The Army Of Good has always grasped the importance of bringing life to a place like the Mansion. We raised money to got summer the cat spayed and vaccinated, and now she is the Mansion cat.

Six months ago, we bought this spanking new cage for the Mansion’s two parakeets, who AOG members named (I forget their names, and so has almost everyone else.) Their old cage was too small.

A month ago, one of the parakeet died, a source of great sadness for Mary, the Mansion resident who volunteered to take care of the birds. Once they were in the Activity Room, now they’ve been moved to the Mansion hallway.

Mary was deeply affected by their death.

Friday, Mary asked me again if I could get another parakeet to keep this one from being alone, she said being alone sometimes kills parakeets. There was some truth to it, the surviving bird looked pretty down.

And a number of the Mansion residents were worried about the single parakeet.

I asked everybody if I should get another parakeet, but questions like that are tricky. The staff knows that sooner or later, they will have to take care of the birds and feed them every day and clean the cages.

And they have plenty to do.

Friday night, at Bingo, Mary made another plea to me for a parakeet, and this time it got to me.

I was already thinking about whether to do it or not.

I was researching parakeets all week online, and a few days ago I went to Petco to look at the birds and talk to the staff.

We all agreed a young female was the way to go, the bird in the case was also a female, and they almost always got along. Maria and I conferred, and we decided to go for it. We both agreed the parakeet needed a companion, and the residents needed their beloved birds. We launched our own secret plan.

We told no one what we were thinking, not the staff, not Mary, not any of the residents. We had a wild storm here all day, but after my writing workshop, we drove through heavy winds and rain to get to the Petco in Bennington Saturday afternoon.

It’s about 40 minutes to Bennington from the farm, the dark and stormy wind-whipped day gave a nice backdrop to the secret plot to bring another parakeet to the Mansion cage.

We saw the birds at Petco, they were all young, they all had their wings clipped so they couldn’t fly temporarily (the feathers grow back.) A staffer came we looked through the flock – there were about 30 – and picked the one Mary said she wanted – white with some grey.

I knew from my own reading that we needed a female.

It took about 15 minutes for the store aide to get a net on the bird we wanted, then we all helped to get him into a paper box with holes in it. The parakeets are not easy to trap.

The bird cost $21 and we bought some millet to put in the Mansion cage. Since it was cold and windy, we headed for the Mansion.

We stopped quickly at a Tractor Supply to get new winter gloves for me and Maria,  mealworms for the chickens, and apple and alfalfa cookies for the donkeys.

When we arrived at the Mansion, it was pouring and we saw that all of the residents were in the Dining Room eating. We grabbed the box and the millet and walked quickly down the hallway.

The office door was closed, the aides were in the dining room feeding the residents and giving them their evening medications. Tim and Matt saw us through the window, we just kept moving.

The Mansion residents miss very little and several called out to me as I headed down the hallways. I thought this needed to be a secret mission, at least for a while. Nobody else saw us or knew what we were doing. We needed deniability.

We went to the hallway where the cage is – nobody was around –  and we carefully opened the big side slot where food is brought in. The box was a tight squeeze but we maneuvered around and got it in there and then moved it to the bottom of the cage, and opened it.

This was the safest way to get the new bird in there without handling it or risking an injury.

Maria is the perfect partner for a secret adventure, we both felt great doing it and were having a blast. The Mansion needs life.

Our young bird, white and grey feathers, hopped out and jumped on a lower perch. The older  bird jumped down to a lower perch and the two seemed happy to see one another.

Because the newcomer’s wings were clipped,  she couldn’t yet fly up to the top of the cage.

We got the box out and put some millet in, and closed the big side slot. Then we gathered out things and headed out the door. As I left, I thought it might be a bad idea to surprise Mary and the residents for various good reasons.

We looked back and saw the new one sitting calmly on a low wooden perch, clearly a sign of being funded.

So I walked down the hall with Maria to the dining room and she went out to the car to get two books of crossword puzzles I bought for Madeline at Battenkill Books just a few minutes earlier.

Madeline is a sharp puzzle fan, she always has some crossword puzzle in her lap.

So that was it, the Parakeet  Adventure went off without a hitch. If asked, we will deny any knowledge of the mission. What parakeet? Where could it have come from?

Maria and I were delighted, we had a blast and it feels so good to replace that bird.

You can contribute to our adventures. If you can, please think about donation to our Mansion Fund, active as we enter the holidays. I’ve got the Gift Cards for the aides coming, and have enough money to help the residents buy gifts for the aides and their close friends. Thanks.

The residents do need some things for the holidays.

You can support the Army Of Good by going to the button beneath each blog past and contributing. You can send a donation easily on Paypal, send it to [email protected]. You can also send a check to me, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Please mark any payment “the Mansion.”

And thank you. I’ll sneak back  in a day or so and get a video of the new bird.