Great Kiskadee.

Thanks Marilyn for your story. Although I am not a rescuer, I had my bunch of racoon friends (worked nightshift, alone as a desk clerk) who visited the trash cans, ate my night snack and tried to enter the motel lobby daily. Righ now my backyard seems to be a haven for short-tailed critters. Stumpy, a squirrel with 1" tail comes daily for her peanuts, she showed up for the first time in 03. She also has only 2 claws on her right front paw. Bobby (bobtail) is a racoon who sits at the backdoor every morning and waits for the bowl of food and that I move the big saucers I use as birdbath in order to check if there are snails underneath and once in a while I see a possum which also has a short tail, about 6" long. My horde of squirrels all have names too and some of them sem to know theirs, Stumpy sure does. I really admire your work and am so sorry that Vernon did not make it.

Thank you! I saw another Plover (Masked Lapwing) in the zoo as well - looked quite cool with his yellow face. I didn't care much for zoos before - hated to see anything caged. But now with accelerated climate change and habitat loss, I look on zoos as a modern day Noah's Ark and a place where at least a handful of individuals get their basic needs taken care of...

Thank you all so much for the VERY good and VERY helpful advice! OK, the spectators are out. I'm pretty paranoid about my green turquoise jewelry and will probably either wear it just to the wedding and have DD hand carry it home again while DH & I head down to Cancun, or wear one of the others. I've been running errands in town - and cleaning for our house & dog sitter all day today, as we leave tomorrow to move DD up to grad school in Colorado Springs. First we need to pack up the big U-Haul truck, DD's car and our Sierra pick-up. Then it's a 5 1/2 hour drive up there. We'll move her in Friday night, all day Saturday, and head home Sunday. So, please forgive me if I don't reply back here again until Monday. I've read every suggestion and am definitely using them to pack for Austin & Cancun starting Monday, so I'll be back then. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. This is going to be a marathon moving event! Oh, and did I mention that her new apartment in on the 3rd (top) floor and there are no elevators? I may make my 10-pound weight loss after all (LOL)!