The kids played around with the cage, and left the door open. I closed it soon after but thought one sweetheart may be in it's little house nest.
I was wrong, it flew out to freedom the second Rodney entered the house. It stayed in a tree on our front lawn for a bit, and later flew off farther away with Rodney and I watching every move.
The first thing we did was make a long net to try catching it, but of course it didn't work. So we put the cage outside so that the pair could communicate, and thay did, but it was getting dark.
It flew around quite a bit, but in the end we decided to just leave the cage on the porch overnight and see what happens.
In the morning at about 6:00 Rodney goes out to have a look and there in the little maple tree as close to the cage as possible was our naughty bird! Now how will we get it inside?? Rodney held out the bird house, but there was no reaction, so he tried it with the cage, and low and behold the birdie jumps on.
He slowly, ever so slowly, started moving towards the house. With the patience of Job, and both of us holding our breath, he made it inside the door and I slammed it behind him. The frightened bird dashed into the kitchen as we celebrated in relief.
THE END