June 25, 2025 • 36 mins
We celebrate a milestone of 200,000 Instagram followers, reflecting on how their platform has grown from a "ghost town" into a thriving community where cute dogs help deliver science education.
• The hosts share updates about their dogs, including Bunsen's recovery progress
• Jason shares exciting wildlife footage captured on their trail cam, featuring a great horned owl
• Community member Holly recounts the story of her cat Toby escaping through an unlatched door
• Paula shares her experience rescuing a robin fledgling and connecting with a wildlife rehabilitator
•Kris tells the story of rescuing a great horned owl that was later rehabilitated and released
• The hosts and community members discuss the importance of proper wildlife rescue protocols
• Bunsen and Ginger's "Operation Beauty and the Beast" team-up to raid the cat food
Join us next Saturday for another episode of Pet Chat, and Paw Pack members can catch us tomorrow for our special community chat.
Our links:
Our Website! www.bunsenbernerbmd.com
Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter!
Bunsen and Beaker on Twitter:
Bunsen and Beaker on TikTok
For Science, Empathy, and Cuteness!
Being Kind is a Superpower.
https://twitter.com/bunsenbernerbmd
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go.
Hello pet enthusiasts, Welcometo Pet Chat.
My name is Jason Zukoski.
I'm the dog dad of Bunsen,Beaker and Bernoulli, the
science dogs of social media,and my co-hostess with the most
(00:20):
is.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi there, it's Chris Zukoski here, coming in from the
basement and watching our dogson the live cam and beaker is
barking at bernoulli yes oh butI am the dog mom to bunsen,
beaker and bernoulli and the catmom to ginger yeah, welcome to
pet chat everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So hello, and if you're tuning in from, if you've
never watched Pet Chat beforeor listened to it, it's a live
show where we wrap up, we'redoing a rundown of the week and
then at the end we invite peoplefrom our community to come up
to talk about their pets, ifthey'd like.
So, yeah, I'll start with mystory and it's just related to
everything that we do and it wasa huge milestone on Instagram
(01:04):
and we've zoomed past 200,000followers on Instagram, which is
really exciting, and I waswatching it Friday because it
was ticking up there and I don'tknow if it was a goal, but it
is a number that's huge andshocking and we don't take
lightly how many people followus.
So I did make a post about that, saying thank you to everybody
(01:28):
who was starting to follow us onInstagram, because I didn't
really try at Instagram a yearand a bit ago, like in last year
January.
It was a ghost town for us onthat platform.
Yeah, it was.
It's a big, exciting thing toreach and I think we'll only
continue to get bigger andthat's good because then our
(01:50):
science message reaches morepeople and that's the goal is,
we get you in with the cuteness,and then people learn some
science along the way.
Okay, chris, over to you.
Do you have a?
Do you have a story of the week?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We went for a really nice walk with the dogs today
and Bunsen was wanting to playwith Bernoulli, like he was a
spring chicken, he was superyoung.
And speaking of the chickens, Isent you a text saying the
chickens are out in full force.
Be careful.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I put that on Twitter, people thought it was
Canada geese.
They're like are they worriedabout the canada geese because
they're cobra chickens?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
yeah, no, no.
So today was a really great day.
The dogs got to play and intheir walk and you got some real
cool footage on the trail cam.
Have you shared it on socialmedia?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
no, I haven't.
I think I was a dummy and Ididn't.
I think I can share here.
I can show everybody on livewhat it looks like.
Right now I'm stuttering, but Ithink I accidentally put the
same chip in the same camera, sowe were only we only had one.
So it's a window in there.
(03:00):
So I think I can share thislive and it should just take
over the whole screen.
Do you see that, chris?
Do you see the camera footage?
I do yeah, so I think I canshare this live and it should
just take over the whole screen.
Do you see that, chris?
Do you see the camera footage?
I do yeah, so it's really cool.
There's a great horn owl on theleft-hand side there that just
came down for a little drink.
I love how they walk.
They're so awkward.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So cute.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
They're not.
Is it herky jerky?
I don't know how smooth it is.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
No, it's pretty smooth, pretty smooth.
Yeah, oh man, I love owls somuch they're so cool.
They're neat birds.
Yeah, so that was cool footageto find.
Yeah, on the trail cam.
Yeah, no news of norbert, ofcourse, and that always makes us
sad.
We wish we had more informationto share about our former
resident beaver.
Yeah, but no, bunsen did greaton the walk.
I know a lot of our fans arealways wondering how he's doing
with his rest and recuperation.
Yep, he's been doing greatevery day he's doing great.
(03:57):
We just love him to bits.
He's not sliding around on thefloor anymore, as he was doing
previously, and yeah, so today Iwent over to the farmhouse to
spend a little bit of time withRaffy and Ellie and the farm
cats and docky dock, that's mystepdad's miniature schnauzer,
(04:17):
but the farm cats were supercute, like they're cuddling in a
basket and then they're sofriendly.
And then Raffi was watchingsome of our content.
I showed him.
I showed him a fun facts withbernoulli, and so it was the one
about the sunscreen, actually,or no?
I, yeah, the misfits, the newly, yeah, and I shared that one
with him and he's like how arethey talking?
(04:40):
Where are those voices coming?
Whose voice is that?
Rafi was asking.
It was super cute, and so heloved watching the videos.
And then I showed him some ofthe AI podcast ones that Jason
did, and he liked those too.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So yeah, it's pretty engaging when we put voices to
the dogs because it's Pixarright Either.
I think he was more engagedwith the real dog.
So that says something abouteven those ai fun clips that
some people don't like, that weuse the ai and some people love
the clips because they're funny,but it was interesting to see
that a human child like the onewith the real dogs better yeah,
(05:21):
in fact he said I just got tothinking maybe we can go to your
house he and bernoulli have areally cool relationship.
Yeah, because bernoulli was apuppy, puppy and then raffi was
over here a bunch.
So bernoulli just loves raffiso much and then they roar
around and they get into troubletogether because they get
rambunctious yeah, I feel a lotbetter now that rappy's five and
(05:45):
a little bigger and because,yeah, bernoulli was quite
unpredictable and a puppy andthose floors that we have are
really unforgiving if you fallon them.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Oh yeah, the tile, yes yeah, it's like so I always.
I'm always cautious, it'salways fun to run.
Until everyone in my familyJason calls it the Schwien gene.
My maiden name is Schwien andwe're just so klutzy and I have
it and my niece has it and mygreat niece has it.
(06:18):
Raffi's not as bad, but he'shad some good tumbles.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, it's more prevalent on the female side.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, maybe it runs on the X chromosome yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Aside from that, Chris and I were so busy the
last two weeks with school andwe are done.
We wrapped school and it's beena huge breath.
We're just putting in timehelping kids get ready for their
tests, so we're not teachingthat takes a huge load off a
person.
Without having to prep and mark, we're just like meeting kids
(06:54):
and doing review with them.
And my kids write Monday thechem tests, See and my kids with
their math.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They wrote it on the first day.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Like the very first exam day, so any review we did
in class and then there wasn'tany extra sessions because it
was like the very next day.
But on the day I was in thegathering area and kids were
asking questions, so I helpedthem out and I said you got this
.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Should we move to community sharing?
Anything else you want tomention, Chris?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I would love to move to community sharing.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, yeah, so we'll answer some more questions
because some have come in forsure.
Okay, so we'll go to a couplespeakers first and then we'll
answer some questions and stuffon live.
So this is going to come fromTwitter.
Chris, I see you've brought upHolly.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, sasha, the Bruno Bernadudo is also known as
Holly, and I'm super excitedabout some of the tips that you
gave us for our trip.
And yes, to confirm, I'll justnot confirm our dates on live,
but I'll it's not a secret whenwe're going but I don't want
(08:07):
everybody to be like, oh, thezakoskis are not in their house,
let's go to their house.
So yeah, we'll just keep thatthrough, but through text.
But we're going to holly's,next to the neck of the woods.
I'm going to meet sasha theburner doodle yeah yes, indeed.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So yeah, just text me back, just because I over plan
everything and that's how I keepmy life organized.
I'm one of those peopleSpontaneity does not work well
for me.
But anyway, I just wanted tosay we had a very entertaining
week here in the Sasha and Tobyhousehold.
Started off Monday with Sasha'sseventh birthday and I cannot
(08:47):
believe she's seven already.
Like, how has it been sevenyears?
I don't get it.
But it was a great day for herbecause Monday is one of her
hiking days.
So she was with her pack onSasha Mountain and her dog
walker keeps a whole stash ofbirthday hats and puts them on
the dogs and gets a grouppicture and it is so cute.
(09:10):
I posted it on Sasha's blue sky.
But yes, there's a birthdayphoto of her and she just looks
very happy, and so that wassweet.
Thursday Toby nearly gave myhusband and I a heart attack.
Oh no, I'm actually glad Iwasn't home.
So this was entirely myhusband's fault.
So Chris will understand.
(09:31):
Chris, yeah, it was a nice.
My husband works from home.
It was a nice day.
He had lunch on our back patio.
He came in and thought he shutthe door, but it didn't latch.
He went back up to his homeoffice to work and came down
about an hour later and realizedthe door was wide open and Toby
(09:53):
was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Oh no.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So yeah, so just to give you an idea of the layout,
we live in a row of threetownhouses and we're on an end
and behind us there's a reallysteep hill that goes down.
It has lots of trees andshrubbery and everything.
So Colin did a couple lapsaround the townhouses, figured
he probably had gone somewheredown the hill.
(10:19):
So he went and got a can of catfood and went and sat on the
patio to see if he'd come back,which thank God he did.
He smelled the cat food andcame running and then Colin
managed to coax him back in thehouse and shut and lock the door
and that cat spent the entirerest of the evening meowing to
(10:41):
get out and just being ahumongous brat.
It was like he got out andrealized he liked it yeah and
I'd been really worriedsomething like this could happen
, because he was a stray when weadopted him, so he's lived
outside before, yeah, so it'sjust like we're having to be so
careful now going in and outeither the front door or if we
(11:04):
open the back door.
I started googling gps trackersfor cats yes, you can get them I
found an interesting articlethat was doing reviews of gps
trackers for cats and it'sbasically, if this is your
situation, we recommend this.
It got down to you have anindoor cat and the
recommendation was just to putan air tag on his collar that
makes sense, yeah and becausewe're an apple family, yeah, and
(11:28):
then that way it make, becauseyou can make it ping, and then
it's okay, we know where the catis if he gets a cat by ping
exactly that's fun now we'redebating if we want to break our
condos rules and get afreestanding catio, because you
can't see our patio from theroad because of there's a bunch
(11:50):
of trees and everything.
So we don't think anybody wouldnotice if we got him a catio and
we.
There's a company locally thatmakes custom catios, so we
highly recommend that gingerloves her catio.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
She loves it, yes, and then it's a way for her to
be outside and be safe.
Yes, but we have the same issuewith the door.
She lurks like a little ghouland she can get in and out so
quickly and sometimes she runsaway very far and then sometimes
she's oh, this is grass.
I'm going to stay close to homeand it's just, you never know
(12:27):
what you're going to get.
It's like a life of the box ofchocolates.
Is the cat going to run or isshe just going to smell the
roses?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
exactly and and just because, with all the wood, the,
it's not even woods behind us,it's just that the property
behind us has not been developed.
So there's, which for ourneighborhood is shocking, but
yes, there is one undevelopedparcel behind us and it's.
I worry, because we havewildlife and I don't want him
killing birds, and there are somany reasons I've never let my
(12:57):
cats outside, especially becauseeveryone I've known with an
outdoor cat, their cat has woundup being killed by wildlife.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Where you live and where we live.
Yeah, they don't last long andif they do, they're very lucky.
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Yeah, exactly, and it's just no.
No Cats live indoors in ourhousehold.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So that was our excitement for the week.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
I'm glad it had a good ending.
Yeah, so I had Sasha with me atwork and Colin had texted me
and was like, if he's not backby the time you get home, let's
take Sasha and walk theperimeter and see if he comes to
her, because he's so bonded toher.
Yeah, so anyway, I am lookingforward to seeing you guys.
This is very exciting.
(13:44):
We've been having really nicesummer weather here.
Chris will be happy.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
yes, I'm looking forward to nice weather yes, all
right.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I will go and mute myself now, because I could
just talk to you guys all nightthank you for coming and sharing
, holly, and yet we're excitedto see you again and, of course,
sasha.
We haven't met sasha yet umyeah, or what, or toto.
Toby the cat, yes, you bet realquick.
We'll answer this again.
Nancy asked on Facebook how oldGinger is and Chris answered
(14:20):
that we think about four,because she's a rescue.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, we rescued her and, like with dogs, you can
tell by the age of their teeth,but cats not so much.
That's what the vets told me,because they just pop in those
teeth that are terrifyinglysharp.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, so we figure she's about four.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, Pat on Instagram is asking when our
last day of work is.
My last day is Wednesday and Ithink you go right to the bitter
end until Friday.
Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, we have grad as our last day.
We go on the teacherorganizational day.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, I did some science shows for the division
so I don't get paid extra forthose.
I love doing them.
One of the perks is I get acouple personal days, but I can
only take them at the end of theschool year.
So I don't cost the divisionmoney with sub fees, which makes
sense.
But I think it's a good.
(15:15):
It's a good little kickback fordoing those science shows early
in the year for the division.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
All right, we'll go to paula hi paula, hi everybody,
hi, how's everybody doing?
hello, hello we're good, how areyou?
Oh, I'm hanging in there doinga little better, but still
hanging okay, but anyway, butyeah, it's been a long road but
anyway, exciting day I had.
It was weird we were we've had14 weeks of straight weekend
(15:45):
raining weather and this waslike finally getting a good
weekend and it was like 90 andimmunity is like awful.
But my poor husband wasstaining our deck because it has
to be done every year, and Iwas out in the back just trying
to put some flowers and waterbecause just doing something
without dying of heat exhaustion.
And I look and I see a littlerobin fledgling underneath my
(16:08):
anirondack chair and he's notmoving but he's got his collar
hanging sideways, which didn'tlook like a listing boat, and I
was like, oh, and I tried togive him a little bit of water.
You got to be careful when yougive babies water, but he's a
fledgling.
You got to just do the tip ofhis beak because they have those
two little nostrils and youdon't want to get that involved.
But I did call an Audubonsociety and they said take a
(16:28):
dipped Q-tip.
And he saw that sucker comingand he just grabbed the whole
Q-tip like the whole end, andI'm like, oh my gosh, you know
I'm going to get this and I go,let's go.
It's like I was thinking hecould understand me, but anyway.
So he did drink a little bitbut he just didn't look good and
then we left him alone and thenext thing, you know, he's
(16:50):
rolling on the patio in thebright sun and I'm like an
Audubon place.
Then I asked them if they knewanybody that had rehab people
and they give you a list in yourstate from the US usually if
you can call somebody, and I didleave a couple of numbers, but
people were some people don'ttake birds, some people don't
take.
It depends on the bird.
They'll take songbirds, there'sall this take songbirds,
(17:13):
they'll do raptors, they'll doturtles, do all kinds of stuff.
So it's always good to checkand this is a law which I didn't
know.
I learned a lot today that youcannot bring birds across your
state border, so if I'm inConnecticut I can't bring one.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
There's the disease they have they don't want that
to transfer.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Exactly.
And so it was a little touchand go.
And then finally I got a holdof one lady.
She's very nice and her name isJanie and she comes from
Plainville or Moosup it soundsfunny but it's M-O-O-S-U-P.
Moosup, connecticut, and sheactually has a rehab place and
I'll get to that in a minute.
So she said go to youremergency vet, which is my vet,
(17:51):
so he's open 24 hours.
So she said just go.
So I went unannounced with mylittle box and we scooped him up
and we took and the parentswere nuts and I said listen, I
just want to make sure he didn'tbreak a wing and if he did, if
he wasn't repairable, at leastthey could have mainly put him
down, because I don't want thispoor little guy to suffer.
So they took him in and theysaid they got swamped.
They had a puppy come in thatwas a golden, you would have
(18:13):
loved it.
Her name was Mitzi.
And then they or she was socute, and then they had another
Ridgeback that had jumped out ofa window, so they had to attend
him.
So I was sitting there for anhour With a little bird, with
this little bird, but they didtake them back, because when you
bring in wildlife they can'trefuse.
But thing with our my vet was,over the years they had
(18:35):
eventually refused because theydidn't have any wildlife people
on board, like 20 vets.
But yeah, they just it justkind of weaned out and it got
too like overwhelming, if thatmakes sense, because people
would find stuff.
But thank god they have peoplethat are on these lists because
the Audubon has certain people.
They have a website link foryour state.
You put in your zip code.
(18:56):
It's called like wildlife.
I have.
It was like some like allwildlife thing dot org and you
can put like stuff in and itcomes up.
It's crazy stuff.
But anyway, long story short,they didn't do an X-ray but they
did a feely mealy on the guyand they saw some scrapes on his
leg and wing and they said no,he's going to probably be.
They weren't sure if it wasanything broken like a pelvis.
But he doesn't sit up.
(19:17):
He doesn't sit.
So either he fell out of thenest but he can't.
His one leg just doesn't wantto perch.
So I called back.
They said you could either puthim down or bring him to this
other lady.
It was like what do you do?
It's like you're between a rockand a hard place.
So I said, okay, I'm going tobring them back.
So I brought them back home andI called this lady and she was
(19:38):
really nice and she said mush upsome blueberries, because
robins eat blueberries.
So we mushed up someblueberries and, sure enough,
the little guy gobbled some andthe parents were going nuts.
So we left them in the box inthe shade and we could look out
the window because he was in asafe place, and we put him in a
big Costco box.
But he came.
The parents were funny becausethey didn't want to go in the
(19:59):
box, but next thing, you know,they're going in there feeding
them.
This lady was so nice.
She said she's an hour from me.
So she said it worse came toworse and the parents, even
though he was still OK but hewasn't sitting up, she would
take him.
(20:19):
So the vet actually gave himenough water that he perked up.
So he did go from, I think,being a little bit dehydrated to
rehydrated and the parents fedhim because I watched them.
They were bringing him wormsand so she said she would take
him.
So we might be going toMoosehook tomorrow.
But my other story is I wastelling her about you and your
show and I said how great youguys were at Pet Chat and she
said she was on Facebook.
So I'm hoping she will belistening and I will put it in
(20:42):
the chat too.
But her name of her place isSpicy S-P-I-C-Y, like spicy paws
wildlife rehab in Plainville,connecticut, and this lady does
everything.
She does not everything.
She does squirrels fawns she'sgot eight fawns.
I'm going to put this picturein the chat.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
She sounds like somebody we should have as a
guest to talk about some of herstories.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Oh, I bet she would.
It's great.
I mean, she has so many nicethings and stories and what I'm
trying to get to here becauseI'm trying to talk and type at
the same time.
She has a wish list on Amazonso she wants kibble for like
deer, diapers for deer, becauseshe found she just got a rehab
(21:27):
deer because somebody, I guess,hit it and it was stunned in the
road and it came to the vet andit went to her house and she
has four of them and I copiedone of her Facebook page and you
should see this thing.
He's adorable.
She's got six of them in thephoto If anybody would like.
I know we have a lot going onwith a lot of Twitter stuff, but
if anybody would love to giveto this court lady and her fund
(21:50):
for a wishlist, because she doeshave some really nice things on
there and she is in need, she'sjust non-profit.
She's almost telling her aboutthe herd and she was like, oh my
god, she says that's great.
If anybody could help her outin any way, that would be great,
but it was, it was quite of.
Uh, he's now in pixie's crateand he's sitting overnight in
the box in there because I don'twant anything to get him, so
(22:12):
he's going to spend the night inmy house.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
We hope.
Best wishes for the little bird.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I hope so Because, like I said, I don't know what's
going to happen, but if it'ssomething where he'll never be
able to perch up, at least maybehe could have a good life with
somebody hand feeding anddrinking them.
You know what I mean?
Like just taking good care ofhim until I couldn't say goodbye
to him, because I didn't feelit was I should let mother
nature do it.
Yeah, but at the same time Ididn't want him to suffer.
(22:38):
if he was suffering, I wouldhave asked him, had him put down
and it's nice, when you bringin wildlife, that you're not
responsible for that, so youdon't have to pay out of your
pocket.
They help you out a little bit.
But that was my big day, and soTrixie got little.
She couldn't believe what wasgoing on because she kept going
outside to check on this birdand she was at the window like
what's that?
But anyway, but thank you foreverything.
(23:00):
Congratulations on making 200Kon Instagram.
I'm so proud of you, jason andChris.
You guys have worked so hardwith your content and it's so
well deserved, and you've gotthe biggest cheerleader and I'm
so envious of Holly getting tosee you guys and I did get my
passport, so you know, next timeauntie Paula is going to do
Bunsen, so I'll be up there.
(23:21):
You just say when and I'll bethere.
I mean it too, because I lovethat guy.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So thanks, paula.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Have a good week everybody.
We've just been thinking of youwith your ailment and just want
you to get better, and it'sbeen a long road, like you said.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah, it's been almost going on 14 weeks.
I still got the pain but it'svery slowly going away.
But I took myself off of thebig heavy pain meds I'm not
taking those things, I value mykidneys off of the big heavy
pain meds.
I'm not taking those things, Ivalue my kidneys.
So I'm like on Advil, which Ican almost tolerate and be on it
like for the day without beingtoo bad.
(24:01):
But hot, humid weather does notagree with my body right now.
So it is painful but and I'mgoing to occupational therapy
for my hand.
So I'm hoping that will comeback too.
But it's very slow progress butI'm just got the faith that
I've got good friends like youguys and everybody that was
behind me.
Thank you so much andcongratulations to Marla too.
I am so tickled pink for herand Chesney getting that house.
(24:24):
I wish I won a lot of it.
I'd buy her one because thatwould be my first thing to do.
But anyway, I'm just so gladthat that's in the works.
See, dreams do come true.
So, yeah, so that's always.
Keep the faith and thank youeverybody and I'll shut up now.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, take care of Paula.
You rescued many years ago anowl, chris right, you took it in
the van to.
Did you drive to medicine riverwildlife?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
No, they met us at the County fire hall yeah so the
I just okay, this is dumb, thisis not recommended.
We saw something on the side ofthe road and I said I think
that's an owl, and so we turnedaround.
It was my stepdad and I and hewas driving and I got out of the
car and I just scooped it upand was holding on to it.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It was a great horned owl.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
It was the giant horned owl and it was a juvenile
, thank God.
Because, like, why would you dothat?
Why would you just grabwildlife off the side of the
road?
So this is a PSA, don't do that.
And his little talon went.
So I wear a ring on this thumband it just grabbed and it was
like holding tight.
So I'm glad I had the ringbecause it was holding my thumb
(25:40):
so tight and it's like doinglike the cluck cluck with its
beak.
I'm like, oh, you're such acute owl.
And then I was petting the owl.
I'm like, oh, just, and so heobviously was injured.
I'm like, oh, and so heobviously was injured.
Yeah, and then the MedicineRiver Wildlife came and I gave
them the owl in a box.
(26:00):
She didn't scold me that, hey,maybe, maybe you shouldn't have
grabbed this owl.
Anyway, then they rehabilitatedhim and then they brought him
back and then we released him.
My son and I, our son Duncan,and I released him and he went
back where we found him.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That's very cute.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, very cute.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, all right, I'm just checking Instagram and live
for any other questions andthere isn't.
So the next speaker Wednesdayand Thursday of next week.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
They're a couple of hours south of me, so I won't be
freezing things off untilmidweek, but I've had to have my
(27:03):
heater on cranked up to 25degrees a couple of times a day
to keep me from freezing.
But I just wanted to tell Hollyabout the one time that my
first cat in Sydney I justwanted to tell Holly about the
one time that my first cat inSydney ran away when I took her
outside.
Violet came to live with me andmy sister in 2010.
We were living in the townhouse, so there were two rows of
(27:27):
townhouses and my townhouse wasin the front, near the street,
and behind it was like a pathwayand a second set of townhouses.
I'd taken Violet out to justwalk in the trees and get some
fresh air in our little frontgarden and a motorbike went by
and the rider revved his engineto get up the hill and Violet
clawed into me.
I was holding her at that timebecause I was talking to the
(27:47):
neighbours.
Clawed into me.
I was holding her at that timebecause I was talking to the
neighbours.
She clawed into me and leaptout of my arms and ran behind my
townhouse and here I wasrunning to try and catch her
before she got over the fencethat I couldn't get into Didn't
catch her.
So luckily she got in to thesecured area behind my townhouse
.
Except she got into the securedarea behind my townhouse,
(28:10):
except she got into theneighbour's back courtyard.
So I had to climb over asix-foot wall to get her out of
the neighbour.
She recognised that it was theback of our house, but she
didn't recognise which was ourcourtyard, so she jumped into.
(28:32):
She leapt up over this six-footwall to get into the safety of
our courtyard, except she jumpedin the wrong one.
The neighbours weren't home, soI had to climb over the wall
between our courtyards.
And then it was.
And then I couldn't figure outhow to get back into my
courtyard because I'd forgottento open my back gate.
It was just a drama.
But Violet eventually got homeand she never went out.
(28:56):
She never wanted to go outsideagain after that.
She just hated the sound ofbikes.
And then Charlie came along ayear later.
He hated the sound of bikes, sothey were never allowed out in
the front again.
They would only ever go out inthe back.
But luckily or unluckily, wewere renting that place and the
(29:18):
landlord's real estate agent Idon't know you, you've heard
about, problem real estateagents in rentals didn't
couldn't find the approval thatwe had to get for Violet and
Charlie to come live with us,and so they said to us oh, we're
evicting the cats.
You guys can stay, but we'reevicting the cats.
And we said, okay, thank youvery much.
(29:39):
If the cats are going, so arewe.
So I think we've been playingfor 10 years.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
So we promptly moved house two weeks after that with
Violet and Charlie into anapartment, and I never went out
on the balcony because it was athird-floor apartment.
I was too scared to let themout.
So that was our escape storyfor Violet.
Luckily she recognized how toget home.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Go ahead, Susan.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yep, Hi Susan hey.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Hey guys, I joined late.
I was wondering if paula couldpost maybe you did in the chat,
but on your main twitter pagethe rescue that you're using to
rescue the little bird, becauseI'm invested in that right now
chris has it up in the nest too.
Susan on twitter okay, great,that's just.
(30:36):
It's such a great story and Ihope that the little person
makes it.
We do too, and that's all Ihave to say and also glad that
you're done with school.
I was done on Wednesday, sogood for you guys.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Thanks, susan.
Big difference between teachingand doing review.
And then of course we're highschool teachers, so we have exam
break, so the kids are writingexams but there's no curriculum
to instruct.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Holly's story reminded me of this.
This, where, in the middle ofthe night, the pantry door was
open.
Oh yeah, I don't know if gingerwent bloop and then pulls latch
down, or if jason got up for amidnight snack or if adam got up
for a midnight snack, but thepantry was not closed.
The pantry was not, and thisstory made it to text from
(31:30):
Bunsen, because we woke up inthe morning and on the floor in
the pantry was ginger.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
No, not in the pantry , like in the living room.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Oh, in the living room.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So if the bag was in the pantry, and then Jason found
it on the floor in the livingroom of her food, and so Ginger,
like I was talking about hervery sharp teeth, she can chew
on the side of her bag and shehas done that before.
But there was this big gapinghole in her cat food bag and
(32:05):
like the Ikea closer was stillup at the top.
It's clothespins, but it it'snot.
It's like a clip and that'swhat I used to close the bag.
And then there's this bigcomical hole that obviously a
dog's mouth has made bigger andall the food was gone out of her
bag.
And we're like which dog was it?
The only dog we know who itwasn't is bernou, because he's
(32:27):
crated at night, so he was notinvolved in the shenanigans.
But by the size of Bunsen'snumber two, later we figured it
was him and Ginger who got intothe food.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
They work together as a team.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
They work together as a team.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
So Operation, beauty and the Beast.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, that was definitely easy to write a joke
from, Paula.
You have your hand up.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, I have to say one more thing.
I did put the link on myaccount page too.
And, chris, I got a good storyfor you.
I'll tell it really quick.
When I was probably in my early20s, I was driving with my mom
in February and we were going onthe highway and we're going up
the ramp and I see this littlebird trying to take off and it
had a really hard winter and hewas running slapped on the ice
(33:17):
and he kept doing it.
I said to my mom I'm going tosave it.
So we ran, we drove all the wayaround the whole block again,
went back up the ramp.
I was in thigh-high snow in anembankment on the side of the
highway grabbing a grebe and Igot him with one shot with a
coat and put it over him and hecame up and he got my lip.
But, long story short, he hadlost all his oils in his
(33:41):
feathers and at the time we didhave a rehab birdist on the vet
that I used to go to and sherehabilitated him and she put
him out in the ocean becausethat was the only water that
wasn't frozen, because we hadsuch a hard winter in
Connecticut and because he wastrying to take off and he
couldn't do it and we rescuedhim.
So I know what you feel and Iwas using my mom's white snow
(34:03):
coat and she was putting a birdin my white snow coat but he
didn't go, thank God.
But it was funny.
But I can almost relate withyour talons on your owl because
this little guy was.
He was pretty feisty, but Ithink he was happy that I did
save him because he wouldn'thave made it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yeah, we were very glad to save the owl as well.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Before Bunsen, when we had Callan, I would take her
for adventures too, just likethe three dogs.
Now Callan was the golden wehad before all this, and we I
was walking down through thecreek and she spooked fawn out
from its hiding hole and it wasroaring around and Callan was
happily chasing it and it itleapt into my arms, this little
(34:49):
deer, and I scooped it up and Iwas like what am I going to do
with this fawn?
And I was like do I cart it allthe way back home?
And I was like nope, I just putit back where I thought it
sprung out of the bushes and putCallan on the leash.
And then we left it there andit wasn't there and Callan
looked for it for weeks after.
She was looking for the littlefawn, but it was obviously just
(35:13):
hiding.
That's what they do, right?
They're very quiet and they'revery still and they don't have a
lot of smell.
Apparently that's what I readafter that.
So that's how they hide butCallan found it yeah, callan was
like, hey, let's play run.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And you thought that.
You thought, oh man, the isgoing to have a heart attack.
Something, because it wasrunning and then you just leapt
in your arms and then Callancame right beside you going what
do you have?
What do you have?
Let me play with the fawn.
And you're like, no, I'm goingto click you up and put the fawn
back down.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Anything else, Chris.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, thank you everybody for coming and
spending your Saturday eveningor early morning, sunday or
whatever time it is for you andsharing with us, and we love
hearing your stories and we lovesharing our stories and we
really appreciate just thiscommunity together and I think
we pull for each other.
It's just amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
That's right.
All right, so we'll say goodbyeand we'll see everybody next
Saturday.
And, of course, the folks whoare part of the Paw Pack.
All right, so we'll say goodbyeand we'll see everybody next
Saturday.
And, of course, the folks whoare part of the Paw Pack.
That's our Patreon-likecommunity.
We will talk tomorrow on thePaw Pack chat.
Okay, take care everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Thanks everybody.
Go.
Hello pet enthusiasts, Welcometo Pet Chat.
My name is Jason Zukoski.
I'm the dog dad of Bunsen,Beaker and Bernoulli, the
science dogs of social media,and my co-hostess with the most
(00:20):
is.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hi there, it's Chris Zukoski here, coming in from the
basement and watching our dogson the live cam and beaker is
barking at bernoulli yes oh butI am the dog mom to bunsen,
beaker and bernoulli and the catmom to ginger yeah, welcome to
pet chat everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
So hello, and if you're tuning in from, if you've
never watched Pet Chat beforeor listened to it, it's a live
show where we wrap up, we'redoing a rundown of the week and
then at the end we invite peoplefrom our community to come up
to talk about their pets, ifthey'd like.
So, yeah, I'll start with mystory and it's just related to
everything that we do and it wasa huge milestone on Instagram
(01:04):
and we've zoomed past 200,000followers on Instagram, which is
really exciting, and I waswatching it Friday because it
was ticking up there and I don'tknow if it was a goal, but it
is a number that's huge andshocking and we don't take
lightly how many people followus.
So I did make a post about that, saying thank you to everybody
(01:28):
who was starting to follow us onInstagram, because I didn't
really try at Instagram a yearand a bit ago, like in last year
January.
It was a ghost town for us onthat platform.
Yeah, it was.
It's a big, exciting thing toreach and I think we'll only
continue to get bigger andthat's good because then our
(01:50):
science message reaches morepeople and that's the goal is,
we get you in with the cuteness,and then people learn some
science along the way.
Okay, chris, over to you.
Do you have a?
Do you have a story of the week?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We went for a really nice walk with the dogs today
and Bunsen was wanting to playwith Bernoulli, like he was a
spring chicken, he was superyoung.
And speaking of the chickens, Isent you a text saying the
chickens are out in full force.
Be careful.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I put that on Twitter, people thought it was
Canada geese.
They're like are they worriedabout the canada geese because
they're cobra chickens?
Speaker 2 (02:27):
yeah, no, no.
So today was a really great day.
The dogs got to play and intheir walk and you got some real
cool footage on the trail cam.
Have you shared it on socialmedia?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
no, I haven't.
I think I was a dummy and Ididn't.
I think I can share here.
I can show everybody on livewhat it looks like.
Right now I'm stuttering, but Ithink I accidentally put the
same chip in the same camera, sowe were only we only had one.
So it's a window in there.
(03:00):
So I think I can share thislive and it should just take
over the whole screen.
Do you see that, chris?
Do you see the camera footage?
I do yeah, so I think I canshare this live and it should
just take over the whole screen.
Do you see that, chris?
Do you see the camera footage?
I do yeah, so it's really cool.
There's a great horn owl on theleft-hand side there that just
came down for a little drink.
I love how they walk.
They're so awkward.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So cute.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
They're not.
Is it herky jerky?
I don't know how smooth it is.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
No, it's pretty smooth, pretty smooth.
Yeah, oh man, I love owls somuch they're so cool.
They're neat birds.
Yeah, so that was cool footageto find.
Yeah, on the trail cam.
Yeah, no news of norbert, ofcourse, and that always makes us
sad.
We wish we had more informationto share about our former
resident beaver.
Yeah, but no, bunsen did greaton the walk.
I know a lot of our fans arealways wondering how he's doing
with his rest and recuperation.
Yep, he's been doing greatevery day he's doing great.
(03:57):
We just love him to bits.
He's not sliding around on thefloor anymore, as he was doing
previously, and yeah, so today Iwent over to the farmhouse to
spend a little bit of time withRaffy and Ellie and the farm
cats and docky dock, that's mystepdad's miniature schnauzer,
(04:17):
but the farm cats were supercute, like they're cuddling in a
basket and then they're sofriendly.
And then Raffi was watchingsome of our content.
I showed him.
I showed him a fun facts withbernoulli, and so it was the one
about the sunscreen, actually,or no?
I, yeah, the misfits, the newly, yeah, and I shared that one
with him and he's like how arethey talking?
(04:40):
Where are those voices coming?
Whose voice is that?
Rafi was asking.
It was super cute, and so heloved watching the videos.
And then I showed him some ofthe AI podcast ones that Jason
did, and he liked those too.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So yeah, it's pretty engaging when we put voices to
the dogs because it's Pixarright Either.
I think he was more engagedwith the real dog.
So that says something abouteven those ai fun clips that
some people don't like, that weuse the ai and some people love
the clips because they're funny,but it was interesting to see
that a human child like the onewith the real dogs better yeah,
(05:21):
in fact he said I just got tothinking maybe we can go to your
house he and bernoulli have areally cool relationship.
Yeah, because bernoulli was apuppy, puppy and then raffi was
over here a bunch.
So bernoulli just loves raffiso much and then they roar
around and they get into troubletogether because they get
rambunctious yeah, I feel a lotbetter now that rappy's five and
(05:45):
a little bigger and because,yeah, bernoulli was quite
unpredictable and a puppy andthose floors that we have are
really unforgiving if you fallon them.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Oh yeah, the tile, yes yeah, it's like so I always.
I'm always cautious, it'salways fun to run.
Until everyone in my familyJason calls it the Schwien gene.
My maiden name is Schwien andwe're just so klutzy and I have
it and my niece has it and mygreat niece has it.
(06:18):
Raffi's not as bad, but he'shad some good tumbles.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, it's more prevalent on the female side.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, maybe it runs on the X chromosome yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Aside from that, Chris and I were so busy the
last two weeks with school andwe are done.
We wrapped school and it's beena huge breath.
We're just putting in timehelping kids get ready for their
tests, so we're not teachingthat takes a huge load off a
person.
Without having to prep and mark, we're just like meeting kids
(06:54):
and doing review with them.
And my kids write Monday thechem tests, See and my kids with
their math.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
They wrote it on the first day.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Like the very first exam day, so any review we did
in class and then there wasn'tany extra sessions because it
was like the very next day.
But on the day I was in thegathering area and kids were
asking questions, so I helpedthem out and I said you got this
.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Should we move to community sharing?
Anything else you want tomention, Chris?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I would love to move to community sharing.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Okay, yeah, so we'll answer some more questions
because some have come in forsure.
Okay, so we'll go to a couplespeakers first and then we'll
answer some questions and stuffon live.
So this is going to come fromTwitter.
Chris, I see you've brought upHolly.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah, sasha, the Bruno Bernadudo is also known as
Holly, and I'm super excitedabout some of the tips that you
gave us for our trip.
And yes, to confirm, I'll justnot confirm our dates on live,
but I'll it's not a secret whenwe're going but I don't want
(08:07):
everybody to be like, oh, thezakoskis are not in their house,
let's go to their house.
So yeah, we'll just keep thatthrough, but through text.
But we're going to holly's,next to the neck of the woods.
I'm going to meet sasha theburner doodle yeah yes, indeed.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
So yeah, just text me back, just because I over plan
everything and that's how I keepmy life organized.
I'm one of those peopleSpontaneity does not work well
for me.
But anyway, I just wanted tosay we had a very entertaining
week here in the Sasha and Tobyhousehold.
Started off Monday with Sasha'sseventh birthday and I cannot
(08:47):
believe she's seven already.
Like, how has it been sevenyears?
I don't get it.
But it was a great day for herbecause Monday is one of her
hiking days.
So she was with her pack onSasha Mountain and her dog
walker keeps a whole stash ofbirthday hats and puts them on
the dogs and gets a grouppicture and it is so cute.
(09:10):
I posted it on Sasha's blue sky.
But yes, there's a birthdayphoto of her and she just looks
very happy, and so that wassweet.
Thursday Toby nearly gave myhusband and I a heart attack.
Oh no, I'm actually glad Iwasn't home.
So this was entirely myhusband's fault.
So Chris will understand.
(09:31):
Chris, yeah, it was a nice.
My husband works from home.
It was a nice day.
He had lunch on our back patio.
He came in and thought he shutthe door, but it didn't latch.
He went back up to his homeoffice to work and came down
about an hour later and realizedthe door was wide open and Toby
(09:53):
was nowhere to be found.
Speaker 6 (09:55):
Oh no.
Speaker 5 (09:57):
So yeah, so just to give you an idea of the layout,
we live in a row of threetownhouses and we're on an end
and behind us there's a reallysteep hill that goes down.
It has lots of trees andshrubbery and everything.
So Colin did a couple lapsaround the townhouses, figured
he probably had gone somewheredown the hill.
(10:19):
So he went and got a can of catfood and went and sat on the
patio to see if he'd come back,which thank God he did.
He smelled the cat food andcame running and then Colin
managed to coax him back in thehouse and shut and lock the door
and that cat spent the entirerest of the evening meowing to
(10:41):
get out and just being ahumongous brat.
It was like he got out andrealized he liked it yeah and
I'd been really worriedsomething like this could happen
, because he was a stray when weadopted him, so he's lived
outside before, yeah, so it'sjust like we're having to be so
careful now going in and outeither the front door or if we
(11:04):
open the back door.
I started googling gps trackersfor cats yes, you can get them I
found an interesting articlethat was doing reviews of gps
trackers for cats and it'sbasically, if this is your
situation, we recommend this.
It got down to you have anindoor cat and the
recommendation was just to putan air tag on his collar that
makes sense, yeah and becausewe're an apple family, yeah, and
(11:28):
then that way it make, becauseyou can make it ping, and then
it's okay, we know where the catis if he gets a cat by ping
exactly that's fun now we'redebating if we want to break our
condos rules and get afreestanding catio, because you
can't see our patio from theroad because of there's a bunch
(11:50):
of trees and everything.
So we don't think anybody wouldnotice if we got him a catio and
we.
There's a company locally thatmakes custom catios, so we
highly recommend that gingerloves her catio.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
She loves it, yes, and then it's a way for her to
be outside and be safe.
Yes, but we have the same issuewith the door.
She lurks like a little ghouland she can get in and out so
quickly and sometimes she runsaway very far and then sometimes
she's oh, this is grass.
I'm going to stay close to homeand it's just, you never know
(12:27):
what you're going to get.
It's like a life of the box ofchocolates.
Is the cat going to run or isshe just going to smell the
roses?
Speaker 5 (12:33):
exactly and and just because, with all the wood, the,
it's not even woods behind us,it's just that the property
behind us has not been developed.
So there's, which for ourneighborhood is shocking, but
yes, there is one undevelopedparcel behind us and it's.
I worry, because we havewildlife and I don't want him
killing birds, and there are somany reasons I've never let my
(12:57):
cats outside, especially becauseeveryone I've known with an
outdoor cat, their cat has woundup being killed by wildlife.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Where you live and where we live.
Yeah, they don't last long andif they do, they're very lucky.
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
Yeah, exactly, and it's just no.
No Cats live indoors in ourhousehold.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So that was our excitement for the week.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
I'm glad it had a good ending.
Yeah, so I had Sasha with me atwork and Colin had texted me
and was like, if he's not backby the time you get home, let's
take Sasha and walk theperimeter and see if he comes to
her, because he's so bonded toher.
Yeah, so anyway, I am lookingforward to seeing you guys.
This is very exciting.
(13:44):
We've been having really nicesummer weather here.
Chris will be happy.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
That's good.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
yes, I'm looking forward to nice weather yes, all
right.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
So I will go and mute myself now, because I could
just talk to you guys all nightthank you for coming and sharing
, holly, and yet we're excitedto see you again and, of course,
sasha.
We haven't met sasha yet umyeah, or what, or toto.
Toby the cat, yes, you bet realquick.
We'll answer this again.
Nancy asked on Facebook how oldGinger is and Chris answered
(14:20):
that we think about four,because she's a rescue.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, we rescued her and, like with dogs, you can
tell by the age of their teeth,but cats not so much.
That's what the vets told me,because they just pop in those
teeth that are terrifyinglysharp.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Yeah, so we figure she's about four.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Yeah, Pat on Instagram is asking when our
last day of work is.
My last day is Wednesday and Ithink you go right to the bitter
end until Friday.
Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, we have grad as our last day.
We go on the teacherorganizational day.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Yeah, I did some science shows for the division
so I don't get paid extra forthose.
I love doing them.
One of the perks is I get acouple personal days, but I can
only take them at the end of theschool year.
So I don't cost the divisionmoney with sub fees, which makes
sense.
But I think it's a good.
(15:15):
It's a good little kickback fordoing those science shows early
in the year for the division.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
All right, we'll go to paula hi paula, hi everybody,
hi, how's everybody doing?
hello, hello we're good, how areyou?
Oh, I'm hanging in there doinga little better, but still
hanging okay, but anyway, butyeah, it's been a long road but
anyway, exciting day I had.
It was weird we were we've had14 weeks of straight weekend
(15:45):
raining weather and this waslike finally getting a good
weekend and it was like 90 andimmunity is like awful.
But my poor husband wasstaining our deck because it has
to be done every year, and Iwas out in the back just trying
to put some flowers and waterbecause just doing something
without dying of heat exhaustion.
And I look and I see a littlerobin fledgling underneath my
(16:08):
anirondack chair and he's notmoving but he's got his collar
hanging sideways, which didn'tlook like a listing boat, and I
was like, oh, and I tried togive him a little bit of water.
You got to be careful when yougive babies water, but he's a
fledgling.
You got to just do the tip ofhis beak because they have those
two little nostrils and youdon't want to get that involved.
But I did call an Audubonsociety and they said take a
(16:28):
dipped Q-tip.
And he saw that sucker comingand he just grabbed the whole
Q-tip like the whole end, andI'm like, oh my gosh, you know
I'm going to get this and I go,let's go.
It's like I was thinking hecould understand me, but anyway.
So he did drink a little bitbut he just didn't look good and
then we left him alone and thenext thing, you know, he's
(16:50):
rolling on the patio in thebright sun and I'm like an
Audubon place.
Then I asked them if they knewanybody that had rehab people
and they give you a list in yourstate from the US usually if
you can call somebody, and I didleave a couple of numbers, but
people were some people don'ttake birds, some people don't
take.
It depends on the bird.
They'll take songbirds, there'sall this take songbirds,
(17:13):
they'll do raptors, they'll doturtles, do all kinds of stuff.
So it's always good to checkand this is a law which I didn't
know.
I learned a lot today that youcannot bring birds across your
state border, so if I'm inConnecticut I can't bring one.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
There's the disease they have they don't want that
to transfer.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Exactly.
And so it was a little touchand go.
And then finally I got a holdof one lady.
She's very nice and her name isJanie and she comes from
Plainville or Moosup it soundsfunny but it's M-O-O-S-U-P.
Moosup, connecticut, and sheactually has a rehab place and
I'll get to that in a minute.
So she said go to youremergency vet, which is my vet,
(17:51):
so he's open 24 hours.
So she said just go.
So I went unannounced with mylittle box and we scooped him up
and we took and the parentswere nuts and I said listen, I
just want to make sure he didn'tbreak a wing and if he did, if
he wasn't repairable, at leastthey could have mainly put him
down, because I don't want thispoor little guy to suffer.
So they took him in and theysaid they got swamped.
They had a puppy come in thatwas a golden, you would have
(18:13):
loved it.
Her name was Mitzi.
And then they or she was socute, and then they had another
Ridgeback that had jumped out ofa window, so they had to attend
him.
So I was sitting there for anhour With a little bird, with
this little bird, but they didtake them back, because when you
bring in wildlife they can'trefuse.
But thing with our my vet was,over the years they had
(18:35):
eventually refused because theydidn't have any wildlife people
on board, like 20 vets.
But yeah, they just it justkind of weaned out and it got
too like overwhelming, if thatmakes sense, because people
would find stuff.
But thank god they have peoplethat are on these lists because
the Audubon has certain people.
They have a website link foryour state.
You put in your zip code.
(18:56):
It's called like wildlife.
I have.
It was like some like allwildlife thing dot org and you
can put like stuff in and itcomes up.
It's crazy stuff.
But anyway, long story short,they didn't do an X-ray but they
did a feely mealy on the guyand they saw some scrapes on his
leg and wing and they said no,he's going to probably be.
They weren't sure if it wasanything broken like a pelvis.
But he doesn't sit up.
(19:17):
He doesn't sit.
So either he fell out of thenest but he can't.
His one leg just doesn't wantto perch.
So I called back.
They said you could either puthim down or bring him to this
other lady.
It was like what do you do?
It's like you're between a rockand a hard place.
So I said, okay, I'm going tobring them back.
So I brought them back home andI called this lady and she was
(19:38):
really nice and she said mush upsome blueberries, because
robins eat blueberries.
So we mushed up someblueberries and, sure enough,
the little guy gobbled some andthe parents were going nuts.
So we left them in the box inthe shade and we could look out
the window because he was in asafe place, and we put him in a
big Costco box.
But he came.
The parents were funny becausethey didn't want to go in the
(19:59):
box, but next thing, you know,they're going in there feeding
them.
This lady was so nice.
She said she's an hour from me.
So she said it worse came toworse and the parents, even
though he was still OK but hewasn't sitting up, she would
take him.
(20:19):
So the vet actually gave himenough water that he perked up.
So he did go from, I think,being a little bit dehydrated to
rehydrated and the parents fedhim because I watched them.
They were bringing him wormsand so she said she would take
him.
So we might be going toMoosehook tomorrow.
But my other story is I wastelling her about you and your
show and I said how great youguys were at Pet Chat and she
said she was on Facebook.
So I'm hoping she will belistening and I will put it in
(20:42):
the chat too.
But her name of her place isSpicy S-P-I-C-Y, like spicy paws
wildlife rehab in Plainville,connecticut, and this lady does
everything.
She does not everything.
She does squirrels fawns she'sgot eight fawns.
I'm going to put this picturein the chat.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
She sounds like somebody we should have as a
guest to talk about some of herstories.
Speaker 4 (21:06):
Oh, I bet she would.
It's great.
I mean, she has so many nicethings and stories and what I'm
trying to get to here becauseI'm trying to talk and type at
the same time.
She has a wish list on Amazonso she wants kibble for like
deer, diapers for deer, becauseshe found she just got a rehab
(21:27):
deer because somebody, I guess,hit it and it was stunned in the
road and it came to the vet andit went to her house and she
has four of them and I copiedone of her Facebook page and you
should see this thing.
He's adorable.
She's got six of them in thephoto If anybody would like.
I know we have a lot going onwith a lot of Twitter stuff, but
if anybody would love to giveto this court lady and her fund
(21:50):
for a wishlist, because she doeshave some really nice things on
there and she is in need, she'sjust non-profit.
She's almost telling her aboutthe herd and she was like, oh my
god, she says that's great.
If anybody could help her outin any way, that would be great,
but it was, it was quite of.
Uh, he's now in pixie's crateand he's sitting overnight in
the box in there because I don'twant anything to get him, so
(22:12):
he's going to spend the night inmy house.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
We hope.
Best wishes for the little bird.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I hope so Because, like I said, I don't know what's
going to happen, but if it'ssomething where he'll never be
able to perch up, at least maybehe could have a good life with
somebody hand feeding anddrinking them.
You know what I mean?
Like just taking good care ofhim until I couldn't say goodbye
to him, because I didn't feelit was I should let mother
nature do it.
Yeah, but at the same time Ididn't want him to suffer.
(22:38):
if he was suffering, I wouldhave asked him, had him put down
and it's nice, when you bringin wildlife, that you're not
responsible for that, so youdon't have to pay out of your
pocket.
They help you out a little bit.
But that was my big day, and soTrixie got little.
She couldn't believe what wasgoing on because she kept going
outside to check on this birdand she was at the window like
what's that?
But anyway, but thank you foreverything.
(23:00):
Congratulations on making 200Kon Instagram.
I'm so proud of you, jason andChris.
You guys have worked so hardwith your content and it's so
well deserved, and you've gotthe biggest cheerleader and I'm
so envious of Holly getting tosee you guys and I did get my
passport, so you know, next timeauntie Paula is going to do
Bunsen, so I'll be up there.
(23:21):
You just say when and I'll bethere.
I mean it too, because I lovethat guy.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
So thanks, paula.
Speaker 4 (23:29):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Have a good week everybody.
We've just been thinking of youwith your ailment and just want
you to get better, and it'sbeen a long road, like you said.
Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah, it's been almost going on 14 weeks.
I still got the pain but it'svery slowly going away.
But I took myself off of thebig heavy pain meds I'm not
taking those things, I value mykidneys off of the big heavy
pain meds.
I'm not taking those things, Ivalue my kidneys.
So I'm like on Advil, which Ican almost tolerate and be on it
like for the day without beingtoo bad.
(24:01):
But hot, humid weather does notagree with my body right now.
So it is painful but and I'mgoing to occupational therapy
for my hand.
So I'm hoping that will comeback too.
But it's very slow progress butI'm just got the faith that
I've got good friends like youguys and everybody that was
behind me.
Thank you so much andcongratulations to Marla too.
I am so tickled pink for herand Chesney getting that house.
(24:24):
I wish I won a lot of it.
I'd buy her one because thatwould be my first thing to do.
But anyway, I'm just so gladthat that's in the works.
See, dreams do come true.
So, yeah, so that's always.
Keep the faith and thank youeverybody and I'll shut up now.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Okay, take care of Paula.
You rescued many years ago anowl, chris right, you took it in
the van to.
Did you drive to medicine riverwildlife?
Speaker 2 (24:53):
No, they met us at the County fire hall yeah so the
I just okay, this is dumb, thisis not recommended.
We saw something on the side ofthe road and I said I think
that's an owl, and so we turnedaround.
It was my stepdad and I and hewas driving and I got out of the
car and I just scooped it upand was holding on to it.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
It was a great horned owl.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
It was the giant horned owl and it was a juvenile
, thank God.
Because, like, why would you dothat?
Why would you just grabwildlife off the side of the
road?
So this is a PSA, don't do that.
And his little talon went.
So I wear a ring on this thumband it just grabbed and it was
like holding tight.
So I'm glad I had the ringbecause it was holding my thumb
(25:40):
so tight and it's like doinglike the cluck cluck with its
beak.
I'm like, oh, you're such acute owl.
And then I was petting the owl.
I'm like, oh, just, and so heobviously was injured.
I'm like, oh, and so heobviously was injured.
Yeah, and then the MedicineRiver Wildlife came and I gave
them the owl in a box.
(26:00):
She didn't scold me that, hey,maybe, maybe you shouldn't have
grabbed this owl.
Anyway, then they rehabilitatedhim and then they brought him
back and then we released him.
My son and I, our son Duncan,and I released him and he went
back where we found him.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
That's very cute.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, very cute.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, all right, I'm just checking Instagram and live
for any other questions andthere isn't.
So the next speaker Wednesdayand Thursday of next week.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
They're a couple of hours south of me, so I won't be
freezing things off untilmidweek, but I've had to have my
(27:03):
heater on cranked up to 25degrees a couple of times a day
to keep me from freezing.
But I just wanted to tell Hollyabout the one time that my
first cat in Sydney I justwanted to tell Holly about the
one time that my first cat inSydney ran away when I took her
outside.
Violet came to live with me andmy sister in 2010.
We were living in the townhouse, so there were two rows of
(27:27):
townhouses and my townhouse wasin the front, near the street,
and behind it was like a pathwayand a second set of townhouses.
I'd taken Violet out to justwalk in the trees and get some
fresh air in our little frontgarden and a motorbike went by
and the rider revved his engineto get up the hill and Violet
clawed into me.
I was holding her at that timebecause I was talking to the
(27:47):
neighbours.
Clawed into me.
I was holding her at that timebecause I was talking to the
neighbours.
She clawed into me and leaptout of my arms and ran behind my
townhouse and here I wasrunning to try and catch her
before she got over the fencethat I couldn't get into Didn't
catch her.
So luckily she got in to thesecured area behind my townhouse
.
Except she got into the securedarea behind my townhouse,
(28:10):
except she got into theneighbour's back courtyard.
So I had to climb over asix-foot wall to get her out of
the neighbour.
She recognised that it was theback of our house, but she
didn't recognise which was ourcourtyard, so she jumped into.
(28:32):
She leapt up over this six-footwall to get into the safety of
our courtyard, except she jumpedin the wrong one.
The neighbours weren't home, soI had to climb over the wall
between our courtyards.
And then it was.
And then I couldn't figure outhow to get back into my
courtyard because I'd forgottento open my back gate.
It was just a drama.
But Violet eventually got homeand she never went out.
(28:56):
She never wanted to go outsideagain after that.
She just hated the sound ofbikes.
And then Charlie came along ayear later.
He hated the sound of bikes, sothey were never allowed out in
the front again.
They would only ever go out inthe back.
But luckily or unluckily, wewere renting that place and the
(29:18):
landlord's real estate agent Idon't know you, you've heard
about, problem real estateagents in rentals didn't
couldn't find the approval thatwe had to get for Violet and
Charlie to come live with us,and so they said to us oh, we're
evicting the cats.
You guys can stay, but we'reevicting the cats.
And we said, okay, thank youvery much.
(29:39):
If the cats are going, so arewe.
So I think we've been playingfor 10 years.
Speaker 6 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
So we promptly moved house two weeks after that with
Violet and Charlie into anapartment, and I never went out
on the balcony because it was athird-floor apartment.
I was too scared to let themout.
So that was our escape storyfor Violet.
Luckily she recognized how toget home.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Go ahead, Susan.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yep, Hi Susan hey.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
Hey guys, I joined late.
I was wondering if paula couldpost maybe you did in the chat,
but on your main twitter pagethe rescue that you're using to
rescue the little bird, becauseI'm invested in that right now
chris has it up in the nest too.
Susan on twitter okay, great,that's just.
(30:36):
It's such a great story and Ihope that the little person
makes it.
We do too, and that's all Ihave to say and also glad that
you're done with school.
I was done on Wednesday, sogood for you guys.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Thanks, susan.
Big difference between teachingand doing review.
And then of course we're highschool teachers, so we have exam
break, so the kids are writingexams but there's no curriculum
to instruct.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Holly's story reminded me of this.
This, where, in the middle ofthe night, the pantry door was
open.
Oh yeah, I don't know if gingerwent bloop and then pulls latch
down, or if jason got up for amidnight snack or if adam got up
for a midnight snack, but thepantry was not closed.
The pantry was not, and thisstory made it to text from
(31:30):
Bunsen, because we woke up inthe morning and on the floor in
the pantry was ginger.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
No, not in the pantry , like in the living room.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Oh, in the living room.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
So if the bag was in the pantry, and then Jason found
it on the floor in the livingroom of her food, and so Ginger,
like I was talking about hervery sharp teeth, she can chew
on the side of her bag and shehas done that before.
But there was this big gapinghole in her cat food bag and
(32:05):
like the Ikea closer was stillup at the top.
It's clothespins, but it it'snot.
It's like a clip and that'swhat I used to close the bag.
And then there's this bigcomical hole that obviously a
dog's mouth has made bigger andall the food was gone out of her
bag.
And we're like which dog was it?
The only dog we know who itwasn't is bernou, because he's
(32:27):
crated at night, so he was notinvolved in the shenanigans.
But by the size of Bunsen'snumber two, later we figured it
was him and Ginger who got intothe food.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
They work together as a team.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
They work together as a team.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
So Operation, beauty and the Beast.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Yeah, that was definitely easy to write a joke
from, Paula.
You have your hand up.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, I have to say one more thing.
I did put the link on myaccount page too.
And, chris, I got a good storyfor you.
I'll tell it really quick.
When I was probably in my early20s, I was driving with my mom
in February and we were going onthe highway and we're going up
the ramp and I see this littlebird trying to take off and it
had a really hard winter and hewas running slapped on the ice
(33:17):
and he kept doing it.
I said to my mom I'm going tosave it.
So we ran, we drove all the wayaround the whole block again,
went back up the ramp.
I was in thigh-high snow in anembankment on the side of the
highway grabbing a grebe and Igot him with one shot with a
coat and put it over him and hecame up and he got my lip.
But, long story short, he hadlost all his oils in his
(33:41):
feathers and at the time we didhave a rehab birdist on the vet
that I used to go to and sherehabilitated him and she put
him out in the ocean becausethat was the only water that
wasn't frozen, because we hadsuch a hard winter in
Connecticut and because he wastrying to take off and he
couldn't do it and we rescuedhim.
So I know what you feel and Iwas using my mom's white snow
(34:03):
coat and she was putting a birdin my white snow coat but he
didn't go, thank God.
But it was funny.
But I can almost relate withyour talons on your owl because
this little guy was.
He was pretty feisty, but Ithink he was happy that I did
save him because he wouldn'thave made it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Yeah, we were very glad to save the owl as well.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Before Bunsen, when we had Callan, I would take her
for adventures too, just likethe three dogs.
Now Callan was the golden wehad before all this, and we I
was walking down through thecreek and she spooked fawn out
from its hiding hole and it wasroaring around and Callan was
happily chasing it and it itleapt into my arms, this little
(34:49):
deer, and I scooped it up and Iwas like what am I going to do
with this fawn?
And I was like do I cart it allthe way back home?
And I was like nope, I just putit back where I thought it
sprung out of the bushes and putCallan on the leash.
And then we left it there andit wasn't there and Callan
looked for it for weeks after.
She was looking for the littlefawn, but it was obviously just
(35:13):
hiding.
That's what they do, right?
They're very quiet and they'revery still and they don't have a
lot of smell.
Apparently that's what I readafter that.
So that's how they hide butCallan found it yeah, callan was
like, hey, let's play run.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
And you thought that.
You thought, oh man, the isgoing to have a heart attack.
Something, because it wasrunning and then you just leapt
in your arms and then Callancame right beside you going what
do you have?
What do you have?
Let me play with the fawn.
And you're like, no, I'm goingto click you up and put the fawn
back down.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Anything else, Chris.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Yeah, thank you everybody for coming and
spending your Saturday eveningor early morning, sunday or
whatever time it is for you andsharing with us, and we love
hearing your stories and we lovesharing our stories and we
really appreciate just thiscommunity together and I think
we pull for each other.
It's just amazing, thank you.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
That's right.
All right, so we'll say goodbyeand we'll see everybody next
Saturday.
And, of course, the folks whoare part of the Paw Pack.
All right, so we'll say goodbyeand we'll see everybody next
Saturday.
And, of course, the folks whoare part of the Paw Pack.
That's our Patreon-likecommunity.
We will talk tomorrow on thePaw Pack chat.
Okay, take care everybody.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Thanks everybody.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.