introducing Indigo

Oh boy... Okay, let me start at the beginning.  About a week and a half ago, just minutes after my arrival in Reno, a text and phone call came from a friend of mine down in Wilton, my former next-door-neighbor.  There was a rooster on her doorstep, and what on earth should she do about that.  And not just any little rooster, a big ole game rooster.  I suggested she either turn the hose on him and run him off, or wait and see if he'd leave on his own.  Goodness knows where he came from, he just kinda fell out of the sky.  I don't know anyone in that area who raises those particular birds.

So, by the time I got back from Reno, the rooster hadn't left, and she didn't want him hanging around.  I agreed to catch him, take him to an upcoming show, and sell him.

He greeted me by attacking my leg.  Oh great.

I brought him up to Oak Run with me to figure out what to do.  And in the last week I've gotten to know this very interesting bird.  He has pretty well endeared himself to me.  He's not the slightest bit aggressive, he's very calm and curious.  I think that first day when I, a total stranger, walked right up to him and made a grab at him, he freaked out.  This makes even more sense when you factor in that he's partially blind (iris-lens adhesion in his left eye).  So, given that I think he's rather cool, and that he's half blind, I can't sell him.  I'm just a pushover when it comes to animals (well, to an extent anyway)...

So I'm keeping him.  His name is Indigo.  "Indy" for short.  He's an Aseel, about six pounds, solid as a rock, a big meatball.  No doubt he came from a pretty rough life... a fighting bird, no doubt.  He's got some scars, and his blindness is likely the result of head trauma.  I can't send him back to that life.

I have to make a pen for him, which is the thing I'm least thrilled about because the show/breeding bird pens are still not done, and the last thing I need is to be spending time and money and this big brute instead of on them.  But there ya have it.  I'm scrounging scrap material and should be able to assemble something that doesn't break the bank, though it might not be too pretty.  At the moment he spends the day in the aviary that Olin normally gets to use (Olin stayed in Wilton this month, I'm gone too much and he doesn't like to be alone), and he's stuck in a crate at night because the aviary isn't very predator-proof.

Anyway, he's pretty cool!  I'll be taking him to a couple upcoming shows and putting him in the game fowl class.  I figure his presence somehow compensates for my peafowl having run off and left me, or at least that's some justification for keeping him.  But no more animals!  My whole goal here is to keep my animal flock as manageable as possible.  I don't have the time (or interest, for that matter) to be taking care of critters all day, and as much as I am on the road for one thing or another I don't want to leave any extra work for anyone else.  I'm sticking with one horse, a cat that goes where I go, and chickens that ought to be ridiculously low-maintenance once the coop is all done. :-)

Note, at the time of writing this, three of the pics are failing to load.  I'm utterly at a loss as to why that is, seems to be something wrong with my domain, so maybe by the time you read this all nine photos will be there.