(kih-vah-ah). she's quite the catch. intelligent, beautiful, knows how to make all of the right caws, but also a bit of a man-eater. she is the new girlfriend of kela (kay-lah) and has already given him a run for his money. i did introductions between the two on friday and things started off great. she solicited him, he solicited her... "whooing" ensued (male crows actually 
make a "whoo" noise to the females during the courtship process) and copulations were attempted (but he fell off twice). everything was sunshine and roses and i could see new life being created on the horizon and then suddenly it was all shattered. who knows why, maybe she can't help but sabotage every relationship she's ever had or maybe she's just turned on by violence, but kiwa'a decided to bring the honeymoon to a screeching halt. she began to viciously attack kela to the point that she slammed him into the 
side of the enclosure four separate times causing him to plummet fifteen feet to the ground each time. in the midst of this lindsey and i are running around trying to catch falling crows and break up the madness. finally kela was snagged up and rushed out of the aviary from his crazed girlfriend. she was eventually ushered back into her side of the aviary and he was returned to his. all over right? wrong! i went to go check 
on him to see how he was doing and he was so scared that he was found laying on the ground hiding under a rotting log. poor guy! not really the best "first girlfriend" experience a guy can have. don't worry. he's doing better now and him and kiwa'a even sit next as close to each other as they can get despite a hatch and wall being between them. hopefully she deserves his forgiveness.in other crow news, kauila (kah-ooo-weee-lah), has finally had his surgery to remove his eye with the burst cornea. it's a definite bummer that it had to come to that, but at least he won't have to deal with the extreme pain it was causing him anymore. since even vain crows don't get the luxury of a glass eye, the vets ended up having to cut off the edges of his eyelids so that when they sutured
them together they would stick and not just reopen like eyelids normally do. everything there is healing perfectly so we're all really pleased with that. unfortunately, his life is not back to normal yet. right after the surgery he developed very severe swelling on his left wing. we don't exactly know how it happened. some think he cooked it under one of the heat lamps, other fear he had an alergic reaction to a venomous bite, but whatever it is, it's serious. his wing has completely swelled up with fluid to the point it's seeping out of his feather folicles. at least it appears that 
it's beginning to heal as it is scabbing over in some places. it's just a bummer that he was almost to the point of not having to be caught up for meds for a while and now he's back to square one with not only meds being given but also salt wraps, physical therapy and massages. some day he'll get to go back to his big aviary next to his gorgeous girlfriend, but it appears it won't be any time soon.in other news the rest of the crows are doing great (with the exception of ali'i who busted a toenail and
dripped blood all over the aviary before we could catch him up and apply quickstop to clot the bleeding) and living life to the fullest. you can see nani (gnaw-knee) enjoying a tastey treat she enjoyed working for. we do our best to not only give the crows fun things, but also ones that require them to use
natural skills they'd be using in the wild. nani simply knocked the jar down, stepped on it, and pulled the paper out, but others are more inventive. neile (knee-A-lay) ended up pulling out some paper and using a stick to prod the grapes out of her jar. such smartie pants'!!