My Heart is Breaking Again!

[Scott]

Glad to hear her healing continues despite the obvious discomfort and disorientation. Sally is a hardy girl and so fortunate to have you as her companion!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Sallybird??! Amy wishes you to get well soon,and sends her "kissy kiss kiss" to you.


Jim

 

[Birdman666]

She's getting to the point where she's putting more and more weight on that foot, though I still catch her grabbing on with her beak when she steps wrong.

She seems to be healing nicely. No more picking at the feet since the anti-biotics kicked in and stopped the infection.

She's becoming more feisty... so she must be feeling better.

 

[BIRDIGIRL]

Great news Mark sounds like she is adapting very well ...keep getting better on those feet and stay well Sally

 

[Allee]

Thanks for the update, Mark! Happy to hear Sally is not only recovering but feeling feisty after her awful ordeal.

 

[Anansi]

Great news, Mark! We've all been pulling for Sally! Given a little time, she'll definitely get the hang of her altered circumstances.

I couldn't be happier that she's no longer picking at her feet. That's always a difficult part of the healing process.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[wrench13]

Feisty is good in an amazon, right? Good news ,Mark.

 

[Scott]

So glad Sally is improving! Feisty is indeed good!!

Thanks for the update, Mark.

 

[RavensGryf]

Great to hear the update on Sally, Mark . I'm glad her feisty attitude is returning, and she is getting around pretty well.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Halleluyah.

 

[Uglow]

Glad to see that she's feeling better and stopped messing with her feet Mark. Hopefully you're feeling better too.

 

[Birdman666]

She's still very clingy with me, and very jealous.

She is back to courting the coffee pot when it "talks" to her in the morning (and trying to coax it to talk to her in the evenings... kind of a PIA about the coffee pot these days.

VERY JEALOUS of Kiwi... that only works one way. Kiwi doesn't care. She just wants to play with anyone, and everyone.

I'm doing okay. I still miss my goofy greenwing. No luck getting her back.

 

[Scott]

Thanks for the update, Mark. Wonder if Sally is more clingy due to feeling vulnerable - is her movement still impaired?

Must be a studly coffee pot!!

 

[Birdman666]

It makes noises at her when it's brewing... She's fascinated by it. It "talks" to her when the morning coffee is brewing, and then she sits with me when I drink my coffee in the morning.

She's been my "morning coffee" bird for about the past fifteen years.

I think part of the clingy comes from Maggie being gone. She and Maggie were always the "flock leaders." Now there's just her left...

Maggie's loss has affected her too. It has affected all of us. The birds took a lot of their cues from Maggie... She was the biggest goofball I had. She incited a lot of laughter around here...

And that laughter is just gone... Life isn't the same without her.

 

[mh434]

Parrots are, clearly, extremely sensitive creatures - ours were all very subdued when my beloved dog Toby died in the room they all live in. I don't know if it was their own grief, or that they sensed mine, but they were all clearly sad and hurting. It took months for any "joy" to work its way back into the flock. Losing an actual flock member - that's even tougher.

 

[Birdman666]

Especially the flock's biggest goofball!

Not to mention - Sally is the flock leader, and flock enforcer - BUT - Maggie always had her back. THE FLOCK ENFORCER HAD SOME SERIOUS MUSCLE IN HER CORNER WHEN I WASN'T AROUND. So, when she got her dander up... between those two, everybody stopped what they were doing and got in line.

It was part of the flock structure around here...

Now a certain large green bird, and a certain gray bird... over ride the protests of the flock leader and occasionally do things they're not supposed to do.

So, it's had an impact on behavior, and her leadership has really been challenged for the first time ever... And this too, I think is where the "clingy" stuff comes from. On some levels there is a sense that the flock, and her position in it, is changed...

Particularly with feet that don't grip the way they used to.

 

[Kiwibird]

I am glad Sally's feet are healing, are still useable (even if not as well as before) and the infection has stopped. I'm sorry to hear there is so many difficult changes going on in your flock. I'm sure everything will settle down soon, and I'm still rooting for Maggie's eventual safe return and your flock dynamic going back to normal.

 

[GaleriaGila]

With just one bird, I hadn't even THOUGHT about the impact on a flock.
Very interesting. Thank you!

 

[Birdman666]

Yeah... that's the thing most folks don't think about.

Any time you ad or subtract a bird, the flock dynamic changes. One bird can disrupt the apple cart. I've seen it happen and I've had it happen... Just one more, can be one too many.

You want to get "your bird" a friend? What if he doesn't want a friend?! What if the friend turns out to be a third wheel... taking what little attention he still gets from you away from him? What happens then...?! That's right, they are gonna argue... and someone's going to lose that argument. (Usually the little bird.)

OR one bird can hold the flock together. SALLY has always been the flock leader of this flock. Even Maggie deferred to her... and if Maggie did, you'd best be sure the others followed her lead...

And Maggie was the goofball that initiated all the games around here. When she was here, it was always playtime. If you don't come to us, we'll come to you...

My flock had "rules" that the birds themselves enforced. That's one of the reasons I could take on "behaviorally challenged" birds, is because MY ENTIRE FLOCK would mass on them, and keep them in line if they acted up... IT WASN'T JUST ME.

Like with Demitre... NOTHING I did cured his screaming... BUT Sally put a PERMANENT stop to it in one night.... Still one of the most amazing things I've ever seen one bird do with another.

That dynamic is very real, and if you watch the wild flocks, you'll see it in action as well.

 

[Zing]

Hey, I was meaning to say this yesterday, I read some of your posts on here and I hope everything will sort itself out, more so every day.

I'm really bad with stress and something like this sounds awful. It takes a lot of strength to overcome such hardships and I think you did a great job.