Lucy is a pretty good girl. She's mainly obedient, but she does disagree with our actions at times.

Yesterday, she went to stay with friends while we ran the self-clean feature on the oven, which raises all kinds of nasty fumes, and Bug Busters came to work on our ongoing problem with sugar ants. (The new iron is fine. Hasn't been used yet.) Because they have a cat, they put her travel cage on top of a stool in front of a window in a bedroom and shut the door.

Miss Priss doesn't take too kindly to being away from the center of activity. When they checked on her she would stomp around the cage and bonk her beak against the walls.

Beak-bonking is her favorite way of expressing displeasure. Don't want to step up? Bonk the perch or the floor. Ticked because interesting things are going on outside and you're not? Bonk the window. Mad because Janis puts you in the cage at midday? Bonk the walls.

She'll obey, but she doesn't have to like it. Bonk.