shanlung

The World's Only Parrot-Fronted Death Metal Band Just Released a New Album http://www.vice.com/read/twelve-years-later-hatebeak-remains-the-worlds-only-death-metal-band-fronted-by-a-parrot-666

Your thoughts and nice words very much appreciated. Here he is in the better days. You all know I go on periodic walk abouts, looking for place to retire in where Ivan was to join us. Or just checking out sunrises and sunsets, for a few weeks to couple of months at a time. After those long trips, Ivan would greet me when I am back by meowing me to stop for him to leap up to my shoulders to curl himself around me. Should I be out for the day, or even a couple of days, and get back later, Ivan would ignore me entirely other than giving me a condescending meow. Then over last couple of years, I found I need to be near a chair for Ivan to leap on to jump to my shoulder. Then I found later I need to stand against armchair for him to jump up the seat and then to the back to make it up my shoulder. Ivan is back home again. Near his mom. In a little white porcelain urn near the place that he loved to be. He lives on in a place in my heart.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. From my Facebook posted below: I was with Ivan from halfway round the world and separated by 5 time zones. Seeing him from photos taken by my wife and send to me via whatsapp. I suggested how to position him to make him comfortable on his favourite pillow and to roll up towel under his head for pillow. You all know I am in Riyadh working a 66 hours week and up to 72 hours week on busy week. We all have to get on with living even while close companion walks on. Ivan passing trigger a paradigm shift in me. That life is indeed very short was brought home to me in a way no words can convey. I decided to get on with my life. The day after Ivan passing, I gave my notice of resignation. I agreed to stay on for 3 months to allow a replacement for me and for transistion. I probably will resume on my interrupted retirement and checking out of likely country and places for me and my wife.

We were living in Hongkong in Saikung, a tiny fishing village in the New Territories in 1994. The apartment was tiny as were most of the apartments in Hongkong. However, the apartment opened onto a huge balcony as we were on the third floor and a seafood restuarant was below and their roof was our balcony. When apartments in Hongkong were priced as to whether you had a sea view or mountain view, when on the balcony we could look out onto a sea view or turn to the right and enjoyed the mountain view. We then thought of having kitties. At that time, we were reading the Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Where the two key characters were Miles , a clever manipulative guy who happened to be a runt caused by a poison gas attack on his mother when he was a fetus. He had a big handsome cousin called Ivan who was kind of stupid compared to Miles. We went to this guy who rescued 2 kittens from municipal bin. One was a runt who appeared to be intelligent and the other was a handsome tabby. So that was how Miles and Ivan came into our lives. Soon we found that Miles was the idiot and Ivan was the very clever one. They took over our balcony and then our apartment. They would explore by jumping out of the balcony and running about the roof and into places I could not imagine. One day I tossed Ivan over the balcony and told my wife he would jump back. He disappeared and a couple of hours to our shock, there was this meowing outside our door. Ivan somehow went around the apartment block, walked up a few flights of steps , and knew the door of the apartment to meow outside. Ivan was a killer. He would chirped like a bird hidden behind the balcony and leap 2 meters up to catch birds on the wing. He left presents for me by my bed. The head, with 4 small paws and a tail in the proper position and something ickky between them. Excuse me if I did not describe that exactly as I looked away while cleaning up the mess. He might leave a bird or part of a bird. He would climb up and pretend to be stuck in the roof eaves meowing away pitifully to be rescued. When I got up to rescue him, he crawled backwards. I realised he was never stuck when meal time came and he jumped right out. One morning, we woke up to hear a strange sound. We then traced that sound to a tiny baby bat which could not fly. We were sure that Ivan must have taken the mother bat. I felt sorry enough to rush out to buy a bird cage so the baby bat be kept safe until it could fly again. I fed it with bananas. One morning I woke up to see that the cage door was opened, without Batty inside. I thought that was the end, especially in the apartment with Ivan the killer cat and two feisty kittens that my wife adopted a few weeks ago. Then I heard the squeaks and saw Batty hanging upside down from the edge of a suitcase. Batty was in between Ivan front paws. Ivan was positioning his body so the 2 kitties could not get to Batty to 'play'. I could hardly believed my eyes as now and then, Ivan turned and spit at the two kitties keeping them away. Ivan saw me playing enough with Batty to decide that Batty was family. And went on to protect her. Batty was placed back into the cage again. Her flights at the beginning was weak and erratic. Batty seemed to like me and hang about me when I did my thing. Her flight became more controlled and powerful. In a few weeks time, Batty flew off my balcony. Never to return. It struck me that Ivan knew who was family even if he was a killer. That was the incident that prompted me to decide if Tinkerbell could live together with Halftail the Bimbo and Zorro the ferret in Taiwan. And later decided that Dommie and Katie be introduced slowly to Riamfada. Ivan was also kind of psychic. I reported that in http://shanlung.com/ivan1.html Miles was chased away by a vicious neighbourhood tom cat. I trapped that tom cat and released him in another village 20 km away who complained in the papers rock pythons were eating their dogs and cats. I did not like pythons to be hungry. So that was why Ivan was with us and taken to Singapore where he lived with my mom in law periodically when we were living in Taiwan and other countries. When he was with us and I in Singapore, you seen how I would cook and prepare his meals. You have seen the way I prepared the food for him, even better than what I prepared for myself or for my wife. https://www.facebook.com/shanlung We both love Ivan very very much. Above is Ivan on my shoulder. That was during our return to Singapore in Oct 2004 after leaving Tinkerbell and Taiwan and fetching Ivan back from my mom in law. I thought he forgotten me but his leap up to my shoulder to curl himself around my neck showed me how much he love to have me back. That was the first time he did that to me. A couple of weeks ago, my wife told me that Ivan might be getting blind, banging his way about and not noticing my wife waving her hands in front of him. She told me Ivan did not seem to be in discomfort and able to find his way to the food, his litter box and his favourite sofa chair that he taken over. A few days ago, my wife told me Ivan seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. Then two days ago, my wife said Ivan refused to eat even though my wife spooned the wet food to his mouth. And that he wedged himself into a tight space. I told my wife to carry him to the bedroom where he spend so much time with us. This morning Riyadh time, and about noon Singapore time, Ivan was still alive. My wife did what I asked her to do. Scritch Ivan head and tell him that was from me and I love him very much. She then went to work. I called her about noon my time when she was just getting back to the apartment. She told me that our Ivan was no more with us. She told me a bit of her died. I felt a bit of me died too. They had been times I thought of leaving KSA and Ivan was part of the reason. Even though I felt that was coming over the last few days, the ending was very painful to me. I am happy enough that Ivan was not in pain and was with my wife that he loved very much.

Is personality unique to humans? I have seen how different Riamfada was from Tinkerbell. And the differences between the cats in my life. Now this article from BBC. And below taken from that article which might give you folks food for thoughts. Individual animals display different personalities across a range of species, including mammals,fish, birds, insects and molluscs These personality traits control whether individual animals are leaders or followers, bold or shy, aggressive or passive, for example. As with people, some animal's personalities change as they age [*] [*]What fascinate me was that those researchers found that even so-called low life forms like insects and molluscs have different personalities. [*]What more with parrots more intelligent than the great apes and dolphins. Kind of ludicrous that folks can think they know so much of parrots in general because they go through a behaviourlogyaeiou course/courses and therefore not only they know all but can tell all what their birds are like and should be like without seeing or knowing their birds. That no need to listen to your birds, just listen to them as they know all that is to be known. Reminded me of Victorian scientists who just gotten toe hold in analytical science and proud that their laboratories can refine substances and test substances to 99.99% purity. Should a computer silicon chip be given to them, they will test it and declare they know all that is to know about it and that the purity is 99.99% and strut around petting themselves on their back. They would not realise the purity of silicon in chip is 99.999999% and that it is the 0.000000001% impurity of less than made the silicon chip more than just silicon and gave it soul and brains.

Hi folks, I am still in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I got not thrown out for the color of my tie. Because after the first day when I went in tie and suit, I wore jeans after that and not wear tie. Not only peasants in Indonesia did free flights with peasant like folks in Taiwan without having to go to self styled experts , who miraculously becoming experts after going to lectures by experts and therefore qualified to teach selected folks Those people listen to their birds. Enough said. This time in Thailand. Folks from all walks of life, and probably do not speak a word of English but talk with their birds like what I have been advocating. Enjoy the sight of those birdies flying about and returning to their care givers.

Merry Christmas to you and all the folks here. This will be the last posting for a long time here. My retirement had been prematurely terminated. When I left to Nepal, I had a 3 months visa and thought I be there 3 months or so. While trekking in Annapurna, procrastination save me from being buried in Thorongla pass as Procrastinatia took 3 days from me. And when in Marpa , an email reached me making me an offer I cannot refused making me changed my plans and rushing down the mountains after just 6 weeks or so to get visas and paper work done. In a couple hours or so, I will be flying off to Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not likely I have the time and inclination to write for a long time after that. If I am not thrown out for color of my tie and I settle in and yearn for a birdie, that birdie might well be a falcon or hawk as I do have different ideas with them, the way my ideas had been different from most with birdies and beasties. He/she might well be yet another grey as I will not have the heart to walk away from one that needs me even if I can see the pain at the end of that chapter.

Tell the birdie to fly back. How about a request for a white rumped shama Yingshiong to go back into the flight room and back into the cage. This was taken after I was castigated for allowing a shama to fly and was told by self styled experts that to catch and put that shama into the cage will take hours and traumatised him to death. My telling them I just need to tell YS to fly back to the cage got hoots of laughters and accusation I lied on every thing as well. So this video was taken. Did not even need clicker training to do this ( but clicker training was the foundation and catalyst for our relationship to start) Oh yeah! This is a grey forum. So this is how I tell Riam to fly back to her room Been kept in her own room is not feared by Riamfada. She would fly back into her room when I asked her as you can see in this video. I gave her a hand, but I could take video of her flying back on her own when cued. https://flic.kr/p/8fiH92 Riamfada would fly to places when I cued her to do so. To the perch, to the bar, to the ring etc.

More mass free flights in Taiwan, to be frightened at, or to be enjoyed, or both. Apologies for my repeating my frequent repeats. But necessary in case some folks go and do what they see being done here. FREE FLIGHT IS LIFE AND DEATH PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF UNLESS YOU DO KNOW. NEVER EVER FREE FLY WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE AS THIS CAN LEAD TO LOSS AND DEATH OF YOUR BIRD.

Andanother extracted from my livejournal entry a couple years ago Lastfew photos of Jackie/Sieben and End of this chapter //Future fightwith Nic Thismorning I saw Sieben lying down by the computer room and far from theliving room. I positioned my wife with my camera, and I went to thesofa to call Sieben. Youcan see for yourself how Sieben responded to my cue to come, runningand pounding and leaping all the way to me. Took him longer than thesplit second, but do forgive Sieben as he was a lot further away. Ivanis a lot more laid back, and older at 20 years old. I just felt itbetter to let Ivan be and not harassed him with recalls the way I didwith Sieben. Ivan do periodically come to me when called. He alsowill come to me when not called.

Thiswas recently written into a kittie forum. And then I thought why notplace this too into beastie sections of birdie forums as well.Sohere it is. Since I did not manage to do 100 postings there yet, noURLs allowed. But I think you folks will generally agree a postingof mine contains probably more words then most others 100postings. So in this case, the URL included here too for thosewanting to see the extraction in its original context. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaa Extractedfrom my livejournal Fosteringtrust between Sieben and Jackie Siebenwould appear within the second of my calling for him. Eachtime and about every time. The one time he took a second, I felt hemust be doing his toiletry behind the kitchen and yet he ran andjumped out. Talkis cheap, and therefore a video taken of Sieben coming to me whencalled. Almostto split second, and almost as if he was waiting for my call. Sowho ever said a kitty will never be trained to come when called? Andanother extracted from my livejournal entry a couple years ago Lastfew photos of Jackie/Sieben and End of this chapter //Future fightwith Nic Thismorning I saw Sieben lying down by the computer room and far from theliving room. I positioned my wife with my camera, and I went to thesofa to call Sieben. Youcan see for yourself how Sieben responded to my cue to come, runningand pounding and leaping all the way to me. Took him longer than thesplit second, but do forgive Sieben as he was a lot further away. Ivanis a lot more laid back, and older at 20 years old. I just felt itbetter to let Ivan be and not harassed him with recalls the way I didwith Sieben. Ivan do periodically come to me when called. He alsowill come to me when not called. Video in next posting as only a video per posting

I wrote that so those who got chomped at leaving a bruise or even if blood spilling must pat their back that their birdie merely expressing displeasure at their line being crossed , I am sure with even earlier warnings from birdie thats not heeded. As related, marrow can flow if they so choose. No need to fear their beaks. But give them (beaks and birds) the respect and consideration that they deserved and must have and you be very ok.

I still have this vivid memory of a Taiwanese gentleman who was watching me very intently when I was doing recalls with Tink in the park. Seeing his obvious fondness, I walked over to him offering to let Tink perch on his hand or arm. He stepped back violently from me and turned a shade of white I never seen in any Chinese. He told me he was so frightened for me to see Tink flying to me and landing on my shoulder. He then apologised showing me his hand with thumb and 3 1/2 finger on it. His grey that he loved like a son took off half a finger. He told me he still love his grey very much. I thought only bigger birdies like 2s and M could do that. Until I seen his hand, I never thought medium size birdie like CAG could take out a finger, ok, half a finger. I think thats more important than whatever lb of pressure that a grey can apply. He recovered physically. I hoped he recovered mentally by now 14 years or so later.

BaliLombok and Komodo dragons Part 1 of 2 http://shanlung.livejournal.com/146090.html BaliLombok and Komodo dragons Part 2 of 2 http://shanlung.livejournal.com/146549.html

I thought an old posting I did long time back in this forum still apply. My old friend did not realised how lucky he was to get back his grey gone two times already. So his greys did do free flights. The birdies you saw truly free flying about in Taiwan were a lot safer than that kept by my old friend not cued even to step up on a perch. You all might have noticed no toys and foot toys can be seen. And I thought too agonising for me even to try to teach him as his attitude was that he knew a lot. He was surprised enough that his M2 step up readily on my hand that he probably thought was a fluke. He never thought of joining the many parrot forums where he might have learn a bit more and seen a bit more of me and realised he knew that bit less than what he thought he knew. Below is a letter I wrote in another forum just a few days ago (actually a long time back) which I think has its place in this thread, to minimise the nightmarish time. That was for a birdie Echo who flew away, and with a happy ending of being rescued. I high lighted a line there. That was highlighted before in bold, but I enlarged that font as well here. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa The strange part is that the BULK of escaping birdies were birdies with clipped wings , not fully flighted birdies. Even more strange is that more birdies are kept fully flighted now, at least from the polls I seen. Surely, shouldn't it be the other way? That more birdies that are fully flighted be lost instead of birdies that are clipped forming the bulk of lost birdies? It is not the scissors that prevent unwanted escapees. More often than not, that lead to undeserved complacency. Consider how my saga with Riamfada started. She was clipped, and assymetrically clipped on just one wing. A clipping designed to cause imbalance to birdie and about the worse of clipping. She flew away and landed in a garden with very high walls around it to be rescued by a lady. She looked and asked around the entire neighbourhood. She was a very determined lady walking about the neighbourhood to find whose grey it was. So it was likely Riamfada flew into her garden from a much further place. She then gave her to my care. So not only Riam flew far away with clipped wings, but flew high enough to get over a high wall. I guess as Riam was a wild caught, she retained enough of her flying knowledge to overcome those clipping done on her. And as birdies have clipped wings, that would make it almost impossible for them to fly down. Flying down is a lot lot lot more difficult than flying up. And as clipped birds probably had never been allowed to fly at all, they do not know how to turn and fly in any controlled way by them. Flying up is about all they can do. That is the reality. Not what most folks love to think. But strangely, folks who clipped birdies and never known of them flying seemed to know so much more about flighted birdies than I do. And so fond of asking one and all to reach for those scissors to crunch off those feathers on the wings. Their one infallible solution to any and all problems. It is ok for folks. But its the lost birdies that will pay the price. What chance have they got? Never knowing how to fly with control? Barely enough feathers to fly and no feathers for flight control? Clipped birds lost outdoors will in almost all likelihood escaped with a death warrant tied to their clipped wings. Do remember that whenever you reached for that scissors. If Echo was clipped, instead of having all her feathers, Echo would not have been back and likely to have died instead. Flighted birds, and birds knowing flight, lost outdoors will survive a lot better than birds clipped. It is the knowledge and care and attention to details that keep your birdie safe with you. Nothing else. Think about it. Go and clip and hope you beat the odds. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and a follow up letter from me which hopefully can help those with escaped birdies. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Needless to say, I am so happy you got Echo back! I will not, and never will, wish even the worse villian on Earth be him Hitler or Osama or my ex mother in law , that they lost a birdie, especially a grey. The pain and anguish is so incredible and impossible to bear that it defied words and description. Now that you got Echo back, can you ever recall the pain and depth of despair that you had when you first saw Echo winging off? Its just not possible now. That pain was too great and utterly impossible for you to replicate in your heart now with Echo's return. As for Echo on top of tree and not flying down to you, I believe that you missed what I wrote on getting a lost birdie back. If you had, you might have saved yourself quite a bit of pain and gotten Echo back earlier. It is too long and too detailed to copy and paste here. You should read it, as you never know if you ever need it again. After all, Murphy is everywhere. shanlung: Angkor Wat & stuff// Wife to say hi to Domdom and Riamfada// Search & recovery of your lost birdie aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Mike, the Daddie of Echo, agreed if he read that , and the 45 degree rule, he probably would have gotten Echo back a lot earlier instead of begging Echo directly under him on the branch. But I do understand folks with a birdie up on a tree or building find it more gratifying to grovel and beg directly under the birdie to fly back, not realising that only a birdie highly trained and experienced in flight can do a flight directly downwards.

Just saw a Whatsapp note from my friend send to me yesterday but noticed only today. Saw he got his grey back. Called him to get details that his son got the grey with clipped wings which flew up the 10 meter hill behind his house after circling behind the house to end up in neighbour property. Yes! tell me again grey with clipped wings that cannot fly! He was lucky he got that birdie back. I took the opportunity to tell him to do himself and me a big favour by keeping the cages inside the house. That at least the birdies will not have direct access to the great blue yonder. He told me he will consider that very seriously. Sigh!!!!

I thought I add photos to show the birdies of my friend. That CAG that flew off a couple months ago and that M2. You see the cages located under a covered veranda which open out to the big blue yonder outside the house. The more I know, the more I hurt.

Ah yes! Steve Martin, one of the better trainer, or should I say, trainee of the birdies. I think you all can gauge for yourself how similar my approach is to Steve. There is another side of the coin too. I had a call yesterday from a friend of childhood days. A couple months ago, I had another call from him. His CAG, with clipped wings, flew off. And on a tree in his garden unable to come down. I shot off my primer on how to get lost birdie back to him Search & recovery of your lost birdie . I advise him over the phone to keep birdie in sight and do not drag ladder and stuff to scare her. Get stuff to encourage her to fly down and maintain 45 degree slope. A couple of hours, she flew down. That call from him woke me up yesterday morning. Followed by a wanted poster to my XiaoMi WhatsApp of yet a different CAG. I took a cab over as I thought that CAG (with clipped wings) flew off that morning. And then found out I did not read his wanted poster to have found she flew off on Saturday. Found in his house (or rather cage) a beautiful M2 or Pink2(Cacatua moluccensis) and that earlier CAG. Birdies are his son living with him, but loved by him and wife and daughter. I know well enough the traumatic pain of a loss of a birdie. If I was called on the same day, his chances of getting back the birdie would be that much better. Except he told me he felt so bad that day he dared not call me then. I told him his CAG is 99.9% in the hands of someone else who will not give him back. No point even to look. I tried to impress on him how vital it was to have a flight room where proper interactions with birdie can proceed and go at least into recalls. My heart skipped a few beats when he took out the M2 that he told me was clipped. He was beautiful and willingly stood on my wrist. I much rather M2 be taken out into an environment where perimeters were all protected. I reckoned his house would be worth about $30 million at least so he was not short in pocket. I accept that he love his birds and so do the rest of the family. But clipping of wings is not the best way of looking after the birdies. But I could not keep stressing that point and perhaps driving a fear into him that would force those birdies to remain rest of their lifes in little cages without interactions with those that love them. Strange part is that what I write are read largely by you and folks of other countries and not by my own childhood friends. Unless with their toes hold to fire. Even childhood friends with birdies do not want to read what could have saved them a world of hurt. Yet strangely, it is not the flight birds on free flights that you have seen that went missing. More often than not, those that go missing are birdies with clipped wings. Like my friend's CAG that I went to help locate yesterday. I will dread the day when I received a call of a missing M2 from him.

More for your viewing pleasure and for those not paranoid at watching this. Not only not all birdies are suitable for this. Not all humans are suitable for this either. And when those two combined, even that much less so. That being said, the right combination is possible. Such as below. I think it is better to accept that then to deny all possiblity of that.

Take a look at this setup for alternative areas for your birdie to hang out on in addition to you. Shanlung foraging for birdies //

I might have been the catalyst when I started flying Tinkerbell in Taiwan and riding with her on my bike 14 and more years ago. Birdies were almost all clipped in Taiwan 14 years ago TV clips had been made of me increasing my exposure to even more than the thousands who had seen of me and Tink as we went out everyday and every weekend. Try to seat somewhere firm before you see these couple of videos. Do not judge how he kept his birdies. Do not EEE or EKKK at their cages. See that bunch of CAGs that he got and stuffed into the carrier like pigeons. Remember they the birdies, have a choice of not coming back. And he is doing this on a daily basis. You all can use the youtube features to see other free flights done in Taiwan. They went a lot further than me now. Groups of them regularly go to parks with their macaws and 2s and conures and AGs to free fly. Below is a video of a group of free fliers with mass start. You can see they from all walks of life. Enjoy the video. Remember that free flying without the knowledge and understanding can lead to death of your bird. So do not do free flight in the open. Allowing your birdie to fly safely at home give them all the benefits without the risk of Murphy and gang saying hello to you.

End of Dubai chapter// Colugo again // Yingshiong Reunion & Tinkerbell // Taijichuan at Koh Phagnan http://shanlung.livejournal.com/145170.html Tinkerbell2014 http://shanlung.livejournal.com/145458.html

Looking after the physical needs of the birdie is the most minor of the needs to be fulfilled. The mental needs and emotional needs of the birdie must also be taken care of. Listen to your heart as you go about the bird shops or breeders. I think I must have seen about 20 to 30 birdie when I came across Tinkerbell. There and then, I knew she was mine, and there and then, I knew her name. She lived with me and she flew with me in the apartment and the countryside of Taiwan Perhaps what I wrote here might give you an idea of how to live with a flighted cag. http://shanlung.livejournal.com/8284.html And perhaps you might like to do that too. And the most important post I ever made on grey, and which might help you decide if living with a grey is for you. Rant 03 (a flighted parrot mentality) & Understanding the mind of your grey

Beautiful picture of birdie with beasties & Grey wings! I cannot believe that safety of birdies can ever rely on eternal vigilance like what some others said. I understand my own inadequacies much better than anyone else. And know for sure eternal vigilance on my part is a pipe dream. I had to foster friendship between beasties and birdies to paper up the gaps in my vigilance. And records showed that I was so glad I did that. That started when Ivan, my certified killer cat in Hong Kong, protected a baby bat, and which made me decided kitties do understand what is family. Best described here. Dubai trip //Ivan & Batty // Roundabout come. http://shanlung.livejournal.com/105465.html Extract from above Above is Ivan on my shoulder. That was during our return to Singapore in Oct 2004 after leaving Tinkerbell and Taiwan and fetching Ivan back from my mom in law. I thought he forgotten me but his leap up to my shoulder to curl himself around my neck showed me how much he love to have me back. That was the first time he did that to me. Ivan was with us in Hongkong. He was kind of psychic. I reported that in http://shanlung.com/ivan1.html Ivan was also a killer cat. At least once a month, he would leave his 'gifts' to me. I had seen him chittering and chirpping to attract birds and then leaping up 2 meters to pluck the bird from the air. One morning, we woke up to hear a strange sound. We then traced that sound to a tiny baby bat which could not fly. We were sure that Ivan must have taken the mother bat. I felt sorry enough to rush out to buy a bird cage so the baby bat be kept safe until it could fly again. I fed it with bananas. One morning I woke up to see that the cage door was opened, without Batty inside. I thought that was the end, especially in the apartment with Ivan the killer cat and two feisty kittens that my wife adopted a few weeks ago. Then I heard the squeaks and saw Batty hanging upside down from the edge of a suitcase. Batty was in between Ivan front paws. Ivan was positioning his body so the 2 kitties could not get to Batty to 'play'. I could hardly believed my eyes as now and then, Ivan turned and spit at the two kitties keeping them away. Ivan saw me playing enough with Batty to decide that Batty was family. And went on to protect her. Batty was placed back into the cage again. Her flights at the beginning was weak and erratic. Batty seemed to like me and hang about me when I did my thing. Her flight became more controlled and powerful. In a few weeks time, Batty flew off my balcony. Never to return. It struck me that Ivan knew who was family even if he was a killer. That was the incident that prompted me to decide if Tinkerbell could live together with Halftail the Bimbo and Zorro the ferret in Taiwan. And later decided that Dommie and Katie be introduced slowly to Riamfada. In the last report of Ivan & Batty, I wrote how by accident, Dommie was locked into Riamfada's room with Riamfada. Since Riam would be placed back into her room when it was dark so she could sleep, I never switched on the light in her room. I relied on the lights in the adjacent room to shine into her room for me to see. I checked all the time for kitty in her room. That particular evening, I checked for kitty. But the lights in the adjacent room was not on. I was in hurry, and check not made consientiously. I placed Riam on the bar stand, said goodnight, and closed the door and went back to the living room. Later on, my wife heard meowing, but did not tell me that as she thought it was Riamfada meowing away. I was a bit annoyed at my wife for not paying heed to dinner appointments that she set and we had to rush off with me chewing her head off. If she told me she heard meows, I would have told her that Riamfada was sleeping and would not have meowed. So it was when we returned from dinner to hear meowing from Riamfada's room to my great shock. I opened her door fearing the worse as you all know Riamfada was never locked in her cage (other than once when she did a flying lunge at my wife ) to have Dommie rushing out. Riamfada was not touched at all in that 3 hours being locked in together with Dommie. Riam was spooky the next morning, flying immediately out of her room the next morning when I opened the door. I then saw that Dommie had pulled off that cloth cover placed on that orange cat carrier in Riam's room last night. You all knew how Riam hated that orange carrier. I used the carrier to protect the speakers I left in her room piping in music for her. No single incident should have happened. But Murphy arranged for a host of incidents. The fight with my wife, not checking carefully that night , etc etc. I was glad I invested the time and efforts to get Riam and kitties to know and accept each other instead of relying on vigilance alone. It is a fact you cannot remain vigilant all the time day after day, month after month, year after year. A few days ago, Riamfada flew into the kitchen. On the counter next to Dommie. That would have made me paranoid enough to separate them earlier on. But after Dommie was locked in Riam's room for 3 hours, I decided I need not be that paranoid of Dom and Riam anymore. If Dom wanted to kill Riam, he would have done so then (I still a bit paranoid of Katie though as she is flacky) And even when I thought I failed as with Sieben and Jackie in trying to foister friendship between them, I actually succeeded. Their snaring and insulting and screaming at each other separated by wire meshing was a huge joke at my expense. With that kind of display, I thought only my vigilance kept either one alive. My vigilance was an illusion. Goodby to Jackie http://shanlung.livejournal.com/139256.html Extract from above My last entry was on 3rd March 2012, a couple of days before I flew to Dhaka. It was not long before I realised my stay there would be short. I was there for about a month and came back to Singapore. My wife looked Jackie and the beasties. I had hoped Jackie would bond better with my wife but that did not happened. As expected, I was ignored by beasties and birdie the first day I was back. Then it was like before. Except Jackie got a lot more bolder with Sieben. From time to time, Sieben would make a rush to the wire screen when Jackie was on the armchair. To my surprise, Jackie flew to the screen to scream and scold Sieben. My hope for ever loving friendship between the 2 of them got dimmer and dimmer. I tried to foster friendship, in between the rushing of Sieben passed my intervening hands. Even Ivan could not resist batting at Jackie especially as Jackie took to landing on the arm chair that Ivan slept in. How could I tell Jackie that he should not be too cheeky with Ivan. I had to grit my teeth and let Jackie learned. I then gave up all hope that they could be friends. It seemed that only my presence and my vigilance allowed Jackie to remain alive should the 2 kitties be about. Then about a month ago, my laptop complained and complained after I did an installation of Microsoft that I was told was absolutely important to stop virus and shit from hitting my laptop. It got to the point I had to restore the Operating System to the point before I did those installation. So in between referring between Sieben and Jacki in the living room, I came to the PC room to see if I got back my laptop and access to the internet. At about 4pm, I rejoiced to find I got back the Internet. I loaded up my chess interface and found it worked again. I was so happy as for 3-4 days, I did not play chess. I played with a vengence. Games after games after games. Ivan came to my ankle to complain he was hungry. I kicked him in the head especially his clawing me at my ankle made me lost a game. Sieben came and did a mock fight with Ivan near my ankles with claws flashing away. The threat of claws cutting me to the marrow was real. I had to rush to the kitchen to pour them kibbles all loaded with etoxyquin and BHA/BHT. I had no time to fix their mash. In time, I got hungry. So I fixed dinner for myself. Took my dinner to the living room to eat at about 8 pm. It took me 5 minutes to realised the sliding door to Jackie was left wide opened. No Jackie was flying about. I quickly look about the living room to see if blood was all over. Then I went into the flight room and saw no feathers and blood on the floor. Then I looked into the corner of the cage. And saw Jackie sleeping there. That for 4 hours, and even when the kitties were hungry, Jackie was left alone. All the earlier attempts by Sieben to catch Jackie was to bamboozled me because I was watching out for that. I slide the door shut. I was glad that I tried to make Sieben accept Jackie as friends. The fierce fights those two did , the insults those two gave each other had not resulted into blood death and gore when my vigilance proved to be less than eternal. And it happened a couple more times since then.

Please forget about a warm cuddly chick to bond with you. In long term, that is not good for the birdie , or for you. What prompted me to write mentality of grey // Imprinting of birds// Riamfada was about 5-6 years old, and wild caught. She was bitey and fearful when she first came to me. Within a week, she flew to me on recall cues , and sleep on my hands on her back in a couple weeks later. You can see early photos of Riam and how even single wing chopping of feathers did not prevent her from flying away from earlier owner ending up into my care. Karmic retribution on Katie and Riamfada trust In above, I thought Riamfada was a him until she showed her bitchiness to confirm Riam a she. For that birdie, or any birdie, follow what your heart tells you and you be ok.