News From The Mews

The birds had a visitor this week! This isn't the first wild animal to check out the mews. While I often see deer tracks in the garden and robins flitting about on the lawn, this is the first time I've seen a Gray Treefrog visit the birds. 

Timing is important in animal training. That's why clickers have become a good way to teach new behaviors.  Imagine teaching a dog to sit without a clicker. You say "sit," the dog sits, and you deliver a treat. But other behaviors will happen in that time frame. By the time the dog gets the treat, he might have stood up, wagged his tail, made eye contact with you, and barked. How is he to know which behavior earned him the reward?  Now let's introduce the clicker. The dog knows that every time you click, he gets a treat. You say "sit," the dog sits, you click when his butt hits the floor, and you deliver the treat. The click told the dog, " that's what I want you to do. A treat is coming." It doesn't matter what he does after the click - he knows that the sit earned him the treat. The clicker is almost a magical tool, but it requires precision. What if you click half a second late when the dog is standing? He'll think you want him to st

Back in January, Digger the hognose snake visited the vet for a check-up. I was excited to see the radiograph images and discover what's inside our snake. It is fascinating to see her long stack of vertebrae with a pair of ribs radiating off of each one. I counted 151 pairs of ribs. Compared to our 12 sets, that's a lot of ribs!

On Monday morning, my timing was impeccable.  I peeked in on Digger during my morning rounds and noticed something. The area by her tail was pulsing, as if she was getting ready to defecate. That's weird, I thought. Digger just ate yesterday. She shouldn't have to poop for another few days. I continued to watch and was amazed to see something round and white start to emerge. Right in front of my eyes, Digger laid an egg!