Little Stewie has been home with me for two weeks, and everything seems to be progressing great. On Saturday he went to the vet where everything seemed to check out fine upon examination (we’re still waiting for results on the bloodwork).

Here’s a tip: when shopping for a travel carrier for a conure, keep in mind that a conure is considered a medium-size bird. Not a small bird. I made the unfortunate mistake of trying to get Stewie into a little travel carrier designed for much smaller birds (or at least birds with much shorter tails) and that was not a happy bonding experience for us.

On the drive over there, I kept a towel over part of the cage so Stewie didn’t have to see what was going on (basically everything whizzing by at 60 miles an hour) and he was really agitated. Once at the vet he behaved pretty well. Didn’t step up for the vet but did let me handle him. He hated getting his wings clipped and nipped the vet pretty hard. It was awful (for me!) watching the vet draw blood — it looked like soooo much blood from such a little creature. But the bloodwork was necessary for important tests to make sure he was a healthy birdie.

On the way back, I let Stewie watch what was going on through the window and he seemed fascinated. We even went through a Wendy’s drive-through and got to wave at some people.

Once home, Stewie was exhausted. All that excitement, plus the loss of blood, made for a sleepy birdie.