Good Morning Young Bourkes!

Actually, only the three in back are youngsters. The one or two in front are tame adults from earlier clutches. They still like to beg a bite or two once in a while. Something about the Exact's taste, or maybe they just like the extra attention they get when being fed.

I missed a good picture this morning, but by the time I got the digital camera on, the scene had ended. One of our young birds landed on a chair arm and Chinook, our big old malamute mix...mala-mutt...sauntered over and put a nose up to him. The baby nibbled his nose a bit, but by the time I had the digital camera on, their introduction was over.

Never leave other pets, or young children, unattended with your birds. Even the most reliable can have an "accident" or forget to be careful. Chinook is more curious than anything, but I watch him around the birds. He knows he's not to hurt them, and I doubt he ever would, but pets can do the unexpected.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one morning we made a shopping trip to Eugene about a three-hour drive away. We were gone nearly 12 hours and when we arrived home, our oldest cat had been asleep in a window seat and left there all day. He never bothered the birds, but I would not intentionally let a cat stay alone in the same room with them all day.

We live in the country and usually put the cats outside when we leave...where the other two were. Although, one night one of our adult children was visiting and let another cat inside with the birds. About 1 a.m. she meowed outside our bedroom door wanting to come in with us. Who knows how long she was in the same rooms with the birds. She never bothered them either, and she's a stray we took in two years previous to that incident. She isn't a cat we raised ourselves, yet she's probably grateful to be rescued. She quickly accepted our big dog, and responded by looking away any time she glanced at a cage and was told sharply, "No Birds!"

As another aside. We love the wild birds around our place too, and when I'm outside and there are birds at feeders, I tell the cats, "No Birds!" and they seem to leave them alone too. They catch mice, moles and voles and I had to rescue a chipmunk from one of the cats a few months ago. But, I've never seen them go after wild birds ... a benefit of their indoor training, I'm sure. 

My tame birds like to fly around and visit their relatives in their breeding cages. The birds in the cages have gotten used to it, but they don't particularly like having someone walking around over their heads.

May God Bless You and our Beloved Pets.