World Enough and Time

We had a budgie mishap last night. I didn't notice at first, but glancing over at the cage, I wondered where Remy had gone. He couldn't be outside the cage, since I hadn't opened the door, but he was nowhere to be see. Then I saw his tail, and realized he had somehow climbed inside the food dish. The food dish is very small, with a smaller opening, who'd have guessed a budgie, even a tiny young one, could fit inside? I thought he was playing. Maybe he was, or maybe he'd just fallen in by accident. I think he had just discovered what the food dish was for. The little guy is so young that everything is unfamiliar to him, and Logan, still being haughty with the tiny blue stranger in the cage, isn't helping him yet.

I soon realized - as much from the bemused expression on Logan's face as anything else - that Remy couldn't get out. His long blue tail was sticking out of the food dish, the rest of him was crammed inside, with no leverage for him to retreat.

The question was, how was I to get him out without hurting him? Now, the food dish is cleverly designed so I can put food into it from the outside without it being possible for wily little budgies to escape the cage. It was impossible to open it with him inside. I took the dish off the cage, carefully, not wanting to squash him or hurt him. I wondered about getting a crowbar, to take the plastic cup apart.. it would have been tricky, but it might have worked. It didn't come to that. After I poured out the budgie-food there was room for me to get a finger inside as well, which gave Remy something to hang onto, and then I cold pull him out backwards. He looked abashed. And fluffy. I think he might be considerably less than four months old. He's just a baby - all soft fuzzy feathers, and clumsy. Everything is new to him.

Little cutie.

I hope he'll be more careful with the seed dish next time.