What kind of bird am I?

I'm puzzled.  This bird looks like some kind of finch, except...it's as big as one of those smaller type crows you see around, or the huge blue jay who hangs around here.  Seriously oversized.  I ran him thru Merlin (Cornell Ornithology app that ids birds), and they suggested three options, none of which even came close.  So if there's actually anyone out there reading this, and if you know what kind of bird this might be, could you please tell me?

That's a standard sized suet cage he or she is standing on.  He's been hanging around my yard for a few days now, just the one bird, no friends of a feather in his own size category.  Pretty pattern on the feathers, and a very stubby tail, compared to the size of the body.  So about the size of the blue jay, but with a much shorter tail.

Any ideas are most welcome. 

Tennis, anyone?

Back in the day, Cid was on a walk along the splash pad, in Sea Bright, and found a bush along the side of the walkway that had french fries spilled under it.  Of course, Cid being a dog, he gobbled up the fallen fries before you could shake your tail.  On every succeeding walk in that direction, he had to be sure to check under that particular bush, which we called the french fry bush, to see if there were any more fries ripe for the gobbling.  I don't think we ever found another batch, but not because we weren't looking.

A couple of days ago, Bandit discovered the much fabled tennis ball ivy.  A couple of the yards up the block, that are very steep in front, have ivy where ordinarily you might expect grass, because of the steep slope, and the impossibility of finding anyone crazy enough to mow a 45 degree hill every week.  Normally, we've been walking past these yards without taking much notice.  Sunday morning, tho, all of a sudden Bandit stuck his nose right into the ivy, to the point where his whole head was covered by it.  It's English ivy, not the poison type.  A couple of minutes of rustling around, and out he popped, with a fresh from the can tennis ball in his mouth.  First time he's ever tried to carry a tennis ball with us on a walk, so when he finally dropped it, a few houses up, I picked it up and carried it home for him.

We pass tennis balls on our walks pretty regularly, generally slightly used ones, left by dogs or kids or whoever drops that sort of thing.  We've never carried one home before.

So the new tennis ball joined our collection of tennis balls of all vintages, because it's a dog thing.

Next day, same walk in the morning, and there he goes, diving into the ivy again, in almost the same spot.  And guess what?  He came up with another fresh from the can tennis ball.  Which he carried away with him, so when he finally put it down, I picked it up and brought it home, too.

I expect we'll find the third tennis ball on a future walk, because they still come in cans of three, don't they?

Hiding here because FB makes me sick

And one person said she gives a damn whether I'm here or not.  Thanks, you know who you are.

Lots of things have happened since I last posted.  One, I left my job in the city.  My choice.  I chose to not be bullied and threatened by the niece of the owner of the company.  Who is about 400 pounds and thinks she's an actress, but the only way she knows to act is like a bully, and threatening.  (Not meaning to be fat-shaming here, just know that I am rather short and about 1/3 of her body mass, so yes, I felt physically threatened.)  After she had intentionally sprayed me with Lysol, back in January, making me deathly ill (I am allergic to something in that poison, and hey, folks, it's not intended to be sprayed in the air, read the label, duh), she came back with a new plot in July, to get me to quit.  She messed with something I was working on, without leaving any notes about what or why she had done what she did.  When I questioned where the info came from, she raced into my office, fists flying, screaming.  That was the last straw.  I don't care about the money so much, I care about my health, and my life. 

Yeah, and both times, her uncle was the only witness, so nothing I could do.  Never work for a family owned business, or a very small company.  It's not safe.

On the up side, leaving the job meant I was able to spend the last few months of his life with my Pablo.  He left me on October 30.  Thinking about it still makes me cry.  And when I cry, my new best friend comes to lick me until I can't stop laughing.  I worry, tho, when he gets under the wheels of my chair.  I'm afraid to hurt him.

Before I introduce my new best friend, let me fill in the other positive effects of leaving that job.  I've lost 12 pounds.  My stress induced skin issues have mostly cleared up.  My blood pressure is normal or below normal for the first time in living memory.  I haven't missed a meal yet, tho on occasion I get so busy doing something that I forget to eat.  I walked away with some of his clients, but only good ones, not the kind you take because "the money."  Which is about the only reason he ever took a new client.  I will not sell out my principles for "the money."

There's an ethics thing that says you don't take on work you know nothing about, you need to understand the client's business.  Some people don't do their CPE, tho, and never look at the required ethics course, apparently.  (He has one of the grunts in the office do the CPE for him, online self-study, because he can't read.)  But that's a whole other discussion.

I waited till after busy season to get a new pup, tho I was looking the whole time.  And on April 20, Bandit came to live with me.  He's almost 9 months old now, and came from a shelter in North Carolina, was brought up here and put in a foster home by a local rescue.  25 pounds of mush, with a silky coat and stand up ears.  No clue what kind of dog he is, but everybody has ideas about that.  Some of them are kind of funny.  I can tell he probably has no retriever at all in him, I had to teach him what to do about a tennis ball.  He plays hard, and likes to lick and nip (we're working on the nip part), and he's learning to walk nicely on leash.  He gets excited, tho, about stuff like birds and bunnies and people.  He is a little bit afraid of kids with wheels (bikes, scooters, skate boards, etc).  And he loves other dogs. 

He came with the name, and since he occasionally answers to it, I guess it can stay.  I call him all kinds of things, but never late to dinner.  And he'll eat anything that isn't tied down, especially if I'm not watching.

So here he is....Bandit!

 

And no, he's not really black.  He's dark brown, like extra dark chocolate, and has black edges, and a black stripe down his back.  He's also got a little white figure on his chest, which you can't see in this pic.   Long tail, thicker than a whip, not as thick as a brush.  One of my neighbors said he has a terrier snout.  He's got a very nose-oriented way of exploring the world, so that's probably the terrier part.

I guess he's a mix of whatever was in the neighborhood that particular week, and got lucky.  They found the puppies (he and his brother, at least) on a road, and brought them into the shelter.  So nobody even knows what his mom looks like.

Very happy pup.  He's starting to calm down and get used to how things go around here.  We're working on the behaviour things (but he was already house trained at the foster!), and we found a nice, safe place for him to be when I have to go into the city for various events.  He's too big and strong and not trained enough for my Mom to sit him.  Maybe when he calms down some.  We'll see.

The tradeoff of not being able to go to a couple of out of state things I had thought to attend, as opposed to not being so horribly lonely all the time....

So yeah, we're good here.  Hope you all are, too.