Golden Touch CRAPS

We have a Quaker Parrot named Augustus, about a foot long, green body, grey breast with some peacock blue in its wings. He stays out of his cage most of the day. He loves the beautiful AP and thinks of her as his mate.

He and I have a decent arrangement. I work most of the day and he is usually hanging out with me - landing on my shoulders, grooming me by yanking the hairs out of my ears (yes, it hurts a little) and, of course, pooping on me. His nickname is the Stealth Pooper.

He is mischievous too. He prefers to play with things he knows belong to us, like computer wires, phone wires, computer keys, and kitchen utensils. He has millions of parrot toys, which he ignores. So as I write I keep my ears open for the flutter of his wings heading to another room to cause destruction.

Well yesterday my beautiful AP was arranging the book shelves as she has now thrown out over 100 more books of mine. She was up on a ladder and Augustus was under the bottom step. She didn't know it. As she came down she stepped on him.

Luckily, the little guy was able to get out from under her foot before she crushed him to death. As she stepped she thought, "When did we get a squeaky toy?" Augustus was leery of her all day after that and stayed in his cage getting himself composed. This morning he was back to his normal poopy self.

The moral of this story is simple. Had the beautiful AP not thrown out my books, Augustus would never have almost died.