Meet my evil escape artist Vito. I was told by his previous family that he used to let himself out of his cage and then release his fellow birds.
For years, nothing like that happened with him in my home… until now.
I walked into his room the other day and he was sitting on his cage just hanging out. It took me a minute to remember that I had locked him in. Everything was intact and I chalked it up to an error on my part.
A couple days later I came home from work and had to do a couple things before I could let him out for a while. He took it upon himself to open the cage door and emerge while I was rummaging around. I’d’ve blamed myself if I didn’t just watch it happen.
I put him lovingly back in the cage and admonished him for his transgression. That should show him.
Fast forward to last night. I had put Vito back in his cage to wind down for the night and joined my weekly D&D campaign.
A few minutes later I see him walking quietly across the floor and didn’t register that he was supposed to be locked up at first.
Cue pause… staring at bird… dawning realization… look at cage and find front door closed and locked… then see that one of the food dish doors has been removed. A complicated system where he loosened a nut on the hinge so that the door could be discarded. Replace door, put Vito to bed.
This morning, with a casual flick of his beak, Vito opened his cage door. I caught him in time to hold it shut and re-lock it. Then I duct taped the lever in place. After a short moment he went to the other door I mentioned last night… AND STARTED UNSCREWING THE NUT THAT HOLDS THE HINGE IN PLACE!!! Straight to it. No hesitation. So in his repertoire of swearing, screaming and trying to kill my wife, I can now add escape artistry.
Maybe I should have just had kids.