As I expected, Phoebe plucked quite a few of his feathers while I was on vacation. But he doesn’t look as bad as I imagined, and his tail feathers are largely intact. I was surprised he didn’t shred all of the toys I hung in his cage before I left. I wonder if he got sufficient exercise from playing with the babysitter and didn’t need all of the toys.

I brought Phoebe a gift from Europe: A British toilet paper roll. He shredded it as quickly as the American toilet paper rolls, so I guess there’s no difference between them.

I took Phoebe to the cafe this morning for the first time in 10 days. There are times when he doesn’t seem too interested in going out or visiting our friends, but he appeared ready to go today. He said hello to the people sitting outside the cafe and made his excited noise when he saw his friends working inside. So he clearly was ready to visit with people.

One of his friends brought him a big piece of millet. I broke off a small portion and gave it to Phoebe as a treat. As usual, he had people coming up and talking to him, and he played for nearly an hour on the table with a cardboard coffee cup sleeve. He likes to hop around on the table and toss the sleeve. It attracts even more attention from people who want to take pictures or say hi to him.

It seems Phoebe was pretty resilient from being on his own for 10 days!