Celestial Sunday - Part 2

Peck, if you can't reach the door bell

Celeste expected to be able to come into the house whenever she wanted to but entering via the front door was her greatest achievement.  Most afternoons Celeste could be found in the front garden, enjoying herself and amusing the neighbours.  We never had to keep an eye on her and she absolutely never went anywhere near the road.  
She used to love it when I turned on the hose and the water would run through the grass.  She would drink it from between the patches of turf and even when she went blind in her last year, she recognised the sound of the water running and would still run her beak through the blades and drink happily.  

Enjoying an afternoon out in the front garden

When the sun began to go down, she would be ready to come in and prepare for bed.  She would come to the front door and announce herself by pecking on it repeatedly.  She actually taught herself how to knock on the door.  

 

A Seated Attack

We would then hold the door open, she would walk in to the lounge and then fly up to the head rest of her commandeered recliner chair.  From there she would thoroughly preen herself all over and finally as the sun was nearly completely gone, she would sit down and start to fall asleep.  We would then pick her up and take her out to her pen for the night. Celeste completely took over the chair and my brother would deliberately taunt her by trying to sit on it when she was preening.  She would attack his head and if he tried to swish her away with his hand, she would grab him.  I remember her getting so upset, that she grabbed the top of his hand and twisted so hard she slightly broke the skin.  Good girl Celeste! 

Celeste - guarding her chair and preparing for bed

After a couple of years of this, we decided to have her chair recovered.  She had pecked away some of the threads from the top and it was fairly old fashioned being dark brown velvet.  I still feel guilty about the decision.  After the chair had been taken away, Celeste came in to the lounge for her usual routine.  She walked up to the corner where her chair should be and stared and stared.  She called again and again, looking at us with so much confusion.  We tried with another chair but it was no use.  She was really shocked and clearly upset.  

But she did allow well behaved friends to share her chair from time to time

We were really keen to get the chair back for her and about 3 weeks later when it arrived, we were sure that she was going to be so happy.  She wasn't.  The chair was a completely different colour, texture and foam density.  We tried to lift her up to the top of the headrest but she wouldn't stay up there and never jumped up on to the chair ever again.  Her afternoon routine was completely disrupted and although she still enjoyed her time out in the garden, there wasn't anything to come inside the house for at the end of it.  

I can understand why she gave up her chair but what I still don't understand is how a chicken knows to knock on a door when she's ready to come inside? 

How calendar worthy does my girl look in this photo hey?

Celeste - treated like a princess, behaved accordingly.