Still Water Microsanctuary

03/02/2026

Greg update! First things first, Greg is okay. After an anxiety ridden weekend and several long talks with our avian vet, we’ve decided it’s in Greg’s best interest to postpone the surgery. Greg’s asthma is exercise induced and with medication and careful monitoring, we’re able to avoid any significant episodes (at least for now). Greg’s quality of life is extremely high and he loves his human companions. While a safer alternative is available, we don’t feel it’s fair to roll the dice on such a risky operation at this time, and our vet is fully in agreement.
For anybody who made a donation: even without surgery, today still came with an expensive bill due to additional bloodwork, imaging rechecks, and an implant for our quail Skeeter. Despite this, we are not using any of your donations to help with today. There’s a very good chance Greg will still need this surgery down the line so any donations made will be set aside in a separate savings fund explicitly for this purpose. That said, if anybody would like a refund for their donation, please privately reach out to us. We completely understand and would take no offense to a refund request. We want to remain completely transparent with anybody who would be so kind as to send us help.
We’re confident the decision we made today was the right one. It’s also a MASSIVE relief that Greg is safe and happy with us at home. Pigeons deserve the best, and he is one special little pigeon. Thanks, everybody. 💜

02/26/2026

Please read, we need your help. 💜
Our sweet, human-bonded pigeon Greg is getting a very serious surgery on Monday. As a baby still in the nest, Greg was the only survivor after a pest control company was hired to kill all the adults pigeons and spray poison on the nests around an office building. Greg managed to survive, but was not left unscathed. The poison did permanent damage to his lungs and throat, leaving him unable to fly for more than a few seconds at a time. The past few months we’ve managed his symptoms well and kept his asthma episodes minimal, but the other day was his worst episode since discovering the damage on x-rays. Greg was unable to catch his breath for a terrifying 30 minutes, coughing, honking, and obviously scared. The extent to which we can intervene is minimal. His asthma attacks aren’t able to be helped with an inhaler like humans.
Follow up x-rays showed the damage in his lungs has not progressed, but our vet believes his trachea is being constricted by the damaged tissue in his throat. This means Greg will have to undergo anesthesia, have a breathing tube placed directly into his lungs through his back, and have the damaged tissue cut out and his trachea repaired. Afterwards he’ll need to stay in the hospital for several days to prevent infection and recover.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. We can’t begin to express how much this bird means to us. He’s our shadow, comes with us to do everything, cuddles us every night for hours while we pet his head. I’m currently typing this with one hand because he’s cooing for head scratches. He’s our best friend. We’re terrified for this upcoming surgery, but without it, a fatal asthma attack could happen any day. It goes without saying, but surgery with multiple days of hospitalization is going to cost a lot. Money has been even tighter than usual. If you could help us, anything at all would be so appreciated (links in bio and in the comments). Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Please keep Greg in your thoughts. 💜🕊️

01/22/2026

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of our beloved angelfish, Nos.

Nos truly had one of the biggest personalities we’ve ever seen. He was friendly with most humans but DESPISED myself (Cam), who does the water changes. Whenever I’d get close to the tank Nos would race to the front, flare up his black stripes, and bonk his nose against the glass trying to get me. I’d always pretend he was big and scary. Rescued from a previous “owner”, Nos came from very poor conditions and was reportedly 15 years old at the time of his rescue in early 2023. Angelfish rarely make it past 10 years, so even if this was an exaggeration he was definitely up there in age and we knew our time with him would be relatively limited. While it’s heartbreaking to lose him, we’re grateful for the almost 3 years of large open swim space and clean water we could provide for him.

We highly suspect he passed of renal cancer based on physical symptoms. The onset of symptoms came on rapidly and with Nos’ severely old age, we opted not to put him through hours of transport and stress at the vet for what would surely be a grim prognosis. Nos swam and ate food normally until the end - a good indication any suffering was, thankfully, minimal.

The fish room is going to feel much quieter without our big, bad Nos. He will continue to swim on in our hearts. 💔🐠

12/26/2025

This is Nell. A friend of ours found her on Christmas Eve, cold and bleeding on the side of the road from a cat attack. Outdoor cats, in the US alone, kill roughly 4 BILLION birds every single year. Nell *narrowly* avoided becoming another statistic. With it being Christmas Eve, it would be 48 hours until we could have Nell seen by our vet. Cat saliva is incredibly toxic to birds and kills quickly. Nell was fading fast and would have died without medical intervention. Luckily, the bird knowledge we’ve gained through the years ended up being just enough. We got her started on antibiotic injections, tube feedings, and pain medication with a heated bed to keep her body temperature up. We were able to get her into the vet today to confirm what we were doing was right and to refill our medications. Nell isn’t completely out of the woods yet, but she seems to be turning the corner towards recovery!! Nell already has an adopter lined up once she recovers with us. If you’d ever like to support our work, consider checking out our Patreon or making a one-time donation…just head over to our bio.💜

Keep Nellie in your thoughts! And keep your damn cats inside!

11/05/2025

Our sweet baby pigeon, Gregor had to be rushed to the ER late last night. Seemingly out of nowhere he had a bout of extreme respiratory distress, almost as if he was choking (*very* abnormal for birds). On the way to the ER, it thankfully subsided and Greg was able to catch his breath. Anybody with birds knows ER vets are not often equipped for avian emergencies, so sadly there wasn’t much to be done in terms of diagnostics. Greg will be headed to his actual avian vet today to figure out what the heck happened and what our next steps are. This will include x-rays, bloodwork, etc. This emergency will be very costly- likely well over $1k, but whatever we can do to keep our sweet little Gregorpants safe is completely worth it. If you have a couple bucks to give or would like to join our Patreon, our never ending love and appreciation will be yours. Keep our baby boy in your thoughts! 🕊️💜

10/28/2025

LAST DAY TO GET THE MERCH! 🇵🇸

Support the cause! Don’t miss out! Link in comments and bio🫶

10/14/2025

🍉EVERY PURCHASE HELPS KIDS IN GAZA🍉

All eyes must remain on Palestine, *especially* with the recent ceasefire agreement! All proceeds go directly to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Link in our profile and the comments of this post. 🫶

t-shirts, hoodies, and more!

09/25/2025

We recently had the opportunity to work with the Observatory to publish a piece about our late oscar fish, Wilde to spread awareness of the harms of the fish trade.
We still miss our boy constantly…it’s hard to believe it's already been two years without him. Wilde lives on through advocacy such as this.🧡

Wilde the oscar fish spent 12 agonizing years in a tiny, toxic tank at a car dealership—a cruel fate shared by countless tropical fish sold as “decorations.”

09/19/2025

Meet the newest member of our family, Gregor! This baby pigeon had a real rough start to life. A local business made the evil decision to hire someone to come out and kill the pigeons that nested on their building. Unfortunately this is legal, as domestic pigeons are not a protected species. Several days later, a kind employee at the business found a lone baby who had been overlooked and posted in a local group hoping to find help. Gregor was still too young to eat or drink on his own and it had likely been multiple days since his last meal. By the time we saw the post and picked him up, Gregor was rail thin and starving. The employee believes the baby pigeons may have been sprayed with some kind of poison, which matched with a black sticky substance on Gregor’s feet and feathers. After a bath and a big meal, we were able to cut out all the afflicted feathers.
Now a week later, Gregor has blossomed into the sweetest, most energetic baby pigeon and has really become our best buddy. He also received a clean bill of health from the vet today. Once he can eat and drink independently, and goes through a full period of quarantine, he’ll meet our adult pigeon, Sandor.
Fellow humans…please be nice to pigeons. They’re some of the sweetest animals on the planet and deserve so much better. Poor Gregor will never know his family that was taken from him, but we’re happy to be the best new family we can for him. 💜🥺🕊️

09/05/2025

When you say you’re having shrimp for dinner, you’re eating shrimps🦐👎. When we say it, we’re having our dinner while the shrimps are having their dinner👍🦐. The latter is much more enjoyable for both parties. 💜

07/11/2025

Sweet Skeeter is having more reproductive health problems. More implants…more x-rays…more blood work...more medications. Skeeter’s medical costs are truly astronomical. If you can help, please consider checking the links in our profile. Please keep her in your thoughts. Eggs suck 😪