Hello, how are you and the birds?  Ours are great.
    We are also very careful about the kind of plants that we have in the 
house so the birds won't get poisoned.  I grew them a pot of grass on the 
patio.  When I gave it to them it was real long and seeding.  I gave it two 
days survival with the birds.  It lasted about three hours, but they enjoyed 
themselves.  Alex, our female, kept trying to land on it and seemed to have 
trouble accepting the fact that she was going to have to chew from floor 
level just like the boys.  It was cute.
    It sort of makes sense about the use of squirt bottles causing the birds 
to be afraid of showers, but that has not been a problem for us.  It just 
seems like their interest runs in cycles.  They are in the bathroom with us 
while we shower several times a week.  Sometimes they get in with us a lot, 
and then a long time seems to go by before they join us again.  But, the 
steam causes them to all bathe while they're in the same room with us, so I 
don't worry about making them shower.  We do not spray them in the shower or 
tub.  It is their choice to get directly in the water or not, because we 
don't want them to be afraid.  Usually we have to make Joey get out of the 
shower once he gets in.  He gets too wet, then we have to help him dry off a 
bit.
    We also have four cats that stay in the house.  For an hour or two each 
day we have "bird time".  Two of the cats are confined to our bedroom, and 
Charlie is put in the half-bath with the litter box because he gets mad and 
makes a mess for us to clean up.  The fourth cat, Baby, wouldn't hurt a flea, 
and she stays out with the birds.  Then the birds are pretty much given free 
run of the house.  It gives them a change of scenery, some extra exercise, 
and it's our special time with them.  Sometimes they spend most of the time 
visiting us during bath time, sometimes they watch a movie with us, and 
sometimes they eat supper with us (well actually they work hard at making a 
mess, trying to walk through all of the food, and nibble just a little bit).
    Thos, our first bird, and the oldest and most spoiled, is also very 
territorial about the computer desk and anything on it.  He can get almost 
vicious if we try to do something at the desk and he's in one of THOSE moods. 
 That's about the only time my husband will get aggraviated at him and put 
him back in the den.  The other two just like to check out everything, and 
chew a bit.
    Thos is so cute at bedtime.  My husband always puts him up in their cage 
at night because Thos is a daddy's boy and will cooperate much more for him 
than for me.  Sometimes though Thos gets in THOSE moods where he just doesn't 
want to cooperate, and almost refuses to get in his cage.  I will hear my 
husband say "Thos, I've about had it with you.  You have two more turns 
around the room, then I get the net out".  Thos is smart enough that he 
rarely goes in his cage before one more turn around the room, but he usually 
does on the very last turn.  Once in a great while he will really decide to 
push his luck, so Bruce gets the net out, and usally all Thos has to do is 
see the net and he heads straight for his cage.  (He's not smart enough to 
know that the net is too small to really use).  Then, very rarely, he just 
plain refuses to get in his cage so Bruce will just give up and let him stay 
out.  I usually can go in just a little bit later on and there Thos will be 
sitting in his cage, asleep.  He just wants to be in control, and he pretty 
much is.  The other two birds will usually cooperate.
    We had some real bad weather with tornado sightings a few days ago.  It's 
so much fun getting all of the birds into their cage and moving it into the 
hall way, then catching four nervous cats and getting them in their carriers 
and putting them in the hall way with the birds, then listening to all of 
them complain.  We had this happen twice in about a week, and the second time 
our son was here with his cat, so we had five cats in carriers, complaining, 
in the hall way.  We need to have a little bit faster of a system for times 
like that, but I'm not quite sure how to make it better.  The finches are 
almost impossible to catch.  I will feel better when we get the avairy and 
they aren't lose all of the time.
    Well, it's late so I think I will head to bed.  Hope you're enjoying the 
summer.
--- MsgedsqB/2 3.10.04
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