Larry was entertaining us yesterday by wandering round the outside of his cage and dangling off it at improbable angles. It was very entertaining and he seemed to be enjoying himself as he dangled upside down attacking the bottom of his cage. He also seemed to know what he was doing – an illusion that ended as, with a bit of a fluttery plop, Larry dropped onto the floor. Larry made no attempt to fly – so we don’t know if he can. However everyone was a little startled – including Rosie who couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Given that she can spend many a happy hour pointing and barking at the building next door, a real live bird falling in front of her was likely to be too much excitement for her to control. Luckily I was able to divert her with a tomato while Ian was trying to pick up Larry. None of the others paid much attention – fortunately. I don’t think I would have trusted her if we hadn’t been there, however, as I think her natural instincts as a hunting dog would have taken over without a tomato waved in front of her. The only cat that shows any interest is Babbity Bumble, who, being a very small cat, appeared to decide that she would confine her interest to staring at Larry hungrily when he was in his cage.
Ian had to try to pick up Larry who was a little bemused. We don’t have a Larry-picking-up-off-the-floor routine, as we had imagined that the danger we would need to watch for would be Larry flying off rather than plopping to the ground. So Ian caught Larry and then put a towel over him to keep him contained. With retrospect, while Ian was nursing his parrot bites, covering Larry first before picking him up might be the favoured future approach. Larry’s bite’s weren’t too bad, however. He broke the skin on one finger and with Larry’s hooked beak, the bite could have been a lot worse.
The car goes into be repaired next week. The bill is double what we expected, so our run of misfortune still seems to be with us….