(click on pic to see the bigger image.)
Kokola spent the last 24 hrs in a tree. She was happily sitting on the top her cage when the first truckload of garden mulch was delivered. She took fright and flew away, unnoticed by me. When I noticed the empty cage, I went looking for her, climbing over barbed wire fences (stupid things) and finally finding her in a tall pine tree at the bottom of our neighbour's land. Thank god! But she wouldn't come down, because she hasn't got her mind around this concept of "flying". All she knows is that when something scares her, she suddenly finds herself sitting in a tree. How she got there is a blur.
So cashew nut treats or not, she couldn't figure out how to come down. I had to visit her several times yesterday, and she'd greet me with a hello, and yell when I had to leave. I hoped that she'd get hungry enough to overcome her fear of "flying" but no, she wasn't budging.
This morning, I heard her calling, so I went out again. This time she'd managed to find a lower branch. So I threw a pinecone at her branch and she took fright and flew down to the next farmer's property. Fantastic. Another barbed wire fence to climb over. A rusty, rickety barbed wire fence which caused me to fall, ripping my legs, arms and a chunk of fabric off my favourite top. Thanks, Kokola. By which time I was dripping blood from a reopened wound where I'd deeply cut my left little finger slicing tomatoes, so when I picked Kokola up from the ground, she got blood over her pristine white feathers. And finally we made the trek home with me placing Kokola on the top of fences while I climbed over and then picking her up, carrying her home.
