katana600

Hi and thanks for the update. It sounds like you have been through a rough transition of some sort. I am glad to hear Tui has been your joy through that. Love that it has brought you closer and she is your buddy now, following you and opening up to you. Lots of greys won't speak even in front of their beloved human until they have practiced and practiced while alone. Ours would turn his back and talk in a whisper and only talk loud and clear when we were out of the room. I think it is very special that she is starting to say things in your presence, she must feel really comfortable with you. You are just beginning with the talking and I think once the talking starts and she is encouraged with her success she will be chatting away regardless of who is in the room.

Yesterday was our one year anniversary of sharing our lives with Gilbert. I learned something new about him today. Often he will make a sound that I have likened to a ZZ Tops tune, Lagrange. He sounds like he is doing a "uh how how how". Well, my girls were home for a visit and I took advantage to have them help move a couple of bookshelves down to my sewing area. My daughter pinched her finger and when she said "Ow!" we heard a voice from upstairs "Ow, ow ow", then he laughed and laughed and continued to say it and by golly that is what he has been saying all along. He has such a southern accent and drawl from a former home that I hadn't recognized what he was saying. He was so pleased with himself that even when we came upstairs he kept saying it, laughing and flapping his wings excitely. Now I am just going to have to pay close attention to see if he is saying "ow, ow, ow" right when he is about to put a clamp down on me. I can only imagine what goes on his head about his dense companions who can't even figure out what OW means. He certainly can't be faulted for lack of trying all sorts of ways for me to make the connection. Silly boy.

Aww, I am sorry for Spencer and for you. It is a long term concern for our rehomed guys. Although we search and search and try to find the cause so we can "fix" this feather pulling issue, sometimes there isn't an answer. Don't let it get you down Mark, you are doing a fantastic job for him, it is something he will work out in time. It seems like such a big setback, but all we can do is love them in spite of these moments and find all the silver linings. If he were not with you, imagine how hard it would be for him to adjust to more changes. I find little pieces of evidence that Gilbert chews his little downy feathers occasionally. The longer he is here, the more I find times when he would have nervously chewed but will find other ways now to express himself.

I just signed on for a minute and saw your post and it made my heart sing. You are such a kind a thoughtful family to gather round and try again. DJ is adorable and you will get over the little bumps in the process of getting to know one another. Thanks so much for sticking with us and letting us know you found your little friend.

Is Talon possibly related to my husband? That's how he likes his peanutbutter too! She probably doesn't put the lid back on when she is done either... another similarity? Plus, he gives peanut butter to his hairy two too. We have two little dogs and the highlight of their week is when dad comes home and puts peanutbutter in the kongs. Love love love the peanutbutter thread.

Nice to savor these unexpected moments. Noodle is charming Cody and making himself right at home. It gets better, even if you are not the favored one, he will entertain and delight you and one day before you realize it is happening, he will be your buddy too. It is a happy post, hurray for all of you.

I could spend hours looking at your photos. Ellie is just gorgeous. I love that her eyes are still silver. She is so outgoing and blessed with the attention of your family and friends. She is certainly a charmer.

Oh gosh, a friend got me started on that about a month ago, then I forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder, I will have something to do to look up wedding ideas for our daughter.

A lease agreement it is, she can sing to pay her rent. As long as she isn't in my helmet, she can stay as long as she likes. I would rather she wasn't in there because I am afraid she might fly out and find the garage door closed when she tries to return. I asked David to park his car outside in the pollen so we don't open and close the garage door and risk her not getting back to her nest. We also left one garage door open a couple of inches so she can come and go. I brought my own helmet inside because my car is in the shop and my bike is my only transportation this week. When I told my husband that he said, just wear a different one. What! The other ones don't match my colors. LOL

My floor stand has a base on casters that looks a lot like that table top. It has three thick natural branches maybe two and a half inches in diameter attached with screws from the bottom. I was looking for photos of some type of flange that would accept a short piece of PVC that you could then put a branch into and hold it in place with screws so it wouldn't turn or tip over. When I had a sick, unsteady young grey, I put the whole thing in an infant's pack and play so if he fell off the dogs wouldn't scare him. I like the idea of putting his travel cage on the table top so he gets accustomed to playing on and around it. I had a smaller cage that Gilbert spent his whole summer in. I just put ropes up around it so he had lots of climbing space and he liked that a lot. An added benefit is that most of his droppings went right back into the cage for easy clean up. I also bought a plastic tub-like concrete mixing trough from the hardware store for twenty dollars and set the travel cage down in it so it caught the messes he flung around. Maybe up there in your neck of the woods you could find a child's plastic sled for a catch tray to set the table on.

We do keep travel cages next to the big cages and we did have to seek shelter in the basement about the time of Good Friday because of the tornadoes. We do have a plan with two small dogs and two parrots. Gilbert has a history of being in Biloxi Mississippi during more than his share of hurricanes and tends to get upset during storms so it takes a bit of planning ahead to get him prepared. Now that you mention it though, I have a pantry down there and I will have to put in a store of pellets just in case we had to spend time down there if the storm actually hit us.

What a sweetie! Congrats, you are in for the love of your life. Are you counting down for the weaning and homecoming? It was so hard to wait, I don't think I could sleep for the final few days when I knew ours was coming home. I live northeast of Atlanta, we are practically neighbors. I had to look up Griffin to see where Cathy is on the map.

Gilbert has been with us for a year and he is approaching the ten thousand mile mark with the numerous trips we made between Georgia and NY state. On one trip, we pulled over and I made my husband get out of the car because Gilbert was still afraid of him and I needed to move his cage and help him get settled down after about sixteen hours in the car. We were only about an hour from our destination but he had been hanging upside down and I was worried that he was too tense. A friendly NY state patrol officer turned around and came back to see if we needed help. By the time he got back to us, Gilbert had escaped the cage and was trying his best to fly. I had locked the car doors so no one would open the door accidentally. The policeman stayed and watched while I got Gilbert resettled. I think he was making sure we were not having a domestic dispute with my poor husband standing along the highway locked out of the car. Now that Gilbert is getting more settled into our home, he thinks nothing of a seven hour car ride to go between our home and my daughter's to visit. He is a really good traveler. On one trip we hit bad weather and stopped for a hotel room. My husband said he wasn't about to ask to bring in a pet because in that weather we would have a hard time finding a room and said better to seek forgiveness than permission. I covered Gilbert with a blanket and he pulled up a corner and loudly asked "WHAT are you doing?" so the secret was out and we didn't get into any trouble.

I have been looking at pictures and I think she might be a winter wren. She left the nest when the garage door opened, so I took the opportunity to peek in and she has five eggs. The description said the male builds a dome structure nest and he makes several nests for multiple females. He was taking a short cut when he found the dome shaped helmet on the shelf in the garage. I put a little bowl of water on a shelf for her. When I read that they eat insects, I decided it is a good thing for her to be out there in the garage to eat a few spiders. It should take about four weeks for her eggs to hatch and another two weeks for them to fledge, I will keep an eye on them without bothering her if I can help it.

She is as cute as can be, she let me walk right up to her and didn't startle, she just stared at me. I served her an eviction notice. LOL Just kidding, I couldn't mess with her nest. When I went back out to take a picture, I used a telephoto lens so I didn't have to get close and disturb her while she is sitting on eggs. My husband mentioned he had seen her yesterday and saw her eggs when he got the lawnmower out. No more lawn mowing until her little ones leave. Ha... that won't be long.

I think it is a warbler, I will have to look it up in a book later. She has a few eggs in there, so now we are going to have to make a way for her to get in and out of the garage until her little brood fledges.

Just yesterday Mark was joking about bringing home a parrot on his motorcycle. This morning I went to the garage and found this little hitchhiker. Luckily this is a spare helmet we kept in case of tornadoes, LOL.

I like the nickname, thanks. Spencer HAS to be related to Gilbert, at least in a round about way. We have a pretty good routine of giving him an almond at bed time or when he needs to go into his cage from the cage top. But... if I am needing to go somewhere, I best coax him in before he realizes I am leaving because he digs in his heels and hangs on tight. I doubt it gave him a second thought to be unceremoniously "tipped". He is going to spend all day today working a plan of what to do the next time you try that though. LOL. Until you got him, you probably only had an inkling of how devious you would become as Spencer's buddy.

They both are leading charmed lives, I am sure you are charmed by them as well. Lucky birds and a lucky guy to love them. Aerial, the only thing I know about ligonberry is from Ikea... they are similar to our cranberries in flavor and texture, but I think they grow on bushes instead of in bogs. That is what makes the Swedish meatballs taste soooo good.

Good golly Miss Molly, what a lovely girl you are.

How nice to see a beautiful girl in such a pleasant place for her. Nice pictures, thanks.

Nancy, we all come and go checking into the forum in bits and snatches with the times of our lives and you were coming in with a caring spirit. I think we all realized it was a moment of oversight, the illness of any bird in our flock is especially hard to read and it is really sweet and understanding of you to come back to bring condolences.

When you first posted what the vet said before you took Twix in, my heart was heavy. We have been to the souks in Sharjah and friends still live in Mirdiff and tell me it is much the same. This vet is experienced in your area and had a good idea of the circumstances. Don't let that get you down, I am telling you because you mentioned you feel as if you let Twix down and you didn't in any way. When our first little guy suddenly took ill and died I was beside myself thinking it was something I might have done. I have lived through many losses and nothing hit me the way losing Juno did. I felt an overwhelming sense of failure. His necropsy came back confirming PDD and it was written from the beginning that his life with me would be short. When I took on his brother, I was reasonably hopeful but understood that they had been together in every moment so we could be looking at his loss too, and we did. Every moment with each of them is part of my soul and I believe I needed to learn something about loss and love and awaken something deeper to learn to open my heart to joy. Each loss took more time to grieve and make a plan and go forward but that is what happened. When Gilbert was offered on the forum, it was too raw and I looked away. When the time was right, the message came in again that he was still available and I took that as a sign that I was ready too. It is painful sometimes to see milestones passing and other babies in Juno's and Kopi's age group on the forum. I honor the memories of the sadness and pain and slowly it is ebbing but not forgotten. For our friends with healthy birds I am lifted by the happiness of their homes and I am stronger to withstand all the losses and more open to the gifts that are in my life. Take heart that Twix was in a loving home with you his entire life and knew your devotion and love. Take your time and when the time is right, you will know it and you will have great blessings.

I am always enthralled to see the baby pictures and remember that exciting time when our first fledgling came home. This is such a happy time. Your little girl is enchanting. Look at the curious gleam in her eye. All our best to you and your little friend.

Thanks for the update, your house sounds like a little bit of paradise this morning. I think you are right about always leave them wanting just a little more. An experienced parrot owner once told me that if you push a parrot until they bite, soon they will bite out of habit rather than communication, so that has been my approach as well. I always want more interaction and it is hard to back off when the going is good, but it does seem to leave room for them to come to you. So happy for Spencer to come to you in previously uncharted territory for his adventures. I am going to have to rethink this "maybe he will fly one day" and put ladders in place so Gilbert can follow me around a little to see what he will do. Congrats to Em on her reading, it is always more fun to share with dad. I have a book that I read to my girls and just had the best time, it is a chapter book, but I bet she would love it. It is called "Snot Stew" by Bill Wallace. It is about the world as viewed by a small kitten.