Mastodawn

Brian Small Oct 16, 2022

We're not sure how long this one (BiwaChan) will avoid sleeping with the other birds and insist on making herself at home on the couch at night. I forget to put her out to eat with the other if she doesn't get up, make her way out from under the covers and start chirping away in the morning. She's still too small and cute to refuse...
#SilkyChickens #BackyardChickens #IndoorChickens

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Emacsen Oct 16, 2022

@bsmall2

Doesn't that mean it leaves bird droppings on your couch?

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bs2 Oct 16, 2022

@emacsen @[email protected] We have old towels that my wife cuts up and uses in smart ways. We try to keep one of those towel pieces under BiwaChan. It works out most of the time. When it doesn't, her droppings have been small, hard, and dry so it hasn't seemed that bad to just clear them away with a tissue. I don't know how long this is going to last. But it is fascinating to pay attention to a chick up close like this, the way the settle down, nod off to sleep, clean themselves, make happy sounds...

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Emacsen Oct 16, 2022

@bsmall2 @[email protected]

Gotcha. I've never had birds, but the idea of a creature that has no control at all of its bathroom living on the couch seems... less than ideal. :)

Part of me can't help but address the irony of needing to take your shoes off in this home, but also sitting on a couch where a bird pooped. ;)

It's actually one the reasons why the wife doesn't want me to get more rats.

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bs2 Oct 16, 2022

@emacsen @[email protected] You have pet rats? Marmots? It's the wife's couch, I lay on the tatami mats (which I don't think Biwa's pooped on But I did tissue-up a tiny hard droppin off her towel in front of the keyboard while Mio was in the shower.) I never thought of it till addressing your comments, but we don't let the birds on the tatami. They sometimes get to walk over the flooring (or Mio's couch cover), but in some weird way the contradictions you noticed aren't as glaring as they could be.

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Emacsen Oct 16, 2022

@bsmall2 @[email protected]

I used to have pet rats.
I don't know anyone who keeps a marmot, lol.

They were domestic rats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fancy_rat

Fancy rat - Wikipedia

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bs2 Oct 16, 2022

@emacsen @[email protected] Cute!! With all the bird feed around we got mice last winter. They were so cute I felt bad about killing them. The mouse traps sold here didn't work. I would take a break from the keyboard and watch one take cheese off the trap, eat it, then look at me while cleaning it's paws... But after they get used to feasting off the spring-traps, it's like cheating to use the sticky traps. It was sad to see them joyfully jumping along just to get stuck and die, making little sounds...

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Emacsen Oct 16, 2022

@bsmall2 @[email protected]

Okay that was very disturbing to read...

Please CW depictions of violent death next time? (and or not have a next time where you describe death like this?)

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bs2 Oct 16, 2022

@emacsen @[email protected] Sure. Sorry! It was late and I should have gotten away from the computer a lot earlier. Thanks for the heads up about nettiquete. WIth voice and face (and a greater word count) I probably could have softened or abstracted the disturbing parts a bit better. It's no excuse I'm just thinking about how I ended up disturbing you without intending too.

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bs2 Oct 16, 2022

@emacsen @[email protected] There was a fleeting doubt about the content since you had pet rats, but maybe because we were talking about poop... With chickens that Mio sometimes cares for like babies and how people want to eat those same babies... we end up with poultry in some of our meals still too. So we end up talking about the strangeness of it all, all the violent death for animals. Later I'll find the BRussel link that comes to mind while thinking of this...

Fancy rat - Wikipedia

バートランド・ラッセル「動物がしゃべれたら」（アメリカン・エッセイ）