Joy

I mentioned back in January 2021 about the little things in life that bring me joy. Well, I continue that trend and my duties have expanded.

Marcie has nicknamed me Snow White. I guess it is appropriate in some aspects. I am known in my yard and in the neighborhood for feeding the animals. It brings me joy and fills a bit of the void left by Kota’s passing. Let me run down the list.

Within the past week, I have fed some ducks. These ducks quickly learned the pattern and are now at my back door every morning waiting for their feed. The neighbor behind us has a pond that currently houses 8 ducks and some geese (in spring). The ducks travel in two different groups and do not get along. There is a set of three (two males and a female), that now greet me every morning, and the other set (which I don’t feed directly) of three males and two females. I woke up this morning, went to the back door, flicked on the outside light and they were standing there looking at me. I got a big grin on my face, went, and got them some food, said “what’s up ducks”, poured the food on the ground, and came back into the house.

A few months back, I bought and hung a hummingbird feeder on the back wall of my house. I consistently see anywhere from 5 to 8 birds visiting that feeder throughout the day. This feeder is right outside my window, and in direct view from where I am working. So the darting ‘helicopters’ always catch the periphery of my vision and provide a relaxing distraction from my work duties. There is one male that sits on top of the feeder (see above) and runs the other birds off. He sits there or flies to a nearby tree, then zooms in for sneak attacks. I do not have names for these hummingbirds other than the bully. The bully will let some females stop and eat for a bit, but then spend his day trying to run the rest of the hummingbirds off. It is a game of tag. He chases one off while others come and feed. He comes back to chase them off, then others come and feed because he is gone.

When installing the hummingbird feeder, I also hung up two regular bird feeders on the side of my garage. Daily we get visits from crows, cardinals, blue jays, pigeons, and little black and brown birds. What seeds fall to the ground is eaten by the ducks, squirrels and once I saw a raccoon. I have seen the squirrels try to jump and get to the feeders, but they are too high off the ground, and for now they have not figured out how to climb bricks. A few weeks ago, I sat and watched him jump multiple times, walk over, and lay down on the concrete to rest, try again, then just gave up and ate what was on the ground. I was laughing at this show I was watching. There are days they will eat the feeders dry in one day.

Now let us move to my four-legged friends. I leave each morning with a pocket full of dog treats and a small baggie of cat treats. I leave dog treats in four mailboxes and regularly feed one cat and one dog. As I mentioned in the blog I referenced above, Joey, the deaf Australian Shepherd, waits for us in the yard. Perry (aka Stinky) the cat, lays in the middle of the road for us. Joey and Perry are brothers. We occasionally will be greeted by Bailey, a large white Labrador retriever, but not every day.

Joey is trained to stay in his yard, and does so pretty well. We use sign language to get him to sit before he gets his treats. He gets one from me and one from Marcie before any loving is allowed by him. He has priorities. He is very calm and his almost white eyes (actually blue) are so loving as he stares at us. We talk to him, though he cannot hear us, and he has so many similarities to Kota that it sometimes makes me sad for a moment. Kota was also an Australian Shepherd.

Perry, his brother, is another character we love. I have never owned a cat because of allergies, but this knucklehead has such an outstanding personality. As I stated, he lays in the middle of the road. He has all the neighbors trained to drive around him. He loves all the dogs in the neighborhood and as for us he gets his treats but loves his loving the most. When we pet him, he purrs, and his butt and tail will lift with each stroke of his back. One thing we both learned early on is if Perry is laying on his side or back, this cuddly creature turns into what a friend describes perfectly as a fuzzy bear trap. Rubbing his side or belly turns into a game of avoiding the lunging paws with their hooks extended, as well as maneuvering an open mouth full of needle teeth. Perry means no harm to us, but his fun game can easily draw blood. Perry has also from time to time walked with us down the street, sometimes darting at our shoes, but luckily, he gets distracted easily and we can move along without him following us home (he has followed another neighbor’s home before).

Perry, like his brother Joey, is also white with piercing blue eyes. Both want loving and we are certainly happy to oblige. I have deemed Perry the Mayor of Whitetail Woods, and all the neighbors laugh but concur with his new title. Whether following us on a walk, or darting out from the tree line when he sees us, Perry constantly keeps a smile on my face.

So are there any negatives of us doing this? Yes. We were told this week by Joey and Perry’s human that “they get confused on weekends just sitting here waiting for you to come by.” And of course the ducks will be confused if I am out of town or sleep late, but the joy of seeing the faces makes me so happy and fills my heart with joy.

It looks like I now have quite a few more pets, and like Marcie stated, I guess I am Snow White, but in my defense, she feeds and loves on some animals listed above as much as I do.

Until next time,

Tim (Kilmer)