New cage setup/news and Tiki's visit

[Graehstone]

There really is no helping us anymore, we’ve gone over the deep end, crossed the line towards … the other side. Katrins birthday is this month and she gets a few bucks from her Grandma and her parents for the occasion and this year is no different.
Now mind you that there are several things that we had planned to use this money for and one of them would have been a new Vacuum cleaner, you know one of them new fan dangled yeller’ contraptions without the bag, and of course to pay off a few bucks on the car too.
Well it doesn’t look like any of those good intentions will bear fruit this time around.
Katrin and I have been mulling over the idea of having “sleep cages” for Ruby and Gracie as well as Cleo, our Senegal because the way we are doing it at the moment is getting old fast and I am afraid that they might not be getting all the uninterrupted sleep that they need. Not that we have had any problems, just that I think it would be better for all involved.
Gracie gets wheeled, cage and all, into the back bedroom when it starts to get dark around here and with cage covered she promptly settles down and calls it a night. Ruby and Cleo are still in the living room and although they have their cages covered they are still exposed to the sounds that we make as well as that of the television.
If we stay up to ten pm it’s considered a long day for us.
We would eventually like to get to the point where the “fids” get put to “bed”, door closed end of story.
We were “browsing” at our favorite bird store and we just so happened to, quite by surprise, stumble upon a cage set-up that would suit our needs. The price was fair and so we bit the bullet and bought it.
We are now the proud owners of a Triple-decker.
Add on to the bill a few more toys, a ladder or two and a swing plus some more food and … Poof, we’re poor again.
Well, not exactly poor, but we aren’t getting that vacuum cleaner this year.
It truly is a type of madness, is it not?
This overwhelming desire to spend all your money on things that would make your bird happy, then possibly your spouse with a long empty and desolate stretch of nothing before it’s your turn to get a goodie, which in turn makes you feel guilty when you do because that money could have been spent on a new boing.
It is truly a mental disorder from which we all suffer.

We moved the cages that they were sleeping/hanging out in into the back room thinking that the more familiar surroundings of their cages would ease the transition somewhat and had the new big cage set up in the living room.
As they hang out on their playgrounds during most of the day anyhow, they really wouldn’t be spending all that much time in the new triple-decker.
Ruby was the one that would eventually give us the most trouble in as far as accepting new things and a new arrangement.
Both Katrin and I were afraid that she would regress and begin plucking again.
Both Katrin and I were dead wrong. Out of all three that would be “feeling the change”, Ruby was the one that took to it like a duck to water. Ok, maybe that’s not so good an analogy, but you get my drift. At least I hope so.
She didn’t have a problem with it one bit. She got the “Top bunk” and all the things we put in there for her are very familiar to her and she had no qualms about moving in.
Gracie, it was decided, was to get the middle with Cleo in the bottom bunk.
Now Gracie almost never spends any time in it as she is always on her playground/swing and I am letting Cleo come out to hang out with the rest of us more and more often, so she too does not spend all that much time in it. But boy-o-boy when they do, all kinds of ruckus breaks out. Gracie just hangs on to the side of the cage door looking for all the world like little orphan Annie who had just found out that she was going to be abandoned again and silently whimpers and gives off little piggy squeal noises.
And Cleo, the smallest of the lot, makes more noise than all of them combined on a bad day.
I let her watch one too many old westerns with me and now I’m paying for it. There she is hanging on to the side of the cage dragging her beak against the bars in a frantic left and right motion, looking just like the cons and their tin cups, and screaming at the top of her little Senegal voice, which isn’t so little btw, “Come here!” “Help Cleo!” “Come here!”
Maybe it’s because she now has something “over her head” which her old set up allowed her to see the ceiling, now it’s just another cage bottom that she sees. She is quite happy to stay on her playground, but I still take them and stick them in there to get them used to it as I sit right next to them reading a book, either to myself or to them.
One of the next expenditures is going to be a screen door, that way I don’t have to watch them like a hawk every time they are out. They have managed to walk right passed the hanging bead curtain and out passed the front door before they were wrestled, roped and hogtied back inside and either super glued or staple gunned to the playground perches, scared the living daylights out of us.
They’ll get used to it I am sure.
So far nobody has keeled over from heart attack although it sounds like it at times and Katrin got her Papasan chair back into the living room, so, so far so good, besides they only really need to be in there when we are out and about and then they have the TV to keep them company.

Katrin and I got to meet the poor harrowed globetrotting, roving, intrepid Birdboard reporter by the name of “Super Tiki!” as she madly dashes from one appointment to the next as all the while the entire world is throwing obstacles in her way.
The darling lady had had a trying day and it was going to be a long night before she got any sleep but both Katrin and I immensely enjoyed the time that we were able to spend with her. Sadly in all the hubbub of the evening I neglected to take any pictures, but Tiki will have two I think that were taken with her camera.
I am afraid that I might not have been the most gracious of hosts as I tried to stave off the ill effects of various pills, potions and things that go “poof” in the night.
Rarely do we stay up passed 10 and both of us are up before the rooster chokes on his first chicken of the morning.
So the visit was too short but very sweet. I am sure that we will all read about it in the upcoming novel “Wing and a Prayer.” by Tara “S” Tiki, “S” stands for “Super.”
Heck, if Mark “The Dharma Bum” Bittner can write a book I think Tiki has a good chance for at least a movie deal about her travels as well. I hope she was able to get home safely after her visit with Dana.
That’s the “Update/News.”
Good night and Good luck.

[The Outlaw]

Mike:

I love the cage set up. Its really impressive. The FS lighting is also excellent. You've done well, Grasshopper.

I know what you mean about Tiki. There isn't enough time for any real visitation on her whirlwind visit. Still, she's wonderful sport and easily handles all of the obstacles. If I ever decide to go on a long jaunt, she's gonna be my travel buddy, for sure. Nice to see you posting again.

[LMPego]

That's a cool set-up, Mike!
I know what you mean about the "boing" disease. Instead of a new winter coat, Momma's gonna look shabby this year and the babies are getting a new playgym. Oh well...

[Eliza]

Oh, I love that triple cage! You and Katrin spoil those birds rotten!

I only got to chat briefly w/ Tiki-Tara when she and Lisa were at Bird Paradise this past Saturday. It was so nice to meet some members of the board, however brief it might have been. Tiki is an absolute trip -- seeing her interact with the different birds at the store was just like watching a kid in a candy store :)

-e-

[Lisa B]

GREAT job Mike! The cage look wonderful!
If i woulda known...I have a spare Vaccume here...coulda sent it with tiki...She could fit that in her luggage right??