Yummy didn't like birds. They flap around your head, bob their heads in creepy ways, and want to peck out your eyes. Even so, she came to like Gandolf after a little while. She wouldn't, however, believe me when I said that birds can be very cuddly and affectionate. So we went to a pet store and visited the birdies in the back room. Canaries and parakeets don't want much to do with people. Cockatiels depend on the particular bird. The conures are the cuddliest. They come over to the side of the cage and ask you to scratch their heads. Often they have lots of pin feathers1 that need crunched up.
There was a brightly colored sun conure named Sandra Day O'Conure and a few fairly young green cheeked conures. The green cheeks were all in separate cages but tried to swarm Yummy. One was a floppy bird that seemed like it was still learning to walk. Turned out that it had some deformity in it's foot. Another wanted to be close to Yummy, but didn't like hands so she couldn't touch it. The third let her reach through the bars and rub it all over. They bonded.
A couple of weeks later I went back to see if that third bird was still there. Yummy's birthday was coming up and I decided to get her one. And if her dad wouldn't let her take it home it'd just have to stay at my place and keep Gandolf company. Oh, shucks.
That was almost a year ago. We renamed the conure Bixby after Bill Bixby who played The Incredible Hulk on TV. Bixby was a little green monster. The name won out over my suggestion of Thracknar the Destroyer.
Bixby and Yummy bonded pretty quickly. Bixby was excited to see her when she came over and she had to bribe Bix with crackers so Yummy could get out the door without Bixby looking sad. Bixby would eat Yummy's food, drink her drinks, hide in her hair, and fall asleep in her hand.
Last Thursday I came home, it was a nice day, so I took Gandolf and Bixby outside to sit in their bush like they love to do. Bixby would climb all over the bush trimming away leaves and flowers and small branches. She'd cut tunnels through the branches leaving expressways so she could move all over the bush at lightning speed.
I sat down on the bench in front of the bush and read. There was a flurry of activity behind me and I looked back. I expected Bixby to have tried to get too close to Gandolf, as she liked to do, and Gandolf struck at her. I saw Gandolf hanging upside down from a branch and helped her up. I searched the bush for Bixby. Since Bixby blends so well and is so small she usually takes some hunting to find.
As I searched the bush a neighbor came up and asked "What color was Yummy's bird?" He and another neighbor had seen a strange cat running up the sidewalk and into the alley carrying a small green bird. Gandolf had been upside down because she'd taken a swing at the cat.
I searched the alley. I climbed fences and searched yards in the alley. I searched under cars along the street, yards along the street, a nearby alley where a cat colony is known to live. Nothing. I had to call Yummy. Devastated is not the word for how she felt. While I went back out to continue the search Yummy was freaking out her co-workers with her sobbing. For the next four days Yummy was inconsolable. Even with sleeping pills she couldn't sleep. I started to wonder if she would need to be sedated.
She was able to run an arts and crafts booth at a community event she'd helped organize. Gandolf and I were there to keep her company. But she's so exhausted from the lack of sleep and emotional pounding that she can't really feel anymore. But she is recovering.
Bixby cleaning my teeth.
Bixby wanting out of my helmet.
Bixby enjoying camp chili. 
Bixby with a chip.
Gandolf and Bixby, just chillin'.
Bixby among the morning glories.
Bixby eating the morning glories. More pictures are available at Yummy's site. [link]
The fate that awaits the stray cats.1Feathers grow in a hard sheath that sometimes needs help breaking up to let the feather out. Those are pin feathers.
1 comment:
My little baby girl :-( I miss that wee tyrant.
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