And the Winner Is...

Undetermined by voting. My little poll about how we should address gender and our parrot yielded a tie between calling Beaker "him" or simply "The Beaker." I am pleased to note that none of our readers had interest in the surgical option. Good for you, folks!

And now, since it's election season in the US and this poll was conducted via computer, I'm going to "count" the votes. We'll stick with the status quo with regard to bird gender references. At least for now. I can't keep track of new pronouns while packing boxes. Yes, my brain is feeling a tad small these days.

Thanks to advice from our new vet, Beaker has been enjoying some misty showers and time in the sun lately. Yay, Beaker! He's also still babbling like a budgie since our vet visit, usually while perched on my finger and trying to figure out how to get me to let him go exploring. We've noticed a marked decrease in random shrieking, and I take that as a great thing. I also got a book from the library that has some excellent, practical advice from one of my favorite parrot experts, Mattie Sue Athan. I'm optimistic about the nature of our future interactions.