I have taken Fig to the park more often recently, and the extra together time really makes a difference. She is still a naughty scamp, up to trouble, but once she calms down, there are encouraging signs of, dare I write, "good behavior"? Yeah, I think I can write that.
She still misbehaves quite a lot, but she continues to grow as a listener, and instruction follower. I have taken the mental attitude that Fig is an actual child, of approximately the mental age of a real two year old. I mean, a human two year old will run in front of a car, if you don't watch it, right? Well, Fig would be so bold given the right amount of hyperactive excitement. I'd say she is much much more sensible than an average human two year old when she calms down, or becomes untethered, but tethered, she seems to act out, much like children who might walk safely to school left on their own, start dashing in front of cement trucks when accompanied by their parents. It is displacement of responsibility, clear as day. She feels invincible when she is tethered because, I am protecting her. That's not necessarily a good thing, so I am working very hard to instill good listening, and control protocol. She simply cannot dash whenever she likes. Wherever is less of a concern. She has several favorite routes to run at the park, so thankfully, where she is likely to go is highly predictable.
Once she has calmed down a bit though, and is in a familiar park, she seems to recognize and obey the boundaries I have enforced for her. She goes to a fence at the edge of the park, or a wall, or a rock, or a jungle gym, but she remains within the park. She is smart enough to know what a park is, and that it has boundaries. She consistently comes back to me, obeying hand gestures, which are requests, NOT commands. I never touch her, or push her, I just ask, wanna come back to me? She is running away from me less and less, though I don't chase her, I simply stay close. And she comes down from, or avoids going to high places if I tell her NO when I see her eye wander. She understands NO.
It would be so easy for her to break a leg, wing, beak, coming to the end of her tether, or snagging it on a root, or whatever, so I have taken to simply letting her free fly, dragging the tether along when she decides to have a furiously fast flighty flight or run. Hopefully over time I can wean her off it totally, but that is something that will take another year or two I suspect, at a natural pace.
Fig seems utterly indestructible though. She leaps and hops and flies around like crazy, at fighter plane pace. She's utterly Jackie Chan extreme. And she does crash hard from time to time, but she just dusts herself off and gets back in the saddle. She is seriously a very tough animal in a way that I will never fully comprehend. I mean, when I hold her in my hand, on her back, or side, or tummy, her little birdy body is really no bigger than a large Pigeon, but her feet are as strong as a damn Eagle, and if she grips onto my hand really tight, it can hurt badly even days afterwards. She can leave a bruise as though a hefty lady in high heels had stepped onto the ball of your hand, easily.
She is flying with incredible confidence now, and can manage 6 meters straight no problem at all. I can toss her a good 4-5 meters straight up in the air and she glides to a soft perched landing. I have no idea how she manages to be so active without an elbow joint in one arm. She is just amazing. There remains no way what-so-ever that she could have even half a chance of surviving on her own. She'd be hawk, or cat food in minutes. But she clearly thinks that she can take on the world. All her flying practice on our balcony has really done wonders for her physical health, though her pectoral muscles are rather meager by wild Crow standards, but more importantly, Fig is startlingly mentally confident, and up beat. As her parent, that is all I want to see.
She still misbehaves quite a lot, but she continues to grow as a listener, and instruction follower. I have taken the mental attitude that Fig is an actual child, of approximately the mental age of a real two year old. I mean, a human two year old will run in front of a car, if you don't watch it, right? Well, Fig would be so bold given the right amount of hyperactive excitement. I'd say she is much much more sensible than an average human two year old when she calms down, or becomes untethered, but tethered, she seems to act out, much like children who might walk safely to school left on their own, start dashing in front of cement trucks when accompanied by their parents. It is displacement of responsibility, clear as day. She feels invincible when she is tethered because, I am protecting her. That's not necessarily a good thing, so I am working very hard to instill good listening, and control protocol. She simply cannot dash whenever she likes. Wherever is less of a concern. She has several favorite routes to run at the park, so thankfully, where she is likely to go is highly predictable.
Once she has calmed down a bit though, and is in a familiar park, she seems to recognize and obey the boundaries I have enforced for her. She goes to a fence at the edge of the park, or a wall, or a rock, or a jungle gym, but she remains within the park. She is smart enough to know what a park is, and that it has boundaries. She consistently comes back to me, obeying hand gestures, which are requests, NOT commands. I never touch her, or push her, I just ask, wanna come back to me? She is running away from me less and less, though I don't chase her, I simply stay close. And she comes down from, or avoids going to high places if I tell her NO when I see her eye wander. She understands NO.
It would be so easy for her to break a leg, wing, beak, coming to the end of her tether, or snagging it on a root, or whatever, so I have taken to simply letting her free fly, dragging the tether along when she decides to have a furiously fast flighty flight or run. Hopefully over time I can wean her off it totally, but that is something that will take another year or two I suspect, at a natural pace.
Fig seems utterly indestructible though. She leaps and hops and flies around like crazy, at fighter plane pace. She's utterly Jackie Chan extreme. And she does crash hard from time to time, but she just dusts herself off and gets back in the saddle. She is seriously a very tough animal in a way that I will never fully comprehend. I mean, when I hold her in my hand, on her back, or side, or tummy, her little birdy body is really no bigger than a large Pigeon, but her feet are as strong as a damn Eagle, and if she grips onto my hand really tight, it can hurt badly even days afterwards. She can leave a bruise as though a hefty lady in high heels had stepped onto the ball of your hand, easily.
She is flying with incredible confidence now, and can manage 6 meters straight no problem at all. I can toss her a good 4-5 meters straight up in the air and she glides to a soft perched landing. I have no idea how she manages to be so active without an elbow joint in one arm. She is just amazing. There remains no way what-so-ever that she could have even half a chance of surviving on her own. She'd be hawk, or cat food in minutes. But she clearly thinks that she can take on the world. All her flying practice on our balcony has really done wonders for her physical health, though her pectoral muscles are rather meager by wild Crow standards, but more importantly, Fig is startlingly mentally confident, and up beat. As her parent, that is all I want to see.
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