Then I saw him . . .

He was so handsome and the prettiest shades of blue and teal I had ever seen. He was white down the front, but the top of his head was the most beautiful shade of baby blue that made its way down his neck and down his back, ever changing shades as it went until it turned into a bluish teal down to the tip of his wings. He also had flecks of black here and there, and his cere (part over the beak) was a beautiful shade of deep purple. He came home with me, and his name came to be Peetie.

He fascinated me! He sang so pretty (but the shreeking was NOT so pretty!), and he was so vain and boisterous he just demanded your attention all the time. And he got it. I spent every noon hour and evening sitting beside his cage, watching him, amazed at this wondrous little creature that God had created - so full of life yet so tiny and weighing no more than a nickel.

During our visits, I would sit with my hand just inside the cage resting on one of his perches. He was so curious, especially about the rings on my finger, and after a while, curiosity got the best of him, and he started reaching out and nibbling on my hand and then running away. He soon learned that I would not hurt him and had nothing to fear, so he started sitting on my hand, picking at my rings, walking around on the back of my hand, and testing to see how hard he could bite.

I read in the manual that some parakeets could learn to talk, and that fascinated me even more, so Peetie and I got down to business. During our daily visits, I would repeat words to him, over and over, day after day, week after week, and he would cock his head as he listened to me. I started with "hello" and "Peetie". He did not pick up "hello", but he started saying his name over and over. He seemed as fascinated with being able to utter these new sounds as I was hearing them! He would sit in his cage and say, "Peetie-Peetie-Peetie-Peetie-Peetie-Peetie" over and over again. After he learned to say that first word, he learned new ones much easier and was soon talking a blue streak with "Peetie", "Pretty Boy", "Peetie Pretty Boy", and "puppy".

We had gotten a cocker spaniel in the meantime (Lady), and he was fascinated by her. His cage sat on a table beside the couch, and he would call to her by saying, "Puppy-puppy-puppy-puppy", and she would respond by going to the cage. He was so funny.

We decided that he needed a mate, so along came another beautiful blue parakeet we named Cassie (after the little bird in Winnie the Pooh). Peetie soon learned "Caaaaaaassie, Caaaaaaassie" and fell totally and madly in love with her. Much to his chagrin, she ignored him and all his "showing off", but that didn't stop him. He continued to vie for her affections. Much to our and Peetie's dismay, Cassie became egg bound and died.

In the meantime, another cocker spaniel, Sam, came along, and he wasn't trained, so to train him we would ask him if he had to go "pee/poopie". Time went on, and that somehow became the "cue" for the dogs to go out for their walks. My parents were visiting one day when Mom sat down next to Peetie and started talking to him. He responded with, "Pee/Poopie, pee/poopie?" While everyone thought this hilarious, I was moritified! To say the least, that phrase was soon deleted from our daily routine!

Peetie loved our son, Corey, and every day when Corey came home from school, he would automatically say, "Whataya doin' Pete?". This soon developed into Peetie's own little greeting to everyone, and whenever someone came over to the cage, Peetie would say, "Whataya doin' Pete?" along with all his other little words. He never did learn "Hello", but I read later on that "h" words are hard for birds to learn, although he said "Hocus Pocus" once just to satisfy me and never said it again.

Peetie loved to come out of his cage and fly, and he did so frequently. He loved to sit on our shoulders and nibble at our ear lobes while he chirped and chanted softly. He was so loving and so gentle, and I so wanted to pat and stroke him because he was so soft, but he would not allow it and didn't want to be patted at all. And he hated to go back into his cage! As we would start back to the door of his cage, he would fly on top of it and run back and forth across the top of the cage scolding us all the while. It got to be a battle to put him back - he was sooooo stubborn! We finally learned to coax him back in with millet, his favorite treat.

We awoke one morning to find that God had taken him home. It was one of the saddest moments of my life. We drove 120 miles to put him to rest, and he was buried under my parents' lilac tree where stones still mark his memory to this day.

This page is dedicated to his memory. Peetie made a contribution to my life that nothing else ever will. My life became better because of him. I haven't had a bird since. Rog encourages me to get one, but it just wouldn't be the same.

There will never be another Peetie...

So, in Peetie's memory, when you hear a bird sing somewhere, stop and listen to the sound of their joy. Every bird is born with a song in their heart, and most likely, it will be the sweetest song you ever heard.