On call

Thomas was on call last night. Usually he doesn't get many (or any) calls while on call (his specialty is one that doesn't have emergencies -- a big part of the reason he chose this specialty) but last night was an exception.

Soon after we started dinner, with all of the parrots out, he got called. He went upstairs so he could talk in relative peace and I tried hard to keep the parrots quiet so they wouldn't disturb him.

This mostly meant paying attention to the two loud ones (Rocky and Basil) and somehow Max slipped under my radar. I didn't even realize she was missing, but apparently she climbed up the stairs and started knocking her beak on the office door until Thomas let her in. Then, she sat on his desk and made chatting sounds (quietly) as he spoke. When I finally realized she was missing and went upstairs, I found her eating post-its.

Meanwhile, Rocky was upset that Thomas wasn't there, so he'd frequently scream, and Basil was loudly talking -- for about 30 minutes straight. Normally I love this, but I was wondering what Thomas's patients were thinking about the strange background noise. If you don't have experience with parrots, it must be very confusing!

"Hello! Hello Basil! I got your foot, Bas! Peek-a-boo! Come on! Hello there!" over and over and over again. Very loudly. Interspersed with macaw screams.

Finally, it got to be the parrots' bedtime, so I put everyone except Max away and did my nightly sweeping. When Thomas came back, an hour later, we finished dinner in the kitchen with Max the only parrot present. We think it was her dream come true as we suspect she wishes she were still an only parrot with 100% of our attention.

Luckily no call this weekend so our time is our own!