Bienvenito Pedro and Thanks for the Remodel

This morning Greg said he wanted to talk to me, and then he kind of hemmed and hawed, not really saying anything.  I told him he was making me nervous and what did he want to talk about?  He said it was just that he wanted to get a parrot.  That's fine, I don't mind having another bird in the house.  We had six of them when we moved to the beach.  That was an interesting move - six birds in three cages, a cat in a cat carrier, and two adolescent golden retrievers that just wanted to have FUN!  Over the 10 years we have lived here, we have sadly said goodbye to 5 of the birds, the cat, and one of the goldies.  We have one love bird, Ozzie, and our sweet 12-year-old golden, Sadie.   Greg is a Dr. Doolittle type who loves all animals.  He deserves a parrot.

The thing is, there was no place to put a parrot.  We decided it was time to rearrange the furniture in the living room, and put the two birdcages next to the window in there.  YAY!  This meant that Ozzie would be out of the guest/office room and I could rearrange the furniture in there, too!  So, while we waited for the pet store to open this morning, we rearranged furniture.  There is a lot more light in my house now and it looks more homey.  I love it.

The pet store had two Quaker parrots, both babies, both hand-fed.  The pet store Betty put one bird on Greg and one on me.  They were so cute, walking all over us.  We decided which one we wanted, and bought it.  They can't tell you if it's a male or female.  We are pretending it is male now, and calling him Pedro.  I had to sign a form saying that we would bring Pedro back in 3 days so they can make sure he's ok, not losing weight, etc.  I had to initial in two places; in one of the places, I agreed that the pet store is snot responsible for blah blah blah.  I pointed out to the girl that the form contained the word snot.  She said oh.  So I took my pen and underlined the s in snot, and initialed and signed everywhere.

We came home with a giant birdcage, Pedro, and two bags full of perches and toys and food.  Ozzie's cage got new perches and a new ladder, Pedro's cage got  a sleeping tent and a ladder and some toys.  Pedro and Ozzie kind of sat there in a stupor while we messed with the cages, and then they both fell asleep.  While they were sleeping I did a little google search on Quaker parrots and found out some interesting facts.  They are very friendly and playful.  They are also in the top 10 of birds that will vocalize!

Bear in mind that I am married to a boy and I had to give him The Talk about not teaching Pedro outrageously inappropriate phrases.  Seriously, I once had a friend who owned a parrot.  His parrot was a gutter-mouthed slimebag, and more than once I heard him say this:  "Wake up and f*ck her!"  He would say it over and over.  Rude.

Greg asked if Pedro can say "Hey Sailor!" which I happily agreed to, and he is also allowed to say "Hellooooo" and "Dude!" and whatever else he wants, as long as he keeps it relatively clean.   I don't want you to get the idea that I have a problem with freedom of speech.  I don't, not at all.  Please don't censor yourselves on my account.  I would appreciate it if you would watch your mouth around Pedro, though.




Ozzie on the left, Pedro on the right


They are both awake again and checking each other out.  Pedro was hand-fed and he was in a glass cage, not one with bars he can climb on.  I can't wait until he feels comfortable and starts playing and carrying on.  This should be fun!

This would be a good time to mention the law of attraction.  Ozzie's cage materialized in my life the following way.  When we had six birds, I would go in pet shops and look at the cages and wish we could get bigger cages for them.  I would look at the big cage I wanted, and even if I had the money to buy it, I would say to myself "I'll get that later."  It just wasn't something I needed enough to spend the money on.

I wasn't deliberately trying to use the law of attraction, but in fact that is just how it works.  I knew that I would get a bigger cage later, I just didn't realize how it would get to me.  Well, one day Mary, a lady I worked with, happened to overhear me talking about all our birds.  Mary and I sat right across from each other and talked all the time, but she said this was the first she'd heard about me having birds.  Then she said that the new house she had just moved into had a great big birdcage in the garage, and asked me if I could use it.  I said I would love to have it and she said good, come get it because it was taking up valuable space.   I went home with her after work, and there sat the very bird cage I had been eyeing in the pet store.  Ozzie lives in it now.  Thank you Universe - awesome!   Mary also had fishing poles in the garage too, and asked if I knew anyone who could use them. They are with Greg's other fishing poles now.