friday night

friday bill, the boys, and i had a wonderful evening.......steph was out with friends at a homecoming football game......late, late in the evening when we returned home i came downstairs to my studio that i share with my big birds, 4 large parrots and a small one. 3 of the 4 have major issues. 2 of them severely abused by their previous owners, and one of them with a deformed foot. jilly, or jillybean (an african grey) as i call her suffered terrible abuse, and a man who had worked with parrots for over 20 years felt that she was not fixable and gave her to us free of charge. the day he introduced us he 'captured' her in what seemed to be a very cruel manor from her cage and put her on an exam table and left the room to give me a moment alone with her. she immediatly came over to me and snuggled up against me and gave me a kiss. after we brought her home i followed my gut intincts and not his advice on how to fix her and she is now my little buddy. she will never trust or care much for men, because her abuser was male. birds have very noticeable facial expressions and i have come to know pretty much what they are feeling and thinking by watching them. jilly loves to make tents out of news paper that we place at the bottom of her cage. she plays peek-a-boo and just like a kids just likes to 'play' in her tents. friday as i came down the steps jilly did not acknowledge me with her usual whistle and when i came around the corner i noticed she was not popping her head out of her tent to greet me either. when i saw she was not moving i quickly opened her cage and ripped the paper off of her thinking she was dead. she was not thank God, but she was in what appeared to be shock and i was so worried, wanting to scoop her up, but knowing i was asking for a nasty bite since she would try to defend herself till the bitter end. i bribed her with a cookie, the other birds hearing the word 'cookie' went berzerk so i gave them all cookies and hoped she would perk up seeing their reactions.....still nothing. i looked her over as best i could and could tell that she was not hurt, but she still seemed to look like she was in shock.....another of her favorite treats....ice. we have a fridge/freezer in the basement so i went to go get her some ice. in the few seconds i was gone to get her ice she layed an egg! it is too bad it is not fertile because she would make such a great mommy. she took such good care of that 'baby' for the day and a half i kept it in her cage. once i realized she was not eating i distracted her while bill took the egg out of her cage. she is still not back to herself yet, but in a few more days i hope the memory of her 'baby' will fade and she will become her old self again.