Update
2/28/2010 | Author:
I've moved Penna outside into one of our nice little pens that my Dad made.
I put her keenel and her towel out there for her; and me and Quinn tore up some hedge from the woods and placed them in her cage, then I got some hay and wove it into the branches to make her some shelter, and quail like that sort of stuff. 
She has waster and feed, though she doesn't seem very interested in either of those things....
She's trying to get away, something that I will not allow.
That makes her mad.
I can tell.


Dolly is doing quite well; she's been playing with this beaver dog-toy we have a lot.
She's been laying outside quite a bit also: running around with Zelda, chasing Ghost, then running with great haste away from him as he spits and hisses at her.

The weather is being a pain -acting so warm one moment, then freezing you stiff the next -gah!
I can't wait for it to all warm up again! We can go swimming and running, and the grass, gosh, I'll be happy when it's green again. Even if that means I'll be mowing it.
Which I do.
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Dolly -Penna
2/28/2010 | Author:
Look who is back!
Dolly!
She was brought back to our house last evening by our Grandma; this little dawg is going to be staying here for around a week, I think.
^-^
She slept real good last night, not barking or anything.
And this morning when I went outside to take care of the chickens, Dolly found a nice good black walnut to chew on.
She was quite proud of herself.

Y'all want to see my newest baby?

This is Penna. She -or he -is a Bobwhite Quail.
The Hunters were -ah, hunting -quail yesterday in the property next to ours. I was watching from our driveway. One got away from them and flew onto our side of the fence.
(Safe! You could hear them Hunters swearing, it was kind of funny. 'Gosh darn it, there it goes!')
We left to go to see our grandparents and cousins, (Dad's side of the family,) and we were gone for some time.
When we came home my Dad caught this little bugger in the garage -the cat -Ghost was trying to get her.
So they gave her to me and I brought her up to my room in a kennel, and she stayed there all night.
She's quite wild, when she flaps her wings feathers fall out -which is a sign of fear and stress.
I think.
Hence her name -Penna, which I believe is Latin for 'feather'.
I can't find any wounds on her, but she still won't be able to survive outside, because she was raised with a bunch of other chicks, in captivity, to be released for hunting practice for the hunting dogs that the Hunters have.
Make sense?

(A little blurry....)

I was going to take Penna outside to put in a pen, but I think I'm going to let her stay inside another night.
I'm going to hold her some today, maybe I can get her tamed a bit. I've gotten her to drink with some help, she's pretty shocked by being captured by us, I reckon.
I don't know if she has eaten; but when I woke up this morning she was standing in her food, so maybe she ate some....

Cortana
2/25/2010 | Author:
This sweet darlin' has been doing fine as ever.
She's in her new cage now -which also happens to be another temporary cage for her before she gets into something better, and bigger -I reckon.

I love her tail!
 
 
And jus' look at that beautiful face.
I just got done feeding her, and now she's in her pouch. :)
She's so little, so dainty.... And yet she stuffs that formula down like it's going out of style!
^-^

We cleaned house today; which is a good, nice, satisfying task.

Two new books came into today for me -they're from the Warriors series: Eclipse and Long Shadows.
I'm almost done with the first, then I'll get to put it on my bookshelf!

The baby chickens are doing good -Zeb keeps trying to get to them; it's a battle to keep him out of the room that the babies are staying in.
It's very cold outside -we've got a good windchill going on here. And I've been watching the moon for two and a half hours now, (as I type, it's 5:44 pm, here,) it's high and big in the sky; a ghostly, faint shadow of it's full glare. Not at all bright, but still there. A SURE sign of cold.
Lest I think it is!
2/25/2010 | Author:
My bookshelf.
(And the great big dog-pillow thing, that Quinn insists we need to keep in our room though nobody uses it; and her LEGOS, on the ground. And that giant fly-swatter...that's Sergeant Swat, we need him around here.)

Here's the top of my bookshelf, with my horses and my Speed Limit sign. And a picture of me and my cousin when we were little.

(Left to right.)
My Inheritance books, (Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr,) my Harry Potter books, yeah! Dragon Rider, Inkdeath, Inkspell, and Inkheart, the Thief Lord, Fablehaven, the Lord of the Rings, two the Hobbit books, and the Horse and his Boy, and the Dragon Book.
(Next shelf.)
My Warriors books, three are being borrowed at this time, my Seekers book, which is written by the same people that wrote the Warriors.
The Sight; my Artemis Fowl books, which are some of my favorites; the Percy Jackson books; and my Redwall books.
Also stacked there are Moby-Dick, Around the World in Eighty Days, and the Red Badge of Courage.

Here we have my Alex Rider books, various books about horses, like Black Beauty, etc. Star Wars books... the first book to the Series of Unfortunate Events.
Treasure Island, and a bunch of other books.
The next shelf has my animal care books; James Harriot... Some other books, like Do Hard Things.

The bottom has a bunch of Funnies from the newspaper my Mom gets on Sunday, some magazines, and my Pokemon book, some of my art stuff....

I love to read, I've actually recently ordered around eight books! Hopefully they will all come in soon!
And I ordered a tablet for Photoshop, it's basically just a special pad and pen, you write on it, and the scrawls show up on the computer.
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My Favorite
2/24/2010 | Author:
I really like the baby chick.
She's one of our colored egg-layers, and is way to sweet.

I am not allowed to keep her in my room, though.
It's very sad. Because this chicken likes me.
She really does!
But my Mom is not convinced.

I'm going to call this little hen Diamond.
And that shall be her name unless somebody changes it!
(Like Indy or Willow, they're all ways doing that....)

^-^
Sweeeeeet wittle chicky.
Good News!
2/23/2010 | Author:
It has been confirmed that I am the new Element Leader for my Element in Civil Air Patrol!
This will be something new to me; I must concentrate on NOT SCREWING UP!
As a Element Leader -some of your responsibilities are to teach drill, lead drill, (oh, good Lord, I really need to practice that!) And give call-downs to inform each Cadet about the next Meeting, pass information up and down the Chain of Command.... Give inspections each Meeting....

I'm very pleased that I was picked to be Element Leader! And I will certainly try very hard to preform my new duties well!
^-^

I am a bit nervous though!
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Little Star
2/23/2010 | Author:
(This is what Norbert looks like when he isn't happy about the lights suddenly turning on in the morning.)


This morning one of our new baby chicks passed away.
She was sick -we didn't really know what was wrong with her -but we think she may have been squished.
I noticed she was ill yesterday evening, and I held her until it was time to go to bed; I made a place to keep her up in my room for the night, with a light and everything.

(For the record, my bed has been made today.)

I didn't really think she would make it through the night, but she drank some water with help, and she pooped, which was a good sign.
And she refused to go to sleep unless I was holding her, she'd cheep and cheep.
So I had to move her box next to my bed so I could put my hand in there, and she'd quiet down.
The heat lamp was in my face the whole time, though. So I put a blanket over my head and slept like that.
I still woke up every hour or so with her, she didn't feel good, and I could tell.
I finished a book -that I had started eariler that morning -last night, a book that had around 300 hundred pages.
I only wish it was a book that I needed to read for school....

This morning the chick was still alive -which I thought was a good sign, but after a took and shower, and went to pick her up -I could tell that she wasn't going to make. She was barely breathing, and wouldn't hold herself, and open her eyes.
She died about 10 mineutes after that.
I held her to the end, I think she liked me, every time I put her down she would cheep for me to hold her again.

But before she died -I know this sounds stupid -but before she died she opened her eyes, looked at me, cheeped, then her little heart stopped beating.
I'm glad she said good-bye.

Her name was Stella, which means 'Star' in Latin, I named her yesterday.
No critter should die unnamed. 
I'll miss that little chicken! :(

On a much happier note -Dolly gets to go home today. Her Mama is coming to pick her up and take her home -where she'll stay for around a week before coming back to stay with me.
She had a nice bath today -so she's all clean and sparkly.
The sparkly part isn't true, I lied.

She also got a clip and bow.

^-^
I think she will be glad to see her Mama and Daddy again.
 
  
  
 
Quinn has been busy -practicing her 'moves'.
She's wanting to learn how to stand on one hand.
She's gotten pretttttttty close to doing it too!
(I'd break my neck, see, so I don't do those things.)
She can also fall backwards onto her hands and feet -a move she calls the 'bridge'.
It's hard.
But I have done the bridge, though!
I just -popped every bone in my spine.
(Quinn can't pop her back, really. So, she doesn't know the feeling.)
It felt...kind of good -actually....
^-^
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I got more pictures of Cody this time -because Chief was hiding from me! Silly bugger.
I gave both rats a piece of food, Chief went to hid his.

 
That's his tail.
  
Cody -being the little gentleman that he is -turned his back on me.

 
Then he got thirsty.
Cody has the cutest little stripe reaching from his belly to his chin. You can see part of it in the picture...
And yes, they have blue bedding.
Blue is awesome.
In case you didn't know.

Exploring! Yeah!
Look at that ear! See how it droops?
^-^
I love little Dumbo ears.

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