Sheba's first trip outdoors occured when I walked out on our back porch with her on my shoulder. As I was re-entering the doorway, she got startled and flew. Unfortunately she was pointed outside and ended up flying circles around the two-story apts we lived in at the time. I called her and she answered, but didn't know how to get back to me. Her circles became larger and larger, until she finally became winded and ended up 80 feet off the ground, in a large oak, a block down the street. This tree was next to some empty shacks that I climbed on to the roof of. The tree was still very large around and overgrown with vines. I knew Sheba was up there somewhere because she would answer my whistle, but exactly where, I wasn't sure. After several fruitless minutes of trying to coax her down, I noticed a long extension ladder which was hung on the fence in the backyard of the adjacent property. Just then, some guy walked out and I told him of my predicament. He agreed to slide the ladder up to me on the roof! I extended it as far as it would reach and then climbed. I found myself entering a micro-environment dominated by very many and busy ants. They ignored me, and I them, we each had our own mission to accomplish. At this point the tree branched and I was able to climb the trunk a ways until I reached a large limb that was fairly parallel to the ground. I headed out on this limb, probably 20 feet from the main trunk and started whistling for her. She would answer, but still eluded my sight. Finally I noticed her about 15 feet above my branch, in a place I couldn't climb to. By this time it had been probably 30 to 40 minutes since she flew away, so she had caught her breath and relaxed. I called her, holding my arm out as a landing place. At last she jumped from her perch and flew to me! I was relieved, but then realized I was well over 50 feet off the ground, out on a limb. I put her on my shoulder, and gently talked to her, while heading back for the main trunk. She got comfortable and started preening as I passed through the ant zone. I finally reached the ladder and climbed back down to the roof of the shed. The ladder guy was long gone, so it was tricky sliding this 20 foot extension ladder into the yard while trying not to spook Sheba. The last 10 feet to the ground proved to be the most difficult because I ended up jumping from several feet above it. The landing jolt dislodged Sheba and she landed back on the roof. I quickly scrambled back up to put her on my shoulder. The second time I worked harder at having a soft landing. Once on the ground, I put her inside my shirt for the walk back up the busy street and safely inside.
In the fall of 1995, Sally and I were leaving our house in Atascadero late in the afternoon. Sally was outside, and as I was pulling the door closed, Sheba flew to me and squeeked through the opening. She wacked the side of the door with her wing, causing her to miss the landing on my shoulder, so she just kept flying. Unfortunately she was outside. We both immediately started calling her but she gained altitude rapidly. I was truly impressed to see her streamlined body in full flight, with wings curved back to points. Her long gracefull flaps propelled her rapidly in large circles around our house. In our back yard is a mature Live Oak, which eventually became her crash landing pad, about 50 feet above the ground. This time I could see where she was, her chest heaving after what was the longest, fastest flight of her life. It was probably 10 minutes before she answered our calls. She was out at the edge of some small branches, so climbing was not going to help. We tried bribing her with spaghetti noodles and rice (she loves to eat things that are white, egg, ice cream, bread, etc). After about a half hour, she made her first move. She jumped from the clump of leaves she was in, to a more open branch on the periphery. Then another jump to a clear area. Finally she made her final leap, carving a beautiful strand of DNA, 40 feet down to Sally's shoulder.
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