What is it like coming home to a Crow?
When I come home to Fig, she jumps for joy, flying back and forth, looking out the window, the balcony resembles a Batman fight scene going down. She is bounding and leaping to an fro to get my attention. When I go outside she jumps all over me excitedly playing, and cawing at me. She won't let me go inside without her. If I put her down, she is back on my shoulder in a flash. If I go in without her, it is likely she'll come leaping across the bed, ice skating across the floor, smashing into the bedroom door in a sliding corner, scrambling across the floor, ice skating to another sliding crash into the bathroom cabinet next, leaping up on the hamper, the washing machine, the cabinet, then the edge of the sink, and finally up onto her perch in the bathroom. Then she proceeds to yell at me admonishingly, the volume and length of which depend entirely on how late I am perceived to be, how much I offended her by not bringing her in, not playing, or doing some small thing wrong on the way into the house. Next she yells at me about every tiny thing inside the house which has been moved, or is new or unfamiliar. The other day, the ceiling light cover had been pushed in slightly at an angle; when she noticed this, she did a sudden hysterical duck down, completely flattening herself out on my forearm, and gasped in shocked surprise in a way I had never heard before, just as one example, like she was expecting an frickin' elephant to crawl out of the hole in the ceiling at any second. It was like a leap in reverse, just hysterical. Then it's a good yell at the cat who stares in utterly disgusted disbelief. Next she launches into mega alarm calls which can be heard blocks away, I am sure, about anything black, or threatening. After I remove threats, and apologize for being late or slighting her on play time, she then does the standard greeting which involves her reminding me that I am supposed to have brought her something special from my school lunch, and I didn't forget, right? Right? Right? Then she needs about 5 minutes to chat me up in front of the mirror during which she repeatedly tells me she loves me in both English and Crow, which is super sweet, and she reminds me that she has been wanting to play with me all day while I was out, and serenades me with varied string of calls sung hyper emotionally, which admittedly, it is hard not to be moved by once one understands exactly what she is actually saying. Repeat as necessary. After 5-15 minutes of talking, chatting, singing, yelling, and reporting, she finally settles down when I give her a snack, which she eats, then begins to preen quietly, only calling out for various reasons such as thirst, hunger, a chat, a shower request periodically. Phew! Admittedly, I sometimes just give her something to snack on right away, and ask her to settle down, which works find in the short term, but sooner or later, she is going to get her "report" time. She always has plenty of things to say; they need saying, and she has absolutely got to be given the chance to vent, unload, and report. One cannot skip it. It is a lot of fun, but it is also exasperating because her energy level is on par with a hyperactive young child that wants to tell Mummy eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverything.
In a nutshell.
When I come home to Fig, she jumps for joy, flying back and forth, looking out the window, the balcony resembles a Batman fight scene going down. She is bounding and leaping to an fro to get my attention. When I go outside she jumps all over me excitedly playing, and cawing at me. She won't let me go inside without her. If I put her down, she is back on my shoulder in a flash. If I go in without her, it is likely she'll come leaping across the bed, ice skating across the floor, smashing into the bedroom door in a sliding corner, scrambling across the floor, ice skating to another sliding crash into the bathroom cabinet next, leaping up on the hamper, the washing machine, the cabinet, then the edge of the sink, and finally up onto her perch in the bathroom. Then she proceeds to yell at me admonishingly, the volume and length of which depend entirely on how late I am perceived to be, how much I offended her by not bringing her in, not playing, or doing some small thing wrong on the way into the house. Next she yells at me about every tiny thing inside the house which has been moved, or is new or unfamiliar. The other day, the ceiling light cover had been pushed in slightly at an angle; when she noticed this, she did a sudden hysterical duck down, completely flattening herself out on my forearm, and gasped in shocked surprise in a way I had never heard before, just as one example, like she was expecting an frickin' elephant to crawl out of the hole in the ceiling at any second. It was like a leap in reverse, just hysterical. Then it's a good yell at the cat who stares in utterly disgusted disbelief. Next she launches into mega alarm calls which can be heard blocks away, I am sure, about anything black, or threatening. After I remove threats, and apologize for being late or slighting her on play time, she then does the standard greeting which involves her reminding me that I am supposed to have brought her something special from my school lunch, and I didn't forget, right? Right? Right? Then she needs about 5 minutes to chat me up in front of the mirror during which she repeatedly tells me she loves me in both English and Crow, which is super sweet, and she reminds me that she has been wanting to play with me all day while I was out, and serenades me with varied string of calls sung hyper emotionally, which admittedly, it is hard not to be moved by once one understands exactly what she is actually saying. Repeat as necessary. After 5-15 minutes of talking, chatting, singing, yelling, and reporting, she finally settles down when I give her a snack, which she eats, then begins to preen quietly, only calling out for various reasons such as thirst, hunger, a chat, a shower request periodically. Phew! Admittedly, I sometimes just give her something to snack on right away, and ask her to settle down, which works find in the short term, but sooner or later, she is going to get her "report" time. She always has plenty of things to say; they need saying, and she has absolutely got to be given the chance to vent, unload, and report. One cannot skip it. It is a lot of fun, but it is also exasperating because her energy level is on par with a hyperactive young child that wants to tell Mummy eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverything.
In a nutshell.
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