My life flashed before my eyes

Maybe not quite, but I did have a "holy smokes" moment!

Yesterday the moving truck finally arrived. That was wonderful. The birds now have their large cage. I set it up outside and plan on having perches inside for them. The cage has an extra door, that previously had no purpose. I am going to use that to cut a hole in my window screen so I can let them in and out of their outdoor cage freely and without having to risk them flying away.

Okay, here is the scary moment. In the morning, I put them both in the outdoor cage while I was working on my computer. Manzi was busy eating while Maui was on a perch looking around. After 5 minutes, I glanced over at them and saw Maui standing on top of the cage. I immediately looked for Manzi and exhaled when I saw him still inside the cage. I was outside so fast, but worried about opening the door on the patio too fast and startling Maui which might cause her to fly. Luckily, she happily stepped up on my hand and I put her back inside the cage. She had opened one of the food dish doors that I didn't properly tighten.

The food dish doors have spring loaded locks and also an extra tightening screw to secure them. Just the day before I had a conversation with Andrew (my husband) about whether or not the extra screw is even necessary since the spring lock is pretty tight. Well, Maui answered the question for us.

Seeing Maui on the top of the cage scared the living daylights out of me. My mind flashed a million possibilities in an instant. All of my neighbors, except one, have dogs. The back patio has three sides of fencing, whom I share with the neighbors. If Maui were to get startled, from the top of the cage she could definitely make it over the fence, but probably not much further, which would mean she'd land in a dog infested yard. I imagine it would only take them fractions of a second to take her out. That thought terrified me.

So, now all food dish doors have their locks and screws double checked. My brother is coming over today and hopefully we can figure out how to connect the cage to the window so I don't have to carry them outside before putting them in the outdoor cage.

The birds loved being outside. I had errands the entire afternoon. When I returned home, I thought Manzi would want to come in right away. I was wrong. He politely declined my offer (putting head down to stop my finger from getting to his legs and backing up) and wanted to stay outside. They seem to have quite the time chatting away. I heard the neighbors whistling back to them as well. It will only be a few days or so before they start picking up some of the outside noise, probably including dog barks.