About that birthday video

So. Remember the time it was my birthday and I promised to post a video of all the birds singing Happy Birthday?

Well…let’s just say that they all got camera-shy and clammed up and refused to sing. So I decided to give them another chance the following day, but again they suffered from performance anxiety.

It’s now four days later and they still won’t sing Happy Birthday. Meanwhile, I haven’t been blogging, at least partly because I promised a video and I haven’t been able to deliver. (Unless you count a video of Simon staring blankly at the camera while GC and I sing Happy Birthday in the background, and I’m sure none of us want that.)

I’m going to work with them some more on this, and hopefully we’ll have a half-decent birthday video for you in time for Simon’s birthday on January 3rd and Duncan’s birthday on January 4th.

My birthday was excellent, by the way. Best birthday ever. We went to the Fabric Flea Market, the Occupy Ottawa rally, the Ghost Bike Memorial, the Daily Grind Art Cafe, a new thrift shop on Merivale, and the new Humane Society facility.

It’s wonderful. Open and light and bright and roomy. The animals seem more comfortable and less stressed in their new quarters. They have lots of space. The cats have several little rooms with cat trees equipped with bowls they can sleep in. People can go in and play with them. There’s also a cat room with access to the outdoors. There’s another big cat room with a play structure and little hidey places for any cats who are feeling antisocial. There were four or five big cats hanging out in there. The dogs have nice little individual rooms with comfy beds and toys, and a fenced yard to romp in.

Something bugged me though. GC and I went into that big cat room with the big cats and sat on the floor to play with them. There was a boy in there as well. He was about twelve. He was playing with a cat. Suddenly he got mad and hit the cat with his jacket. The cat ran and hid in one of the hidey places.

I said something like “Hey, you little jerk, what the hell’s the matter with you?” only maybe I was slightly more polite than that.

GC asked him why he hit the cat and he said the cat tried to bite him. I told him that’s not a good reason, and he should never hit cats.

Then his mom came into the room and he told her that the cat tried to bite him.

“You didn’t hurt it, did you?” asked his mother, and the kid lied and said he didn’t. Right in front of us. Knowing that we knew.

Then they left to go hurt see the dogs.

I was telling one of my friends at work about this, and she was wondering if there was enough supervision at the shelter. The whole thing is designed so that all the animal rooms have lots of windows facing into corridors and lobbies. Nobody’s ever really alone with an animal. So I think there’s enough supervision. But somebody oughta be supervising that kid a little more closely.