If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

Credit: petparrotsweb.com

This is another bird, but a good illustration of our green cheek conure, Cricket.  Jean started hand-feeding him the day after he was hatched, so she's quite emotionally attached to the little demon.  I feel bad for her, because of that, when he starts on yet another caper.  He's an extremely intelligent bird with a penchant for the devious and destructive.  In other words, he's too smart for his own good.  I call him Shoebox, which Jean doesn't appreciate, for what should be his next home--any time now.  Yesterday morning, within a couple minutes of when we set them out for the day, he ate the clothespin off his door, opened it, and let himself out.  We spent the entire day watching him flit from tree to tree, and became more sure as time passed, that we weren't getting him back.  The only light moment was when he tried some of the local cuisine, some green and barely formed cherries.  They must have really been sour, because they made him shudder from head to tail as he shook his head and spit them out.  He sat through a thunderstorm that passed along toward evening, but as it started to get dark, he began getting really hungry.  He came down and landed on Jean's leg as she stood holding his food dish.  She picked him up without any protest, and finally got him back in his cage.  All we had besides clothespins was some cord, so we tied the doors shut with that last night and again this morning, and within 15 minutes he had cut it off, so Jean sat by the cage while I went out looking for maleable wire to wire the doors shut.  Have you ever noticed that the one thing you need is the only thing the stores don't carry when you need it?  The doors have been secured, but he's out there now chewing on the wire.