Swoozie came home from boarding today, and so Ellen was giving her the run of the house. Her "perch West" location is the turtle's tortoise's cage in the kitchen, which is actually a large metal dog crate. It has perfect parrot-sized bars, and from birdie's perspective is little more than a square jungle gym. The "get off my lawn!" expressions Om gives her when she climbs down to sample whatever's in his food bowl are something to see.

At any rate, Ellen was puttering around in the kitchen with Olivia when I came around the corner.

Me: "Where's the bird?"

Ellen: "Behind me... rrrmm..."

Olivia, loudly: "MommyWeWentToChuckiesLookWhatIGot"--skwmph--"Isn'tItCool"--skwmph--"Purple'sMyFavoriteColor..."

Ellen: "Olivia, do you know where the"--skwmph--"birdie went?"

Me, peering down the stairs: "I don't see her, but I"--skwmph--"hear something"--skwmph--

Everyone quieted down, and sure enough, we heard, muffled, softly and rather calmly, "--skwmph--" pause "--skwmph--"

Which lead to Ellen opening the pantry: "Swoozie! What are you doing in there? I could've squished you!"

Swoozie, now unmuffled, and literally unruffled, quite calmly: "Squawk... squawk..."

Whereupon she tip-tap tip-tapped her way back to the cage, triumphantly carrying her quarry, a soda straw. She quickly climbed back up and repositioned the straw for disassembly. She then paused when she realized we were all staring, and gave us all a perfect "what?!?" expression.

When they said Pionus are laid back parrots they weren't kidding. The tone was nothing more or less than, "umm... excuse me? Parrot inside. Not meaning to trouble you, but..."

Welcome home, birdie!