The Great Bird Escape of 2010

Thud...Crash...Tinkle...Tinkle...Tinkle

My eyes popped opened when I heard all of the above in the middle of last night. The only thought in my head was that the gerbils had managed to push their cage out of the wooden box, off the hearth, and onto the tile floor. In hind sight, I realize two tiny creatures cannot do such a thing, but in my cobwebbed dream state, that was my train of thought. I jumped out of bed, trying to find Bailey in the dark of the hallway, knowing the 'tinkle tinkle' I had heard, and was continuing to hear, was the sound of his collar tags. The eerie part as I was making my way down the hall and into the living room was how quiet it now was.

The Wii controller charging station casts a soft blue wash over the living room at night, so I could see the gerbil cage was where it belonged, and I could even make out the two round lumps sleeping in one corner. Gerbils...check. In the corner between the fireplace and the sliding glass door, I could see the bird cage, covered by Isaac earlier in the night and hanging ramrod still from its hook. Birds...check.

Bailey. Where was my sweet boy? As I turned towards the piano room, I saw a fluff of light colored fur wag. What was he doing in the piano room? What had he found? What had caused so much noise? I switched on the lamp on my music shelf to discover a pointed dog nose that refused to move from under the curio cabinet. What in the world would be there to interest Bailey?

I was beginning to think we had a snake. I killed one snake a couple of weeks ago, and Isaac killed two more on Saturday. As much as we'd been in and out of the backyard yesterday, I was beginning to fear a snake snuck in behind us and was just waiting to strike. Wait, blondie, snakes don't make things go bump in the night. Duh.

Bailey wasn't going to budge, so I picked him up, and as I started to squat down to peak under the curio cabinet, I caught site of a white head. My head skipped a beat because the thought springing into my head now was that we had a mouse. Why a mouse would make me nervous when we have gerbils is beyond me, but it did. However, as I kept squatting lower, I realized it wasn't a white mouse head, but a white bird head!!! Nika was on the floor, under my curio cabinet, the entire width of the house away from her cage.

It didn't take me long, even in my sleepy, confused state to figure out Isaac hadn't shut the bird cage door before covering Nika and Igor for the night. He's done this before, and while I've wondered if it was the best idea, I take as much responsibility for the escape as he does because I never bothered to voice my concerns. Neither of us really ever thought the'd fly through the blanket and out of the cage, especially since parakeets have pretty horrible night vision.

As best as we can figure, Nika and Igor got into one of their love fights (all you married folk know what I mean) and Nika wanted her space. During the day, it wouldn't have been any problem for her to climb out to the top of her cage, but I suppose in the dark she got confused, started flying, couldn't find a place to land, and crashed into something, creating the noises that woke me. Igor, startled at the commotion must have taken off too because I found him clinging to the brick accent wall. Both birds were so stirred up that they wanted nothing to do with me, and all of my attempts to whisper sweet nothings into their little bird ears and lure them onto my finger did nothing but earn me the stink eye and attempted pecks at my fingers. I honestly thought Isaac had slept through all of this, but when I went to get him, he was wide awake, probably laughing at me. Being the 'all living things whisperer' that he is, the birds came right to him, promptly hopped back in their cage, and went back to sleep.

Isaac also quickly fell back asleep. I listened to him snore, the dog snore, and the cars drive by for the next three hours until the alarm went off. I don't do well with rude awakenings in the middle of the night, so needless to say, the humans in this house have agreed to double and triple check the bird cage door from now on. No more spooked birds in the middle of the night in this house!

By the way, for those of you still wondering why I'd jump out of bed and hurry into the living room to check out weird, loud noises in the middle of the night, I wasn't afraid of it being a break in and finding scary bad guys. Bailey growls and has a very tense bark when something unfamiliar is near us after dark. He's really the perfect child!