An ongoing problem with Luigi and his long-suffering sidekick, Binky, being free range in my rental apartment is that when workers need to enter when I’m not at home to do do repairs etc., Luigi is a menace.

I can’t understand it but for some reason the workers don’t like it when Luigi lands on their heads and claws around in their hair; goes down their shirt collars, or dives head first into their tool belt pockets to investigate the contents.  Luigi doesn’t do cages–if he is shut in his cage he drags his beak back and forth on the bars like a tin cup and pulls out his chest feathers in his version of a hunger strike.

Worried about accidents or foul play by enemy repairmen, I invented The Luigi Trap.  Now Luigi and Binky are cloistered by a screen in my tiny kitchen while I’m away at my day job (until the blessed time arrives that I exit the saltmine and earn a living full-time in the arts and crafts racket).  The cloister contains Luigi’s drawers, shredding table, pill bottle collection to knock off counter, oven mitt napping station, cupboard with empty sideways cereal boxes and part of the suspension bridge system.  Binky’s corner includes his pink backpack cave and windchimes to ring.  If you get an email from Luigi about the unjust treatment he is receiving, pay no attention.