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Hi
folks,
As
usual, early part of the month was so busy that
only
now I can resurface from my lurkdom.
Late
last month, I witnessed a fantastic tantrum from
Tinkerbell
that I hope never to see again.
But
first, I need to fill in some background.
Ms
MJ is a Taiwanese married to an English man with
two
kids, a little girl about 5 and a boy, J, about 7.
She
is a very old friend of my wife Joy and my friend
too.
Since she came back to Taiwan for a while with
her
two kids, we invited her to spend a weekend with
us
in Chiayi.
They
came over on Friday. The girl was nice but the
boy
was one of those hyperactive kind. While we have
had
friends staying with us before, they have always
been
far less active.
I
was not feeling very well as it was that day.
Seeing
the way the kids played with Zorro my ferret, I
decided
to curtail Zorro's freedom and returned him to
the
cage. HT the Bim disappeared the way only cat
know.
In the evening, after seeing J trying to give a
piece
of paper with oil paint on it to Tinkerbell, I
gritted
my teeth and returned Tink back to the cage.
Long
time friendship with his mother hold my hand from
chucking
that brat into the washing machine and
running
it through its cycles. J wasn't very
controllable
by his mom.
You
know that Tink sleep outside the cage in my
bookshelf.
Not only was I not prepared to let Tink
out
with J around, I made it a point to sit on the
sofa
by her side to make sure nothing else can happen
and
until J got into the spare room to sleep.
Being
sick to start with and together with J antics,
that
got me seriously unwell. So much so that I had
to
go to bed very early with Tink still in her cage.
My
wife Joy told me that when the lights were switched
off,
Tinkerbell must have been so aghast that she was
still
in the cage and we were at home that she raised
a
ruckus and threw her toys about in the cage. Joy
was
not going to wake me, not that I think I could
have
woken anyway.
Next
morning I woke up feeling much better. Tink
seemed
to be grouchy in the cage. But as I had to go
to
the office that Saturday and as I woke up late, I
had
only the time to give Tink her mash and rushed
off.
I knew the plans were for all of them to go off
somewhere
for the day giving me some relief from the
thought
of the kids at home.
I
came back after work to let Tink out of the cage.
She
was quiet and did not greet me as normal. She kind
of
look at me from her perch, ignored my hand and
rushed
out to fly to other hanging perches. She did
not
even look at me when I initiated recalls. But as
she
normally want a period of time to herself to do
some
exuberant flying, I thought no more of that.
Except
she was not flying and not preening but just
sat
on the tower looking at me. Then Joy and that
family
came home. Now, Tinkerbell hardly ever pay any
attention
to Joy at all. But when I called Tinkerbell
to
come to me, Tink made a point of flying to Joy's
shoulder
for a few seconds before flying off to yet
another
perch. I thought Tink was finally warming up
to
Joy. After I tried 3-4 recalls with Tink flying to
Joy
each time, I started to think it to be strange.
What
stunned me enough to know it was very unusual was
when
I walked to Tink, reached out my hand and asked
her
to 'step up'. No matter what, that cue is so
embedded
into her that she will always do that if
nothing
else.
Tinkerbell
turned her back to me and refused to step
up.
She then flew a short distance away. Again and
again
I approached her and asked her to step up and I
was
amazed to see she refused to do so and refused
even
to look at my direction.
Joy
then told me about the night before that Tink
screamed
and cried in the cage. That made me feel so
bad
that I had to apologise to Tink and explained that
I
was sick. I have no idea if she knew what I was
talking
to her. But Tink then flew to my shoulder and
became
very feisty, hooking her claws to my shirt, she
dangled
downwards to my chest and screamed and
chattered
away mouthing me rather hard. She then
clambered
up and down from one shoulder to the other
shoulder
before quieting down to sit by the side of
the
sofa for her headrubs.
Then
the kids came out of their room. The moment J
came
to sit on the sofa besides me, Tink flew over to
land
near him. She walked the foreign legion walk the
same
way as she would do the Halftail the Bim. Much
as
I love Tink chewing on J, I felt honor bound to
snatch
up Tink and asked J to play in another room.
Tink
seemed to blame them for the disruption to her
life.
It
was only on Monday that they left that Tinkerbell
finally
forgiven me. Returning to me on cue, flying
to
perches on cue and being again her sweet self to
me.
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