Rose Cat's Rambles

1.

Twelve-year-old kakapo Sinbad, Codfish Island, New Zealand
Photo by Shane McInnes
Kakapo snap wins rare birds photo competition

From the linked article: Sinbad is the son of veteran kakapo Richard Henry, who was found as an adult in Fiordland in 1975 when his species was believed to be extinct.

There are only 125 known kakapo left. Each has been given a name (list at Wikipedia) by the Kakapo Recovery Programme.

( sixteen more pics, two GIFs and two embedded videos, all child/work-safe )

B and I are (finally!) having the house tented for termites. We'd hoped to do something more environmentally friendly than the gas, but the termites are too widespread for local treatments. So gas it is. At least it doesn't leave a residue like the stuff they used many years ago did.

We will have to vacuum up dead spiders and ants and whatever else has moved in. At least it'll kill all the ant nests in the walls, but Argentine ants are tough critters and will probably move back in soon. If we want to keep them out (ha!) we'll have to do a lot more caulking and sealing. Oh, and it turns out we'll see more ants as they come in to clean up all the dead creatures. (I wouldn't mind that -- free cleanup crew -- if only they'd all go back out afterwards and leave us the heck alone!)

We've arranged to stay in a hotel for three days. The house will be safe to move back into in two, but we'd like to stay an extra day. The hotel is close enough to the zoo that we can spend a couple of days there. We haven't been down there in many years -- it's about forty miles, and an hour of travel time (on a good day!), from where we live now, which is a hell of a trek for us, so we usually just go to the Safari Park, which is half the distance and half the time, and is a wonderful place as well. (Both are part of the Zoological Society, for which we have a yearly membership.)

We just have to double-bag and seal up (or toss) everything edible in the house that isn't in metal or glass and unopened. I've cut back the plants against the wall of the house. There wasn't much, but the lizards have been living in the vegetation. I've tried to make sure they can't get under the tarp.

There's no way we could have done this while Missy was still here. Boarding her was out of the question, even before she got so sick, and we couldn't stay away for more than part of a day either. We both still miss our kitty girl, but at least B and I can get away for a few days and relax and have a little fun. Life goes on.

Alternative cams for your giant panda fix are at San Diego Zoo, Zoo Atlanta, Memphis Zoo, Chengdu Research Base and Edinburgh Zoo.

Also posted to politicartoons

The Pacific pocket mouse is a species endangered in its coastal Southern California habitat, which includes Camp Pendleton, a Marine base north of San Diego.

( one more picture and a link )

Bai Yun, a twenty-year-old giant panda who has been at the San Diego Zoo since 1996, gave birth to her sixth cub on Sunday morning. WOO-HOOOO!


( Article, links and video are here. )