerman Leave a comment

So first off… I am very excited to announce that one of the teenager’s teachers applied to adopt a cat from Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab, the organization we foster with.

Obviously a very handsome guy!

In other news, tomorrow is day 10 of my Covid isolation and my main symptom is still extreme dizziness. And whenever I have a hot beverage or some of that boozy egg nog I sweat like a pig.

In amusing symptoms, every morning I get up and my right foot hurts and is very difficult to walk on.

Now, let’s talk about Wawa. My Wawa (which is less than a mile away) now delivers. Through Door Dash I believe.

I have been craving watermelon. So I ordered watermelon ($3.39), my favorite coffee (cafe con lèche) and a breakfast bundle (4 egg sandwiches, a half gallon of chocolate milk and a bag of doughnuts for $22.99). Delivery fee was $2.99 and I gave my driver a $6 tip.

The order arrived hot, and quickly, the driver was super pleasant. The staff couldn’t determine if I wanted sausage on my sandwiches (2 were supposed to be bacon and two sausage) so they made two bacon and two without meat and put sausage on the side.

I like that kind of problem solving.

But they missed my chocolate milk and my doughnuts for the teens. Now, if I hadn’t spent $40 on this order I might not care. And I am extremely grateful that they brought my watermelon. Being in Covid isolation is hard.

And the eggs tasted so good I ate both the meatless sandwiches.

I navigated around the app trying to find my mistake or someone to contact. I eventually had to fill out a form. Let’s hope I hear from them.

Update: talked to my local store. They were pleasant and gave me the number for corporate. Corporate had me on hold four minutes and promised to send me an electronic gift card.

Angel Ackerman

Writer, Editor, Passionate Participant in the World

Author Angel Ackerman