Well...

One of our victims that went missing at the end of May was found deceased on Sunday by hunters. It's a sad, sad situation. We knew that it was a possibility that he would be deceased, but it's still never easy to accept. I got the call from familyMonday, and I got that it was a tentative positive ID from law enforcement today. We had the right idea of where to search. He was an avid hunter, and typically went to some family land up north. We went up north and searched a 300 acre property that he used to search on, and another family owned property that was much smaller later that night. We found nothing.

He was found 15 miles south of where we searched that property on state land. No foul play is suspected, nor do I expect that it will be in the future.

Our new neighbors are awesome. Heather and I went to Dairy Queen (Damn them. Damn them to hell!) tonight and had fun. It's really cool having neighbors you can knock on their door and say "Hey...whatcha doin? Wanna play cards?" or "I'm going to the store...you need anything?". I love it. I'm glad we held out until we found the ones we knew were right for the apartment.

Rio and I had a great time for his visit today. I spent about an hour and a half with him today. I snuck in, so he wouldn't see me because I wanted to just observe him when he didn't know I was there. That didn't work. I don't know if he knows my perfume, if he can just sense my presence or if he actually just is that observant that he could see me peeking at him between fishtanks from the row behind him. He starts flapping and going "Hi! Hi! Hello! Hi! Hey Mama!" LOL

I took him out and we went up and sat on the bench by Simon's cage. Simon is an Eclectus who belongs and travels with Kelly, the manager to work every day. Most birds want to be humans. Most actually believe they are humans. Not Simon. Simon wants to be Rio. Simon talks...but only says what Rio says. Kelly said she's been trying to get Simon to say "Simon" for the last three and a half years. Instead, he says "I'm Ri-Ri" or "Rioooooooo. Riooooooooo!" LOL All Simon wants out of life is to be a Macaw. He head bobs like Rio does, he tries to mimic all Macaw actions...poor bird. LOL

So, we sat by Simon today on the bench. Before long, we were sitting on the floor rolling his ball that I brought him back and forth. Turns out...Rio's afraid of little birds. A Lovebird got loose, and you would have thought all hell was breaking loose. Rio, whom was sitting on the floor next to me, climbed up, lifted my shirt with his beak, climbed under and sat there absolutely shuddering. I was softly talking to him and telling him that he shouldn't be afraid, I wouldn't let anything hurt him and that he should remember that he could chomp a lovebird in half with one flick of his beak. The only response he had was "Babies bite! Babies bite!"

He did end up doing a back step up for me today. That's cool. Sometimes, if he wants me to blow on his feathers or most recently, to pet him, he'll step on my left arm, and then turn to my left so that his back is to me. I said "Step Back, Rio" and he put his foot out behind him and let me go under his tail feathers ( a big no-no for predators) to take his foot and step up from behind.

I think I'm going to get a clicker training kit for him. He is so freakin' smart...I'm thinking I could have him doing cool stuff like rollerskating and card tricks in no time. Plus...if he's interested in all those cool tricks...he's less interested in screaming his green little head off or biting.

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