Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The Price of a Cute Photo

It seemed to be a good idea at the time.  It would make a cute photo, for sure.  I stuck our youngest rat, Jenny, into one of the birdhouses which we recently posted out in the yard, after it sat way too long (more than a year!!) on our kitchen counter.  (Ironically, last year's post talks about hoping to post the houses before the big company BBQ last July, and it is this year's BBQ (this coming weekend) which finally prompted them to be posted out.

After a long wait, I was able to get a wonderful photo of her (him?) poking her nose out the doorway of the bird house (click photo for a slightly larger view):
Cute birdhouse
Of course, it occurred to me only after she was in the house, that the rat with the darkest face was probably not the best choice for this photo.  This photo shows her face a bit better:
Adorable birdhouse
Well, getting a rat into a small cozy dark space is easy, but getting one out is a totally different story.  Good thing I was on a lunch break (I work from home on Fridays), and the weather was wonderful for being outside, but I didn't plan to spend half an hour on this photo.  But once Jenny got in there, she didn't want to  come out, even with my attempts to call her, entice her with food (which she bit and then retreated inside to chew), poke her with a stick (she thought that was fun, playing with the stick!).  Finally I had to stand some distance away, wait until she was curious enough to start coming out, and then snatch her up before she changed her mind and went back inside.

My immediate feeling was "I won't do that again!"  But soon I began wondering if I'd be better to try this with Sam, who would be too big to find the house so comfortable, and is better trained to come to my voice, or more easily enticed by an edible "treat"....  I may just get myself into trouble again, but sometimes that's the price of a cute photo!

Here are photos of the other bird houses, mostly set on the posts holding the supports for our 3 espaliered trees.  This one is not too colorful, since we bought it already painted.  We may eventually paint it more within our bright color scheme:
Bird house
This one is surrounded by the red currant bush which grows between the espaliered asian pear and espaliered european pear:
Brightly colored birdhouse 
The twin posts holding up my monstrous yellow perennial (I've forgotten if it's a Heliopsis or what) had a bird house from long ago, but it is now joined by a tiki bird feeder:
Birdhouse and bird feeder

4 comments:

  1. ...those first two photos are hysterical. Looks like the perfect high rise for your little rat! I had a rat when I was in college. He was super sweet.

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  2. Cute! Cute! Cute! The rat thought she had a wonderful new home-not sure the birds will like the new renter though.

    Your photo mosaics below are wonderful. I will have to refer back here so I can try out a mosaic. I've yet to make one. I like the idea of the face recognition by Picasa. I downloaed Picasa but really don't use it. That might have to change now. Thanks so much for the tips.

    P.S. Hope you get the rats figured out before they-uhem-multiply!

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  3. Kelly, meemsnyc & tina - Thanks for the encouragement. I'm glad you enjoyed the rat photo. I think it's cute too, and am still tempted to try it again with Sammy, who will likely be easier to get back out.

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