Post by siobhan on May 19, 2018 15:40:55 GMT -5
Today marks 10 years since Clyde showed up at our bird feeder and insisted we take him in. I was at my parents' house and my husband called to tell me to come home and do my Dr. Doolittle thing because there was a parrot squawking at him. I went home and Clyde had moved to a tree, so I had to coax him onto my head (he was scared of hands at the time; he's long since over THAT). I took him inside and left him with Bill while I ran to the pet store for emergency rations. I got all the wrong things because I'd only had a budgie before and we didn't even know what kind of parrot he was, but he was so tired and hungry that when I presented him with a much too small cage, he didn't care at all. He went in, ate and ate and drank and drank and then he went to sleep. The first couple of days, all he did was eat and sleep.
Over the next few weeks he liked me and hated Bill, liked Bill and hated me, and finally settled on me but Bill was okay, too. After lots of frantic googling, we figured out he's a Quaker and I found this site to help me figure out what to do for him, the right things instead of the wrong things. He still rules the bird room with an iron claw and thanks to him, we have five more birds (and have had others who are no longer with us, RIP). I think he would have preferred to remain an only bird, but then, I think all of them would prefer to be only birds.
Yes, we tried to find his family. We asked everybody we could in our neighborhood if they knew anyone with a bird. We combed the lost and found ads. No one ever claimed him, and by the end of the first week, we were in love with him and it would have been awful to have to give him up, so we weren't unhappy that no one claimed him. Bill named him Clyde, and he took to the name pretty easily. The way he entered our lives means that, of course, we have no idea how old he is. I believe he was fairly young when we found him, or he found us, but it's just a guess.
Over the next few weeks he liked me and hated Bill, liked Bill and hated me, and finally settled on me but Bill was okay, too. After lots of frantic googling, we figured out he's a Quaker and I found this site to help me figure out what to do for him, the right things instead of the wrong things. He still rules the bird room with an iron claw and thanks to him, we have five more birds (and have had others who are no longer with us, RIP). I think he would have preferred to remain an only bird, but then, I think all of them would prefer to be only birds.
Yes, we tried to find his family. We asked everybody we could in our neighborhood if they knew anyone with a bird. We combed the lost and found ads. No one ever claimed him, and by the end of the first week, we were in love with him and it would have been awful to have to give him up, so we weren't unhappy that no one claimed him. Bill named him Clyde, and he took to the name pretty easily. The way he entered our lives means that, of course, we have no idea how old he is. I believe he was fairly young when we found him, or he found us, but it's just a guess.
