Goober is very bored, all alone in the hospital cage. She spends her days snacking, trying to get a decent bath, resting, bouncing around, and hanging on the wall. But twice a day, right after I give her a dose of antibiotics, she sits on the floor in the light.

Now, although it's perfectly normal for, say, a duck to sit on the ground, it's a bad sign when a finch does this. Sitting on the floor usually means that they're not feeling well at all. Needless to say, Goober's behavior has freaked me out more than once. But after a few minutes of sitting on the floor, she starts bouncing around again. I figure one of the following is going on:

• Getting caught and covered with pink stuff is traumatic, and the poor bird is simply resting after the experience.

• Goober is deliberately trying to freak me out as payback for catching her and smearing her with pink stuff.

Truth is, the hospital cage isn't the best design — at least not for my Finsters, who have slept all their lives in or on nest boxes. The perches in the cage are too thick to grab easily with their feet, but too narrow to act as a sleeping platform.

In fact, last night the poor dear fell off the perch. But, um, I'm sure she meant to do that.

Only two more doses of antibiotics to go, so I should only get freaked out twice more, Goober has only one more night of uncomfortable sleep, and then I'll be able to fix the cage up so the next sick Finster doesn't have to sit on the floor to rest up.

The bottom photo turned out pretty well, so you can click here for a close up.