@sunnysmom , did you all the get home safe,
Yes, we all made it home safely, thanks for asking! It took us longer than planned. There was a lot of road construction and then we hit Pittsburgh at rush hour. Sigh. We were all really happy to get out of the car when we finally got home. And after a bit of initial panic, Elvis seemed to really like his back pack carrier! It gives him a lot more visibility than his other carrier did and the perch is up higher too. So he really handled the long drive well.
I was actually sad taking Elvis from Bob and Kathy and his new bird friends (but happy to have him back!). They of course took great care of Elvis, and I know he enjoyed being with them. I hope Buddy isn't upset over the loss of his "special friend". Milton was probably glad to see him go. LOL. Bob and Howie talked quite a bit, and I think Bob gave Howie the confidence he needed to start working with Elvis again. And as expected, when we got to Bob's, Elvis only wanted Howie. Heavy sigh. I've said it before, but I really can't thank Bob and Kathy enough for taking care of Elvis for us. It gave Howie the peace and quiet that he needed to recover. So, we are very grateful.
Elvis settled right back in to being home. After the long car ride, he was pretty much crazy bird for the rest of the evening. Flying everywhere, opening cabinet doors, etc. We're going to try to start being a bit more strict with Elvis but it was his first night back and so close to his bedtime that I decided to just let him fly around and unwind. Unfortunately, he gave Howie a few nips. Not bites really but one nip was on his cheek. I was a little heart broken over that. I didn't really expect things to change without us working at it but I thought we might have a bit of a return "honeymoon" period. Wrong. LOL. Howie took it all in stride though and seems committed to working with Elvis- to which I give a lot of credit to Bob. Elvis as always was good for me- which is so weird because he likes Howie. And we did get some scratches and cuddles in between him flying around. He of course didn't want to go to bed. But I implemented Bob's suggested quiet time before bed with him and that did seem to really calm him down. Unfortunately, he later woke up and screamed off and on for 3 hours. Sigh. But Rome wasn't built in a day, right?
Elvis was up and at it, at 6:30 this morning. And he and I fell right back into our regular morning routine, including him taking a nap on me for a bit. When I left for work, he was screaming but Howie still seemed okay with it. There wasn't really time last night to reintroduce him to the bird room and his new cage. So I let him sleep in his regular cage downstairs but hopefully by today or tomorrow he will be staying in and sleeping in the bedroom. I hope that helps.
Thanks everyone for following Elvis's vacation! And thanks Bob for all the updates!