A mixed bag.

Photo copyright Aji, 2022; all rights reserved.

I talk a lot about the fact that our female red-tail is much larger than her mate, but I don't very often get a chance to catch them together where the difference is really visible. That was two days ago: male on the upper branch, female below, only feet apart, and you can really see the difference. She's larger than most anyway, but this makes the size ratio clear.

Today is a mixed bag. We received some very, very good news yesterday, and the pressure is off for a while, hopefully, and we are grateful, if almost speechless. We'll be able to cover Wings's injection therapies on his knees and my own ketamine therapy protocol, even if I have to go the whole distance. That's not to say we won't have to be very careful, and we will still have to make sales consistently and use my Patreon income to cover regular bills, but the load off my mind is indescribable. Now, if I could just get the weight off my chest [lupus-induced pleurisy] . . . .

The only reason it's a mixed bag is because it's clear we're losing Little Bent Beak. [Today is already the anniversary, actually, of losing Cree five years ago (and it seems impossible that it's been half a decade already); Hunter's 13-year anniversary is two days from now.  Major's 8-year was back on the 3rd, and Coyote's 3-year was January 6th.] It appears that the attack by the dogs did some internal damage that even she didn't feel at first; if I had to guess, I'd say that muscle injury led to contracture, which led to vascular impairment that is impeding proper blood flow. She's not in pain; her body's simply shutting down little by little. Wings has set her in the sun so that she can be warm while she goes to sleep, and sleep is mostly what she's doing, although she's still with us for the moment. I doubt she'll make it through the day. She was, quite frankly, our favorite, because she overcame so much in her little life, including getting stomped by a sibling on her first day of life, which is what led to her nickname (her real name is Mica, but she's always been Bent Beak because her beak is, in fact, bent).

So we're already in mourning, and I'm trying desperately to get caught up on a bunch of the things I haven't been able to do this last week, having been so sick with this godforsaken lupus flare. I still am, but it's slowly easing a little each day now, so I'm trying my best to get things done.

Among that still needs to be sales, and that new heart bracelet may in fact be done late today. Links are here, and there's a lot of new work up, with more to come:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (priorities are first and foremost, the other ladder and the Bissell vac);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

We're still hoping to put aside enough for a new well when the ground thaws enough to drill in the spring, too, so now's always a good time to make a purchase. And there's lots of fabulous new work, so please share all of the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.