[ZenKitty]

Originally Posted by SparX

My daily awesome is I'm no longer in the ER room!

ER? Yikes! I hope you're all right.

[Fulkth]

I fixed my chili so it doesn't taste so bland anymore!

And I am gonna make some cookies!

[SparX]

I got my prescriptions filled from the er, and my prescription refilled for acid reflux so I can eat more =D =D
I want Fulkths cookies though.

[ZenKitty]

Glad you got your scripts.

I want some of those cookies too! Yummy.

[Fulkth]

Cookies are complete! They turned out great!

That is if you like cranberries, white chocolate and pecans.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/w...-pecan-cookies

[SparX]

Make it with blueberries or raisins maybe XD

[Saiyouri]

My tablet should be here today. And I'm finally catching up on my shows I love the most.

[Coda]

Monday night and yesterday morning/afternoon were HORRIBLE. My son disobeyed when I told him to close the door behind him after he went outside, and my wife's companion animal, a cockatiel named Totoro, flew out, got scared of the unexpected environment, and bolted.

This is more than just "oh no, we lost a pet." It's bad enough to have a dog run away, but parrots are substantially more intelligent than dogs. When your animal is capable of meaningful, two-way verbal communication, that's a very different kind of relationship than just a dog that's just a bundle of emotions that can be trained to associate words with things it should do. Totoro has a VOCABULARY -- most of his words aren't human-speech, but he knows what they mean and he only uses them when he means them instead of using them for idle chatter and noisemaking.

And Totoro KNEW he was lost. He wanted to come home, but he didn't know where home was because he doesn't see the outside of the house very often. Once he calmed down from his initial panic, we could hear him calling out for us as loud as he could -- he has a very distinct word for "come get me; I'm alone and don't know how to find you" (he usually uses it when we're in the bathroom) and he was using it over and over. We called back to him and he responded, but it was too dark for us to find him or for him to fly to us, and eventually he fell asleep wherever he was. We left his cage outside with a fresh bowl of food and water in case he came back on his own, so he could recognize it as something familiar.

I didn't sleep at all Monday night.

The next morning, when he woke up, he started calling for us again shortly after sunrise. We went out to search for him, following his voice, and we heard it coming from several different directions over time -- he was flying around trying to find home, I assume based on where he could hear us calling back to him when he called. After a while of following the sound of his voice, I found him in a tree, but I couldn't climb it and the fire department across the street refused to help us with a ladder. My wife took over keeping track of him while I took our son to school, and through the course of the morning he got frightened several times by other birds approaching him, each time flying huge circles around the neighborhood (up to two blocks away from home in every direction) before finding a new place to perch and settle down.

One time he perched in the tree hanging over our neighbor's yard. He stopped calling out to us once he actually made eye contact with us, and he settled down and even started preening himself and relaxing in the sun. I figure that to his mind, at that point, he was in the best place he'd been since the ordeal started. He wasn't cold, he knew where mommy and daddy were (and home couldn't be far away), and he was safely nestled on a secure perch that was closed in by leaves so no other birds could see him.

Unfortunately... Totoro has NEVER been fond of flying downward. He's not very good at it. If he gets himself up in the skylight at home, I have to get him down, because he's too scared to do it himself. So no matter how much we called him and tried to entice him with his favorite toys and treats, he wouldn't do more than just scoot out on the branch toward us.

My father-in-law called a sign company without even telling us about it and soon there was a cherry picker truck rolling up to help us get him down. But before my wife could stop him, the guy with the truck jumped in the basket and started going up after Totoro, and he got scared and flew off again.

We lost track of him at that point. He flew towards the highway so we couldn't hear him over the road noise and there were buildings that blocked us from keeping visual track of him.

Real life doesn't stop, though... so we had to go run errands at that point, feeling awful for giving up on him.

We still couldn't find him when we came back.

But later in the afternoon, after we picked up our son from school, we heard him calling out to us again. He was perched on an overhead cable line just a couple houses down from home! I kept his attention by whistling to him while my wife went around the block to get closer. And once he made eye contact with her, he wobbled nervously down the cable to the lowest point, fluttered down to a branch in a nearby tree, did it again to an even lower point, and then when she held her arm up for him, he flew to it, climbed up her arm, and kissed her face.

She held him close, holding her shirt around him so he wouldn't fly away again if something scared him, but he didn't even really try to bite like he usually does when we have to hold him pinned like that. She hurried home and let him out inside, and we gave him treats and water and showered him with love.

Let's face it... We beat the odds. Lost animals have terrible odds of ever being found. But our little Totoro was smart enough and loved his mommy enough that even though he was scared he found his way back to the right part of town and communicated with us until we could get close enough to him for him to come down.

If that's not awesome... I don't know what is.

[Fulkth]

@coda

Aww, that was a really touching story. I am glad that you found your pet bird.

...My daily awesome is that my birthday present finally came in the mail. I have no idea what it is though since I haven't opened it yet. I am still waiting for it be be gift wrapped.

Wrapped presents are always for fun to open than a plain ole box.

[ZenKitty]

Wow, Coda. I'm so glad Totoro came home for you. What a heart warming story.

[Saiyouri]

Coda I am so happy to hear you had a happy ending. So glad he is back home with his family <3

We get to go grocery shopping today so that is my daily awesome.

[SparX]

My friend is leaving an abusive relationship (YAAAAASSSSS FINALLY) so I'm babysitting her adorable boys to keep them away from the aggressiveness.
Their so cute though XD

[Konzern]

I had Aurum show up twice in the Crane Game, thought that was pretty awesome.

[Konzern]

My sister asked me to get her some Shopkins if I went to Walmart today. I thought the box was empty, but when I got closer, I saw two left. That doesn't usually happen for me!

[Fulkth]

Today is a Friday! I am free from work for 2 days!

I get to relax a bunch and I get to sleep in!

[Poggio]

I got my first full time job. Its a promotion. I can tell my retail job to kiss it and focus on getting my life together.