The Jack and Tiger Show

Tiger and Jack's close-up

"How cute am I" (a snowballism)

("I'm so cute that I can even be rotten!")

sleepy Jack

and then there were four - Introducing Tiger

We picked Tiger up from her boarding home last Friday (Jan 30) and brought her home. She has been with us a week now, so it seems to be an appropriate time to introduce her to you. She is a wild child and a sweetheart. Since day one, she has has sleeping between our heads (she also has a bad habit of walking across us, including our faces, during the night, but she's so light we barely notice). She also swats at Jack's tail, chases the laser like a madwoman, jumps into the plants and throws dirt on the carpet, leaps from the floor to the speaker and through the rails to the 2nd floor, follows us around like a puppy, eats like she may never see food again, and is so cute she charms the socks on anyone who meets her. Tiger is a good companion for old man Jack, and Jack is a good brother, toelrating her nonsense! They are already playing together, and Friday they even slept together in the papasan:

PS Today is the 2 month anniversary since Snowball's passing - we miss you boo.

first post of the new year

First off, Jack is doing fantastic - he is vibrant and healthy and has put some weight on those sagging bones. Now that he is feeling better, we are really starting to see Jack's personality- and he has a lot of it! He is a pretty funny character. In other feline news, I coaxed an abandoned kitten out of the woods of a state park a couple weeks ago. She is super sweet and adorable. She is currently staying with R's sister, who also has 2 other kittens for Tiger to play with, because of Jack's distemper and the contamination of the house. After her 2nd round of vaccinations, we plan on brining her home and testing her out with Jack, who is very needy for attention and would probably do well with a rambunctious friend.

Tiger en route to his new temporary home










Secondly, the weather here has been atrocious, so I haven't ventured out as much as I'd hoped. But I did swing by Eagle Bluffs CA on Tuesday where I picked up 4 Savanna and 1 Vesper Sparrows! Plus a few others for my Jan list.

The last couple days have been a whirlwind. I went to St Louis with my boss for my 1st professional meeting with project collaborators. It was quite the learning experience. I met people I only knew through e-mails, so I got to do some networking. Our efforts are to provide a recommended point count protocol and to get multiple state and federal agencies to adopt it - not an easy task!

In other news, I am officially off to Austin for Golden-cheeked Warbler monitoring in March. I'll only be there through early May becuase I am headlining the woodland restoration project here in MO starting in mid-May.

Adios for now!