The Great Escape
last saturday i accompanied a friend to his work banquet, which was a great deal of fun, and we left choco at his place in his travel cage. it is worth the few moments to describe his travel cage for those who have not seen it. it is significantly smaller than his "room" at home, being only about 2' x 1' x 1' (compard to his room which is about 4 x 4 x 3 ish) and has the main door which is most of the front and swings open, to be held in place by a rod that goes through little loopies. it also has 3 little food slot doors which slide up and when they are down they hold the food in place. again, they are very small. it is exactly the type of cage we used to keep our cockatiel in when i was younger.
so we proceed to the event where we engage in general revelment and merry making for a few short hours before returning to his home. of course the first thing i do is proceed to the bird cage to get choco out, where i discover the cage is empty. *panic* i decided the best plan of action was to hyperventilate. the boy realizing what had just happened pointed out rationally that the bird had to be there somewhere. i checked the cage over and it was just how i left it, minus the bird. i start hyperventilating again, for good measure. all of a sudden the boy says "oh, he's in the bathroom." he said he could tell because the light was on and all his stuff was thrown on the floor. so i run frantically into the bathroom, where lo and behold there choco is, happy as a clam perched on top of the bathroom mirror, which he had cleared off. after checking him over and deciding he was healthy as i was going to tell from a physical examination alone, i started to inspect for damage, to see if he had eaten anything dangerous. we couldn't find a damn thing he had done other than make a mess, which is incredible as the rooms were filled with brightly colored bits of plastic and lead (the boy makes model towns and what not). i thanked the boy, and added it was a good thing he had turned the light on in the bathroom right away, or it could have taken a while to find choco. the boy didn't turn on the light. well, i knew i hadn't turned on the light and i also knew that i had made sure the light was off before leaving (habit, becaue i live alone..) which means that apparantly, choco had decided it was too dark to make a thorough mess, and so proceeded to turn on the light.
WTF?!?!?! he is still a baby and can work light switches? i am almost afraid of what he will manage when he is grown...
after this whole escape i watched the bird rather carefully in his cage and discovered he had escaped by lifting the lil food door with his beak, and then proping it open with one foot (up in the air) and then using the other foot to climb out, switching back to his beak to let the door close gently behind him. then i wired the doors shut. if he figures out how to untie and unwind wire, then he deserves to break free again.
so we proceed to the event where we engage in general revelment and merry making for a few short hours before returning to his home. of course the first thing i do is proceed to the bird cage to get choco out, where i discover the cage is empty. *panic* i decided the best plan of action was to hyperventilate. the boy realizing what had just happened pointed out rationally that the bird had to be there somewhere. i checked the cage over and it was just how i left it, minus the bird. i start hyperventilating again, for good measure. all of a sudden the boy says "oh, he's in the bathroom." he said he could tell because the light was on and all his stuff was thrown on the floor. so i run frantically into the bathroom, where lo and behold there choco is, happy as a clam perched on top of the bathroom mirror, which he had cleared off. after checking him over and deciding he was healthy as i was going to tell from a physical examination alone, i started to inspect for damage, to see if he had eaten anything dangerous. we couldn't find a damn thing he had done other than make a mess, which is incredible as the rooms were filled with brightly colored bits of plastic and lead (the boy makes model towns and what not). i thanked the boy, and added it was a good thing he had turned the light on in the bathroom right away, or it could have taken a while to find choco. the boy didn't turn on the light. well, i knew i hadn't turned on the light and i also knew that i had made sure the light was off before leaving (habit, becaue i live alone..) which means that apparantly, choco had decided it was too dark to make a thorough mess, and so proceeded to turn on the light.
WTF?!?!?! he is still a baby and can work light switches? i am almost afraid of what he will manage when he is grown...
after this whole escape i watched the bird rather carefully in his cage and discovered he had escaped by lifting the lil food door with his beak, and then proping it open with one foot (up in the air) and then using the other foot to climb out, switching back to his beak to let the door close gently behind him. then i wired the doors shut. if he figures out how to untie and unwind wire, then he deserves to break free again.