Au Revoir, my sweet little friend

Yesterday was what I would call Black Saturday. Our family, my husband, son Tim, daughter Red, and I had to say our goodbyes to Avalanche. With Avalanche's illness of kidney failure this poor little guy dealt with so many more complications, all working against him. He was such a trooper and fought hard to get better. But the odds were against him, and we are now suffering the loss and missing the sweetest, most even tempered cat in our world. The other cats in our household are also feeling the loss. And they, too, are grieving in their own way. Avalanche was one of three siblings living here. Misty and Midnight are his sisters, and Tornado was his buddy. Red watched Avalanche and his sisters being born, and this was probably the hardest thing she had to do in her life by letting him go. Please visit Red's blog to read her memoir on Avalanche.

Avalanche was only 12 years old. I know, many of you are probably thinking that he lived a good life. And yes, he did. But he is gone much too soon. I have mentioned in a previous post that when Red left home to attend KU she had to leave one of her three cats behind because she was only permitted to have two cats living with her in her apartment. A few months previous to her leaving home we had experienced saying goodbye to our first cat, Kitty.

Knowing I was temporarily "losing" my daughter who is also my friend, and losing her cats, I was facing an empty house. So shortly before she left town, we went to the Humane Society and "found" and adopted Tornado. Avalanche and Tornado totally bonded and became what we have called "best buds."
Please go read Red's post about our sweet little fur ball. I will deeply miss my furry little alarm clock. Avalanche was better than any mechanical alarm clock. When he was younger Avalanche would retrieve items. You could toss a cat toy and Avalanche would bring it back so you could toss it again and he could chase after it and bring it back again. Avalanche would also drag long pieces of chain around and lay it at our feet. That was usually his way of communicating to us that he wanted our attention.

Avalanche was the only cat who would lick my face. He was so loving, so communicative, so social, and so loyal. This cat has been one of a kind and will not easily be forgotten.

I have a couple of videos of Avalanche, too. But I think I will save those for another post.

Au Revoir my sweet little friend, my little "love bunny."

Backyard nemesis and a week of frustration

I have been wondering what to write about for several days, but I seem to have writer's block, or maybe I'm just too lazy to post anything. This past week Red and I have been dealing with Avalanche's illness. The weather has been a factor and he seems to be failing rapidly. Avalanche is 12 years old and has been an indoor cat for the past 10 years. He is the only one of four cats who is FIV positive which doesn't help his situation at all.

This week we have dealt with hot temps and smazy skies. A few days after I had posted about clear skies the smoke returned. At least I haven't had to smell it except for a few moments a few days ago. And luckily I work in an air conditioned building. But I do have to deal with the elements when walking to work and back home again.

As for other frustrations we are all lacking sleep because one of the dogs goes berzerk whenever she hears firecrackers/fireworks. And it always seems to happen after we've gone to bed. I usually put the dogs in the kennel for the night just before retiring, and within a few minutes Mick is clawing at the chain link fencing of their kennel and is showing signs of being completely stressed out. It really bugs me that we have such inconsiderate neighbors (somewhere around here) that continually set off these noise makers that are illegal here in California. Fourth of July isn't good enough; they have to do it almost every night all summer long, and many times on other holiday weekends, too. I just wish the police could find these jerks and seize their noisy toys.
Not only that, but Avalanche has awaken me a couple nights in a row around 3:30 in the morning. He's usually hungry since he hasn't been eating on a regular schedule. Red and I took Avalanche to the vet earlier in the week to find out why he wasn't eating (again). And we kind of knew it had something to do with his mouth. We then found out that due to his kidney disease/failure that he has developed ulcers, at least in his mouth. Apparently, with kidney disease there are a lot of toxins in one's system that are creating havoc and causing an upset stomach and lack of appetite, etc. We are giving him an antibiotic (amoxycillin) to help with the mouth ulcer infection. We've also had to start giving him soft liquidy food. He as well as the other cats have always eaten dry food, so this is a fairly new experience for us. Also, because of nausea and lack of appetite we've had to try giving Avalanche a quarter of a Pepcid tablet and a quarter of an appetite enhancer (cyproheptadine) at least once a day. And now for the past two days and nights we are dealing with Avalanche's mouth bleeding. So we are not only trying to keep him cleaned up, but we end up with his blood all over our clothing. And now I'm fearing anemia. We've also been told that this disease also causes a big loss of calcium which means we are also trying to get calcium carbonate down this little guy. I have been trying to liquefy Tums and giving it to him with some nonfat milk. It's funny how he shows an interest in eating but then he walks away from it. So something tells me that the smell of food attracts him, but then possibly feels nauseous after he gets close to it.

Anyway, on a more up note or even an amusing experience: we've been enjoying this resident mockingbird singing his heart out. But every time I try to get a picture of him he flies away only to come back when I get back in the house. I swear he is teasing me! Today I tried again to get his picture because I knew he was really close by. I located him in the tree that is in my neighbor's yard, just on the other side of our backyard fence. I no sooner located him and got my camera focused and he flew off into the redwood tree that is in the same neighbor's yard. So I decided to take a video so I could share his song with all of you. I took the video of the tree where I first saw him. By the way, if anyone can identify this beautiful tree with yellow flowering bunches, please let me know.

I can see clearly ...

In my previous post I showed photos of how smoky our valley has been during the course of the recent fires here in central and northern California. A few days ago the coastal/bay breezes returned and cleared out the smoke here in Silicon Valley. Those of us with respiratory problems and allergies can breathe a whole lot easier now. Here are some photos I took today. The sites/locations are about the same as the photos I took last week. Below is a portion of the Hamilton range (the range that separates us from the Central Valley). I left work early today since most folks who would use the library seemed to take the day off, getting a head start on the holiday weekend. I took this photo from the hospital employee parking lot.

Here is another shot of the Hamilton range, again from the employee parking lot. I do believe that is Mt. Hamilton, approximately 14 miles to the east and rising up to 4000 feet.
This photo (click to enlarge it) is looking west from the hospital. These mountains are part of the Santa Cruz hills where a couple of county parks are located.
This photo (below) is Blossom Hill in the foreground where the homes are located, approximately 800 feet in elevation and just about a mile to the south of where I live. The last ridge of mountains where you can see some towers is Mt. Umunhum and to the right of it is Mt. Thayer, each about 3200 feet in elevation. The ridge between Blossom Hill and Mt. Umunhum are the Los Gatos hills. These hills are about 1500-1800 feet in elevation.

Don't you just love seeing a palm tree in the midst of this picture? That tree is actually on the "valley floor" probably a few blocks away. In the foreground you can see the top part of the school where I snapped this photo. The elementary school is just a block away and has open space where I can get a decent photo without the power lines. If you look to the left of the palm tree you can see a big power "tower" and just behind it is Blossom Hill. The big hill or mountain would again be the Los Gatos hills (around 1500-1800 feet).

Living in a haze

For the past two or more weeks California has been dealing with quite a few fires. Although, on a personal level I have not had to deal with living with the heartbreak of losing my home or pets or other personal treasures, I have had to only look around my "corner of the world" and see how we are all affected by these fires. We live in the Santa Clara Valley, aka Silcon Valley, where we live between the Santa Cruz mountains and the Mt. Hamilton range. In other words we can look all around and see mountains to the east, west and south of us. Because the fires have been widespread, and many in very remote locations, residents of this valley have been living in a haze. Everyday we are reminded of what is going on around us. We are spoiled to the point that residents of this valley usually see blue skies and sunshine during the spring and summer months and we take for granted seeing the mountains around us. So for the past few weeks we can barely see the mountains, if we can see them at all. Instead, we see pink or red sunrises and sunsets through the haze. We have not seen blue skies for more than two weeks. Zhakee from Sierra Nevada Ramblings has written an excellent post about the fires around her, too. Visit her blog to see what she has to say about it. Below are some photos I have taken from here in my neighborhood.

The photo above was taken June 13 in the evening looking east from our front yard. Notice the reddish glow to the sky. Below is the sun just before sunset. I took this shot from standing on my front patio. That's a power line cutting across the lower half of the picture.
This photo below was taken in the evening of June 25, standing in the same location as above. Not much different from the June 13 sky, is it?

And this photo was taken from my back patio, (with more power lines in the way) early the next morning, June 26.

These next three photos were all taken in the evening of June 26. I walked over toward the hospital, trying to get a decent photo of the Santa Cruz mountains (sans power lines). Again, you can see the reddish haze, and the mountains look so far away, yet they are only a few miles away. Yesterday, while walking to work these hills were not visible at all.

Walking back home I took a photo of the hills to the south of us, called Blossom Hill.

And this photo was taken looking southwest. These hills would be part of the southern portion of the Mt. Hamilton range.

Be sure to visit Zhakee at Sierra Nevada Ramblings to see her pix and read her post.

Wordless Wednesday

Rose among the cannas

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RED!

Today is Red's birthday. Below is a scanned photo Red presently uses as her avatar for her blog. She is multi-talented. She is creative when it comes to computer graphics. She is the one who designed my template you see here (called BIRDSNBLOOMS).

Red is an excellent artist in many forms of art. She also enjoys photography, and is really good at it. And as you can see in this photo above Red enjoys her music. She inherited her love of music and playing piano from her paternal grandmother. When Red was two years old she would try to accompany Grandma whenever Grandma would sit and play the piano. When Red learned to play she was able to play duets with her grandmother -- something Grandma always loved to do. Red you always seem to amaze me with your talents. I am so proud of you and I am so glad you are my daughter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RED!!!

Snowy Egrets at Palo Alto Baylands

The other day I posted the photos of the black-crowned night herons nesting at the Palo Alto Baylands. While walking around between the ranger's station and the fenced-in migratory bird area I saw these strange looking geese. Canada geese they are not! And as far as I can tell I would say they are "hybrid" geese. If anyone in blogland can identify these birds for me I would be appreciative. Meanwhile, we'll just call them hybrid geese. Feel free to click on any of the photos to get a larger view.

This pair of snowy egrets were in the palm trees closest to the pathway, closest to the fencing. And as I said last year seeing these birds nesting in palm trees, I never would have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes. Imagine, snowy egrets nesting in palm trees. Only in California (and possibly Florida).
This water area was also behind the fenced-in area, not far from the palm trees. Notice the flora looks like chaparral - shrubs between the water source and the palm trees.

This picture shows the chaparral and the base of one of the palm trees in the background. I guess you can say these Canada Geese were "visiting" the snowy egret rookery area. It seems that neither species was upset about the other sharing their territory.