Where to start, where to start.
Usually, the beginning is a good place.
We found a lutino cockatiel in our driveway in 1999. After trying to find her owners, we adopted her and loved her for the rest of her years.
Sometime around 2001 I purchased my own first birds. Pet store budgies. I quickly became obsessed with reading about them, training them, and eventually breeding them. Out of a clutch of 6, 3 hatched. The eldest developed splayfoot and I experienced my first loss. The last two were handfed and given to family where they were loved and well cared for.
I decided to get into showing and purchased my first male english budgie from our local bird store that had overheard me talking about it :) I named him Gatsby and was on the lookout for a suitable mate. Unfortunately, something was terribly wrong with him, and he passed away after nearly a week in a well-known parrot hospital. Heartbroken, I carefully rehomed my Americans and concentrated on finishing school and getting my life in order. I always knew birds would have a special place in my hear.
A couple of years passed while I pined. When I moved into my own place I saved my pennies here and there to afford a nice cage, toys, food etc. in preparation for a parrotlet I planned on buying. I went to my first bird mart, where I was offered a deal I couldn't refuse on a little blue boy with an injured toe. He seemed to have full range of motion in it, so I took them up on their offer.
Cricket was our first bird together with my husband, and we treated him like our child. He was rarely in his cage, always on one of us, ate with us at dinner, went with us shopping, and was an amazing joy in our lives. He was spoiled rotten and well known in the family. Cricket helped me blog for many bird sanctuary charities and events, and became well loved even on the internet.
We decided to get into bird rescue. We did a lot of fosters, rescues, rehabs and placement help. A lot of birds came through us and some of them simply found us (they'd be in the lawn, on the patio, and would step right up). I will never forget the day we brought Cookie home. We noticed a "closing" sign on a pet store we frequented and went in. She told us she would be sending the birds back to the breeder at her expense and offered them to us at cost. This particular little yellow sided green cheek was the most pathetic, meek and plucked over by his cagemates, so I decided to take him home. I could only afford one. He was lucky.
We couldn't decide if Cookie was destined to be a perma-bird or if he was going to be a rescue for placement. So he hung around, and we were happy to have his company.
About three years ago or so we decided to move to Arizona so that my husband could pursue a career at his school of choice. We packed our two cats, Cricket, and Cookie into our VW beetles and started the 24 hour journey from Missouri. Everyone had been vet checked, the kitties had been tranqued mildly, and the birds actually seemed to enjoy being on the road.
The second day on the trip, however, tragedy struck. We checked into our hotel room and pulled the birds travel cages from their protective sleeves. Cookie was totally happy but something was wrong with Cricket.
I started screaming for J and gently picked Cricket from the bottom of the travel cage. He was limp and lethargic, but alive. His neck looked bent at an impossible angle. I cried and begged him to come back to us, wishing I knew what was wrong and that we weren't in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing we could do. We listened to his last little chirps as he struggled, held him in our warm hands, and said our goodbyes as he slipped away. The next morning we shipped his body back to be buried on the family farm. They had both been healthy moments before, I heard them talking excitedly in the car while we prepared to make the trek into the hotel. Cookie showed no signs of abnormality.
Devastated by our loss, we continued to our final destination where we set up one cage instead of two. We mourned, the situation putting a heavy damper on our move. We felt as though we had lost a child.
After a few months passed we decided to take in foster birds again. Another cockatiel found us and ignited the spark. We even had a little parrotlet come through, but it was too early and I didn't bond with him. I was relieved when he found a wonderful home with a little girl who would love him like we loved Cricket. Adoption days were always bittersweet. Cookie stuck with us and became alpha bird over all of his little charges.
When I fell pregnant we sat down to make a decision. The bird room was now empty save for Cookie. We wanted to use the bird room as a baby room, and Cookie had been showing signs of stress without his companions. We made the tough decision to rehome Cookie after all, and gave him to a local breeder in hopes that when our little one was older, we would have a Cookie baby to welcome into the permanent flock.
We regretted the decision almost immediately, but I felt like we had done the right thing and that he would be happier as a breeder. He had been bonded to Jim, but never fully.. he was always wary and seemed to prefer the company of other birds. I reminded myself of this time and time again.
Our son was born in March of 2008. This made me feel even better about the decision. There was no time for anything but the baby, as he was born early and had problems in the first few months of his life. Cookie, or any other bird, would not have gotten much attention at all. We would have had to board them for several hospital stays. Still, there was regret.
When our son was a year old I learned that Cookie had been sold with his mate. My husband was devastated. We didn't know where he was, or with whom. We talked often about everything, how we still missed Cricket and how we wondered if the recipients of Cookie's babies were enjoying them. As it turns out, they were.
Watch Lindbergh, one of Cookie's babies, do his tricks here!When our son turned a year and a half, we decided to take him to a bird store to see how he would react. He LOVED birds, laughing and signing to anything that would turn his way. He was not afraid when even the largest of macaws screeched, and he seemed to understand that they were for looks, not touch. We talked about starting our permanent flock excitedly.
I was looking online for local Amazon breeders when I stumbled upon a tiny thumbnail of a green cheeked conure. Now, another reason why I decided Cookie would make a great breeder bird is that he had fantastic structure and presence. He was very colourful, and had a great large eye. I thought I might be looking at a Cookie baby, so I clicked.
Funny, the birds name was Cookie. I read the description to my husband, including the part where the owner described how the bird had insisted his egg-eating mate SIT on her eggs. We laughed and thought it was kind of creepy... so we went to the website.
"This is really uncanny." I said, "Let's compare old pictures of Cookie to this bird..." so we did. They looked very similar. I had J call about the bird, saying we thought it might be an old bird of ours. We were still very cautious, knowing the odds were slim.
Then, randomly, the video on the page loaded. It was of Cookie saying "Wanna Cookie!?" and doing the dance J taught him. We called again to let her know that it WAS our bird and we would LOVE to buy him back!
So we are. Cookie will likely be rejoining us at the beginning of October. We will pay him off and buy a cage identical to his old flight and he will make his way back to us when the weather cools.. it was meant to be. His current owners tell us that he has separated from his mate (she says she "divorced" him.. LOL!) and is a very loving bird. I am so happy that he is happy as a pet bird. I really wasn't sure.
We also have a lovebird that joined our family last week. His name is Basil, and he is a normal peachface. We have plans to breed them and handfeed the babies. I really miss that experience! We would also like to eventually acquire an Amazon or a Grey, a few more GCC's, and a Blue and Gold Macaw. We have to finish the bird room first!
Fun links:
Cookie's Page at pampered pets (Yes, we thought Cookie was a female until he was DNA sexed for breeding). If you browse the site, Cookie and Apple's babies are the ones with the orange bands on their left feet!
.jpg)
