The bird who fell upstairs

Doubtless many of you are wondering how Lihn, our Quaker parrot, is doing since her rehoming last week.

In a nutshell, this parrot fell upstairs.

Seriously, the family (Lara, her husband and children) who took her in are nothing short of bird whisperers. Lara has a lot of experience rehabilitating parrots, some of whom have been abused, and said often she starts by simply leaving the bird in its cage for the first few weeks to get it used to its new surroundings and to understand there is no threat.

So I fully expected Lihn to spend several weeks in her cage, huddled and terrified. Wrong.

The very first morning she arrived at Lara's, Lihn was sitting on top her cage, sassing people, before flying down to the kitchen table to try and snitch a bit of granola from Lara's son's breakfast plate. She sent a video, from which Younger Daughter took a screenshot.

Lihn was due for a beak trimming. Normally Lara would take care of this herself, but since it was Lihn's first day in her new home, Lara opted to bring Lihn to the vet to have it done (so any "anger" for this indignity would be on the vet, not Lara, so early in their acquaintance). Lihn actually takes beak trims without a problem, so that was fine. On the way back home, Lihn was loose in Lara's car, and her daughter was scratching Lihn's head. (All photos are cropped to edit out faces.)

Younger Daughter says this is one of her favorite photos so far, since a bird must really trust someone to allow its head to be scratched.

Lihn has also been hanging around Lara's shoulder a lot, getting affection. Again, this is remarkable. Anytime we allowed Lihn on our shoulder, she would try to chew our earlobes off. But with Lara? She's an angel.

And again:

Back on the kitchen table, looking interested in another kid's oatmeal.

So yes, Lihn fell upstairs and is now living with a remarkable family. Younger Daughter and I couldn't be happier about it.

A new home for Lihn

Most readers are familiar with Younger Daughter's Quaker parrot, Lihn. Today, Lihn went to a new home.

This was clearly a difficult decision for all of us, and requires some explanation.

YD got Lihn when she (Younger Daughter) was sixteen years old, an excellent argument why parents shouldn't let teenagers get a long-lived pet. I sorta inherited Lihn when YD left for the Navy, and for the next nine years I was her parrot mom. We got along fine.

However over the last year and a half, Lihn's behavior has been going south. This may or may not have been triggered by my two-week absence in March/April of 2025 when I traveled down to help my dad transition my mom into a nursing home. Whatever the reason, Lihn started feather-plucking.

Anyone who has owned a parrot understands the severity and complexity of feather-plucking behavior. It got increasingly worse. Our local vets (who are in all other respects excellent animal doctors) don't have much experience with parrots, so they urged me to make an appointment with the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Pullman, Washington. Unfortunately the earliest appointment I could get was in November of 2025, so poor Lihn had to endure several months of waiting. During this time I also took an additional trip to see my parents, which may or may not have compounded the issue.

The day of the vet appointment finally arrived, and what I didn't realize was that they planned to keep Lihn overnight for comprehensive testing. This meant a three-hour drive to the vet, a three-hour drive back home without Lihn, then another six-hour round trip the next day to pick her up, and then another six-hour round trip the next week for a follow-up appointment. The conclusion: Undetermined health issues, though they did say she had some arthritis in one foot. (They also determined SHE is actually a HE, but since we've been referring to Lihn as a "she" for the past twelve years, it's not an easy habit to break.)

Lihn was prescribed two types of medication, an anti-inflammatory and a pain reliever. Essentially she will need to be on this medication for the rest of her life. She did a lot better behavior-wise with the pain meds, but she never quite recovered her previously perky personality.

It was about this time (January of this year) that YD began her transition out of the Navy. She was able to land a job on the West Coast, but she is nowhere near in a position to take Lihn with her. For one thing, YD will be at work all day long, which would leave Lihn by herself for the majority of her waking hours. And two, YD's position will require her to be at sea twice a year; once for about a week, and a second time for anywhere from five to six weeks. So Lihn, it seemed, had a permanent home with us.

So YD proposed the idea of rehoming Lihn. At first I was opposed to this, feeling like a failure as a parrot mom and also concerned that wrenching Lihn from the only caregiver she's ever known could backfire, but gradually I saw the wisdom of her logic. Although the initial transition would be difficult, Lihn would conceivably thrive under the care of someone with a natural affinity for parrot psychology and behavior.

With this in mind, YD started her research. There are loads of people willing to take in rehomed parrots, but sadly the majority of them are bird flippers, bird hoarders, or other examples of abusive situations. The thought of putting Lihn in such a cruel placement almost gave me an anxiety attack.

Finally YD connected with two women as possible rehoming candidates. Both had sterling reputations and references. However one woman was having health issues and required some major surgery over the summer, so YD went with the other woman (whose name is Lara), who lives near Boise. Lara has comprehensive experience in rehabilitating birds both physically and psychologically, and felt confident she could nurse Lihn back to her previously healthy and perky self.

For the past week, we've known Lara was coming today (Wednesday), and YD and I have been in something of a funk at the thought of Lihn going away, even though we knew it was in her best interest.

Lara arrived this morning, and immediately YD knew she had made the right choice. Lara was a walking encyclopedia of parrot care. She has a stable home life and is also a stay-at-home mom with children who are respectful of pets. And my goodness, does she know her parrots.

And so, after an hour-and-half visit, we bundled Lihn into her travel cage, then transported her large cage with its stand into Lara's car, along with surplus food, toys, medicine, and other paraphernalia. (I also sent Lara home with about ten pounds of frozen blueberries from last year's crop as a thank-you.)

And then Lara drove away, and Lihn was gone.

Yeah yeah, we know it was the best thing for her, but I'll confess my eyes are stinging as I write this. Lihn's departure leaves both a physical and an emotional hole in our home.

Perhaps it's fitting that there was a single feather on the floor where her cage once stood.

Lara promises to keep us posted on Lihn's progress. If for some reason the rehoming placement doesn't work out, we will take Lihn back ... but Lara sounded extremely confident that wouldn't be necessary.

So yeah, YD did the absolutely right thing in finding someone like Lara to take over the job. But it was still a tough decision.

Groovin' to the music

Older Daughter is playing piano for a four-person choral group (including Don) at our church. They're singing three Christmas songs, so Older Daughter has been practicing daily, diligently making sure she's confident in the music.

Lihn – Younger Daughter's Quaker parrot – evidently appreciates the music. I let her out of her cage mornings and evenings, and every time Older Daughter is at the piano, Lihn flies over and joins her, groovin' to the music.

The bird seems fascinated as to why Older Daughter keeps pressing the keys.

Lots of "help," don'cha know.

It's no accident the keyboard stays covered when not in use.

Bitter cold

As with much of the rest of  the nation, we're in for some bitter, bitter cold.

We had a snow whomp on Thursday night, receiving about six inches in a couple hours.

This came on top of a very windy day. Unsurprisingly, we lost power last night as a result. It's times like this we are beyond grateful for our wood cookstove.

Oil lamps provided light.

This morning, Darcy came back from his walk with his feet covered in "jingle balls," as we call them.

He spent 20 minutes chewing them off.

Because her side of the house doesn't get heat from the wood cookstove, Older Daughter opened the (normally closed) connecting door to warm the place up. Of course this meant Frumpkin had the run of the full house. And where did he park himself? Under the parrot's cage, of course.

Darcy was a good boy during Frumpkin's liberty and behaved himself.

And Frumpkin was a good boy as well, and didn't attack the parrot in her cage ... though it looked like he wanted to.

Instead, the cat had to content himself with staring at the birds outside on the feeder. Cat TV!

The power came back on after about 18 hours, thanks to those thankless heroes, the hardworking linemen of the power company.

The wood cookstove isn't going out at all for the next few days as temps dip so low. But our weather isn't anything compared to what they're getting back east ("Hurricane-Force Blizzard Could Hit Northeast Next Week, Weather Forecaster Warns").

Stay warm and safe out there, dear readers!

Pet update

Some time ago, a reader asked how our pets are doing. In a word, fine. I thought I'd post pix of the three animals we have right now: Mr. Darcy, Lihn, and Frumpkin.

It's hard to believe Darcy is six years old already. Where does the time go? Here's some recent photos of him:

Frisbee wolf. Darcy "hides" behind a cart, waiting for Older Daughter to throw a Frisbee:

Here's another picture:

One of his favorite perches, surveying his domain while resting his chin on the rail.

Milking some attention for all it's worth.

Evening walk.

Playing in the yard.

Hiking in the woods.

Watching me rake leaves in the side yard.

Dozing with a rope toy.

Enjoying fall.

Snoozing in front of the woodstove.

Now on to Lihn, Younger Daughter's Quaker parrot. This lady is now nine years old.

Lihn gets out of her cage for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening. Here she's on the floor, exploring some tankards. (Older Daughter is working on them in the background.)

Don finished a sandwich one day, and it had a few bread crumbs left on the plate. Lihn loves bread. We seldom let her have any, but a few crumbs are fine.

One evening she sat on the perch near my desk and proceeded to groom herself, contorting into amazing shapes.

Every so often I'll send photos to Younger Daughter (currently stationed in Europe) to let her know her pet is safe and sound.

I also periodically schedule vet appointments to get her beak trimmed, since it has an annoying tendency to get overlong very fast. Her next appointment is in early December.

Now for the World's Most Spoiled Cat, Frumpkin (Older Daughter's pet).

Frumpkin was a stray who adopted us several years ago, long before we moved. Older Daughter took him in and spoils him rotten. We don't know his age, but he's in the prime of life and in excellent health.

As you can imagine, he's sticks his nose into all of Older Daughter's business.

Changing sheets is a challenge.

He's strictly an indoor cat now.

Fortunately he has his own "catio" outside Older Daughter's door where he can sit in the sun and survey his domain.

Plus his cat tree is right by the window.

On a chilly rainy morning, Frumpkin cozies up on Older Daughter's bed:

Here he's getting "into" Cat TV (he loves the squirrels!).

So as you can see, all our animals are doing fine.