Things You Find Interesting (reborn?)

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Not sure if we had this thread previously, but I didn't want to necropost in the event that we did.

Mrs. Prof has been tracking the status of the feral cat population in our backyard colony. Two new ones started showing up in the past few days. Neither have the "tipped" (i.e., slightly clipped) left ear to indicate that they've been spayed or neutered.

She's been planning to do a feral cat roundup tonight with the Garland Trap-Neuter-Return program people. Before she left, she set up a couple of our personal traps to try and catch the newbies. That was before noon. It's a bit past 7pm now, and no one has taken the bait. Yet.

The sun's still up. There's still time.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

When I was up in Michigan recently, I frequently saw "DO NOT PASS" and 'PASS WITH CARE" signs on the road.

I can't remember the last time I saw one of those signs in Florida.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

16 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

When I was up in Michigan recently, I frequently saw "DO NOT PASS" and 'PASS WITH CARE" signs on the road.

I can't remember the last time I saw one of those signs in Florida.

I've seen "NO PASSING" signs in Texas, but no "PASS WITH CARE" signs. I guess the Texas DPS doesn't give a fart in a whirlwind about how you do pass once you start it, as long as you don't run into somebody.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Mrs. Prof has been tracking the status of the feral cat population in our backyard colony. Two new ones started showing up in the past few days. Neither have the "tipped" (i.e., slightly clipped) left ear to indicate that they've been spayed or neutered.

She's been planning to do a feral cat roundup tonight with the Garland Trap-Neuter-Return program people. Before she left, she set up a couple of our personal traps to try and catch the newbies. That was before noon. It's a bit past 7pm now, and no one has taken the bait. Yet.

Fifty percent success! One of the newbies took the bait and found themselves trapped. Not sure if it's male or female yet. since it kind of doesn't want you staring at that part of its anatomy. Mrs. Prof's bets are on male, though. It's a black cat and is spitting and hissing up a storm. She's named it "Trouble."

The only problem she's got now is that she has to get the cat up to the Garland Pet Adoption Center by around 7am tomorrow morning so that it can be transported to the group of veterinarians who will do the spay/neuter surgery.

The second trap went untripped, but someone managed to get inside, grab the bait tray, and pull it outside for their dinner. Sneaky little varmint.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

We have an aviary in the lobby at work, which wound up empty through attrition this past winter.  The boss went out and got two Lady Gould's Finches and two Society Finches.  The gouldians were clearly a male and a female; they're color-dimorphic, so you can tell the girl by her pale chest.  The societies had one dark and one paler, too, but then the paler one started singing up a storm, which is a decidedly male trait.  The Goulds had a clutch of three shortly after moving in.  The societies claimed the other nest, being a species that's well-known for liking to crowd a whole bunch of birds into a small space (hence the name) and I joked that they were the babies' "uncles" because they helped feed them once they were out of the nest.

Then the Goulds had another clutch, five this time.  In maybe three months, we went from four birds to twelve.  The boss started thinking about separating out the male Gouldian and doing DNA feather sexing on the babies so we could split up the sexes.  She said they usually raise two clutches in a row per breeding season.

Except now they seem to be raising yet another clutch -- last week we started hearing the little cheeping noises from their nest again, and as both parents work hard to raise the babies, we can't take him away yet.

And.....almost the exact same day, we started hearing little baby bird peeps from the society nest, too.  The pale one may have been singing up a storm, but in hindsight, I don't think the darker colored one has been nearly as vocal.  Guess they just didn't feel like breeding quite as early in the season.

Ah, well, at least they seem to be happy!

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

I've seen "NO PASSING" signs in Texas,

Doesn't that make it really difficult to play football?

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

5 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Doesn't that make it really difficult to play football?

Why do you think Tony Romo is retiring and going into the broadcast booth?