Captain Sunny!

Let me introduce the newest member of our family - bought last Sunday as an early Christmas gift.  (Thanks Grandma Elaine!).

We were on a innocent recon trip to a couple pet stores to convince the boys that gerbils and parakeets really weren't the best pet idea for them.  That those type of pets would not provide them what they wanted, which was something to hold (Jared) and something to train (Lance).  At the last store, I took the boys into the store and Chris waited in the car with a sleeping Amber. While in their, I innocently reached over to a Cockatiel expecting to be snapped at but instead he climbed on my finger and walked right up my arm.  When he seemed to like everyone, I sent Lance out to see if Amber was awake and to come on in. I expected Chris to be the voice of reason and all he said was let's get him. I later learned from Chris that as soon as he saw Lance coming out to the car, he knew we were getting a bird. So much for recon to avoid getting pets.

"Captain Sunny" is his name and I'm happy to say the boys all agreed on even it before we left the store.  He's a 6 month old Pearl Cockatiel.  We generally just call him "Captain" and it works well with "Sarge"; who by the way is still trying to figure out what this thing is that we brought into the house and wondering when its leaving.

It took the Captain a few days to get settled into his new home. We moved his cage from the Lego room upstairs into the school room on the first floor after the first day to provide him the socialization he desired.  He was supposed to stay in his cage for a a few days, but by the end of day two he started throwing such a fit we had to let him out of his cage; then there was no turning back - he had us trained.  We started out slow just letting him sit on the boys shoulders while they practiced piano (great motivator to practice and stop raising their shoulders while they play).

Since that time he has spent more and more time out of his cage; on people's shoulders or playing on the play sets the boys set up for him.  However, he has been banned from the dinner table during meals since he flew down and started walking through everyone's plates in a manic sort of way. LOL