Earthquakes and birds

[KimberlyAnn]

We just had an earthquake near by. Not one of my favorite things since I was in the center of the San Francisco one in '89 that did a ton of damage to our house and we lost one of our much loved neighbors. We are fine though! Far enough away and it was not that big. Kinda scary since it's in volcano country, but they know those are coming long before an eruption.

But animals really do know. Emmi was on top of her cage and went inside of it and was SCREAMING like she hurt herself, but was just standing on the bottom of her cage. We just looked at her and she stopped for a few moments so I just watched her and she was just standing at attention. I thought she was just asking for attention? I didn't have time to go over and see what was wrong. Just time enough to sit up and look. Before that I had held her in my hand and she cuddled up and talked up a storm...in her growling green cheek voice while softly, but quickly biting me. I found that so cute at first, (Thought she was just telling me her new pin feathers itched and how annoying molting is!) but it went on and on and on (Not like her! It seemed like ten minutes!) so I thought she wanted to eat more of her new blackberries or something. It was so confusing because it was not like I ever hold her hard enough she can't just jump up to get away and go back on her cage. I don't even hold my hand over her...she just cuddles. I never force interaction either so it was just weird and I could not figure out what was up with her. So I tried to put her on her cage and she would not let go of my finger. I told her "down" so I could finish writing a letter and so she could just take a break from her chattering. That's when she went in her cage and I sat down.

Then things started to roll. Me being traumatized from the big one in my childhood, I froze and sat on the floor. Lol Thankfully it was not that big. But Emmi was freaking out. My husband cuddled her while I called my family up in the area that was hit the most. Everything and everyone is fine! Emmi is good now too.

But it's just amazing that animals know. I've never understood that. My childhood cat Katie had disappeared a few hours before the big one hit in '89. We went to find her and did look for her a bit, but figured she wrould come home. No big deal...until the quake hit. We searched for her with some of our neighbors for three days when we could. It was hard to get water and so we spent a lot of time in lime at the store waiting for the water truck. We also had to help the rescuers find people in houses that had collapsed and keep ourselves safe when the aftershocks hit. Finally we found her under a bush four days later, dirty and very hungry and thirsty. We felt so bad! But it was a horrible time and everything was chaos. I'm glad things are fine this time, for now. It's been years since I've felt one. It certainly does bring me back to that time!

And I have my own little earthquake alerter in my home. Just so amazing. Makes you wonder how they know and if we will understand how they know. We never know when they will hit and how big they will be. And it's odd she got so loud and irritated like she was. I really made the mistake of thinking she was just grumpy. Another thing I remember was people saying how quiet things get before an earthquake. I guess I never noticed that part, but I remember the adults saying how the birds stopped chirping. We lived in the middle of a redwood forest outside of San Fran. There was ALWAYS bird noise. But I guess they try to leave the area and hide like our cat did. Emmi was trying to warn us or tell us something felt wrong. One of those times I wish I could understand green cheek! If we could just understand what exactly it us that they feel, it could save lives.

[Harpmaker]

We had an earthquake in my area early this morning. It was the first noticeable one since I got Corsair. . Normally she is asleep when I come in before work to give her breakfast, but today she was wide awake and chirping. I didn't put the two together until I saw your post.

The dogs and cats we've had usually sleep through moderate earthquakes.