Skip to main content

 

The Eclectic Pen - Pretty Bird and Blue Boy

By: George A. (Eagle1)  
Date Submitted: 1/1/2018
Last Updated: 2/9/2018
Genre: Nonfiction » Holidays
Words: 389
Rating:

A true tale of Christmas gift giving going somewhat awry . . . Soon it would be Christmas and my (3rd) wife was dropping hints about getting a pet bird. She had her dog but this would be her first bird. A relative worked at a pet store, so I gave her a "gift card" that I created in Print Shop, redeemable for any bird in the store along with a cage. The pet shop was most accommodating and she choose a lovely, small, blue, male parakeet along with a nice white cage. After several days in his new home, we noticed that he wasn't singing as expected. Returning to the pet shop, they explained that he probably needed a mate to sing to, so we went home with a big, yellow, female parakeet. Blue Boy became the male's moniker while the yellow one we called Pretty Bird. I kept their cage clean and doled out food and water twice a day, like clockwork. Having lived in the cage for several days longer, Blue Boy had a feeding routine and had his favorite perch, but Pretty Bird had her own priorities. At feeding time, she quickly started to "rule the roost" and dominated the seed bowl. She pushed little Blue Boy out of the way and ate to her heart's content. When done, she jumped to a higher perch; that's when Blue Boy swooped in to feed on the dregs. Over several days, Pretty Bird became more and more dominant, to the point that the little guy barely got anything to eat. Even when she was done, that yellow vixen would not allow him to eat at all. My wife found this very amusing but I didn't. I installed a second food bowl on the opposite side of the cage but Pretty Bird just flitted back and forth between the two to stop Blue Boy from feeding. My wife was enjoying this immensely. One day, after several weeks of this, I went to their cage to feed and water them and there, lying feet up on the bottom of the cage in a pile of their droppings was that big, fat, yellow, stiff bird. When I looked to Blue Boy, I could have sworn that he had a sly smirk on his little beak (is that possible?).

The Eclectic Pen » All Stories by George A. (Eagle1)

Member Comments