Bird ownership is taking a cat and dog and combining them. Depending on the bird, of course. Phryne (like Merlin before her) is always testing gravity by dropping things off counters, then staring at them, assessing. When I look her in the eye, I can see the gears turning, lots of intelligence looking back at me. Thinking.
It’s a bit humbling to have the level of trust and love that such a fragile creature gives to us big, clumsy humans.
Then she mirps, and hops with excitement across the counter, rubbing her beak on everything, cleaning off the food stuck to her beak, becoming a fun game of trying to find where the food is spread to clean it up. To be honest, the new kitchen countertops actually kind of hides all this, so it makes it that much more of a challenge, and I have to clean the counters a couple of times a day. Just as well.
I take a drink of water and she insists on drinking out of my glass too, any leftover food now cast afloat in my glass…drifting to the bottom. You get used to it after a while. She prefers the carbonated water Karen drinks, but Karen’s not home, so she puts up with non-carbonated water. For now.
Afterwards she is ready to hop up on my finger, to sit on the couch. She sits on my chest, nestled under a towel. Gronking and mirping softly. Warming up. Snuggles.
Hope your day is as satisfying.
