Hi, everyone!
Well, Lauri's decided on a name for the bird ... Pixel. She chose the name because she thought it was cute.
Pixel seems to be settling in pretty well. Lauri got her some new toys and perches last night and Pixel livened up a bit -- moved around the cage and chirped more than she had been. We're not sure, but it looks like she likes to watch television. We'll let you know if we find out what her favorite show is.
Thankfully the dogs are taking to the new addition pretty well. Lauri had a cockatiel a couple of years ago, but he died before we got Reilly, so this is something new for Reilly. Toby seems pretty fascinated with Pixel, but we keep having to say "Toby, no!" when he tries to get too close to the cage. He's not the most graceful of dogs and we're afraid he'll knock the cage over. Of course, this means Pixel's first words will be "Toby no!"

Ironically, one of Lauri's last cockatiel's first words were "Toby."
This morning Lauri opened the door to the cage to see what Pixel would do. Pixel eased her way out onto the cage door and all the way out to the end. I guess she decided to test her wings, but they're still clipped so she barely made it a foot and landed on the floor.
Well, next thing you know, she's surrounded by poodle noses!! They weren't hurting her, but more curious than anything. Lauri picked up Pixel and she perched on Lauri's finger. Lauri sat down on the couch, Pixel made her way to Lauri's shoulder, then to the back of the couch ....
.. and then KERPLUNK! She's between the couch and the wall. Unfortunately Lauri's arms were about two inches too short to reach Pixel, so she had to move the couch out. I was holding onto Reilly and Suzy so they aren't getting in her way behind the couch and freaking out Pixel. Okay, so maybe me sitting on the couch for a moment so I could see where Pixel was back there didn't help much; honestly I thought Lauri had the couch pulled out far enough. Of course, Pixel kept moving away from Lauri into the corner so the bird wasn't helping matters much either. Amazingly, the bird wasn't afraid but playing back there. Lauri managed to get her, and after one more attempt at moving around Pixel found her way back inside the cage.
And sorry, Ed, but the window was closed so even if the name was money we wouldn't have said anything about money out the window.
