Catching Up!

Despite what it may seem, I have not forgotten about this blog! I am still a bit angry with myself for not posting more often, as I'd love to be able to look back and see what's been going on in my life! Yet again, I will try to post more regularly...starting NOW!!!

But, first...I must catch up with the past few months. I'll miss a lot, but hit the highlights relating to pictures I took.

In September, I ran a 50K race with one of my best friends.  She's someone I knew before I found out about Thomas's cheating, barely.  We both volunteered for our local marathon, but I never became friends with her due to Thomas's weirdness and the fact that since he didn't have any friends, he begrudged me mine.

She really stepped up, and we've become so close over the past two years.  In fact, tomorrow we are going trail running, touring a winery, and watching our NFL team at her house as her boyfriend makes us vegetarian chili. Score!

Usually, I run my own race, but we agreed that we would run this 50K (31 miles) together.  It was so much fun!  Here is what we saw near the beginning:

It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we became even better friends due to this experience.  We crossed the finish line holding hands and collapsed in a giant hug.

Two more pictures of what we got to see during our run:

In early September, Steve Earle came to town!  I've been a big fan ever since I saw him on The Wire (best show ever to appear on TV, in case you're wondering.  I am watching Season 1, episode 4 as I write this post.)  As an aside, on a terrible first date, I met George Pelecanos, one of the writers on The Wire.  He was absolutely amazing, and made me love the show even more!

Steve's live show was every bit as wonderful as expected.  I went with my parents; I've become much closer to them throughout this ordeal, which is one of the many silver linings of finding out I was married to a sociopath and getting divorced:

This is the dessert at one of my new favorite restaurants.  I first shared it with one of my best friends (and fellow parrot-enthusiast) a few months back -- brownie with salted caramel gelato, nuts, cherry, etc.  I went back with another friend, and once I showed them the picture I had taken of my dessert earlier in the summer, they agreed to make it for me, even though it was no longer officially on the menu.  Yay!

Here's my good friend near finishing her first triathlon!  Surrounded by geese, which I loved.  Another one of our friends and I chased her around on our bikes with signs, cheering her on.  It was such a great day!

I had been on yet another bummer first date, followed by a lake cruise with friends.  I feel so lucky to live in such a fabulous city!  The views more than made up for the bad first date!

I cat-sat for my good friend and her husband.  Sprecher was watching me!

And the two of them, eating their food:

This blog was originally started to chronicle the antics of my parrots, so we will now enter that portion of this entry!

Here's Max, eating something (shocker!)  Andreas's tank is in the background.  Speaking of Andreas, he has become so much more personable recently.  He asks for me to pet his head!  I'm starting to think certain animals really can recognize evil people, which is why the parrots and Andreas are so much happier now!

And, Beeps: eating some food as well.

Calypso had climbed into Max's cage and was eating her food!  Since I always supervise, this situation was resolved without bloodshed.

Max, perched on some blankets on the couch.  She likes to be near me as I read after work.

Beeps, again.  He's actually not done as well in our new life.  I had begged Thomas to take him, since he never got along with the other birds and would prefer to be solo, but Thomas refused to take any of the parrots, or (not so shockingly), any responsibility for anything.  I had to figure everything out alone, and made what I thought were the best decisions for the parrots were at the time.  I think he feels abandoned, and hasn't rebounded as much as Calypso and Max have.

I'm still trying to eat healthy; here's a pan full of zucchini!

At my new job, I frequently have to go to fancy fundraising events.  This is a shot from a recent one.  The local professional hockey team were our servers; it was pretty exciting to be out there, sitting on the ice!

The meal (vegetarian option) was pretty, but not as tasting or filling as I'd hoped...

Also during the fall, I dog-sat one night for my closest friend and her husband.  They live only a few blocks from me, which is so convenient!  They currently have two boxers (sadly, one is nearing the end of his life.)  They have adopted me as one of their favorite humans, which is so fun!

I was trying to take a picture of Hans, but he jumped up on me and made a good picture impossible!

He always grabs a toy and tries to get me to play tug-of-war:

He wanted to go inside, but since I wanted to make sure they didn't have any accidents, I kept them outside a little longer!

So he decided to rest on their patio furniture, waiting until he could go inside again:

I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to get both of them in the photo.  The older one was coming in for some attention when the younger one pushed him out of the way:

HELLO!

A few weeks ago, some friends and I ran a 5K race that took place entirely inside a corn maze!  It was a lot of fun (though a bit hard on my knees, with the twists and turns), I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen for a year, and I won first place in my age group!  To celebrate, we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant:

On yet another bad first date, I had some more macaroni and cheese:

I am not even kidding that I could write a blog about all of my bad first dates.  I've had some good ones sprinkled in, too, so no worries!

My dad and I have season tickets to a local NCAA team; the games started recently.  We went to almost all of the games together last year, and it was so much fun!  We're hoping to make all of the games this year:

Last week Saturday, I ran another 50K -- my third of the year.  I wound up third woman!  The race was established in honor of one of my friends who is dying of cancer.  I took what I hope is one of many annual pictures with my friend and his wife (another one of my friends.)  The wife (also my friend) and I will probably run Boston together in 2015.  I have run it before, but was with Thomas (aka "The Dark Cloud of Doom and Gloom") so it wasn't much fun.  Next time, it will be for sure!

Gorgeous picture of me and my race partner running up a hill, at about mile 30.7:

After this recent 50K, there was a campfire to warm us and make us smell delicious:

After the race, my plan was to hang out at home, drink beer, and sleep in.  But one of my friends had another idea in mind.  She's in the process of leaving her abusive partner.  Since I have recent experience with this, I have tried my best to be as supportive as possible.  We went to a haunted house (even though I am terrified of them) and then did a zip line, pictured below:

Today, my parents came up and helped me to winterize my house.  We cleaned the gutters, put some plastic on windows, took out my window air conditioning unit, and played some cards. It was a great evening! 

More to come, on a more regular basis!

Rocky at the rescue

I was up at the rescue yesterday. Rocky was sitting on the lap of one of the volunteers when I pulled up. I'm not sure if he knew the sound of my car, or if he could see me through the distant window from the volunteer's lap, but I was sitting inside my car, window rolled down, when I suddenly heard that most distinctive of scream!

He saw me/knew I was there and started screaming shortly after I pulled in. As soon as I entered the room, he calmed down and started talking, singing, etc.

He seemed really happy to see me, and we went through his repertoire of songs, clicks, clucks, etc.  When I went near him, he did threaten to bite me, but I believe that overall he was happy to see me.

He has been quite well-behaved at the rescue, stepping up for everyone (but me.)  I am hopeful that we will find a permanent home for him soon, though he doesn't seem to mind being at the rescue right now.  There is certainly a lot of activity for him to watch, and he is kept well-stocked in toys!

Pants macaw

Most nights, Rocky likes to spend some time in Thomas's pants, chipping up 2X4 slices.

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In the comments, Beloved Parrot had asked how the other parrots were taking Brian's demise.  They don't seem to be affected at all.  Last Friday, before I buried him, I took his body around to show everyone, so they could see him.  Stella did a double take, Max and Rocky just stared at him, and everyone else (Basil and the caiques) seemed oblivious to what was going on.

When he was alive, no one ever really seemed to consider him part of their flock.  He didn't call back and forth with anyone, and we were so careful not to allow any sort of physical interaction (until, of course, the fatal accident.)  For them, life is back to normal.  The humans in the house are not yet to that point.

At the rescue where I volunteer, the budgies are in a flight cage.  None are tame.  Yesterday, I was watching the budgies play and enjoying their antics.  Several came up to the front of the cage, intrigued by my presence.  I hope they find good homes.

Some recent questions

I had a few questions in the recent comments that I thought I might just address here instead of in the comments since it took me some time to finally get around to them!

phonelady asked: do greys just naturally get into everything ? sure sounds like they do from your gang

Of course I can't answer this for all greys since every parrot is an individual, but I do think that greys have the tendency to be very curious and intelligent and therefore get into everything, including trouble!  I must also add that when Max was a single grey, she did not get into nearly as much as she has since Stella arrived.  Because they are flock animals, I believe that the presence of another grey motivates them to explore.  I also believe that a big part of the reason why Stella transformed so quickly into a happy bird after her mutilation is the presence of Max -- even though they don't physically interact, I think that Max was a good role model for Stella.

Additionally, we encourage our parrots to explore and make their own choices as much as possible.  That, combined with the fact that they can fly, may make them more likely to get into things than an average grey who is clipped and may only come out of his cage a few times a month.  The fact that they frequently find food only reinforces this!

D. Richard asked: What if I may ask is the status of , Basil, Thought he would be home by now or do I not remember the proper dates ?

Officially, Basil is still just a foster bird.  He is willed to us, so we were expecting to have him full-time at some point, though we thought it would be decades yet until this happened.  Originally, he was just supposed to stay with us for a month or two, but it's not been nearly 10 months.  His owners aren't ready yet to officially sign him over to us, though I suspect that will happen soon.

Luckily, he is quite possibly the lowest-maintenance parrot I have ever met.  That's part of the reason I write about him so infrequently -- he's not doing many exciting things!  He has integrated well into our house, has learned our routines, and I think he's pretty happy.  I'd like to eventually get him playing with toys more frequently and stepping up nicely, but we have lots of time to work on that.

I do have a bit of guilt about keeping him, though if he is surrendered to us, he'll stay.  He took the last open spot in our house, which I'd been planning on using to foster birds for the rescue and adopt them out, like with Steve.  There's actually a (mutilating, seizure-prone so on meds twice a day, blind) grey at the rescue that I'd be fostering right now if it weren't for Basil.  It doesn't sit well with me that such an easy, low-maintenance bird is taking the place of someone who needs us more, but that's the way things are.

D Richard continues: I am no spring chicken myself and I am a little worried about what to do with my flock in any event . I was wondering after you sent a review of RIO . what do you think of my leaving money to have my flock released in their respective lands at least for the conures and lovebirds . Australia does not want the cockatiels back and the same with the quaker, Both considered agricultural pests . But do you have any thoughts ?  I don't have family or friends that would want them , Any of them

I am not aware of any programs that return former pets to the wild, but frankly, I'd be very hesitant to go this route.  While I do wish that all parrots could be wild and that we'd never brought them into our homes, I don't believe that those who've lived so long in captivity would possess the skills to survive and thrive in their native land.  I've read a bit about the work done by the Ara Project in breeding macaws to release in the wild, and spoke with a biologist doing that work in Costa Rica.  It's a lot of work to make sure that the bird is ready to live in the wild and won't just walk up to a human (to be recaptured) as that's what they know.  I've also read about work done by captive breeding programs by the International Crane Foundation (for cranes, obviously!) and was involved in helping to raise orphan baby wildlife when I volunteered at a wildlife rescue center, and I know they try very strongly to make sure that the animals will not associate humans with food.

That being said, if you can't find any individuals who will take your birds when you're no longer around, I think the best thing to do is connect with a parrot rescue to make plans.  This includes leaving money for them to be taken care of, possibly by means of an insurance policy.  This should help ensure that the facility will be able to take your birds when it's time (many rescues are currently full with long waiting lists for surrenders and this problem will only get worse every year.)  The good thing in your case is that your birds are smaller, so it should be easier to find someone to take them, even if it means they are split up.  It's very difficult to find a good home for a cockatoo or macaw.  I wish I had a better answer for you.

JellyBean needs a home

Last month, I was contacted by a wonderful woman, Anna, who runs a parrot rescue in New Mexico.  She had contacted me because she'd been googling around about severe macaws and ran across my blog, where Rocky is, of course, featured prominently.  She asked me if I might be interested in possibly adopting a severe macaw that sounded a lot like Rocky, with the main difference being that he prefers women and will do everything he can to attack men.

As much as I've fallen for this little guy after e-mailing with Anna, and especially after seeing pictures and a video of him, we are at capacity in our house and just can't take anyone else in.  However, I suggested that I could highlight JellyBean on my blog, since presumably people who are interested in severe macaws might find out about him.  And after the amazing experience of placing Steve in the perfect home, I thought it was worth a try.

So, meet JellyBean:

JellyBean is approximately 19 years old (the same age Rocky was when we adopted him.)  He lived with one family for most of this time, but it was not happy for JellyBean.  It's always difficult to get accurate information out of people when they don't want to admit how poorly they were treating their animals, but we were told that he was kept in a basement, with very little human interaction toward the end of his tenure there.  The little human interaction he did have involved people throwing things at his cage, or pulling him out of his cage by his tail.

One of my posts that Anna found was this one, and she agrees that it accurately describes JellyBean.  I am very confident that in the right, understanding, home, he will thrive; the trick is finding that home for such a challenging parrot.  (Anna also mentioned to me that she knows of a 40 year old severe macaw that was tame to both her and her husband.  Since Rocky is only 24, dare I hope we could achieve this in the next 16 years?)

Here is a short youtube video of JellyBean:

As I've written before, many people inadvertently teach their parrots to bite.  They do this by ignoring the bird's body language, so finally, for the bird to get his point across, he bites.  Pretty soon, he stops giving off the warning signs and resorts immediately to biting.  After all, if warnings didn't work, why bother with them?  It seems like this happened with JellyBean.  He was definitely a "bite first" kind of guy.  Anna has been working with him and he's learning to use other methods to express himself; however, his new home will have to be very careful watching his body language.

JellyBean currently lives in New Mexico, though Anna would be willing to have him move to a different part of the country for the right home.  These are details that would need to be worked out with her.  If you are interested in learning more about JellyBean, please e-mail me and I will forward your e-mail on to Anna.

As you can see, he's come a long way under Anna's care.  However, she runs a rescue, not a sanctuary, so he needs to find a home in order to open up room for other parrots.

Jumping to conclusions

I was up at the rescue last Saturday.  I was supposed to be there just for an hour or so (one of my favorite alums, a severe macaw I've talked about here before, was coming up for a visit), but wound up staying a couple of extra hours.  I wanted to talk with a couple who was adopting their first macaw (another one of my favorite birds; I pictured her here and here) to answer their questions and help to ensure a smooth transition for her, and then I had to interact with all of my favorite parrots and customers -- a visit can quickly become a time suck!

Thomas was working that morning, but called me as he was leaving work.  I promised to come home quickly, but see the preceding paragraph for why that didn't materialize.

By the time I got home, he'd gone grocery shopping and was near the end of washing the kitchen and living room floors.  I gave him a hug and told him I was so lucky to have married the best husband ever.  Instead of nicely accepting the compliment, his response:

"What bird did you take home today?  Another budgie?"

I think he may have been a bit disappointed when he realized I was empty-handed and just legitimately thanking him.

Help keep me grounded

An extremely tame, sweet, gorgeous female budgie was surrendered to the rescue where I volunteer.  I mentioned her to Thomas, thinking he would object (as he has in the past when I mentioned theoretically that Brian would like a partner.)  This would let me off the hook for any guilt -- after all he's the one that said no, not me.

But his response?  "Bring her home!  I make two pieces of toast in the morning!"  That's not the response I wanted!

If she were old, or had a large tumor, she'd already be at my house.  I have to keep telling myself no -- we've already got 7 birds, and that's enough.  Plus, I really like to stick to similar-sized birds which reduces the chance of a severe accident happening.  I only agreed to take Brian because he was a hospice bird who needed a good home for his final days.  (Luckily we've gotten more months with him than planned; with any lucky we'll continue to have many more.)

I'm really hoping that someone adopts her before my resolve completely weakens.  I love budgies!

ETA: She was adopted today, which is what I hoped would happen.  I think we'll stick to old and/or tumor budgies and leave the young, healthy ones for other people to adopt.

Quick post

I brought the wrong camera with me today, so the posts I had planned for today will have to wait until tomorrow.  Here are a few random pictures instead:

Basil loves eating his greens every day!

This iguana was confiscated by animal control; I just happened to be wearing a green shirt when I met him.  Isn't he adorable?  Don't worry; my rational side prevailed and we won't be taking him home, even if we do match.

A picture of the sweetest macaw I've met in quite some time.  I am in love!  But I don't have room, so she will not be coming to live with us, either.  She gets so excited when she sees me or hears my voice, so the feeling is mutual.  She's been at the shelter a long time, but we think we're close to finding her a home.

I just love the 25+ year old blue and gold macaws.  I've threatened to stick Rocky in her cage during the night and take her home with me instead, but they'd immediately know it was me and they know where I live, so Rocky is safe.  Maybe he'll calm down a bit once he turns 25?  Only one more year to find out...

Blogger problems

My posts from yesterday have vanished!  Supposedly they will be back at some point; if not I will try to rewrite them next week.  In the meantime, here are pictures of two of my ladies at the rescue.

I don't understand how the macaw is still up for adoption.  She's been with us about a year and is one of the sweetest birds I have ever met.  As an added bonus, she's not particularly loud!  How has she not found a home?

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the older blue and golds?  I'll probably never have one due to the size difference with my smaller birds, so I'm glad I get the chance to interact with them somewhere.

This amazon has been with us only a few weeks, but begs to come out of her cage when I walk by, so we've become fast friends.  Since she talks, she'll probably be adopted quickly, though her feather destruction may deter some people from wanting to adopt her.

In addition to these ladies, I have bonded with two special needs severe macaws, a yellow-crowned amazon, another older B&G macaw, a younger B&G macaw, and a timneh.  Interestingly enough, all females.  We have so many amazing birds up for adoption right now!  Rumor is a caique will be surrendered in the next few weeks.  Yet more reminding myself that we are full at our house.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Thomas and I have a race, and then lounging around, recovering.  Probably some bird-watching, too.

In which the greys are not helpful

I've recently started a new routine on Thursdays.  I usually leave work a bit early and go up to the rescue where I volunteer.  This means I'm not always home at 5 if I get busy doing something.  In order to make sure that dinner is always ready and I don't feel guilty for staying a bit longer at the rescue, I've been making something in the crock pot (usually a vegetarian lasagna) that morning.

Yesterday, I left the greys unattended in the kitchen while I ran upstairs for a second.  Thomas had chopped a bunch of the veggies before leaving for work, but he was gone by the time this happened.  I returned downstairs to find that Max had helped herself to some of the unattended cauliflower:

 No big deal, especially as it appeared as though she were actually eating it and not just destroying it as a game.  Though it was funny that as soon as she saw me, she flew over to the table, as though I was going to take the vegetable away from her?  She should know better!

I had to leave the room again for a few minutes, and returned to chaos!  Max had started throwing the cauliflower out of the bowl, not even eating it.  Possibly she saw the carrots and was trying to get down a level?

Additionally, Stella had joined her on the counter and started making inroads on the mushrooms:



This goofiness continued for a few minutes, with not much of the lasagna getting made.  Finally, I put them in their cages and was able to finish assembling in order to still get to work on a timely basis.

Speaking of the rescue, I had kind of a rough day up there yesterday.  There are two wonderfully sweet severe macaws up for adoption.  I spent quite some time scratching their heads and reminding myself we can't take anyone else home.  Both were certainly neglected, possibly abused, and suffer permanent physical deformities due to their past care.  And they are still loving (yet homeless).  There is also an amazing timneh who spent some time on my arm, continually aiming kiss sounds at my direction.  And then of course a few adorable quakers, a charming blue and gold macaw, and so many others.  As always, I just feel like I should be able to do more.  Blech.

Enough of that.  It's Friday!  Thomas and I have tons of running to do this weekend.  We also have plenty of other things that need to get done, but we may be so exhausted from the running that napping becomes a high priority.  And I'll be OK with that.  Wishing everyone a fantastic weekend!

Bread and circuses

Thomas has once again been bit by the baking bug. He's trying to perfect a baguette-like loaf. He got closer with this attempt, though it was a little too crusty for my liking. Delicious when dipped in soup, but a little tough otherwise!

After it had just come out of the oven, he cut a few pieces for us to try. Brian has decided that he needs to taste everything that's on one of our plates, so he approached:And then got a little closer:
Finally trying some crumbs:
Later, after Brian was safely in his cage, the other birds were let out and they had some bread as well. I just loved this picture of Beeps; his face reminds me of a fashion model. He is also so nonchalant holding his bread!
But don't let that fool you, as he ate it!
I just can't believe that another weekend is upon us! Having a snow day in the middle of the week really helped things to fly along. Thomas is on call this weekend, so hopefully he doesn't get called in to work and can just handle things over the phone.

We will also have a Superbowl party with the parrots. With their coloring, my guess is Rocky and Basil will be rooting for the Packers. The caiques are wildcards; having both black and gold AND green and gold feathers. The greys will probably lose interest and hang out in the kitchen.

We're also hoping to get up to the rescue so Thomas can do some grooming. And, speaking of the rescue, here is my latest love:
We have no history on her, but given her condition, the vet suspects she's at least 30 years old. Of course, she could be younger with bad care taking its toll on her. We'll never know. She is incredibly charming! She has special needs and may need to be on some low-dose painkillers for the rest of her life due to arthritis and an improperly-healed injury. I'm hoping we find a fantastic home for her where she can live out her life.