Dorian's Brave New World

[Acappella]

So, we moved into this house 9 years ago.  Here, Dorian's cage is in the master bedroom, down the hall from the open concept living space.  Now, I'll admit to sometime being a bad bird mommie.  Sometimes, in the morning, I sit and have a cup of tea in peace before I get Dorian and bring him out for the day.  Well, apparently he got tired of waiting for me one morning, and decided to climb off his cage and walk down the hall to find me!  You could have knocked me over with one of his feathers when I saw him at my feet!  He's so confident and cheeky.  He bears no resemblance to the timid, frightened parrot I re-homed almost 17 years ago, and it does my heart good, even if I now have to watch my feet in the morning.

[SRSeedBurners]

We used to have a similar setup with the birdroom down the hall away from the living room/kitchen area.   It was too easy to just leave them all asleep for a bit while we got out of our zombie state in the morning.    Now that we no longer have a birdroom and they are all smack in the dining room, there's no avoiding them.   Plus, my two Greys sleep in the bedroom with us now.   GreycieMae is on a step ladder that has a monster living under it, and Huey has his own rolling perch.  They now make note of our coming and going in the middle of the night and if it's near 5-6am, you might as well get Huey up.  Greycie likes to sleep in though and will stay put until 7am if I'm being lazy.

[Timbersmom]

Timber has been known to get on the floor and come looking for us if we aren't in the same room as he is. He doesn't fly, but doesn't hesitate to cruise around on the floor. I'm convinced he doesn't realize he isn't human anyway, so probably thinks nothing of walking about like the rest of us. The only problem is, he really hates feet. This isn't a problem unless I'm wearing sandals. He is compelled to go after my toes if they are bare! We sleep on the second floor and he sleeps on the first. He hears us stirring in the morning and probably vocalizes more then than any other time during the day. If he doesn't think we are moving quickly enough to get downstairs, he runs through his whole vocabulary of speech, plus most of his mimic noises and whistle patterns.

I rehomed him nine years ago, and like you Acappella I'm thrilled with the progress we've made over the years. During the first year, there were so many times I despaired of ever having a relationship with him. He was terrified and untrusting. I'd give a lot to know what he went through previously, but can't honestly say how many homes he was in before he came here.

[Inara]

Dorian is a champ!! Gosh, nine years have flown by! (pun intended hee).  HRH sleeps in her home cage that is on the other side of an adjoining wall to our bedroom. A few years ago, she decided that she loved to be covered at night. I called the cover, her "night night." Well, she loves it and depending on whether it is daylight savings time or not, she likes to go "night night" at about 5 PM but will pipe up with comments from the peanut gallery as we are having our dinner and going about our own evening routines, but settles completely down into a great snooze by 6PM. 

In the winter, she starts stirring at 7 a.m. and if we do not hustle to uncover her, after she has said, "Good morning out there" in a sweet little voice, she will then switch to a sharp whistle and if that does not work, then it  is her pterodactyl shriek!  However, I am usually up most mornings by 5:30 or 6:00 so I have to sneak past her and go through the big open area and into the kitchen to make coffee, then sneak back. If she gets any hint I am up -- there's no avoiding letting her out for the day. 

She will fly to come look for us, or get this:  We have an open balcony that overlooks the downstairs where there is a sunroom that we use for our exercise equipment. She  will walk to the edge of the balcony and poke her head through the balusters to peer down to see what might be going on down there. If one of us is down there, she will just throw herself off the balcony and then flutter down. The first time she did it, she talked herself through it. 1st she gave her danger sound which is like tchoo tchoo! Then she said, "OK. OKaaaay. OK" and tossed herself over. She reminded me of someone about to skydive for the first time.  

Other times she will walk to come find us. Anytime she is on the floor she will give her danger sound then a sharp whistle. She can really walk fast, too when she wants to. There is something so heartwarming when our greybies come to look for us. Melts my heart. 

[neoow]

I love all of the stories of your greys seeking you out!

Alfie's main cage is in the living room - which is open plan with the dining room and kitchen. I have two cats so when he is out of his cage I have to shut them upstairs and he gets the downstairs. He mostly amuses himself but if I start cooking dinner he'll usually fly over to the dining table to see what I'm up to and if I go back to the sofa he'll usually fly back over to his shelves above the sofa or he'll come and join me on the sofa. It's very cute to have a bird shaped shadow following me around.

He has a second smaller cage upstairs in one of my spare bedrooms where the computer is so that we can keep each other company whilst I work from home. If I have a quieter day then I'll let him out in the room but have to keep the door shut because of the cats. He has a java tree on my desk and another shelf to play on, plus the play top on his cage, which he still doesn't particularly like being on. He'll often come and sit on the back of my chair to supervise me at work.