Tweeter's Trek

Whenever we go out of town, we bring Jacob's parakeets, Peter & Tweeter, to Irma's house. She spoils them rotten - well, as much as one can spoil birds. Irma talks to them and sings to them, then leaves the radio on for them if she is unavailable for bird-human interaction. She even discouraged us from picking the critters up last week when we returned home from Colorado because, in her opinion, "it was way too cold outside" for them to be brought the ten steps from her house into our car. Well, it was cold and they are tropical birds, but, geez, we do have heat in our vehicle.

Since the temperature rose to a balmy 30 degrees today, Jacob and I headed over to Irma's to fetch his pets. I refuse to lift Peter & Tweeter's super-sized, heavy cage anymore because a few months back I pulled a neck muscle picking it up and I was in pain for weeks. Unfortunately for Jacob, this means that he has to hoist the bulky thing himself. He is far from graceful, and when he hauls the birdcage, the parakeets and everything else inside get jostled and bumped around mercilessly. This evening, as Jacob was carrying the cage up the stairs at the condo, he tripped and fell onto it, jerking everything forward and thrusting the door wide open. After the jolt, Peter sat stunned on his perch, but Tweeter saw a rare opportunity and hastily made his escape. He flew across the living room and ducked behind the tv. In the mayhem, Jacob began to yell and I rushed upstairs to grab a laundry basket. I know that some parakeet owners allow their birds to fly freely around their houses, but ours have never been out of their cage and I assumed that Tweeter was most likely very frightened. If I could have left the cage door open, I think he would have flown right back in, but in the meantime, I didn't want Peter to test his wings, too.

Jacob was freaking out and screaming during the entire ordeal, and I was shrieking at him to calm down. Tweeter flew confusedly around the living room, occasionally hiding in what had apparently become his favorite spot - in back of the tv. When he finally stopped swooping and diving, and landed on the stairs, Jacob smashed the inverted laundry basket over him with such gusto that it would have surely injured the bird if it had accidentally hit any part of him. We maneuvered the basket next to the cage, opened the door, and Tweeter flew eagerly back into his home. I'm just glad that we were able to corral him before he inadvertently buzzed into the sliding glass door, where so many of his feathered friends have met their demise.