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.

Time for some bird pix

Some of these photos go back to late February. That's how far behind I am in posting. The photo below is a female Anna's hummingbird. She came to the window feeder during the day when it was raining. Be sure to click on the photos to get a larger view.

Same window as the one above. This is my bedroom window, and it's where my computer faces out to the back yard. I have the hummingbird feeder and this other feeder attached to the window. This photo was also taken way back in February on the same rainy day. Notice this lesser goldfinch is not quite in breeding plumage yet.
And now, notice this little guy is looking more like he's in his breeding plumage. And this photo was taken only two weeks later (early March), and obviously at a different feeder. This one is located in my front yard, hanging from the crepe myrtle tree.
Here's another shot, same day, and I caught one little female as she was flying in. The male lesser goldfinch on the left is not as brightly colored (plumaged) as the one on the right.

And this beauty is one of our neighborhood mockingbirds. We all came home from church a couple Sundays ago (early April) and heard this beautiful, melodious singing. I found him perched up in my next door neighbor's tree, singing his heart out. I wonder if he has found himself a mate yet.