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Christel's Diary

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21 February 2012

Wounded

Again, we had pouring rain for 24 hours. The soil was already saturated, so all the water had to run down to the wadi flowing through the garden. Since then we have cold but sunny weather. Winter is coming and going.

The bird has become a part of our daily routine. After breakfast he is allowed to fly around the living room. A routine loved by both the bird abnd Zakaria.

About 10 days ago, Zakaria couldn't wait for me to open the door of the cage. I was doing something in the kitchen. He did it himself and let the door snap back when the bird was not completely outside. The bird's paw got caught.

Zakaria came to me and reported 'blood'. I investigated and found the bird with a wounded paw. Losing a few drops of blood can be dangerous for such a tiny bird. I did my best to stop the bleeding and to desinfect the wound.

For the rest of the day, the bird sat on 1 paw quietly next to his 'mirror' pal. He needed 1 week to recover full capacity of his paw while improving his relationship with Zakaria.

By now, he likes to sit on Zakaria's arm or head in no way blaming Zakaria for the accident.

Zakaria has learnt that he cannot open the cage's door himself. He still has to be supervised when around the bird, because he doesn't know the impact of his strength when dealing with his small fragile friend.

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07 February 2012

Footprints

While Europe is living a record breaking freezing winter, spring has started one month earlier as usual over here.

The turtles are coming out on sunny days and the trees are starting.

The milder temperatures came after a night of snow. One morning we woke up and everything was white including the balcony. We had at least 5 cm of snow.

Zakaria went out on investigation on the balcony in his pijama's and after a few steps decided it was too cold. Came in and requested breakfast. Did not talk about the snow any further.

I realized this was a rare opportunity to have him play in the snow, so after having eaten I dressed him in 3 layers of pants and socks with a warm winter jacket and gloves and took him downstairs into the garden where we were sheltered from the freezing cold wind.

Soon he discovered the fun of leaving his footprints everywhere and kept running around while I was patiently waiting until he got out of breath. That lasted a few hours.

Until the evening you could hear and see the snow melting until it was all gone except in Zakaria's mind.

2 weeks after Zakaria is still hoping to wake up and find snow again. Me, I'm very happy with the early spring and do like the rising temperatures. This winter has lasted long enough.

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