I ran outside, and saw our neighbor girl standing by our maple tree holding a parakeet that she'd found perched on a branch. "We found this bird in your tree!" she shouted. Why, oh why did the bird have to be in our tree? Couldn't it have flown one or two houses down the block? It was my lucky day! Must've been the luck of the Irish!
Suddenly, all the kids started screaming as the parakeet flew onto the unsuspecting neighbor girls' head. She stood there screaming bloody murder as the bird calmly perched there in her hair. It was the perfect picture taking moment so I said, "Don't move. I'm going to get my camera!"
After I got my pictures and untangled the bird from her hair, the kids walked around the entire neighborhood stopping at every house to report the missing bird. No one claimed it. Big surprise there!
It was time for dinner, so we put the bird under a strainer so it wouldn't fly around the house while we ate. Needless to say, after dinner, Aaron went to the store with the kids to buy a bird cage. After all, I need my strainer for cooking! He also promised them (without my consent), that if the owner of the bird was eventually found, he'd buy them another bird.
The moral of the story is, if your kids ever run in the house to tell you that there is a parakeet in the maple tree, just look them straight in the eye and say, "Kids, that is no parakeet. That is a baby crow. If you touch it, you may catch rabies from it, get deathly ill, and need to be hospitalized." I just wish I would've thought of this solution yesterday!
12 comments:
Lucky You! I am so happy the little birdie didn't come to my house. :) Although, I wish that Larry the LEprechaun would have come to our house. While Morgan watched the little movie, she had this nervous look on her face about Larry the Leprechaun, I think she was grateful he didn't come to our house. :)
Melissa,
Larry is pretty scary! Tell Morgan I'll tell him not to come knock at your door! Have a good day!
We were wondering who ended up with the bird. I agree, lucky you! That's a great shot of Ally! My kids still ask me why the leprechaun doesn't come to our house but he does to yours. Oh well, The easter bunny is enough for me.
You are so funny!!! Running back into the house to get the camera. Only someone who is a BA (Blogger Addict) would have done something like that.
Lucky you! My first reaction when the kids told me they had found a bird was, "DON"T TOUCH IT, BIRDS HAVE DISEASES"! They told me I was over reacting and it was someones pet. Well it sounds like you will become a new pet owner one way or another:)! Good idea about the baby crow;)!
I am an ornitholigist with the University of Utah and happened upon your blog. It appears that you may have discovered a South American species known as the brotogeris which occasionally migrates up through Mexico into the Southwestern and Western parts of the United States.
Many parakeets eat fruit.
In some cases they can mimic words of their owners or other sounds.
They love grated carrots, raw broccoli, and green leafy vegetables.
Many drug lords in South America and Mexico use the brotogeris as a watchdog as they will give a high pitched chirp when an unknown person enters a warehouse where drugs are manufactured or stored.
You have quite a catch.
Congratulations.
Dear Mary,
Thanks so much for informing me of our "catch". Unfortunately for Hannah, our parakeet, we cannot afford to feed her fresh fruit or vegetables -- she gets the cheapest seeds we could find at WalMart. Also, now that I know about her "watchdog" status, we can now get rid of our miniature dachsund who formerly took on that role.
P.S. I hope you aren't implying that we have a drug warehouse over here!
P.S.S. The bird has started hanging upside down most of the day. Is this normal?
Dear Vanessa,
If your residence is in either a Western or Southwestern state you may want to prop the brotogeris up so that its bowels perform properly. Because the bird flew from south of the equator its digestive track is probably reversed from the normal position found in South America. If you happen to notice any bloating in the bird's stomach then just add a pinch of Ex-Lax in with the bird seed and your Hannah should be sitting upright within minutes.
Also, because the bird likes to mimick human voices you might have your children take turns to see who can get your new pet to say it's first word. Most brotogeris have the capacity to repeat as many as twenty (20) words. I wish you the best.
Mary
Dear Mary,
Thanks so much for all of your valuable information about our bird's bowels. Very informative.
Bad news. We think we found the bird's real owner. It may need to be returned ASAP.
Before we hand the bird over though, I think it would be fun to teach the birds some words like . . ."Take me back to the Hebers," "I love the Heber House," "Get away from me dingbat," etc . . . Do you think the bird could be harmed in anyway by being separated from our family, after all the love we have shown it the past 7 days? Please advise.
Dear Vanessa,
The best advice I can give is for you to buy a can of green or yellow rustoleum and disguise the bird as an Australian budgerigar. The only problem is the bird might get stuck to the cage and then you would have to pry it loose.
Another alternative would be to tape the parakeet's mouth shut and pretend that it is deaf and mute.
There are a number of parakeet predators in the Western and Southwestern parts of the United States and these individuals may have been stalking your home.
The final solution may be to simply give them the "bird" and spend more time with your dachsund who is probably jealous of the parakeet anyway. I wish you the best.
Mary
Mary,
I no longer have to worry about the bird.
Sadly,
Vanessa Heber
(former brotogeris owner)
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