How to (not) medicate a cat

Our cat Roxy is now only getting Prednisone once a day. Nobody is happier about that than we are. That's because she's on to us now and knows that we usually give her the medicine around the same time in the morning. That turns out to be the time when she becomes Houdini and disappears mysteriously. This morning was the hardest one ever. As if the heat and humidity weren't enough to wipe us out, we had to chase Roxy all over the house. First, she crawled under the couch and I grabbed a broom to flush her out of there. Unfortunately, she ran under our bed next. I brought her syringe in and closed the door. We had her trapped, but how to coax her out from under the bed? The broom came to the rescue again. Finally, she came out and a very exhausted "mother" cradled her in her arms while my husband administered the medicine. We are going to have to alter our time schedule a bit because we are too predictable. I can understand why she doesn't want to swallow cherry-flavored medicine (it's made for children), but take it she must. She is eating much better now but still looks like a feather-weight. I have bought some prescription dry food for her and am anxious to see if she eats it. Little Miss Finicky won't just eat any old food, you know.
On the gardening front, we are having hits and misses this year. Because of the wet, cold spring, only two of the flowers we started in the house actually survived. Then we went out and bought a pot with three sunflowers for our flower island. The next morning, almost all its leaves were eaten. We suspect a rabbit as the culprit. So, now we have to buy rabbit-prove plants. Sunflowers seem to be particularly tasty since we are having bad luck planting them. Too bad, because we really love them. Our native plants are faring better this year. Last week, I photographed a honey bee on a common milkweed. Now the milkweed stopped blooming, but the purple coneflowers and black-eyed Susans bloom now. I haven't seen any monarchs yet and am wondering what happened to them. The insects sure like our little garden and it's always buzzing until late in the evening. And, best of all: we don't have to water our native garden since they're all perennials.

Published Again

The year 2008 is off to a good start. I just returned from the mailbox with my contributor copies of Pennsylvania Magazine of my article "Painting Noses." The big surprise was that the article was slated for publication in September 2008 so I didn't expect to see it yet. The editor ended up using six of my photos, a new record for me. I'm happy to say that the photos came out very nice. While my specialty is bird photography nowadays, the images show some pretty big birds, KC-135T tankers to be exact.
In November, Allegheny West magazine published a two-page story about my bird photography. I was recently asked by a garden club whether I would like to give a talk about how to attract birds to a garden. I gladly accepted the challenge because it gives me an opportunity to share my love of nature and wildlife with like-minded people. Our little butterfly garden attracts not only monarchs, tiger swallowtails and other butterflies, but also various insects, hummingbirds and goldfinches who eat the coneflower seeds in fall. My talk will take place in April so I'll plenty of time to prepare for it. Who knows what other opportunities it will lead to?
In our own backyard, the recent snowfall has brought many birds to our feeders, particularly juncos. Where do they all come from and what do they do when the weather is nice? We also noticed that our "resident" Cooper's Hawk (which I once photographed on our bird bath) is still in the area. I guess hawks have to eat too, but I hope it doesn't eat too many of the birds we feed.
I'm busy marketing my photos and look forward to the challenges and opportunities of the new year.

Late Summer Rambling

My last trip to Beechwood was not very fruitful. My best photo was that of the lone monarch I saw there. We have more of them at home. I did see, but not photograph, a warbler, a wren and some cedar waxwings. Butterflies were scarce that day, but so it goes.
Our own little butterfly garden is a hotbed of activity. We're having a good crop of monarch larvae this summer and also milkweed moths and bugs. Amazing that a poisonous plant such as milkweed (we have butterfly weeds and milkweed) can support so much wildlife. We're also seeing bumble bees and honey bees, all kinds of butterflies but not as many swallowtails as in the past.
I'm seeing and hearing more birds in our yard, including a pileated woodpecker. The male hummingbirds appear to have departed, yet the young ones are still around fighting over the nectar. They're also visiting our flowers, particularly the zinnias. I'll definitely plant those again next year.