SHOWER POWER, HEALING MIST

Lately I have been giving Timothy a shower twice a day...sometimes three.  The difference in him is remarkable.  Not only are his feather growing and darkening up, but his mood is lighter, calmer and more jovial.

As you can see, he enjoys every moment of his showers.  In this picture he has the nictictating membrane (what is known as the "third eyelid" in birds) up over his eye.  He loves his face being misted and dips his head to catch any spray from the bottle he can.

I love this picture because you can see the mist.  Again, he is relaxed and very calm.

Sometimes in African grey parrots, they will sport a lone red feather somewhere on their body.  Timothy has said red feather on his left wing.  Mom about fainted when she saw this and thought is was a blood feather.  Poor mom, she is so worried that Timothy will break a blood feather when I am not home to tend to him.  Fear not, mom....our God is in control!

SPRING SHOWERS

I am trying something new with my feather picking boys to see how much more headway I can make on easing their obsessions.  My vet told me to start showering them at least three times a day.  Well, that is music to Timothy's ears, as he adores showers.  But for Zeek, it is a nightmare.  Zeek is nineteen years old and was never a feather picker until I became bald from chemo.  Since then, he has been a plucker and despite my cancer journey over, and my hair growing back, he just continues to pluck his feathers.  He was such a beautiful bird fully feathered.  Now he is a mere shadow of that plump glossy feathered boy. 

Timothy, on the other hand, came to me as a feather picker.  He loves showers and asks for them at least ten times a day.  He relishes his showers, standing under the mist with the most peaceful look of bliss on his sweet little face.  I am already seeing improvement in him since administering showers multiple times a day.  I am excited to see just how many feathers he will allow to grow as long as his shower therapy continues.  If I am the least bit tardy on delivering his soakings, he reminds me with a emphasized holler:  "SHOWERRRRRRRRRRRR!"  Yes Timmy, I'm coming........LOL.

WINDING DOWN

Every night Timothy plays hard right before I put him to bed.  It's almost as if he is saying, "see Mom...I'm not tired."  It is his ritual to rip at this toy in the evening.  Better that toy than his feathers!  Tonight I gave him a warm shower and now he is drying off on the perch by his toy box.  I expect some beak crunching real soon.  There is no sweeter sound in the evening than a content bird beak crunching.  So soothing.

SHOWER BOY

This is Timothy's favorite thing in the whole wide world....his precious misting bottle.  It lets out the most delightful fine mist, which is heaven for birds...at least it is for my Bubba.  He asks for a shower about four times a day and I give in to him around three times a day.  I use to mist him about three times a week, but then he started to ask for it more and more.  Come to find out, the more I mist him, the less he picks!

 
Here he is in his favorite position for his shower.  Sometimes he gets so excited, he raises his hackles and almost looks as if he has a hood of feathers.  He is still camera shy, so I have yet to get a picture of him with his "hood" on.  I know when to stop misting because I took advantage of a behavior he uses and marked that to be his signal that he has had enough.  Every time he turns around and walks to the back of his platform, I stop spraying.  If he wants more I wait until he comes back to the front of the platform and leans forward.  This has helped him to have more confidence as he knows how to control the situation, which in turn makes him feel less anxious.

Here is Bubba all soaked to the skin and as happy as a clam.  I am delighted to mist him many times during the day as long as he asks for it and it benefits his feathers, skin and overall health.  You might say that he is the cleanest bird in the west....LOL!

BATHING BEAUTY

For the first time, at least in my presence, Timothy took a bath in his water dish!  Why is this such big news?  Well, Timothy has only taken showers, and not happily at that.  There is a spiritual connection Timothy has with another bird, a grey many miles away whom he has never met, but with whom he has an uncanny connection with.  The other birds name is Steve and you can check him out on a blog called Chippers Alley, at http://www.shannonryanart.com/

Yesterday I read a post on how Steve took a shower and had more gusto doing it, making that post a very heartwarming one for those of us that love Steve and follow his progress.  No sooner do I read that post, which I did while in with Timothy (there was a video of Steve) and Timothy turns around the next day and plays in his water dish with a gusto he has never displayed before.  Did he see the video of Steve over my shoulder from the view in his cage?  Or do these two boys truly have a bond beyond what we can concretely understand?

I am not ashamed to say that I love Christ with all my heart and soul, and I believe that God Almighty can and does touch our lives profoundly through some of the most unlikely circumstances....and creatures.  I mean, here are two wounded, slightly neurotic parrots that have come from a difficult background that mirror each other so closely it is unbelievable at times.  Yet they have never met.  Can God's Holy Spirit live in more than human hearts?  I say a resounding YES!

My prayer for these two creations of God's is that their journey will not only bring them closer to wholeness, but also touch some human lives in the process.  What more could you ask for? 

On a side note: here is the toy I made specifically for Steve and will be sending out to him next week.  Timothy is trying his out as we speak.  Life is an adventure and I'm surely enjoying the ride.

Here is Timmy saying: "yippee....I'm more free today than I was yesterday!"  Life is good.