Escape!

Little Miguel has learned that there's a big wide world beyond the carrier. In the morning when I weigh and first offer food, he's been flying right by my head and enjoying flying around the room. (The door is closed and the window blinds are shut.) He finds a perch high on the curtain rod. Yesterday, I spent some time just hanging out with him up there. He preens and rousts, enjoying the change of pace. This makes me aware that it's getting time to finish our training and get him into a mew at CWC soon.

But first, we need to be good at stepping and jumping to the glove. Liz brainstormed with me Sunday about this, offering the suggestion of letting a tiny bit of food peek up from the glove, holding on tight, and offering the food close to his body. The idea being that he won't be able to get the food and will put a foot up to help. I tried this and, presto! It worked! (Brilliant Liz!) He then bated, but we can work on that. M is not very comfortable having the glove that close to his body, but is becoming more tolerant.

Since learning to escape, M has not been jumping to the glove much, so we're going to back train that, as well.

Yesterday, we also ventured outside for a few minutes. As difficult as stepping up is to learn, he has had no problem going from room to room and outside. We go slow but he seems eager and stays on the glove, looking around at the world...and Eli and Roger...neighborhood cats. Too risky, so we'll stay inside until we return to CWC.