Brooks One, Two, Three

Here's a quick update on the busiest member of our household: Busy Brooks. She's one busy bird with oodles of action stored in her wings - and her beak. But quite apart from her busyness and in-bred naughtiness, we're happy to report that she's trained in a few things.

She knows just what M means when he orders "Off" after she's landed on an out of bounds picture frame. Just because she understands it doesn't mean she likes it. After complying with a flutter of wings and an angry squawk, she'll land on M's head and knock her beak three times on his head, woodpecker-style, just so he knows what she thought of that instruction.

I, in turn, have trained her to go into her cage without too much fanfare. Admittedly, it needs to be timed with when she's a little hungry. I place her on the rope perch outside her cage, put her favourite treat - a raw cashew - in her dish and knock on her dish a few times to draw attention to it. Then I say, "Brooks, go eat" in my most soothing voice. With just a little bit of coaxing, she moves from the perch to the door of her cage. One, two, three and she's in her cage. As soon as she's at her dish enjoying her treat, the door goes closed. Easy peasy.

And certainly, the best news of all is that Busy Brooks is coming along with her toilet training. But more of that in the next blog about Busy Brooks!