Wow. It's a good thing I was working late. Everyone was gone and, absorbed in my work, I didn't realize how late it was. I looked up to see Pippin standing atop a grape-vine wreath toy that we bought about a month ago. He was just standing there as he often does, atop it... but then I realized--he was stuck. His foot was caught somehow.

I went to look. A twig from the grapevine wreath had slid and then jammed into his leg band. No one else home, and what to do? The toy was zip-tied to the bars, and the scissors were nowhere to be seen. I fought panic as I looked around my study for them, and then Pippin began to struggle to get free, especially as I was about to leave the room to get scissors.

Cautiously, I put my hand in to see if I could break the twig off to free him, but no dice. Pippin started BITING my hand, and grabbed it with his other claw and HELD ON. I finally--after blood-drawing bites--got free of him, left the room for one minute praying madly, and then saw the strong scissors on my art-teacher daughter's bedroom desk. I grabbed them, and approached the cage. Luckily, Pippin was just standing there. He didn't freak out. MY heart was pounding, and I was praying hard. As I approached the cage, he shied and struggled as he saw the scissors coming at his feet. YIKES!

I knew I was going to get bitten again, and hard, but the adrenaline carried me through. I put my hand in, and Pippin latched on with his beak and i managed to cut the twig that held his foot and pull him (with it still lodged in his leg band) out. By God's grace, the leg seemed uninjured!

I held him on my hand and we both calmed down. He was bothered by the twig caught in the band (about 2" long), but growled at me when I tried to touch it. Then, in a twinkling, it was all over. He simply took it and slid it out from the band and was FREE! Trembling in every limb, with a VERY bloody, throbbing thumb--there are at least five separate, deep wounds--I cuddled my boy and thanked the Lord. Then, I put him down and took the scissors to the zip ties, and yanked that toy right out of the cage.

A few minutes more of cuddles, and letting him walk around on a leg that really seems thoroughly fine, I put him to bed.

What I'm probably MOST grateful for is that Pippin has always been a "sane" caique. Whether at the vet or getting toenails clipped, or during harness training, he just doesn't freak out. *I* do! Most often, in emergency situations like that, I can really react badly. In the midst of it, I kept praying for the strength I knew I didn't have to keep working to free Pippin even if he was going to be injured. In the end, we were both calm--I knew it was ALL up to me (with God's help, of course, but no other humans around)--and I am truly amazed that I was able to free him and that he didn't injure himself as far as I can tell. He stood on the leg, walked about, hopped, etc. I don't even mind that I was so badly bitten now that Pippin is safe. I'm just thanking my good God for help in a real time of need!

OH: PS... I was going to go out tonight with my hubby on a speaking engagement, but we both just felt "led" for me to stay home tonight. Guess now I now why. Thank you, Jesus!

Pippin has a number!

Pippin turns 1 today! It's his hatch day. :D

I am SO glad that I chose this species of parrot. His size, his playfulness, his coloring--all are daily delights to me and to my family. Because of his excellent early care at breeders' (DJ Feathers), Pippin is extremely well socialized. We have our daily routines, and yet we have our fun surprises and new enduring antics that keep us in stitches.

Happy hatch day, Pippin! Thanks for all the joy so far, and may you have many more!

Jack Jaws

So, another classic from the caique forum to share. This is Jack, who is a rescued bird and has terrorize many of his new mommy's favorite people, like her son. They discovered that preening Jack helped a LOT: he was so ticked off from molting when he came. Still, no one is safe. There's a linen closet in the home where there are some nice comfy blankets piled, and Jack found them this week and claimed them for his own. This is what happened when daddy Mark did not respect Jack's new space and privacy. Enjoy--with the sound up, please!!!

Stuck like glue!

If Pippin doesn't want to stop interacting with us lately, there's not a whole lot that we can do! See how he sticks like glue to us as we try to put him down by watching Sarah's demo:

New feathers and sounds...

OK, Pippin is giving me even MORE reasons to smile lately.

First (and this is both cute AND annoying) we had a smoke detector battery go bad in the very early AM right before vaca. It did that chirp... chirp... chirp... thing every ten minutes until my sleepy husband found and disabled it. Well, right before we left, in the morning, guess what sound Pippin can PERFECTLY mimic now? I do NOT encourage this by laughing at it, but it is SO cute, especially 'cause he does it when he's tentative... so, usually looking up, kinda crouched, and "chirp!" So cute!

Secondly, he's doing his first big molt and his new, white belly feathers are coming in. But, they're coming in what I think is an interesting pattern. They are coming in in a "V" shape about halfway down his waistcoat first. Odd, but CUTE! Here he is as a baby, maybe 1 month ago, not sure:



Here he was a week ago, the night before vaca:


See the brand new white feathers coming in? He's also been growing newer, more vibrant feathers all around his neck and jowels, as you can see from the two pics. It's even more pronounced now that they're fully out a week later. Look below:



Last, since returning from vaca at my friend, Deb's house, he's also learned a new sound: he perfectly mimics a squeaky toy. In-out squeek, in-out sqeek! SO cute!

Jeckle/Hyde day

So, Pippin has become more and more comfortable with being on his back and being lovingly scritched by me as a sort of gentle play/lovin' time. He started by doing it in my lap (on a towel that I keep handy as a poop shield) and lately he'll let me hold him in my hand above my lap while I scritch under his wings and on his head/neck. VERY sweet.

Today, we had our scritch time as usual, and then I HAD to get back to computer work. I was sitting in my recliner, and he crawled up on my chest, under my chin, and sort of settled there. My music was on softly, and I was concentrating on my writing. He started to chirp and whistle softly to the music, I wrote my article, he chirped more. He was very still. This went on for about a half an hour. SO sweet! I was entranced.

Well, then, he woke up. He started climbing around and finally went up the side of my laptop monitor while I wasn't paying much attention. Up there, he started to mutilate those bumps of hard rubber that keep the top from slamming down on the lower part of the computer. I awoke to the damage and said, "No, Pippin." He trilled, "Oh, yes, Mom, I sure WILL!!!!" I knew he would bite me if I used my hands, so I grabbed a pen and took him off the monitor.

This is a video of another caique (JoJo) who is having a tantrum because she's being denied her will. It was here that I learned to use the pen in order to assert my will. Pippin wasn't this bad, but he was starting down the road:



Pippin's tantrum wasn't that long. We had a brief argument. I put him in birdie jail.

For the uninitiated, here's what I've learned about birdie jail from my beloved Caique Forums:

"I read an article by an avian vet, who puts his birds in birdie jail when they act in undesirable ways. He explains why they are going there, then says birdie jail, and puts them in for a few minutes. Once they've calmed down, he takes them out. We've been doing this with Taz for about a month now, and it's a godsend! He is so well behaved now, and he rarely goes in anymore - the threat of birdie jail is enough. As a note though, we have a sleep cage in another room, without toys, so that's where he goes - not his big cage in our area. He's isolated for about 2-3 minutes. It sounds harsh, but it works!

"A new addition to this story - he's usually in birdie jail for screaming. Today, my husband was playing a video game with bombs going off. Taz hopped over to him, looked him over, and said, "Your going to birdie jail!" He now understands that if your loud, it's birdie jail. They definitely are smart - and anyone who says otherwise has obviously never had a chance to meet a parrot!"

So, Pippin went to birdie jail for an hour (as it turned out) and came out a better bird for it. Caiques can be sweeter than pie one minute, and then stronger and more stubborn than dirt two minutes later. That's the way with these great birdies: wouldn't change a thing!

Wolf whistles in the shower

So, no video of this one! ;)

I have had Pippin about six weeks and have been waiting to make sure that he's sure of foot before I put him on a perch in the shower. Don't want him to fall like Nani did and hurt himself. Until now, he's had spray baths on the bathroom counter while my husband and I take showers. Then he surfs his towel while we employ ours. He's very happy to do morning grooming with us.

Recently, I decided he was ready, so my husband put him way high up on the shower curtain rod to look down upon us as we showered. Also recently, Pippin mastered my personal signal for him (my flocking call) which is a wolf whistle. He definitely associates me with that call, and he does it when he gets excited about seeing me, particularly. He has my tone, pitch, and cadence down perfectly.

Well this morning was hilarious! Pippin was up on the shower curtain bar, walking (strutting?) back and forth and looking down at my husband, Scott, and wolf-whistling repeatedly. Scott is kind of modest, so he was a little weirded out by my whistle coming from the bird above. Then, I started laughing, and Pippin started to mimic my laugh, and then the whistle again. Then Scott started laughing, and Pipping was whistling, cackling, and whistling again. We laughed so hard that tears were rolling down our cheeks and our adult daughters (getting ready in the adjoining bathroom of our townhouse) wanted to know what was so funny!?

Pippin is such a joy! How did we ever bathe without him?