I'm still thinking about this.... 

I'm remembering the time Oscar flew off her cage and landed near Henry, our small terrier dog.  He grabbed her in his mouth, but when I yelled at him he let her go.  I was so proud of him for overcoming his terrier instincts in that moment.  They are bred to hunt small prey and the instinct is strong in them.  He was such a sweet boy.  Oscar was completely fine and didn't seem to be injured at all...

There was another time (moving away from bird stories) when our rabbit was hanging out with us in the living room and Henry grabbed his stuffed animal toy (that looked a lot like the rabbit in size and coloring) and began shaking it while staring at the rabbit with a clear message (that seemed to contain some humor, but still...) "this is what I could do to you".... and the rabbit got pissed and charged him.... it stopped Henry in his tracks....  in that case I was impressed with the intensity of the rabbit's anger and the strength of his message to "stop that shit right now!"

funny, complex little animals....and so much tragedy surrounding them... I have stories, too, that weigh on me and the emotions come back in waves sometimes....

I look forward to reading more later...