Mrs Featherton
Strolling the yard
- Joined
- 4/1/18
- Messages
- 122
- Real Name
- Cheri
Oh my goodness! Where to start!
Go get some tea and cookies, this is gonna take a minute.
As y’all remember, 2 weeks ago (then 10 week old) Murphy broke his widdle leg. He had his pretty purple cast on and was doing great! He had an appt scheduled for tomorrow for cast removal. Well yesterday morning I noticed he had shredded the bottom of the material and some loose strings had wrapped around his toes. It was driving him nuts, and looked super uncomfortable bordering on dangerous, so I got him in yesterday for an early cast removal. He was p.o.’d that he had to be caught and brought back to the scary doctors’ office, but his leg looked great and you could tell he was SO relieved to have it off.
Well these past two weeks Murphy and I have been bonding by leaps and bounds. He now comes to me and allows head scritches and kisses and he loves to preen my hair and nap under my hair, nuzzled against my neck. It’s been super sweet
So we get home yesterday from the vet, he seems less angry with me and more happy his foot is free so all is good.
Until 5 pm.
When the UPS truck pulled up out front.
It was raining pretty hard and we have a very considerate UPS guy, so before it could even register in my brain, the driver opened my screen door and tossed my small package into my entry way... where Murphy was sitting on my desk!!!
Yup - it was all in slow motion... I was walking to greet the driver, and saw his hand reach for my door handle, while simultaneously noting Murphy’s proximity to said door... and like in a dream, the door flew open, which startled Murphy and my lunging to get between him and the door freaked him out even more and - ZIP! - out the door he flew!
You all know that horrible, sinking feeling as it hits the pit of your stomach...
I ran out after him just in time to see him fly STRAIGHT UP and land in the tippy top branches of the big pine tree next to my house.
Crap.
Crappitty crap crap.
I could see Murphy and I just knew that in his little birdy mind he was also saying Crappitty Crap Crap.
He started doing that panicked lovebird chirp as I’m standing barefoot in the pouring rain hugging a tree yelling “It’s okay Murphy! Mummy’s here! It’s okay!”
(Neighborhood crazy lady much?!)
My heart is now POUNDING out of my chest and I don’t DARE take my eye off of him lest he change branches and I lose him... but my standing there is not getting anything accomplished, and the tree is WAY to tall to climb, so I decide to go inside and grab my phone and play Murphy’s favorite video of lovebird calls. Because whenever I put that on in the house, he always comes over to investigate.
“Don’t move, Murphy!!! Mummy will be right back!”
Sprint into the house, grab my ph and run back out.
He’s still in the same spot. Still chirping. So I play the video, volume full blast.
He chirps back. But he doesn’t move.
Ok... he’s scared and this is a weird place, so I’ll make it as familiar as possible. I pull up a lawn chair to the base of the tree and hold my phone face up so he can hear it and pray that he’ll do his normal routine and fly onto Mommy to look.
Nope. Still there, still chirping, not moving.
I’m still barefoot, in a lawn chair at the base of a tree playing bird videos - in the pouring rain.
And my battery is almost dead. Yikes.
Ok ok ok ok ok.... ummm...
Need to plug my ph in. Outside.
I run into the garage and grab a heavy duty extension cord, run in the house to get my charger, drag the extension cord across the lawn and plug in my phone.
Murphy is still in the tree, too afraid to move.
I’m sitting in a lawn chair, barefoot, in the pouring rain with a frigging ELECTRICAL CORD across my lap!
But the video keeps playing and I keep reassuring Murphy and 90 minutes later this is where my husband finds his crazy, distaught wife.
Being the calm voice of unmaternally-panicked reason, hubby says “How about we move his cage into the front yard, so he can see something familiar”
Ok ok ok ok....
Two crazy people (one much wetter than the other) carry this ginormous birdcage out and put it smack dab in the middle of the front yard.
Totes normal.
Now it’s starting to get dark and cooler and my poor baby is all alone stuck up in a big tree with scary bugs and wild birds giving him funny looks cuz he’s CLEARLY a spoiled City Bird hanging out in a country tree!
We get his cage set up in his line of sight, put a waterproof cover on top to keep the rain out, and realize that now it’s after 8 pm and getting really dark and my gut says he’s not going to move til morning... so I force myself to leave my innocent little lamb up in the big scary tree with the wild birds - who are all probably in gangs - and go inside my house.
Ouch, my heart.
I keep looking out the door, staring at the cage, would he come down?
Can he even SEE it in the dark?
So I get a waterproof flashlight and put it in the cage to light it up.
This, I reason, will act like runway lights and guide him home, or be a bright beacon for the local raccoons to come get a late night seed fix.
I went to bed about 11, but it was an awful sleep.
Bounded out of bed at 5 am. Ran outside - empty cage. I play my lovebird video - nobody chirps back.
Hubby brings me coffee outside as he leaves for work. The sun is out, so I’m warm and dry... and I sit there and call for Murphy and put the chirping video on repeat.
At 7:30 am, the neighborhood kids walk past the crazy crying chirping lady in her jammies and bedhead and go to the bus stop.
At 9 am my daughter brings me more coffee and donuts and sits with me as I continue to chirp and search the sky.
11 am. Walking the yard, the woods behind the house... still chirping. Nobody chirps back. Pulling ticks off of myself and swatting the gnats that want to fly up my nose.
1 pm I call and order a sandwhich to be delivered. The driver doesn’t even blink at the crazy crying chirping lady pulling sweaty money out of her bra.
Oops, battery running low... plug in the extention cord again.
Neighbors walk their dogs and wave... some ask if everything is alright (because CLEARLY it is NOT).
3 pm the kids come home from school ... they walk a bit faster past the crazycryingchirpinglady’s house.
Cars go by and try very hard not to make eye contact.
“Poor woman... finally lost her marbles. We all saw it coming”.
And throughout this whole long day - no chirps back.
By 4 pm I can’t stop thinking about the owls and the hawks and the fischer cats.... crying my eyes out.
Poor baby Murphy.. only 3 months old. Momma should have protected you. It’s all my fault.
5 pm... time to face facts.
Murphy is gone.
.
.
.
I call my dog over... it’s time to call it a day. Gotta clean up my command center... put away the extention cord, pick up my trash and cups and pile of eye wiping tissues...
“chirp”
WTF?!?
“CHIRP”
No f@$ing way!
“CHIRP CHIRP”
OMG OMG OMG!
Where is that coming from? I tilt my head, trying to triangulate and zoom in on the sound.
Press play on the video for the thousandth time...
“CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP”!!!
There he is! In a smaller Christmas tree across the street!!!
MURPHY BABY!!!!
I walk toward that beautiful blue dot... he sees me!!
ZOOOOM! He makes a beeline and lands smack on the top of my head!!!!
Ok ok ok... 20 feet back to the front lawn and his cage... hang on hang on hang on boy!!!
10 feet.... keeping my head completely still...
5 feet... oh no, here comes the wind... hang on... 2 more steps....
I SHOVE my head thru his cage door and he hops off onto his favorite perch! Close the door close the door close the door!!! !!!!!
YESSSSS!!! MURPHY IS HOME!!!
I push some millet thru the bars and my poor starving baby DIVES onto it!!!
I collapse back into my lawn chair, weeping like a baby, just as my neighbor and her husband pass by on their evening walk.
“Lisa!” I yell... HE’S BACK!
They run over, happy for us. And offer to help me get the ginourmous cage back into the house.
(I have awesome neighbors!)
Murphy ate his fill and is sound asleep.... and I am right behind him.
But tomorrow we are going to have a chat, young man, cuz you are SO GROUNDED!!!!
Go get some tea and cookies, this is gonna take a minute.
As y’all remember, 2 weeks ago (then 10 week old) Murphy broke his widdle leg. He had his pretty purple cast on and was doing great! He had an appt scheduled for tomorrow for cast removal. Well yesterday morning I noticed he had shredded the bottom of the material and some loose strings had wrapped around his toes. It was driving him nuts, and looked super uncomfortable bordering on dangerous, so I got him in yesterday for an early cast removal. He was p.o.’d that he had to be caught and brought back to the scary doctors’ office, but his leg looked great and you could tell he was SO relieved to have it off.
Well these past two weeks Murphy and I have been bonding by leaps and bounds. He now comes to me and allows head scritches and kisses and he loves to preen my hair and nap under my hair, nuzzled against my neck. It’s been super sweet
So we get home yesterday from the vet, he seems less angry with me and more happy his foot is free so all is good.
Until 5 pm.
When the UPS truck pulled up out front.
It was raining pretty hard and we have a very considerate UPS guy, so before it could even register in my brain, the driver opened my screen door and tossed my small package into my entry way... where Murphy was sitting on my desk!!!
Yup - it was all in slow motion... I was walking to greet the driver, and saw his hand reach for my door handle, while simultaneously noting Murphy’s proximity to said door... and like in a dream, the door flew open, which startled Murphy and my lunging to get between him and the door freaked him out even more and - ZIP! - out the door he flew!
You all know that horrible, sinking feeling as it hits the pit of your stomach...
I ran out after him just in time to see him fly STRAIGHT UP and land in the tippy top branches of the big pine tree next to my house.
Crap.
Crappitty crap crap.
I could see Murphy and I just knew that in his little birdy mind he was also saying Crappitty Crap Crap.
He started doing that panicked lovebird chirp as I’m standing barefoot in the pouring rain hugging a tree yelling “It’s okay Murphy! Mummy’s here! It’s okay!”
(Neighborhood crazy lady much?!)
My heart is now POUNDING out of my chest and I don’t DARE take my eye off of him lest he change branches and I lose him... but my standing there is not getting anything accomplished, and the tree is WAY to tall to climb, so I decide to go inside and grab my phone and play Murphy’s favorite video of lovebird calls. Because whenever I put that on in the house, he always comes over to investigate.
“Don’t move, Murphy!!! Mummy will be right back!”
Sprint into the house, grab my ph and run back out.
He’s still in the same spot. Still chirping. So I play the video, volume full blast.
He chirps back. But he doesn’t move.
Ok... he’s scared and this is a weird place, so I’ll make it as familiar as possible. I pull up a lawn chair to the base of the tree and hold my phone face up so he can hear it and pray that he’ll do his normal routine and fly onto Mommy to look.
Nope. Still there, still chirping, not moving.
I’m still barefoot, in a lawn chair at the base of a tree playing bird videos - in the pouring rain.
And my battery is almost dead. Yikes.
Ok ok ok ok ok.... ummm...
Need to plug my ph in. Outside.
I run into the garage and grab a heavy duty extension cord, run in the house to get my charger, drag the extension cord across the lawn and plug in my phone.
Murphy is still in the tree, too afraid to move.
I’m sitting in a lawn chair, barefoot, in the pouring rain with a frigging ELECTRICAL CORD across my lap!
But the video keeps playing and I keep reassuring Murphy and 90 minutes later this is where my husband finds his crazy, distaught wife.
Being the calm voice of unmaternally-panicked reason, hubby says “How about we move his cage into the front yard, so he can see something familiar”
Ok ok ok ok....
Two crazy people (one much wetter than the other) carry this ginormous birdcage out and put it smack dab in the middle of the front yard.
Totes normal.
Now it’s starting to get dark and cooler and my poor baby is all alone stuck up in a big tree with scary bugs and wild birds giving him funny looks cuz he’s CLEARLY a spoiled City Bird hanging out in a country tree!
We get his cage set up in his line of sight, put a waterproof cover on top to keep the rain out, and realize that now it’s after 8 pm and getting really dark and my gut says he’s not going to move til morning... so I force myself to leave my innocent little lamb up in the big scary tree with the wild birds - who are all probably in gangs - and go inside my house.
Ouch, my heart.
I keep looking out the door, staring at the cage, would he come down?
Can he even SEE it in the dark?
So I get a waterproof flashlight and put it in the cage to light it up.
This, I reason, will act like runway lights and guide him home, or be a bright beacon for the local raccoons to come get a late night seed fix.
I went to bed about 11, but it was an awful sleep.
Bounded out of bed at 5 am. Ran outside - empty cage. I play my lovebird video - nobody chirps back.
Hubby brings me coffee outside as he leaves for work. The sun is out, so I’m warm and dry... and I sit there and call for Murphy and put the chirping video on repeat.
At 7:30 am, the neighborhood kids walk past the crazy crying chirping lady in her jammies and bedhead and go to the bus stop.
At 9 am my daughter brings me more coffee and donuts and sits with me as I continue to chirp and search the sky.
11 am. Walking the yard, the woods behind the house... still chirping. Nobody chirps back. Pulling ticks off of myself and swatting the gnats that want to fly up my nose.
1 pm I call and order a sandwhich to be delivered. The driver doesn’t even blink at the crazy crying chirping lady pulling sweaty money out of her bra.
Oops, battery running low... plug in the extention cord again.
Neighbors walk their dogs and wave... some ask if everything is alright (because CLEARLY it is NOT).
3 pm the kids come home from school ... they walk a bit faster past the crazycryingchirpinglady’s house.
Cars go by and try very hard not to make eye contact.
“Poor woman... finally lost her marbles. We all saw it coming”.
And throughout this whole long day - no chirps back.
By 4 pm I can’t stop thinking about the owls and the hawks and the fischer cats.... crying my eyes out.
Poor baby Murphy.. only 3 months old. Momma should have protected you. It’s all my fault.
5 pm... time to face facts.
Murphy is gone.
.
.
.
I call my dog over... it’s time to call it a day. Gotta clean up my command center... put away the extention cord, pick up my trash and cups and pile of eye wiping tissues...
“chirp”
WTF?!?
“CHIRP”
No f@$ing way!
“CHIRP CHIRP”
OMG OMG OMG!
Where is that coming from? I tilt my head, trying to triangulate and zoom in on the sound.
Press play on the video for the thousandth time...
“CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP”!!!
There he is! In a smaller Christmas tree across the street!!!
MURPHY BABY!!!!
I walk toward that beautiful blue dot... he sees me!!
ZOOOOM! He makes a beeline and lands smack on the top of my head!!!!
Ok ok ok... 20 feet back to the front lawn and his cage... hang on hang on hang on boy!!!
10 feet.... keeping my head completely still...
5 feet... oh no, here comes the wind... hang on... 2 more steps....
I SHOVE my head thru his cage door and he hops off onto his favorite perch! Close the door close the door close the door!!! !!!!!
YESSSSS!!! MURPHY IS HOME!!!
I push some millet thru the bars and my poor starving baby DIVES onto it!!!
I collapse back into my lawn chair, weeping like a baby, just as my neighbor and her husband pass by on their evening walk.
“Lisa!” I yell... HE’S BACK!
They run over, happy for us. And offer to help me get the ginourmous cage back into the house.
(I have awesome neighbors!)
Murphy ate his fill and is sound asleep.... and I am right behind him.
But tomorrow we are going to have a chat, young man, cuz you are SO GROUNDED!!!!
. I am glad this had a happy ending. 
Welcome home!
Talk about one heck of a day! I'm so glad he came home! Time to give that jerk who opened the door a stern talking to.
. He'll probably start playing hide and seek next.
phew!!!!
