We have an appointment with the vet today at 1 pm to have Lucy groomed. The vet will clip her nails (which are sharp as cats' claws right now), trim her beak with a Dremel and clip her flight feathers with scissors. This visit will be Lucy's third. The other two have not been happy days for her.

UPDATE: Peg asks if Lucy is speaking to me this afternoon. No, she's not. It's not personal. She lost her voice screaming. Whether it's that I took her without Lyman along, or we were in a different examining room, or the moon was in the seventh house, grooming today was terribly traumatic.

Lucy fought and screamed for all she was worth and was finally released into her cage where she took up a fighting stance with her feet spread wide apart, her wings spread and her beak ready to strike. She was panting to beat the band. When she finally relaxed enough to turn around, the condensation of her breath was visible against the wall of her travel cage. Birds can be stressed enough to create a danger of heart attack.

The vet was deeply concerned and apologetic, and we spent some minutes after the ordeal waiting to make sure that she wouldn't show signs of serious damage. When she appeared to be recuperating, I brought her home with instructions to report back to the vet in a while on her condition.

When we came in, I placed her on her playtree where she began to relax, showing normal behaviors like scratching, stretching, beak-grinding, preening and puffing a bit to assume her proper plump contours. (She had sleeked down to fighting form.) I reported to the vet and settled to observe.

Lucy spent several hours sleeping. She is now awake, but has barely moved from her branch. She has shown no interest in food at all and little in water. She is still tired, but is becoming more responsive.

Next time, we'll go back to the first room she was groomed in, and maybe break up her grooming into two or more sessions to reduce trauma. Whatever it takes.

By bedtime, which was early, she was taking our offers to sit on our shoulders and making noises. She'll be OK.