These past two days have been eventful. Cornelius is still alive. I'm still in the dark as to what is wrong with him but I have continued the crop feeding with a drop of coccivet mixed in with 1/2 or 1/3 ml of 'First Aid for Birds' and water. He alternates between looking near death on the bottom of the cage and sitting on a branch. I saw him preen himself a little yesterday and in the afternoon, oh joy of joy, he was eating; his head hanging over his bowl. He ate in slow motion, not lifting his head, like a very old man drooped over his soup - but he ate. This morning, there he was on the cage floor again. I wasn't going to crop needle him as it is so stressful but when I saw that I decided to give him another dose. It remains to be seen whether I'll do it again. Yesterday I dosed him 3 times during the day. He was so weak I could pick him up with ease. I really thought I was being him unkind by not putting him out of his misery and then some words came into my mind; while there is life there is hope.

Now thinking and thoughts are a continuous phenomenon so it's not like that phrase is anything unusual - except it seemed that the phrase was inserted into my mind. Perhaps they arose spontaneously from that last vestige of hope I held onto which warred with the urge to put Cornelius out of his misery. I honestly don't know yet I clung to that phrase, that thought. He was alive and since he was there was some hope.

He's not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot but I am more helpful than I was yesterday. I am beginning to suspect he had coccidiosis after all. Tony had it, without a doubt, and even though he was recovering he spread the oocysts every time he defecated. It wouldn't take much for Tony to pick it up. What's confusing is that his faeces, up until a few days ago, looked fine, tiny, tight, the right colour. Still, he'd been 'off' for awhile. Nothing I could put my finger on but a slow, infinitesimal decline in activity and especially singing. I thought he stopped singing because Tony was here but I think now it was because he was starting to fall ill. Anyway, fingers and toes crossed. The next couple of days should tell the story. If he keeps eating he'll get his strength back and he'll live. As a precaution I'm treating all water dishes, and there are four, with coccivet. And changing them every day. I was a bit slack
about changing them every day as the birds are not exposed to outside birds or droppings from trees.

The other event of our eventful last day was flooding. We had 70mm day before yesterday and 50 yesterday. Dry Creek came down with a roar. It was already running but our neighbour saw and heard the wall of water which came down during the afternoon. It covered the creek paddock, covered the pipe over Dry Creek, swirled down through the back paddock depositing a layer of silt through the pig shed and uprooted a couple of trees. On Dry Gully Road trees fell covering the road in several places. There are mud slips on every mountain, ridge and hill plus a few onto the road. We've had no phone since yesterday. The three dams in the dam paddock are now one huge dam. A pair of grebes were taking advantage of it plucking cicadas from the surface, well one was the other was diving for insects or tadpoles. P.R showed up in the afternoon. He'd spent Xmas at Woodford with G but now needed to get home to the cockatoos which were without food. R took him to D. Cachels where he could hike across country, up country with only one creek between him and home. He left here about 10 and got home at 7;30. He had to wait four hours for the creek to subside enough for him to cross.