Tuesday, August 16, 2011

For the Birds

Vinnie and Shakira have a new house. Letting them fly free, I finally decided, was a disastrous move. I've endured seven months of cleaning up bird shirt and nursing half-eaten palms (WHY don't they like lettuce and broccoli? The books say they should). Enough.

The issue with their original cage (the lovely Victorian number that baby bought me for Christmas that inspired this whole...bird thing) is that Vinnie pretty quickly found that she could wriggle through the bars.



So the other day The Prince and I returned to the pet store and purchased a reasonably attractive LARGE WHITE CAGE with narrow bars and enough room for them to wing about a little and hop between branches and suspended it from a plant hook in the corner, where they could gaze out the window and commune with the cardinals and doves and whatnots.

I figured I'd leave the door open and let them come and go as they please for a while... gradually getting them accustomed to a locked down life -- but the strange thing is, they like it.  They spend most of the day on one or another perch, sitting so tightly wing to wing that if you're looking at them sideways they appear to be a single bird.

Every once in a while, now for instance, one or the other (Vinnie at the moment) will sit in the open hatchway, hunched over like a gargoyle downspout. Occasionally they flit around the room. But they quickly return to their cage, apparently quite content  behind bars.

This has made a miraculous difference to the ...ambiance of this little space. No more crunching across the floor on fecal bits and dusting feathers from my books. One can actually have a pleasant sit in the one remaining wicker chair, the other having been studiously demolished.  Extraordinary what two flea-weight parakeets can accomplish.

I'm not exactly trusting this new arrangement, as Vinnie is captivated by new enclosures and could easily change her mind and one day refuse reentry. But for the time being....

Meanwhile, the original birdcage is hanging on the back porch and has a new tenant.

2 comments:

  1. I love how you've recycled your old bird cage.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The old cage is great but the new one - and the look of the room - is enchanting! So white!! Nice to have your room back I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete

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