Another vet visit

My husband abruptly said "Cinnamon looks like a chow-chow", when we were cutting up branches of a pittosporum we had pruned recently. Turning my head to see Cinnamon who was sitting behind me, I was astonished to find her looking realy like a chow-chow. Both her eye lids swollen, I couldn't see her usually cute round eyes.

I quickly examined her and rang her vet to make an appointment for her. The vet said "It is most likely a bee bite. Good news is her breathing and heartbeat are normal. I will give her a couple of injections, antihistamine and anti-inflammatory. The swelling should subside overnight."

This photo was taken after the vet visit. The swelling was already a little better than it was when we first saw it, but, still, she looks like a chow-chow, doesn't she?

Two-spined spider in action

One of the reasons I couldn't find any information that would have helped identify the two-spined spider which I had found in my garden was that I thought, without any doubt, that the bug was immobile. I never saw it moving until the night after I finally knew what it was.

As two-spined spiders are nocturnal, I got out at night to see what the spider in my garden was doing. It was a spider in deed, with legs moving, hanging on a web it was making.

Two-spined spider

This is to follow up my previous post on Saturday.

The creature turned out to be a two-spined spider. After searching for information about it for several days, I gave up doing it on my own and inquired about it through an online inquiry form at Landcare Research New Zealand website this morning. Then, only a few hours later I received a reply as follows:

The bug in your picture is a two-spined spider, Poecilopachys australasiae (Griffith & Pidgeon)
It is an Australian one but not a problem. In fact it is considered beneficial as it catches moths and small insects which could be a problem in gardens and orchards.

It's good to know what the bug is and that it is not harmful, but what I am more grateful for is the responder's quick and kind response.

Western Springs

Yesterday we went to Western Springs for the first time. We went there, because we had to be out of the house while an annual pest control spray was being done and also we wanted to go to a dog daycare centre in Grey Lynn, which is not far from Western Springs, to buy K9 Natural raw dog food.

We had passed by the park many times before, on the way to and from Animal Emergency Centre, which operates as Specialist Veterinarian Group Hospital on week days, and Phyllis Reserve, where Cinnamon had lessons of Agility, but we had never entered the park.

What worried me most was that my beagles might pick up and eat bread, which people throw for birds, as well as birds' droppings. But, soon after we entered the park, I knew Cookie and Cinnamon would have no chance to find bread for them, as there were so many birds of so many kinds that there was a fierce competition for food among them. I still had to be careful about birds' droppings, though.

What's this?

I found a strange looking insect on a leaf of my kaffir lime tree. What is this? It looks really bizarre...