Armadillo

This post is a bit off topic, but on Christmas Eve we spotted an armadillo. We were driving to a dinner when we saw something scrambling around on the road. At first I thought it was a rat, but as we got closer we saw it was a young armadillo. We pulled over and took some pictures. It was not too happy with us approaching and took off into the brush. It was surprizingly fast and able to jump. I heard that they can't bite, so I touched its back. It was as hard as the shell of my tortoise. The armadillo was quite small (the size of a large rat). Here are the pictures:

On the road


Leaving


Escaping into the brush

Manzi not liking James

Here is an email I got from James (by the way, it seems Manzi likes Aida like he liked me, and dislikes James as much as he disliked Cesar):

Manzi is alive

He has found a particular sound pitch that is quite painful to hear (for me, Aida says it doesn't hurt her ears), and he now delights in making it at frequent intervals.

Every morning he climbs on his bowl that he gets his fiesta in and throws a little tantrum asking for more (even if he hasn't finished what he was given the night before . . . so I am guessing that there is some particular seeds he likes better than others (the sunflowers are one I think)).

Whenever he is home with me and Aida is gone he gets a little crazy . . .

If it is just an hour or so he mainly just swears, and makes a lot of noise.

On the day before thanksgiving he went really nuts. Aida was gone the whole day. When I came home he was loud (as usual). And he was acting like he was upset at being left without human interaction for a day. I know that Aida lets him out of the cage so I thought that might be part of his agitation. I gave him a big helping of fiesta, and he was still acting a bit crazy. I opened his cage, and to my suprise he actually flew at my face squacking. His flight path was interupted, and after a very short recovery he did it again. After 5 times of this I had enough, and had to grab him with some gloves and put him back in the cage. He squacked for about 5 minutes straight, and then went on his top perch and was quiet. I covered him up for the night early. The next day I still gave him lots of fiesta and treats in his bowl (as it was thanksgiving after all).

Manzi getting comfy

My friend, Aida, who is taking care of Manzi gave me an update. She said that this past month Manzi has began imitating the phrases he hears the family use. He calls their son's name, "Gabriel" and also says the following: "Okay, lets go", "Manzi, no!"(in James' voice) and "one, one, one." Aida thinks the "one, one, one" is Manzi trying to count, but Manzi already knows how to count to three so I am not sure what it is.

Manzi will be with them for December and then my husband is returning and will take care of him until I get back in January. I am counting down the days.

Owls

This post is a bit off topic. I was on a walk yesterday (here in Brasilia, Brazil) and I saw a cute family of owls. They consisted of two parents and two babies. The top two are the baby owls and the bottom is one of the parents. The other parent was perched up above. The babies were running around on the ground (trying to keep up with the parent) and when they would trip, they spread their wings and I could see they still had quite a bit of fluff.

On the other side of the road was another pair of owls. One was perched on the fence and the other was camouflaged in the dirt (I didn't zoom in to show how they camouflage quite well). Both were angry with me taking pictures and were bobbing their heads (like Manzi does to threaten people) and screaming. Finally, one began diving at me and I decided it was time to go. The owls are tiny little things. I think they are burrowing owls like what we have in Davis, CA.

I've hit the Jackpot

So the past two days because of the elections race (especially Proposition 8 in Ca) and other stuff, I've been watching kids for various friends. ALL the kids that came over LOVED Manzi. They ALL wanted to feed him a treat and hear him talk. Manzi seemed to be loving the attention and was not acting aggressive or overwhelmed with all the children- so I let them feed him his favorite treat. Almonds! Thus, in the last 48 hours I think Manzi has had about 20 almonds! (Keep in mind I only give him two a day at the most.) I think that Manzi caught on really quick that having kids come to visit is a really good thing. He even opened up and started saying "hello." The kids thought that was the best!

Some of Manzi's visitors.

Kids trying to get Manzi to say hello.

(The boy in the black shirt stood in front of Manzi's cage for almost an hour trying to get Manzi to keep saying hello.)

Gabriel loves to give Manzi treats.

Manzi taking a treat from one of the little visitors.
(BTW- that's dye not blood on her hands.)

Manzi enjoying his favorite treat.