“If it weren’t for Baby, Kiki would never be so tame.” Those were my words on Saturday morning as we were eating breakfast and playing with the birds. We had an unusual situation, raising a hand-fed, clipped-winged parrotlet and a supermarket parakeet together in the same cage. They slept cuddled up together and preened each other and had become the best of friends. They were inseparable.
Baby’s flight feathers had grown back, but she retained her cuddly, sweet personality. She would fly to me and sit on my shoulder and ride around with me all day, if I’d let her. Once Kiki saw this, he started to do the same thing, only with a tad more timidity. It became so commonplace that sometimes I would forget that I was walking around the house with two birds on my shoulders. This went on for months.
Before these two, we’d had a parakeet named Bobo, whom we’d put out on the deck in her cage on nice days. One day, last fall, she escaped and we never saw her again. Shortly thereafter, we visited Penny’s Parrots at the flea market and saw a parrotlet for the first time. A parrotlet, a member of the Amazon family, is the smallest true parrot. They are about the size of a parakeet, without the long tail. They also have a much bigger beak. We ordered a female. It would be a few weeks before they had a hand-raised one that was mature enough to bring home. Meanwhile, it was back to the supermarket where we saw and fell in love with Kiki.
We had Kiki for a couple weeks before they called us to say that Baby was ready to come home. By this time, Kiki had been finger trained had become a pretty good pet. We could let him out of the cage with the confidence that he would return when he was hungry. Failing that, he would be easy enough to coax in.
When we first brought Baby home, we kept them in separate cages. They started calling to each other on the first day. After a few days, we let Kiki out and he flew over to Baby’s cage and started to court her. At first she tried to bite his feet through the bars, but eventually, they started to kiss. It wasn’t long before Kiki moved into Baby’s cage.
Back to Saturday: Mona thought it would be nice it the birds got some fresh air. Can you feel it? Can you feel that impending sense of doom that I felt when I first learned of her intentions? I had to go to the post office. When I returned I was greeted with, “I have some bad news for you.”
My heart sank. I knew that at least one of the birds was gone. As it turned out, it was Kiki. Mona had tried cleaning the cage, outside, with the birds in it. Kiki had been nervous about being outside in the first place. As soon as Mona opened the door, he burst past her and flew into a big tree in the neighbor’s yard. Soon he was lost. I got out the binoculars and started calling for him. I thought that having Baby out there with us in the cage, calling too, might help. Nothing!
It was just like when we lost Bobo, but this time we had a new consideration. Baby had never been alone. From the time she was hatched, she had always been around other birds. She already seemed lost. We decided that we had to get another bird immediately. So it was off to Penny’ Parrots, where we found a smart little yellow parakeet we call Lucy. We’ve had her for two days and, with a lot of help from Baby, she is almost finger trained. They are already sharing a cage and preening each other.
So it is my pleasure to introduce to you our newest pet, and Baby’s new friend, Lucy! By the way, we are pretty sure Lucy is a girl, but if she turns out to be a boy, we will call him Lucky. So for now, it is Lucky Lucy.
-Harry
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