Life at the Johnston-McLeod Zoo continues to thrive and grow! We are pleased to welcome Foxy our temporary guest courtesy of the Mississauga Humane Society, two new birds to the Budgie Exhibit and an Underwater Exhibit!!

Foxy is an 11 year old dog of mixed origin. She looks more like a Coyote than a dog but is as sweet as sugar. If you’re visiting the zoo; look for her in the yard chasing squirrels or eating garbage in the kitchen. She’s a sweet old girl who loves to sleep and play in the yard. She’s also has cataracts and is mostly deaf. Hopefully some kind person will want to adopt her soon. We love her and would keep her in a second but our downstairs neighbour is allergic to dogs. You can check out a picture of her and read her bio at www.mississaugahumanesociety.com.

Our two new birds, who have yet to be named, are standard budgies. They are both male, one of them is blue and black with a white head and the other is green with yellow and black wings. They have never been allowed out of their cage and are massively under-weight. We have every expectation that they will healthy happy birds in time.
They have been introduced to our current flock of four. I’ve opened their cage door but they have yet to figure out that they can actually leave. Wynnie was the first of the current flock to venture over to meet them, followed by Dax and Icarus. Marygold seems a little uncertain of these new arrivals. The two new birds are about 11 months old according to the family who gave them up. They have their full flight feathers but are unable to fly because their cage was too small. Hopefully when they start to get stronger they’ll be able to fly around the room with Marygold and Icarus. Dax is also becoming a stronger flyer, her wings are growing back slowly but she’s learning quickly and is getting stronger everyday.

Also new to the zoo are 6 fish. The aquarium came over from my parent’s house this weekend so we now have an underwater exhibit as well. These fish are kind of strange in that some of them are close to 6 years old. The aquarium is very healthy and we’ve even seen some breeding in the last couple of years. They seemed to have survived the trip and are doing well; hopefully they will continue to do so.

Our cat exhibit hasn’t grown any (unless you consider Pandora getting fatter) but we’ve definitely seen some interesting developments. We’ve always known Pandora to be aggressive with other animals, but I didn’t know she was a hunter. She’s taken to stalking the dog and attacking her. We don’t encourage this kind of behavior so in order to curb her aggressiveness we’ve supplemented her diet with my mothers house plants. Hard to chase dogs when you’re too busy throwing up palm tree. Hopefully she’s learned her lesson and will focus her energy on something less destructive.

I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can find my camera cable. Come back soon!