susans@cfi.COM (susans) (07/12/90)
First, a little background on this particular budgie:
She was given to me (thrown away, really) by a lady who had given
her to her 3 year old son--he wanted a puppy. The bird had lived
for several years in the smallest cage I've ever seen--a $9.99
Woolworth special--on a bookshelf next to the television. She had
NEVER been out of the cage, was being fed seed that came in 5 lb.
bags ("special! only $.99 for 5 lbs.!") and was so stale it smelled
of mold. There was no room for her to move around in the cage because
it was so overcrowded with toys.
Anyhow, I gradually switched her to a healthy diet, and immediately
moved her into a large cage. After a week, I opened the door and let
her fly around. I didn't expect much from her, but after a year, she
learned how to talk from my cockatiel. Now she is the most charming
and adorable creature! She'll sit on my finger, but not much else.
She does enjoy landing on my head as I said in my previous posting. She
is in love with my cockatiel (who is in love with me), but is being
avidly persued by my male budgie.
Now, on to the further antics!
Three days ago I came home and found a huge pile of pennies next to the
antique Toby jug I keep them in. It looked as if it had been tipped over
and then set upright. As I live alone, I was rather miffed that the
maintenance men had entered my apartment for some reason and not left a
note nor cleaned up after themselves. I shoveled the pennies back into
the jar.
Last night while I talked on the phone I heard a strange "clink, chunk"
noise coming from the living room. I walked out to see what it was, and
there was Pookie, rapidly hurling pennies from the jar--up to four at a
time. Then she started trying to fly with pennies in her beak! She
managed to dive-bomb my canary with one of them. Within minutes she had
littered a five foot area with pennies!
Back in April, she managed to go INTO a drawer in my desk and nibble up
parts of my tax papers.
She also likes to throw my shell collection off my corner table (only
the small ones--some of them are huge and heavy) and she just loves
to push my kitchen timer to the ground when I have it in the living
room to hear it go off.
What amazes me is that she weighs probably two ounces, and had I been
called upon to predict her future as a fun-loving pet, the chances I would
have given her after her early life would have been nil.
--
Susan S. (susans@cfi.com)
Another Friend of Bill's