Meet Sugarbear & Crystal
I have been raising birds for about 10 years. I first became
interested in birds when I took a trip to Alabama with a neighbor
friend of mine back in high school. We traveled from Michigan to
Alabama to visit his aunt who happened to own a lime-green, 'dime
store' parakeet named Mr. Bird. I was so impressed by this bird. It
would come when you called it, sit on your finger, take showers in
the sink and believe it or not, it even talked! From that point on, I
was hooked on birds. I was just amazed by how such a small, 'stupid'
animal could be so smart, loving, and personable.
I had to have one!!! But we had CATS!!! I knew this would be a problem.
Not only with the cats but with my mom. Not that my mom hated birds
or anything, but with the two cats in the house, I knew she wouldn't
approve. Maybe after she got to know my bird, she'd come around. I
hoped. Maybe I could keep the bird in my room with the door locked and only
let the bird out of it's cage while I was there.
I went to the library to read up on parakeets, and learned
as much as I could before I went to look for a bird of my own. I
learned all about the care and feeding of these birds, or Budgies,
as they were called. I learned that many people raised budgies right
in their own home, and that it really wasn't that difficult. (I knew
I'd have to wait until I grew up and got a place of my own before I could
do that!). I also found out that if you wanted your bird
to be friendly and learn all the stuff Mr. Bird did, you needed
to get one as soon as it was fledged. It had to grow up with as
little sibling interaction so it would eventually bond with its
owner. That wouldn't be a problem, since I planned on only getting
one bird and I was going to spend lots of time
with it.
Since I wasn't old enough to drive yet, and I couldn't ask my mom to
drive me to the pet stores, I set out on my bike to find my bird. We
had a half a dozen pet stores in town and I knew finding the right
bird would be easy. I was wrong! All the pet stores in town had budgies,
but none could tell me how old they were, and all were shipped in from
out of state! Some pet stores could tell the birds were 'Young' but
they didn't know how young. I wanted one right from
the nest. This would never do. I was ready to give up on the whole
idea and decided to drown my sorrows at an aquarium store about 20
miles north of town. I liked going there because they were the only
store for hundreds of miles that had salt water fish, and I liked going
there to watch the fish and dream of one day growing up and being an
oceanographer. I could never afford a saltwater aquarium. It took me
over a year to convince my mom to let me have a tropical fish tank,
and I had to earn the money to buy that! The only problem with this
aquarium store was it was so far away, and I only got to go there when
my mom was in that part of town. But I was depressed and off I went.
It had been longer than I thought since I was there last. The whole
place had changed. When I walked in the door, there was a new face
behind the counter and there were house plants for sale all over the
store lobby. There were also a couple of big birds in cages and I
began to worry, that there were no longer any aquariums! Had I come
all this way for nothing? Then I looked around the corner and I could
see the aquariums and was quite relieved. After looking at all the
fish, I decided it was time to head back home and started to leave the
store. Ed, The guy behind the counter, asked if he could help me find
anything, and I politely said no, and explained that I just came to
look at the fish. We started talking and I learned that the owner of
the store had a heart attack and was in the hospital. While he was
recovering, Ed, the owners friend, was running the store for him and
that was why the store had changed. We got to talking, and I told Ed
about Mr. bird and why I had come to the store. Ed then smiled and
asked me to take a look at in the back room. He had to watch the front
counter, but said it was OK to peak in and see what he had back there.
When I poked my head through the door, I couldn't believe my eyes!
There, lined up along the back wall were breeding cages full of
budgies !! Needless to say, I found my pet budgie! Ed let me
pick out my bird from all the ones that had just fledged. It was
the brightest blue bird I had ever seen with white wings and black markings
on it's head and shoulders.
I quickly paid Ed for my new friend, and hurried home. My head was
spinning with excitement. I don't even remember the ride home. By the
time I got there, I had it all planned out in my head. I got an old
bird cage down from the attic and cleaned it up, put food and water in
the cage and prayed my mom wouldn't find my bird until I had him
trained and friendly. It worked for two days. Then my mom heard him
through the closed bedroom door and when I got home from school that
day I heard about it. I don't remember the whole story here, but I
know I got to keep my bird. My dad put a lock on my bedroom door so
we could make sure the cats didn't push open the door, and I spent all
my spare time with my bird - Captin. I named him Captin as in a ships
captain, but spelled it the way it sounded. I have always had trouble
spelling, and felt his name should be spelled the way it sounds. So
that's the way it was going to be.
Captin and I soon became the best of friends, and he soon learned
to talk, do tricks and help me with my home work. We slept together:
me in my bed and him over head on the windowsill. In the mornings we
would take our shower together. Captin would sit on the curtain rod
and wait until I was ready for him to perch on my finger where he would
take his.
It wasn't long before Captin captured the heart of everyone
who met him. Even my mom. I had Captin for over 13 years. During that
time, we were the best of friends. He saw me through the best of
times and some of my worst.
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