Romeo and Juliet escaped from their cage this morning. Smart little Houdini-wannabes. Fortunately they weren't game enough to completely leave their source of food and water, or their babies.

I think D was a little stressed as he's never had to deal with this (birds escaping out-of-doors) before, and also he had to go to work and couldn't get out of that. So, I went to his place and took over - my experience, plus my job being more secure ... Anyway, I armed myself with thick gardening gloves and my usual "bird catching net" (which actually happens to be a red fishing net D's father bought for me after hearing a story from me about this lovely fishing net that was red that I'd had as a child which I'd lent to some older boys that asked for it - because why wouldn't I? - only to receive it back, broken).

Within about half an hour of being there, I caught one of them (we still can't tell Romeo and Juliet apart) as they went into the cage for a drink (closed the door with a pole from far away so the bird didn't escaped at my approach). I then (using the gloves and net) put that one in another smaller cage that was part of the original "gift" of lovebirds three years ago, and left the larger cage open again. The other one followed about ten minutes later but was far more suspicious, so I had to wait a good five minutes still as can be as the bird worked its way into the cage for water, and then closed it with the same pole again.

I took Romeo and Juliet to the vet to have their wings clipped (no more escaping for you!), and the babies checked out. D had put them into the Cuddlepie and Snugglepot's nesting box hoping they might adopt them if we couldn't capture Romeo and Juliet, and Cuddlepie had pecked them. He did it - at my advice - even though the likelihood of them being accepting is piddling compared to the expected response - attacking the "foreign" babies. I okayed it largely because I don't have the know-how to hand-rear and I doubt the breeder would have the time or the desire to do so. Fortunately Cuddlepie and Snugglepot are far too involved in starting the cycle all over again, so after a short while they left the babies alone and went back to what they seem to do best (making babies).

Peace and order are restored, lol.