Today was Charles' last day of school, and thus my last morning without Charles. I cleaned up the cage I bought used off of Craigslist, and prepared it for Fuzzuls arrival--that being the pre-chosen name of the bird, which Charles is of course, free to change once he receives the bird.
We are celebrating Charles' birthday on Sunday, so until then, fuzzuls is staying in my bathroom; more specifically, in our jacuzzi tub, on a stand, in his cage. I bought him this morning, and boy was he frightened and upset. I settled him into his cage, and we ignored him for a couple hours. I've gone up periodically to talk to fuzzuls and hold him, saying, "Step Up" when I want him to step up to my hand and "Step down" when I want him to go back to his stand. He is quite wild, having little human contact, if any, before today.
Fuzzuls is making tremendous progress. Already he perches nicely on my hand, and will eat from my other hand. He also gives me kisses on my nose. I might be too attached by Sunday to surrender Fuzzuls to Charles.
I had banned all the children from mentioning even a word about Charles birthday present. When I picked him up from school, on our way back to the car, I spotted a lizard and helped Charles catch the lizard. I had hoped that it would distract Oliver from mentioning Fuzzuls. The moment I was backing out of the driveway, Oliver bursts out with," Don't worry, Charles. I'm not going to tell you your birthday present. It's a surprise. It isn't a bird."
I immediately said, "Oliver, not another word," to which he responded, " I didn't tell him we got him a bird."
Charles clearly knows he's getting a bird, or will probably get a bird. But he doesn't know it's already here living in my bathroom. So maybe there'll still be some surprise.
