Experimentation

Yesterday we took Jasmine, our African Grey parrot,on a four-hour hike with us into the mountains. This might sound somewhat surprising, but she gets just as stir crazy being indoors all the time as we do.

It's an unusual sight to see someone in hiking boots trekking out with a bird cage in their arms, and wherever we went people loved to see Jazzy in her clear perspex travel cage.

She's a very endearing little character, likes to chat and makes new friends very easily. She is the usual grey with the bright red tail of the Congo African Grey.

We all had a great time and enjoyed seeing Jazzy's antics and reactions to her surroundings. When she sees something new she often says "ooooh".

We had a picnic at the top of the climb and Jazzy's water dish had so much fruit in it that it seemed likely she would have a sangria mix soon and be punch drunk before long.

Walking through town again on the way home we didn't attract any attention at all, we were bedraggled and exhausted, and Jazzy's cage was so smeared and caked on the inside with the day's goings on, that anyone looking at it might see that something inside it was moving, but they probably wouldn't be able to recognise that it was a bird.

So we trapsed in quietly and unnoticed and as soon as we were all situated in the living room, Jazzy in her normal big cage and us on the couch next to her, we all fell happily fast asleep.