Nanday kind of day

I confess to being fascinated by the flocks of Nanday (black-hooded) parakeets that have established themselves in this area of Florida.  They are not a native species but at some point years ago, either escaped or were released here and have flourished.  They are native in S. America, southeast Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.  

Anyway, it was a slow day, bird-wise, at Fort DeSoto, so I was quite happy when I heard a large flock of 40 or so noisy parakeets arriving in the trees over the parking lot where I was standing.  They provided me with many good photos, including some in-flight shots that I am happy with.  There was also much evidence of osprey nesting behavior with a number of the big birds flying around with nesting material.  I've posted six shots, including two more of the parakeets, two osprey and a couple of others starting HERE on Flickr.

We took Phoebe to the vet this morning for her rabies vaccine and also to talk to the vet about her general health.  She's 8, which puts her at the age when a baseline blood panel is a good idea, so we had them draw blood too.  The vet (the same vet who originally treated Rocket for the UTI just a little over a week ago) said that he detected a heart murmur - he said on a scale of 1-6, he put it at a 3.  Could be nothing, or could be an early sign of cardiomyopathy (which was what caused the death of our Rocket-man).  It was all I could do when he told us not to run screaming from the room.  

But, he assured us that the chances of having two genetically unrelated cats both having cardiomyopathy would be pretty remote.  Never the less, she should have an ultrasound to look at her heart and other organs.  We have an appointment to take her to the Internal Medicine specialist who treated Rocket on Friday.  They will shave her belly and do the ultrasound - not invasive and she probably won't need to be sedated because she's such a good girl at the vet.  I am not going to sleep well until I know that she is okay.  It may be that she just has a heart murmur and that it doesn't require any treatment - but if treatment is needed, better to find out sooner than later.  

My mantra right now is ... this too shall pass.   A few good thoughts coming this way would not be amiss, however.

xxoo
Debbi

PS:  Forgot to mention yesterday that I had my first encounter with fire-ants.  Apparently, I was standing on an ant hill ... with sandals on ... and now I know why they are called "fire" ants.  Very unpleasant.