Well, it's nearly April, and if you've been following along with our little flock's adventures on Instagram and elsewhere, you've likely already heard the breaking news....
Hibernation season is over at last! Yahoo!
With warmer temps and longer days, the now-rested and refreshed, fortified and nourished, manly and masculine single 3-toed male box turtle has one (and only one) thing on his mind. Wooing the ladies.
To which we can only say....join the club.
After all, a certain "alpha" flock member with feathers has been practice-nesting for months already.
It is like winter never even happened.
Speaking of practice-nesting, this past month we finally had the big breakthrough when Pearl chewed through the last remaining struts in the side of the big wicker basket (nest) his grandma gave him.
He has also prepared several "backup nests" just in case a choosy ladybird wishes to, well, browse before she buys, so to speak.
And so it falls to the girls of the flock to keep it together once again.
Malti is getting bigger. And stronger. And more rambunctious by the day. She has learned to stand up on her hind legs now, which basically means she is always one crash landing away from her next crash landing.
She tries to climb my legs, the kitchen cabinets, her red bathing tub, the side of her enclosure, the couch, the frig, and anything at all that appears to be in between her and something she wants to see, reach or eat.
To this point, it no longer surprises me that birds and turtles share a common genetic ancestor. Inside my lumpy, bumpy, hungry girl is a sleek set of aerodynamic feathers constantly striving to take flight.
Of course, with all this going on, the flockwide large featherless/shell-less biographer has made exactly zero progress as of yet towards the new Love & Feathers & Shells book project. Ah well. The year is still (sort of) young. There is time.
The original plan was to launch into spring with a camping trip for one of us and posh accommodations at the usual assortment of luxury resorts for three of us. And those were some great plans while they lasted. It is okay. There will be other camping trips, later, when the scientists have worked their magic and everyone is safer once again.
For now, we roll with what each new day brings, sheltering in place with iPhone video cam always at the ready and a continued gratitude for good health, clean water, sunshine, sweetness, cuteness....and YOU!
