One fine morning as I began the normal ritual of cleaning our six Society Finch's cage I walked to the kitchen to change their water. All of a sudden I hear the birds gleefully chirping louder then they normally do. I came around the corner and jumped a mile high to see our little "Romeo" zoom right over my head! I yelled to my husband and six year old daughter to "Quick, turn off all the ceiling fans"! They both came running at all the commotion.

The other five birds remained in the cage but were very excited and I think were cheering Romeo on! I had forgotten to close the cage door! We pondered the situation and thought "hmmm, now what"?

I grabbed a dish towel and tried to cover him gently but I was afraid I would smash him. My husband thought himself quick enough to just "catch him with my hands" Ha! We know that didn't work. Then our daughter had the best idea. She said to use her kiddy bug catcher net used on our many nature walks but has only seemed to have caught a tiny Nat or two!

I approached, feeling much like one of those nature hunter's on The Discovery Channel, our then very exhausted Romeo who was pooped out and sitting on the kitchen counter. One little swoop of the net proved successful and Romeo was back in his cage in no time. He seemed relieved and so did the others except I do think he got a beak lashing from Juliet!

My daughter summed up the ordeal with these words "Well Mom, at least that net finally came in handy for something! Can we let out another one, please'"?

Article © Valerie W. 2002