Night Fright

I like Miss Prissy, who shares my cage, but sometimes she startles me. The other night, she suddenly started fluttering about, even though the Tall One had left the night light on and Miss Prissy could clearly see that there was nothing to be scared of. She has a habit of sleeping on a perch leaning forward, until she almost forms a horizontal line; I have never seen a fellow tiel doing this. I think she lost her balance and started slipping off her perch, so she fluttered about.
Anyway, the noise startled me, and I fluttered about as well. I bumped against the bars and the perches with my pretty wings until the Tall One came, turned on the lights, and told us everything was fine. Well, Miss Prissy and I settled down right away, and the Tall One checked us to see if we were alright. Then, we all went back to sleep.

Well, I didn't really think about the incident very much, and neither did the Tall One. I seriously doubt that Miss Prissy wasted even a second of her time reflecting on it; she gets startled quite frequently, and she probably thinks it's part of her cockatiel routine. The next day, though, I wanted to fly about the living room for a while, but I lost altitude and could not steer. I made an emergency landing on the table by the window, and I tried again to reach the cage, this time landing on the floor. I like the Tall One a lot, and she is very busy, and she already does so much for me and spends so much time with me, so I do not like to bother her, but this time, I needed help. So I chirped for her, and she picked me up and petted me and told me the left wing feathers I had lost kept me from flying evenly. Not to worry, though, she said; they would grow back soon. I'm lucky to have such a nice human who knows so many things about tiels, otherwise I would have been worried. I'll just have to wait for my feathers to grow back in. On the upside, the Tall One gave us extra millet spray to make us feel better. Yum!

J.L., Are You Sure I'm Not a Duck?

Hello!

My Tall One still has not been able to make her computer work right, so I wrote out my blog post on a piece of paper and gave it to the Cool One to type up. I assume he has a computer, too, since he is cool. If you are reading this, it means that the Cool One posted it for me.

The other day, I had a very exciting adventure. J.L. always used to tell me that I'm not a duck, and maybe he was right, but I definitely have duck-like talents. The Tall One had opened up our cage, and Carrera and I were climbing around the furniture, when suddenly, something startled us. I fluttered off and found myself in the small bright room the Tall One uses when she needs water to get clean. I saw a nice, shiny surface in the big thing she calls a tub, so I decided to land. The surface was not solid, though, and it moved below me, so I spread out my pretty wings. It worked very well, and I was just about to enjoy floating, because I realized the warm stuff was actually water just like in my drinking dish, just a whole lot more of it. The Tall One picked me up right away, though. She rinsed out my pretty feathers with lukewarm water and dried me off with a soft clean T-Shirt. She seemed worried about me, but actually, I quite enjoyed it. My feathers were nice and clean and not as dusty anymore, and I spent most of the day preening them.

A smaller tub might have been nice, but other than that, I liked going for a little swim. I don't know how long I would have enjoyed it, though, so it's good that the Tall One was right there. She usually does not let us out of the cage when there is lots of water around, and she was really worried about my little excursion. I hope that she will get me a small cockatiel-sized bathtub that fits in my cage.

Tiel Monthly? No!

Dear Friends, I have to apologize for temporarily turning Tiel Weekly into Tiel Monthly! The Tall One's computer broke, and she had to send it away to be fixed. She said it had something called a warranty, but it took a very long time for it to come back. She was very mad at the computer store, because at first, they forgot to send it and just left it in the back of the store, and when they finally sent it to be repaired, they sent it to California instead of to the place in Illinois where it needed to be fixed. It took over a month!!! She would have let me use her old computer to blog, but it is so old that Tiel Weekly would not even load correctly on it!

The laptop is fixed now, but the Tall One said that a lot of the programs and files are gone, and she needs to reformat the hard drive and reinstall everything, so it may be a few more days until I can get back to you. Needless to say, I was not happy about it, because I love blogging and getting to know all of you. I know the Tall One is very smart, though, and I'm sure she will be able to get our laptop to work again.

In the meantime, I have been very busy exploring the cage. The Cool One hung up a bell in it, and I love to ring it! I finally managed to tear the string and make the bell fall to the bottom of the cage, and I like to throw it around. I also like the echo it makes when I sing to it. It is so much fun to sing, and the Tall One enjoys it! She whistles back at me and tells me to sing some more. She is gone most of the day now to the place she calls work, but when she's home, she plays with me, and the Cool One comes over a lot and holds me upside down!

As soon as the Tall One is done getting our laptop back to the way it is supposed to be, I will update you on all the things that have been going on in the meantime! I hope all of you are well!

Carrera

My Tall One

My Tall One has been back for over a week, and I am so happy! I love to walk around on her and preen her hair. She is home most of the day now, and I enjoy spending time with her. I don't like it when she leaves the room, though; I scream for her, and if the cage door is open, I go looking for her. Sometimes she goes into her small room with the shiny piece of glass where she can see herself. When she does, I tried to land on the little cabinet shelf in front of it. The problem is that she has little containers and other strange things on it, and they are in the way, so I knock them down with my wings. She does not get upset, though, she just picks me up and talks to me. She also knows how to scratch the back of my neck. Carrera doesn't know that yet, so I have to teach him!

Exploring

I figured the pretty cockatiel girl had some time to cool off, and since the Tall One had left my cage door open, I decided to pay a visit. I flew over and landed on the side of Miss Prissy's cage; then I climbed up to its top. She gave me a dirty look from her seat on the eggs below, but at least she did not chase me this time. Maybe she is getting used to me. I hope my pretty singing will make a difference.

After a while, I flew around and landed on the top of a picture frame. The Tall One came right away and got me. She is so nice. She does not leave me stuck in a place; she helps me out, and she does not scold me. She put me on her shoulder, and I climbed on the top of her head. I like to play with her curly hair. It's fun to stick my head in it and sort her hair with my beak. She likes when I do that. She told me J.L. used to do that a lot, and it makes her feel better. I think we will get along really well!

News from Carrera

My life has become so exciting! Something new is going on all the time. I noticed today that the Tal One was moving about the apartment a lot and putting soft things she calls clothes into big blue boxes with wheels. She noticed I was wondering about that, and she sat down with me and explained that she will have to be gone for a while. She is from a place called Europe, and she needs to go there to see her family, for a big celebration called a wedding.

She explained that they make different sounds in that place when they talk, and that she will also spend a few weeks helping a group of young humans from America to get to know the place and learn to make those sounds. I got all excited, because I want to learn to say people sounds, and I did not know there were different kinds. I wanted to come along and learn the different sounds, too, but she said she could just teach them to me here when she got back. I am looking forward to that!

At first, I was afraid she would take me back to that dark basement, but she said she loved me very much already, and she would never put Miss Prissy or me into a dark place. She said we would stay right here in the apartment, and the Cool One would come by every day to feed us and play with us. That made me very happy. I like the Cool One a lot. He plays with me and holds me. I know he won't just fill the dish and leave me like the human in my old place. We'll be spending some fun time together every day, and I will have lots of sunshine in the apartment. I won't have to leave my new cage with the fun toys and food, either!

How nice of the Tall One to ask him to look after us, and how nice of the Cool One to agree! I am looking forward to getting to know him better. He is so nice! The Tall One said she was going to take her laptop with her, but that we could use her old computer to blog if we wanted to. And she said she would be spending a lot of time with me once she got back and teach me to say people sounds. I'm going to have such an exciting time here!

Hi, everyone! I'm Carrera the Cockatiel.

Wow! This has been the most eventful week in my entire life, and there are more and more new things happening every day.

Just a few days ago, I was sitting in a dim basement room, upset that my cockatiel buddy had been taken away by some strangers. To be honest, I hoped it would be my turn next, because there was not much going on, and I felt alone. The human came every day and fed me, but other than that, I was bored all day long.

Suddenly, the room door opened, and the human came in with two human visitors. I was hoping they would get me out of there, and I was happy that the dark-haired one (I think it's the human you know as "The Cool One") picked me up. I had been picked up a lot when I was handfed as a baby, and I had enjoyed that a lot, but that had been a long time ago. The nice visitor put me on the other one's hand (I think you call her "The Tall One", which is very fitting, because she is taller than any human I ever met before). She put me on her shoulder, and I preened her curly hair for a while. It was so much more fun than playing with a toy!

Then she handed me back to the Cool One, and she left the room. I was afraid I would be left behind, but she came back after a short time with a little cage, and the Cool One put me in it. They carried me out in the sunlight and put me in a big blue box they called a car. They both got in, too, and the thing moved for a long time. I was all excited about the ride. It was so much fun!

At the place they call "the apartment", I saw a big white cage. The Cool One put me on the porch, and a beautiful sprinkled cockatiel emerged. She walked all around me and looked at me from all angles, inspecting every one of my feathers. I had never seen such a pretty and confident tiel before, and I was a bit shy around her. We got along well, though, sharing the food and water dishes, and even sleeping on the same perch. One time, we beak-sparred a little bit while sitting on the Cool One, but it was all in friendly fun.

You would not believe all the things in this apartment! There are tasty treats they call millet spray and honey treats, there is plenty of sunlight that comes through big windows, and there are all kinds of sounds from birds and people outside. There is a big box that shows pictures and sounds (the Tall One calls it a TV), and a smaller one that can be moved around and is called a computer or a laptop. Every time I chirp or sing, the Tall One responds to me happily. Instead of telling me to be quiet, she enjoys my singing and encourages me to continue. It's an amazing new world!

Yesterday, though, something very strange happened. I had just fallen back asleep after singing my good morning song, when I suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my tail feather. It was the pretty lady cockatiel, and she was trying to pull my feathers out! I climbed away from her, but she kept chasing me. At first, I thought she just wanted to play, but she got more and more vicious, until in the end she flew upwards, trying to peck at me, and she finally chased me out of the cage altogether. She sat in the doorway and looked at me as if she was saying: "And stay out!!!"

I looked at the Tall One for help. I did not know what I had done to make that pretty girl turn psycho on me, but I certainly did not want to go back in that cage. The Tall One put me on her shoulder, and we left the cage to the crazy bird for a while. Sure enough, after just a few minutes, a pink round thing appeared under her, and she moved it around until she finally sat down on it, giving the Tall One and me dirty looks. That was definitely too weird for me, so I hung out with the Tall One on the couch. We watched the moving pictures on the TV, and I ate bird seed out of her hand.

A little later, the Tall One explained to me how her computer worked. She showed me this blog and read me all of J.L.'s posts. I never met J.L., but he must have been one cool bird. He described the pink things as the source of lots of trouble, and he was certainly right. About halfway though the posts, I started to recognize some words, and by the end, I had figured out how this reading and writing thing works. I went ahead and typed out some words on the keyboard. She was impressed at how fast I learned, and she told me that she had hoped for Miss Prissy and me to take over the blog. Since Miss Prissy is, to put it mildly, busy with other things at this point, I let her know that I was certainly willing to give it a try. So, here is my first post!

When the Cool One came, he played with me for a while, then they put me in the small cage they had brought me in. I was glad to be left alone in the small cage instead of attacked in the big one, and I fell asleep. When I woke up, the Tall One and the Cool One were back with a pretty grey and green cage. I chirped in excitement, hoping it would be for me, and it was! That made four cages in as many days, but this one was by far the nicest one, with large dishes full of food and water, a honey treat, millet spray, a cuttlebone, and a toy. I was so happy when she put me inside, and I tried all the different things out. I'm happy now! Miss Prissy can keep the other cage, and if she wants to spend time with me, she'll have to visit me in my new home!

Here is a picture of me eating birdseed in my new cage last night. It's a bit dark, because it was in the evening. You should see it now; it's very bright! I'll have to ask the Tall One to take more pictures during the day.

Here I am on the perch in the new cage. Look at the honey treat, the mineral bone, and the cuttlebone in the background! I am so lucky!

Well, that's it for today. I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Carrera