sandra902

there is a section in the back of the magazine with readers' pictures of their birds with cute captions. one of the photos is of an AG named harrison. it's the new issue i just got in yesterday's mail.

in bird talk magazine this month?

hey lace welcome aboard! i am a cat and dog person but a near and dear friend is a bird lady. she is active in parrot rescue where she lives so it was not long before she came across my merlin. can't really comment on the theory of not having a grey as a first bird as i went straight to the top in that regard. but i have wonderful resources both here on the forum and in my area so i have lots and lots of support. granted i admit i've made a few mistakes (patience being one of them) but i am learning and merlin is forgiving. we have a long way to go with him as a rescue bird and me as a greenhorn but the journey is wonderful. may i inquire as to where you live? perhaps there is a local rescue group that you could get to know. might surprise you what is nearby.

oh i know what you mean. especially after a time it is amazing how much crap accumulates that we haven't used in ages. kind of like fibber mcgee's closet from the old radio show - touch the doorknob and all the contents come spilling out. usually on new years day or another sort of slow and quiet day i try to comb through and get rid of old crap from my hard drive. i also check my favorites folder from time to time and dump the old stuff i haven't looked at in a while. it's amazing how one can save a favorite and then never go back to it like one thinks one will. ha ha ha it's like keeping house but i will freely admit i keep a better computer than i do my house -- we don't call it the monkey house for no reason!

yes i would be happy to, i re-build his favorite one often and it's coming time for a rebuild. i'll get a snap of it before he does. this is the one he does "look ma no hands" with that breaks mamma up so. i make a big production out of toy making time and i don't know who is the bigger fool over toys, merly or me! i lay everything out elaborately, have the different beads and such all sorted into glass jars. they are great fun to give a shake before deciding which to use, of course i always ask merl's advice although he is pretty good about letting me make these decisions up front. i usually find out which are the preferred dangly things by which are destroyed first. oh! and a paper towel roll, a paper punch and one of those carabiner-type screwy loops makes a great shredding toy. i cut the paper towel roll into 4 or more smaller tubes, then i cut the tubes the other way so each of the four tubes are now 2 curved cardboard strips each. then i paper-punch on one end at odd intervals, place them back to back so they do not nest together and then feed the carabiner through the punched holes. looks kind of like a brown paper blossom, kind of like a peony if you really stretch your imagination. it makes a nice rustly noise too when you want to get merlin's attention. hope this makes sense i checked it 3x to make sure i was describing it as well as i could. well i'd better quit fooling around and get back to work.<br><br>Post edited by: sandra902, at: 2008/03/13 17:41

OK everyone, take a few minutes and do a virus scan and a disk cleanup. that old ounce of prevention after all...

merlin and i have toy making time. he watches carefully as i create toys for him. it is nice for us to do together because when the toy is complete he is not scared of it. i use cotton string or leather lacing, drinking straws, wooden beads, all sorts of stuff that i usually find in the craft areas of thrift stores. we've been having fun with raffia paper too which can be gotten for just about nothing. i also haunt the teething toys in thrift stores. there is also a wonderful dog toy that i found at cost plus/world market for $1.99 that is very hard to describe but i've seen it in the bird store for $6. they are multicolored rubber star shapes that are somehow woven together to make it into a ball. merlin loves this and takes good care to remove each and every knobble on the end of each point of the star. but i think the most fun we have is during toy making time. and it is certainly cheap enough. i get a lot of good ideas from the toys people sell at bird shows. clearly they have made them themselves with a minimum of investment, especially the ones made of the little paper condiment cups and drinking straws. those can be gotten cheaply and in quantity and make a fine mess to show birdy's appreciation.

so part of my job is to make reminder calls to my customers reminding them to place their order for the upcoming sale. well i was in the process of making my calls for the day when mr merlin decided it was time to clown around with his toys. first he thought if he sat on top of his cage and flapped his wings he'd get a big reaction (he usually does) but i turned my head down so i couldn't see his vigorous flapping. then, failing that, he went into his cage and hung upside downy from one foot and gave one toy hell with his beak and the other toy merry hell with his free foot. so i completely embarassed myself by busting up during one of my reminder calls and will now have to make my explanation to this nice lady on friday! thank goodness everyone knows about merlin or they'd all think i'd gone mad. well as i do try to tell people: "sandra's world is a happy place"

miss tracy as a rescue mum let us just say you fostered soldier until he was ready to go to his forever home. you did nothing wrong and everything right. every decision you made was in soldier's best interest and not motivated by your ego. of course you are heartbroken! but do not let that stand in the way of helping another little soul on the journey to come. please keep that door open when your feelings heal. there are so many little ones that will flourish under your care and yes, fostering can break your heart but you are doing A Big Thing. have you ever read the piece called "the rescue rainbow bridge"? that'll get you that is for sure. i will see if i can find it in my files somewhere. in the meantime, a blessing on your house and on your flock. go ahead and be sad, but not for too long. there is much to be done. and you have done well! your friend.

early on in merlin's stay here at the monkey house, he had hurled himself to the floor for some odd reason long forgotten. i had a full length mirror propped against the far wall near my desk so i could surreptitiously watch him as he seemed a bit shy of me at the time. well as he wandered and took in his surroundings under my watchful eye, he came upon the mirror and was so happy to find a friend at last! but then it broke my heart when he started looking behind the mirror for his new pal and there was nobody there. so now i do not let him see mirrors at all as it makes me sad that it seems to be a bad trick being played on him. pssst there might be a new arrival to the monkey house aviary - a female eclectus - i won't jinx it by saying anything more...

mommafawkes i thought it was due to guy fawkes who tried to blow up the houses of parliament in england in the (1600s?)(1700s?). ha ha ha silly me i better get caught up on harry potter of which i have read NONE. my merlin i named because before he came home as i looked at the photos on this site, the birds seemed to be able to see the past, the present and the future. he went into rescue as 'simon' a name i just did not think fit such a fine fellow. then after meeting him we knew we made the right decision in renaming him merlin. merly. merly-man. splatmaster.

do you use those UVA/UVB bulbs? i wonder what the consensus of the board members are. the adverts say they help with all sorts os stuff including mood. i did go ahead and spend the $27.99 on it but since i dont' know any better, have no way of knowing if it works or not. maybe with this longer winter, who knows? we could all use a little lift.

oh you guys the day that merlin revises the 'no touchy birdy' policy there will be photos! he does approach me somewhat now. and he is quite interested in what mamma is doing at that desk now that he can see me and hear me tapping away. i guess slow and steady will win this race. yes i do work from home which is quite wonderful in its own way. not much money in it right now but to be home and with the creatures is pretty priceless. i only have to go out a few hours a day (if that) to attend my market day sales or other little obligations to my accounts.

so when merlin came to the monkey house, he seemed very shy in sharing my office with me. for that reason i placed my desk so my back was to him and placed a full length mirror so i could watch him that way. that worked great for the time but this past week or so he would not play or talk when i was in the room and upon reflection i think it is becuse my back is consistently to him and he now thinks he is being punished. we "had words" the other day and i turned my back on him until he made the first move to reconcile ('oodle'). so until i figured out how to re-wire this environment to keep it functional (still not there yet with the printers) i took care to always turn around and respond when merlin called out ('oodle' 'tweedle' 'oot'). i also was careful to make my phone calls (mentioned in a different thread) whilst facing him. well in the meantime, he has engaged me in games of peek a boo! imagine that! i now have my desk facing him and although we don't make eye contact all the time we are at least facing each other. he is giving one of his toys merry hell right in front of me. not talking as he does so, but i'll take it for now. so maybe there is hope for us and i might get promoted away from Devil's Daughter.

well good for you! congratulations. and i'm glad you gave jo's a call they are the nicest people. i try to buy everything possible for merlin there.

part of my job is to make reminder phone calls to my customers. that involves saying the same short script over 10-30+ times at a pop. one day i overheard merlin chattering away nonsensically but using the same inflections as my little scripts. since my desk does not face him, he couldn't make out the words i was saying but he did hear the cadence of my voice which he began to imitate. and if that weren't funny enough, when i lost my voice he imitated my whisper which threw a huge scare into me as i thought he was in some desperate fatal respiratory distress! what a joy these little creatures are. what a depth they add to the simplest parts of a day.

i have been very satisfied with the knowledge and kindness of the staff jo's exotic birds in kenosha WI. even though i am a rescue mom and did not get my merlin from them, they have been nothing but kind and informative with every dumb greenhorn question i've posed. i don't know if kenosha is way out of your way, but while i've been in their (scrupulously clean and tidy) shop i've met people from all over WI and IL. that tells me it is worth the trip and makes me grateful i live nearby such a good resource. you may feel free to say sandra the market day lady recommended you for what it is worth. they may or may not recognize me. or they might say "oh that crazy gray haired greenhorn!" ha ha ha.

i am a market day lady and i feed merlin our frozen vegetables which are just wonderful. i especially like to give him the gemelli pasta and vegetable blend which has brocolli and carrots. for fruit i feed him the spectrum fruit singles or the spectrum fruit in the larger bag thawed and cut up. they are both no sugar added and all natural. he gives me the dirtiest look when i lick the spoon after giving him his portion. of course when we are having fresh fruits and veg he gets a portion as well but just rinsing off the frozen veg wakes them up enough without cooking them since they are blanched as part of their original processing.

the old gray mare here... hey miss lisa, where in MN are you? i have a friend in coon rapids, she was merlin's foster mother for PAEPS. -s

well i'd better look into that because SOMEONE needs to get into merlin's head and let him know i am NOT the devil's daughter who hurts little birdies!

howdy neighbor i live in WI too.

maybe it'll replay before the puppy bowl at 3. gee whiz i love that kraazy puppy bowl!

hey all anyone see the show on animal planet today (2/3/08) called 'barking mad'? it is from the UK and one of the features today was on a rascally AG. -s

1. i ride a 1984 honda goldwing standard. been riding for at least 20 yrs. worked my way up from a 67 ducati 250 (what a ROCKET). 2. married 29 yrs to the same alien man (he's a citizen now) it was always fun to alarm our children by crying out "i married an ALIEN!" 3. 2 grown children 4. i am #4 of 4 girls. dad's fishing buddy. 5. decades behind in my movie knowledge. the butt of many jokes. but my knowledge of silent and classic film is pretty good. 6. learned to camp at age 40. love it. my camping buddy is my GSD inga. watch out for her she steals the firewood and is a notorious bed hog. 7. bought a little canned ham trailer about 1960 vintage to restore. call it 'fred flintstone'. slow going this project. 8. this is hard to find 10 interesting things about oneself! hmmm i'm a virgo born on labor day. that explains a lot i guess. 9. almost done. gee whiz total creativity shutdown! i shall have to come back to this after a period of reflection...

bailey bailey bailey a blessing on your house for taking in this pair! my merlin was a distressed rescue and although we have a long road ahead of us, it is very moving and rewarding to see each little step of progress. one of the first things we did was to start playing music for him. i chose the light classical channel i thought the tones of the cello and flute would engage his mind. big daddy is a bluesman so he'd sneak in and change the channel to the blues channel. funnily enough merlin likes the blues channel (especially harmonicas) and liked the bluegrass channel too. he is still pretty skittish and we have a very long way to go but every now and then he'll throw me a little surprise to let me know he does not always think i am the devil's daughter! start keeping a journal of all the little positive steps and then at the moments you feel discouraged ( i feel discouraged quite often ) it will cheer you up and it won't seem so bad. just my $.02 from the rescue world. and this is my first birdy so i do not mind admitting how big a greenhorn i am.