Fun Monday - a poser?

It's Fun Monday again, and as we stare off into the waters off the coast of Cuba tonight and wonder just how far Fay is going to come up the coast before making landfall, I wanted to take a moment to go ahead and do my bit to give ya'll something to read on Monday morning!

Our hostess this week is Lisa, taking a break from her Chaos to organize us all:

What is one thing you would like to ask your readers? Come up with a question to pose to your visitors and throw it out there on Monday. As we’re all visiting each other’s Fun Monday posts we should answer the various questions we come across.

OR

Show & Tell me about a bird, I’m easily made happy.


Well. I don't have much in the way of bird stories... But I'll make the effort anyway.

My husband was recently pet sitting for his son while he was away at a family wedding. The cats and the fish were easy, but there was also this Sun Conure. He was put into the bathroom with the sink dripping water and a ladder to get him up to the sink (the wings are clipped). DM went to check on the animals after a couple of days. He cleaned the litter box and gave the cats fresh water, then went to check on the bird.


The bird is normally a very noisy animal. It squawks and whistles and jumps around a lot. So when DM opened the door and the bird was just sitting there in the middle of the floor with its eyes squinted mostly shut, he knew there was a problem.

The last time he pet-sat, there were two parakeets that died shortly after stepson returned. DM was understandably upset when he found the Sun Conure in such a condition. He looked around - there was food, the sink was still dripping, the ladder was still there. He got a small bowl from the kitchen and filled it with water and set it down in front of the bird, which then began scooping the water up in its lower bill and tipping its head back to drink. It drank a.lot. Apparently it had no idea how to drink the trickling water in the sink and had gotten severely dehydrated.

After a couple of days of watering and visiting the bird (the cats would hide whenever he came), DM fell in love with it. It would squawk happily when he came into the bathroom and sit on his shoulder and nibble his ear during the visits. Tragedy averted.

Longing for a pet bird born. I had to put my foot down. No bird. We already had four cats, a dog and a fish. We do not need to add a noisy bird in a cage. It is a tragedy waiting to happen - our cats LOVE to hunt birds. They rarely catch them since the birds they hunt can fly away. I lost a guinea pig in its cage to a very determined cat once. I didn't want the same thing to happen to DM.


Okay - I suppose that was a little backwards from the assignment, but the other part was to ask my readers a question.

I thought about this all week and finally decided that what I want to know is this:

If you are a regular reader of this blog, why do you come back here and read it on a regular basis? Is it the incredibly fascinating stories? Or the deft writing? What makes you return?

As a struggling novelist, I want to know what it is about this blog that catches you. Conversely, if you don't come here regularly (other than Fun Monday), what is it that keeps you away the rest of the week?

I am NOT fishing for a larger readership, but I am curious about this.