Tuppence

It's now two years since Demelza brought in a tiny baby sparrow she'd caught. Fortunately being a highly inefficient hunter meant that as per usual she "lost" her prey. As I had no idea where she'd found this bird I was unable to put it back into a tree for its parents to find so put it in a cardboard box and convinced myself it would probably die of shock. However when I checked a while later it opened its beak so I mixed up some chicken mince with warm water and fed it. To cut a long story short Tuppence survived and grew into a pretty male sparrow with attitude. Originally I was going to release him back into the wild but unfortunately he has no fear of cats, even pulling their fur and tweaking their tail if they sit beside his cage (which they tend to do if they think I'm not in the vicinity). He always flies back to you when he's out exercising and pulls my hair and chats away to me. He has an ongoing love affair with his mirror and bell which he periodically bashes. Strangely though his song has altered and you can hear him whistling the cats (as I do) as well as saying hello on occasion.

Piper has spent the past four nights inside which is unusual. I have been worried as she has lost some weight but put that down to her cardiomyopathy. However yesterday she was absolutely drooling and unable to eat. Of course I managed to convince myself she was going into renal failure but when I offered her some meat mid morning she was interested but only seemed able to pick chunks out, placing them beside the dish. I had some soft cat food which I put out and she scoffed this with relish so I think she may have a tooth problem. I had a look but couldn't see anything but will keep an eye on her for the next few days to see how she goes. The drooling has eased today and she managed to eat her breakfast today so hopefully it was only a minor problem. This is the latest photo of Piper and she was relaxed enough to allow me to show her stumpy tail.