Goings on at the Refuge

I am taking a short sabbatical from my onsite duties at the parrot rescue, so I figure the least I
can do is let everyone know about some goings-on over there:

First, we were featured in Ana Belaval’s Around Town segment on WGN Morning News. There
were two segments, actually. WGN’s website doesn’t seem to have an Embed button and I am
not savvy enough to figure out how to do it myself, so here are the links:

http://www.wgntv.com/videogallery/64357966/Food/Around-Town:-Wildlife-Refuge-in-
Northbrook-(part-1)

http://www.wgntv.com/videobeta/f8a3061d-3916-4505-a239-d465725f7ff8/Food/Around-Town-
Wildlife-Refuge-in-Northbrook-part-2-

Also, the Refuge is revamping its website, so if you haven’t visited lately, please visit us at:

www.rescuethebirds.org 

Along those same lines, we established an organization page on Facebook a few months back
and expect to be posting there more regularly. I have a button for it on down the right-hand side
of this page, and you can also Like it through this link.

We recently established a Twitter account. We haven’t been posting there regularly, but if that
is your preferred method of communication, here is the link.

Finally, Niles Animal Hospital is holding a Yard Sale in their parking lot on Sunday, September
18 to raise funds for the benefit of the Refuge from 8am to 2pm. Their address is 7278 N.
Milwaukee Avenue, Niles, IL 60714 and there will be plenty of parking available in nearby lots.

And here is a gratuitous pic because they just make blog posts better.  This is Leo:

Several Chicagoland Fundraisers for Pets

This morning, my veterinarian's office posted on Twitter that they will be co-hosting a Canine Cancer Walk on October 1.  I hope that by then, Gibbs will be well enough trained and socialized to participate.  But that reminded me of several other pet-related fundraising events going on in my area, so this clearly deserves its own post:

Orphans of the Storm is having its 5th Annual Pooch Parade this Saturday, August 20, in Highland Park.  I adopted my Late Great Dog Dallas from Orphans.

Wright-Way Rescue is having  a Harvest for Hounds Run/Walk Fall Festival on October 8 in Niles.  I adopted Gibbs from Wright-Way.

Niles Animal Hospital is having a garage sale in its parking lot for the benefit of a Refuge for Saving the Wildlife, the parrot rescue where I volunteer, on September 18.

If you are in Chicagoland, I hope you can participate.  But if not, all of the charity websites accept donations!

I Love Patch.com

Patch.com is the best thing ever.  The Winnetka-Glencoe Patch just did a profile of Rich Weiner, the Executive Director at a Refuge for Saving the Wildlife, where I have volunteered for so long I don’t even remember.

And here is a link to the article.

Back to Juggling

I've been thinking lately about revamping the blog.  It was created, you might remember, early in my graduate program as a class assignment.  I was rather worried about how I was going to get it all done and still manage to be an active volunteer.

Then I finished school, folded in the 50 Book Challenge stuff I'd been doing on LiveJournal and talked a lot about traveling for work and getting my finances together.

Not the theme of the blog.  Last night, though, I had a moment.

Sigmund, my Foster Grey, has spent a few days with another volunteer (more on that later).  It didn't go very well and she and I agreed that she would bring him back to my house in the morning.  After we hung up, Kay said:

"Why don't you just go get him now.  It's still early."

My answer was:

"Because I tomorrow night, I am going to the Refuge to pick up Joker.  Wednesday, I am going to the Refuge for my regular night.  Thursday, I am going to the close down the Refuge and go to the Library.  I have two meetings on Saturday and am leaving town on Sunday.  I would like to just sit here. "

And make a Project Linus blanket, but whatever.

But that is when it hit me - I have a lot of balls in the air right now.   And I am managing them.  But seriously, there is nothing like a puppy to make you look at everything and feel tired.

I Joined Twitter

Three things happened at about the same time:

1. I sketched out something of a social media proposal for a Refuge for Saving the Wildlife, where I volunteer.
2. My friend and fellow volunteer, Susanna, read the proposal and asked if I am on Twitter. No. One might wonder how I sketched out said proposal if I am not even on Twitter.
3. My brother, who refuses to join Facebook, finished a story with, “And so I tweeted that to my congressman!”

So I signed up. It took me 15 minutes just to claim a username, as the good variations of my name are already being used.

(sigh)

I followed a couple of people I know and gmail found me some more. And then…what to tweet?

I am a blogger. An amateur blogger, but still. I should be able to come up with some great opening line, right? This is the forum I will want to use to talk with my peers and promote my causes. I’d better come up with something interesting to say!

Nothing.

So I started to look around for the ways these different accounts link together: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Crowdrise. Then I realized that I hadn’t updated my Crowdrise page with the new location for the fundraiser the Refuge is holding on Memorial Day. Thus my first ever (accidental) Tweet was:

Bird Walk location has changed: it is now at Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit - 30 Riverwoods Road.

Technology is beautiful, isn’t it?

So it was an inauspicious beginning. The real question is how I might use this tool to network with other local volunteers? How might the Refuge (or the other organizations I work with) use it to build and support their communities? Will I be able to figure it out with all of the shiny objects they put in my path?

These are not rhetorical questions – any insight would be appreciated!

The Facebook Badge

So.  Over there on the right.  The parrot rescue where I volunteer has upgraded to an organization page on Facebook.  There isn't much content there now, but I expect the Merry Band of Internet Addicts will be pulling together soon to make it interesting.

Back in the day, I meant to make a habit of profiling adoptable birds on my blog.  Like, blog a story about one every week when I came home from the rescue.  Obviously, it didn't happen.  I hope to use Facebook for more things like that.

24 hours after launch, and we have 11 Likes.  Better get to work.

Bird Walk

I have posted about this absolutely everywhere, but my own blog!

The parrot rescue where I volunteer is having a 10-mile walk to raise awareness and support the mission:

“First and foremost, to work together with other parrot groups to eliminate the need for rescues. Until then, we will:

• Provide temporary housing and care for any and all Psittacine birds (not including those with fatal and/or contagious diseases)
• Educate the public about the proper care of exotic birds
• Locate healthy, happy, and nurturing homes for those that are eligible.”

The event will be held on Monday, May 30th at 10am, Rain or Shine at:

Laura Sprague School
2425 Riverwoods Rd
Lincolnshire, Illinois

If you would like to participate, please leave me a comment. There is no registration fee and obviously, no one is obligated to walk the entire 10 miles. You can also Join the Team or make a contribution on our Crowdrise page.

This is a particularly big deal because it is the first such event that we have ever held. I am looking forward to a great day!

Checking In

I have had a crazy, crazy week. 

Stuff was happening at work from the second I got in Monday morning.  Wednesday was my usual gig at the Rescue and after that, I went to a meet up at Starbucks for Project Linus where they sent me home with enough fleece that I have become one of those crafty people that have crafty stuff spilling out of the closet.

On top of that, I am exhausted from staying up for the playoffs.  I was watching the Bulls gamecast from the Library last night, in between helping customers and pricing new donations and trying to knock out one of said fleece blankets.  I got home in time to see the 'hawks score the first goal.

In addition to setting up on Crowdrise.com, I have signed on to the Living Philanthropic Year Two Challenge:

"I pledge to donate at least $1, volunteer, or do a random act of kindness every day for as long as I decide to challenge myself. I know I can follow and join the LivingPhilanthropic team projects at Crowdrise: http://www.crowdrise.com/livingphilanthropic."

The "every day" was a bit intimidating.   But between fostering birds and making blankets, I probably have that covered. 

So I realize that I have not been all that online, but I have at least three blog posts for the weekend!

Sigmund: Then and Now

I decided to use pictures of Sigmund, the African Grey parrot I am fostering, to feature my Crowdrise project for the Rescue.   It struck me then, how much progress he has made.  This pic is labelled June 2010:

And I took this last night:

You can see he is still over grooming.  And he will pull feathers when freaked out.  But wings!  And tail!

Crowdrise

As I have become more active volunteering, I am more aware of how much time, effort and money are required to keep charitable organizations going. I am not good at this fundraising stuff – this asking for money.

At the same time, my family has gotten better at charitable giving. My grandfather in particular has made an effort to make Christmas less commercial. When, for my birthday, I asked for dontaions to the Refuge, he was very happy to contribute. But two things went wrong:

1. Whatever P.O. Box my mother sent him was no longer active; and
2. The Refuge, as an all-volunteer organization, isn’t exactly speedy in acknowledging gifts.

Such that, if not for the first problem, I wouldn’t have know the gift existed. Enter a new tool:

Crowdrise.com is a website that is part social networking and part fundraising tool. I can set up all of the groups that I support and point people to it if they would like to sponsor the efforts. This is particularly awesome for me because I rarely have an event like a walk/run (although the Refuge is trying to pull one together for this year) or a food drive as an excuse to spread the word around. Crowdrise spotlights the efforts of the average volunteer. They also run contests and have some kind of point system for the competitive people. So that’s fun.
I like that one can use a credit card to make a donation, and get immediate documentation.  And I as the participant can also record donations that I receive offline.

I set up my page, which you can find here. I have some more building out to do, but I think this is a good start. If you are using it, please let me know so I can check out your profile!

At the Refuge: Vito

Vito is an African Grey at the rescue that came in with my foster bird, Sigmund.  I hung out with him while I was working tonight, and wondered for the hundredth time why he hasn't been adopted yet.  He is about the most well-rounded Grey we have.  He has the beginning of a vocabulary, is fully feathered, is a good eater and is not difficult to handle.  Isn't he pretty?

In fact, I considered fostering Vito, but decided that Sigmund was more in need of in-home care.  It was the right decision.  Sigmund becomes more adoptable every day.  Vito has been adoptable all along.  So.  If you are nearish to Chicago, know and like Greys and are in the market for a bird, please visit the website:

www.rescuethebirds.org 

 

Meds

So you all know what a pain it is to medicate animals.  My mother has to find new ways to hide pills from Shadow every day.  Canned food.  Peanut butter sandwiches.  Cheese.  Luckily, she remembers the technique from back in the 80's when everyone just shoved the pill down the dog's throat.  Kiwi the Grey and Spooky the Cat have to be force fed with the syringe.

There is a holistic serum-like thing the Refuge has been using on feather-picking birds.  We've been pretty pleased with the results, and thinking it might be worth trying on Sigmund the Foster Grey.  The problem is there isn't a food that is conducive to holding the liquid that we can trust him to eat consistently.

On a lark, I bought some mini-pancakes last weekend.  I saw them in the freezer section and remembered one volunteer saying that is how she gets her bird to take meds.  I nuked one last night and gave him a piece.

Chowed.  Right. Down.

So I picked up the meds tonight, used a syringe to infuse the pancake and gave him a piece.  Chowed down again.  This is only night two, but I am very encouraged.

Kiwi, of course, won't have anything to do with them.

Sigmund and Cobalt

I don't remember if I mentioned that in addition to Sigmund, I brought home Cobalt, a darling lovebird from the Refuge, to foster for the holidays.  Boarding pet birds is a major source of revenue for the Refuge, and it gets very crowded.  At my house, Cobalt was sure to have more time outside of the cage and it is one less bird for the volunteers to care for when we are already really busy.

Cobalt spent four or five weeks at my house.  She is extremely flighted and really fearless.  She flew from room to room and perch to perch to see what all the other birds and people were doing.  It made Kiwi crazy.  Sigmund got used to her:

Excuse the terrible camera-phone picture.  Cobalt was foraging in Sigmund's dish.  He put up with her on the perch.  He did not put up with her landing on his cage.  She does not like to be handled, and did not step up for me once, but after a few weeks, she understood when it was bedtime and I didn't have to chase her around too much to get her to fly back to her cage all by herself.

I am returning Cobalt to the Refuge tomorrow, as I leave for Atlanta on Wednesday.  I am sad to see her go and hopeful that she will find a "forever home" soon.  Cobalt is up for adoption and you can find her profile here.

Note:  I just realized that the profile refers to Cobalt as "him".  So I could be wrong about the gender.  Charming bird, either way.

Over the Limit

It seems that the town Deerfield, Illinois is considering some new rules for pet owners.  One involves required muzzling of "aggressive" dogs.  The other is limiting the number of pets in a home to five:

"The board decided a limit of five would be a reasonable expectation, although trustees had considered three, which was regarded as too restrictive for some animal lovers.
 “I have a problem with three,” said Trustee Thomas Jester. “If someone has a couple of dogs, a cat and a bird, they are over the limit.”"

I find this utterly ridiculous.  This rule lumps all pets into the same category when clearly, all pets are not the same.  The daily needs of two average dogs are by far more difficult to manage than two average cats or two average birds.  Even within a species - two cockatiels are by so far easier to manage than two macaws.  And that doesn't even address the fact that different animals have different personalities and different needs.

I have three pets - a dog, a cat and an African Grey parrot.  At various times, we have had two dogs in the house.  I am also licensed by the state of Illinois to foster animals in my home.  I am extremely conscious of how much is "too much" for my home to handle.  I base my judgement on whether the two humans living in my house have the time, attention and resources to keep the animals fed, clean, emotionally cared for and in some way, disciplined.  Also, is there enough room in my house for each of the animals to find a quiet corner?   The answer is always Yes.

Right now, I am fostering a second African Grey parrot and am seriously considering fostering a lovebird for the holidays.  (The rescue also offers boarding services and is always very full over the holidays.)  I know that my home can handle that for a few weeks.  I don't need a village board to make that decision for me.

You know what?  I don't think that any family should be allowed to have more than three children.  Let's legislate that.  There is no way on Earth that my parrot is a greater burden to the neighborhood than the average child.

Or we could legislate something important: the breeding of domesticated animals, such that there aren't so many homeless in the first place.

If Deerfield feels the need to establish some arbitrary limit on the number of pets in one house, then so be it.  But for a Trustee like Mr. Jester to pass judgement on what is "over the limit" for any given family makes me glad that I don't live in Deerfield.

Thanksgiving Activities

You know, when you don't have a house full of people, Thanksgiving can get pretty busy.  This was my day:

Woke up at the regular time, dawdled for awhile and headed over to the rescue to lend a hand.  Good thing because an order of bird toys had arrived.  I spent a couple of hours going back and forth between rooms, cleaning cages, hanging new toys, and salvaging parts from old toys (in case they can be re-used).  Karen is my friend because she knew I was out of town when the order was placed, but she picked up some extras of our favorites for me.  Bird toys are really expensive, so one should really not miss an opportunity to pick some up wholesale.

At 10:30 or so, I stopped at Starbucks.  Businesses that are open on the holiday make me really happy.  The strip mall by my house was absolutely packed.  It looked like the Jewel, Starbucks, McDonalds, and Einstein Bagels were all open.  I placed my order and went over to the pick up counter.  The guy asked if I wanted whipped cream on my drinks.  I declined and thanked him for asking.  Then I said, "In case no one has told you today, I really appreciate that you are working on the holiday."

He paused.  "...Um.  No.. No one has said that to me today.  Thanks."

That's really too bad.

I went home, grabbed the newspaper wih the Black Friday ads and went upstairs to plan some strategy.  I found the one for Michael's, the craft store.  Open from 5pm to 9pm tonight and 30% off your entire purchase.  Right when every one was eating.  And then ready to die from being stuffed.

But wait.  There are only two of us.  We can eat whenever we want. 

I convinced my mother to cook the turkey early.  We were still watching the Lions game when we sat down.  (Note:  Whatever the outcome, that was a good game.  I don't want to hear any more of this debate about booting the Lions from the Thanksgiving program.)  And had already placed a Christmas order on Amazon.

Then I took a nap.  Ha.

I got to Michael's a few minutes after five.  There were people, but it wasn't too bad a crowd.  I still managed to spend nearly an hour wandering around.  I filled a basket with supplies and went to check out.  I started hearing the manager shouting orders to people - mostly about how to manage coupons and how much worse it would be tomorrow.  I also thanked the lady at the register for working on the holiday.  Can I tell you?  Her face lit up. 

About that time I started hearing mothers yelling at children and was ready to leave.

Anne's Law:  Black Friday is not for amateurs or children.  Leave the kids at home tomorrow.

Walking back to my car, I saw that Steak and Shake was open.  (Yeah, yeah.  Of course Steak and Shake was open.)  I drove through and picked up a couple of peppermint chip milk shakes.  Again, I told the drive through guy that I appreciated his working on the holiday.  Again, it was clear that no one else had said as much to him today.

Moral of the Story:

Seriously, gang.  Tomorrow, when the whole world goes insane, please say something nice to the staff.  They are having a longer, harder day than you are.  And they aren't being paid enough for it.

Sigmund Update

Sigmund the Foster Bird is looking scraggly, as he picked a bunch of feathers again.  But he can share a tree with Kiwi for 15 minutes at a stretch.  And, he deigned to walk across the room so I would pick him up and pay attention to him.  Also, he is seriously playing with toys now.  That's progress.

Two Steps Back

One trip to Washington and a few thunderstorms later and Sigmund has pulled all his feathers out again.  But we learned that he liked corn on the cob.

Birdie Bread

Several people at the Refuge have asked for my “recipe” for Birdie Bread, because Birdie Bread is the best way to trick fussy birds into eating their vegetables. I kept saying, “You just grind up some vegetables and toss them into your cornbread mix”. Apparently, this is not a satisfactory answer. So here we go:

Ingredients

1 Box Cornbread mix (I generally use Jiffy, but this time I used Martha White), plus mix ingredients
1 handful of baby carrots, washed
1 handful of cut broccoli, washed
1 handful of cut cauliflower, washed (optional)
1 container of sweet potato baby food (I used Gerber, Phase 2)

It should be noted that when it is on sale, I just buy a bag of cut vegetables. Today, broccoli crowns were on sale, so I grabbed one. Because Sigmund prefers the “tree” of the broccoli to the “leaf”, I cut the tops off the trees. Then I tossed them into my mini food processor. Next, I grabbed a handful of baby carrots from the bag and did the same thing. Tossed it all in a mixing bowl.  Then I poured the baby food on top.

Side Note:  The deal with the baby food is that sweet potatoes are really good for birds (and people) because they have a lot of vitamins. Karen, the volunteer director at the Refuge, swears that you can get any bird to start eating vegetables by mashing a sweet potato, mixing it with peanut butter and serving it in a cup.

Kiwi still won’t eat it.

But cooking a sweet potato for the purpose of making Birdie Bread annoys me, so I use baby food. But here is the trick – the baby food has water in it, so you have to be careful that you don’t have too much liquid in the cornbread mix. So what I did was poured the mix powder on top of the vegetables and then added milk until I was satisfied with the consistency. It looks like this:

Then I put the batter in cupcake cups, as a matter of portion control and ease of serving. I cook it according to the instructions on the box, but remember that the fresh vegetables have water in them, too. So I wait until the muffins are visibly golden brown before I am convinced they are done.

And here is Sigmund stuffing his face with the finished product. Kiwi feeds them to the dog.

Further notes:

African Greys are notorious for needing extra calcium, so I use milk in the batter even when the mix says water is ok. Also, if you use a powder calcium supplement, you can bake that in too. Rich, the Director at the Refuge, says that if the mix uses eggs (Jiffy’s does) you should grind the egg shell up with the vegetables and bake that in, too. Just make sure to gently wash the egg before doing so.

This recipe made 12 muffins and in my experience they will last up to two weeks if you keep them in the refrigerator. I don’t know whether they freeze well. I generally give a Grey one muffin at a time, broken into pieces. At least half of that ends up on the floor. I am considering getting a mini-muffin pan.

King Charles

On Sunday, I went by the Rescue to drop off the paperwork from Sigmund's trip to the vet.  I ran into Karen, our volunteer director.  She told me about a puppy that a Petland store relinquished to her employer (a veterinarian) because he was ill.  Having trouble kicking a case of kennel cough.  A 5-month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - free to a good home.

I told my mother about him.  You know, just in case. 

Yesterday, she sent me an e-mail saying that she has a co-worker that might want him.  She asked for a picture.  After 24 hours of back and forth, I have a picture and this puppy has a new home.  They are picking him up this weekend.

Yeah.  I know a King Charles puppy is not the most difficult placement.  But I feel good about it.  The moral of the story, gang, is that this networking stuff works.

Progress

I just went to the Refuge site to check the old photo of Sigmund (he is listed under his nickname, "Ziggy").  Then I had to run downstairs to take a crappy camera phone shot.  'Cause look at the difference:

You know, mine is not close to the perfect home for him.  He only gets out for a couple of hours a day and he really isn't fond of Little Miss Bossy (that would be Kiwi).  But if we can make this kind of progress by getting him settled and content, can you imagine what will happen when he finds the perfect family?

And P.S.:  He is thisclose to being able to whistle the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show.