Chris and I, with Lorne's help, now seem to have a Friday routine for getting out of the house in good time. I collect everything that needs to go to the van and put it by the door - survival gear, rubber boots, coffee, etc. Lorne takes all of it out to the van while I collect Chris and my car keys and put a coat on. Then we're gone. It takes about ten minutes to get to the Refuge. The first thing I do is find a place for Chris to spend the day. This week, there was no room in the medical room, so Chris spent the day in an empty cage where Michele volunteers. The staff member there is the kind of young man that you'd love your daughter to bring home. He's quiet, well mannered, loves the birds and works hard. I knew that Chris would be in good hands.
From there, I returned a plastic bag to the gift shop where I'd bought some of the parrot painted cards last week. Then I ran over to the owner's place with all the unused syringes that the vet had given me for draining Missy's water cyst. I figured that she would have more use for them than I would now. I also wanted to get photos of December's bird and staff person for the brochure before I started my work for the day. So, I asked a staff member to get and hold Tilly for me to photograph. Done. The staff person for December's brochure was camera shy. But I asked him for 5 minutes for photos and information which he reluctantly agreed to allow me. Done, but poorly. I'll have to ask him for new photos again this week. His favourite bird, a Molluccan named Peaches, enjoys playing catch as many parrots do. He throws; you catch...over and over again. He was up high on the small birds' flight. Staff would throw this hard plastic toy up to the top and Peaches would toss it back down. Then he gave me the toy to throw up to Peaches which I did. In all fairness to me, I was out of practice. I threw the toy up. It hit the top edge of the flight and returned to the ground, richocheting off the staff member's forehead first. I left amidst apologies.
I believe I told you that I had turned to my mentor for some help in figuring out why I'm being bitten so often and what to do about it. To further analyze just what's happening, I had decided to enter the Cockatoo compound at different times from each of the two doors, to proceed to Bertie's and Babe's enclosures each time and to try to note where the biters were and what they were doing right before they headed for me. So that's what I did. What I found out is that at a distance, almost every Moluccan Cockatoo looks alike. For example, I had no idea which Moluccan was Idaho before noticing which one was headed for me. I did notice that little Mango was on his high perch close to the kitchen door and he recognizes me from a distance. The other thing I noticed was a few fresh drops of blood on the floor. I told staff who went for a manager and within minutes, there were four of us scanning the floor for more blood and all the flyers up high looking for one favouring a foot. We figured, correctly it turned out that one of the birds had pulled a blood feather or had a toe pinched. It was an Amazon who had one toenail tip bitten off. A staff member up on a ladder with a sheet got him down and over to get treatment. With the four of us looking for that bird, it only took a few minutes to find him. Everyone stayed calm and took an area of the room to search. It really was quite orderly...and reassuring. The other event of note that I'll mention is that at one point while we were looking for the injured birds, I noticed the manager walking around with this large green rag over her head and trying to search keeping her back to a cage as much as possible. Confused, I asked her what she was doing. She showed me an Umbrella Cockatoo who takes exception to her presence in his area. He flies at her and bites. He doesn't do it to anyone else, just her. Just...like...Idaho...with...me...!!! Annnnnnnnd, there is another Umbrella Cockatoo, this time in Babe's enclosure, who does that with a staff member!!! Now I don't know just what all this means. But I'm certainly going to share those observations with Susan. With all the excitement over, I got to work washing dishes and cleaning counters and shelves. I had great visits with the girls both before and after my work. Then I collected Chris and we headed home.
Since we moved, every so often we find something we thought must have been left behind in Scarborough, because we cannot find it here. Until last week that's what I thought had happened to my postal scale that I weigh the birds on. I found it last week in with my pots and pans. Anyway, my cooking scale that I've been using to weigh Chris, isn't too shabby. Chris' weight is very close on both. She's 571g now...and her droppings are much more normal now.
Talk to you again soon, Mom.
Love,
Pat
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