Long Update

Quite a few things have happened since the last update. I was scared about a week ago. Manzi was outside flying around in the park while I was having a barbecue with my neighbors. I stopped hearing Manzi, but I figured he just went further away and would be back. After 20 minutes I decided to go looking for him. I couldn't find him in the usual spots. I went to the far side of the apartment complex (where he has never been) and found him up in a tree with a man watching him. I called Manzi and he came right down to me. The man told me he found Manzi in the park (where I was with him) so he took him to his place and tried to put him in a cage. Then Manzi bit him and flew up into the tree. Since Manzi hadn't been over there before he wasn't sure how to get back and was just waiting for me to get him. I couldn't believe that the man wouldn't have asked me or other people around if Manzi belonged to one of us. I didn't see him take Manzi either. It scared me because I never thought Manzi would just go to someone else, let alone a man (as he usually dislikes men). In addition, the person was just going to keep Manzi in a cage. If I couldn't find Manzi, I would have assumed that a hawk got him and wouldn't have thought to see if a neighbor took him. Now I know better. That situation made me realize I need to watch Manzi a lot better. I trust Manzi, but I don't trust other people.

After that situation I decided to work on having Manzi fly around and recall without giving him quite so much freedom. The first day he didn't want to recall so quickly after being let out, but he did come back and after getting a grape and being let fly again he did recalls much quicker. Yesterday I did the same thing and Manzi did quite a few recalls being awarded with a grape each time. He is doing quite well and I feel much more comfortable with his flying. I recall him about every 5-10 minutes and he comes, gets his grape and then goes back to playing.

The situation with Samuel is greatly improving. Samuel can now pick up Manzi if he gives him a treat first. Manzi also hasn't bitten Samuel any more times since the first bite on his arm.

Lastly, we finally brought the play stand back inside and Manzi can already do his "play dead" trick. I cue him by pointing my finger at him (like a gun) and he falls backwards. He isn't doing the turn around trick, but he hasn't done it on his play stand before so we just need to work on that.