Friday, May 22, 2015

Class Pets

Today is the last day of school!
My summer vacation officially starts in one hour and thirty minutes!
I am ready to get this summer going. It is looking like it will be full of FUN!

Since it is the last day of school, I figured I'd better hurry up and get this post up.

A few weeks ago, my parents were leaving to go to a Bible study they have on Thursday mornings. I had just let the kids out for lunch when my dad yells into the school, "Beth...you might want to come out here!" I could tell by the tone of his voice that I should also bring my camera.
I get out there and...my heart's love, but my head's aversion was standing in front of the church.
A man with about 10 bird cages stacked on his back. It is funny because just a couple weeks before this, my dad and I were in the car and I told him, "I feel the bug biting me, like something inside of me is saying it's time to get a new pet - BUT DON'T LET ME! I don't have time for it and I don't want the responsibility." Sigh.
We'd also discussed getting a class pet once we had moved into the new school. I was thinking a hamster, a goldfish...something the boys could feed and clean up after. Something EASY!

This bird man had an adorable little green parrot perched on his hand, and when asked what was in the gift bag hanging from his arm, he pulled out its tiny twin.
Two baby parrots, not even fully feathered. Be still, my heart!!
I was holding pretty strong until my mom came downstairs to look at them, exclaiming that we should get BOTH of them so they'd be buddies.

Sooooo....
Meet our new class pets. 
In this picture, the one on the left was 8 weeks and the one on the right was 10 weeks old. 

The boys loved them, especially our two youngest. 

Dad loved loved them....and they loved him. 

They got their first bath and enjoyed that. They came out looking like muddy little monsters! 

Have you noticed I have been speaking in past tense? Yes, the two birds were BFFs for two days. They entertained and snuggled with us for two days.

Then....something happened, the younger parrot got sick - I have no idea what happened, really. All I know is after church one night he was huddled in the bottom of his cage, his feet all contracted. It was the most pitiful thing I'd ever seen. I cuddled him, trying to keep him warm....he then started having violent seizures. It.was.terrible. Weeks later and typing this out makes me do the dog shake.

I've had a lot of pets, and living in Mexico I've seen a ton of sick animals. We had one of our dogs get parvo years ago and I thought that was bad, but nothing can compare to what went on with the little baby bird that night.
It was awful.

We are now left with one bird - and instead of having another bird as his little buddy - he has us.
He's the sweetest, cuddliest little ball of feathery warmth. He especially likes to snuggle his beak into our necks or behind an ear lobe, like in this picture:

I was thinking the other day -

Up until a few years ago, I thought birds were great, but touching them was the most disgusting thing ever. Then Pastor and Sis. Stoltzfus came down to visit us. I don't remember how exactly it all unfolded, but Sis. Stoltzfus got me loving birds. We were walking downtown by their hotel and a man with bird cages on his back came walking by. With her encouragement I got my first parrot. She showed me how to hold it, how to take care of it, what to feed it, and answered all my questions - which were many since birds are unlike any pet I'd had up until then. She bought me my first cage, which is the cage this bird is using now.

Hopefully we will be moving into the new school in August. When we do, this little guy will be living up there - that is the plan at least.
What is his name, you ask? We thought we'd name him Charlie - maybe that can be his "official" name. But all we ever call him is Baby. Baby this, Baby that. So Baby it is. We've been needing more babies around here. :)

~Bethany~

5 comments:

Tselot "Coco" Kifle said...

Bethany! Sorry to hear about the other bird. reminds me of something similarly heartbreaking that happened to me. In middle school, I was an avid "backyard bird poacher". Sparrows, humming birds, crows - I shot them all. One day at school we found a little bird's nest in some vines on a wall. We retrieved the birds which happened to be finches. I decided to donate them to the class as pets. I went home and began to read about finches. long story short, I became very attached. Then it happened. The seizures and convulsing. They would roll onto their sides thrashing around and spinning in circles. This is called death by "twirling". I think it was caused by too many sudden, drastic changes in their environment. So one by one, all 3 of them died. The worst part was looking into their eyes. After that experience, I never shot a bird another bird.

Long live "Charlie"!

The Wakefields: Missionaries to Mexico said...

COCO!!! THANK YOU for your comment! It made me laugh, and also do some mad googling. I had no idea about "twirling"! The symptoms you described and the ones I found online - they are it, exactly. And yesss...the look in his eyes. It was horrible and still haunts me.
It was pretty late at night so the whole time this was going on - the contracted feet, inability to hold his head up, his unresponsiveness - I kept hoping it was only because he was NOT a NIGHT OWL hahahaha and wanted us to leave him alone so he could sleep. When the seizures started though...it was like "OKAY something is terribly wrong..." Time to accept reality lol.
I ended up making him a little bed in a laundry basket and Nicole offered to let him sleep in her room for the night - it's a little embarrassing, but I was a basket case and the sight of the limp bird absolutely disgusted me. Anyways, when Nicole woke up in the morning the bird was laying on the floor beside the basket, dead. I guess he'd had another seizure and flapped himself right out of there. ITS TERRIBLE!!! It's nice to kind of have my mind at rest about what happened though and why.

I'm sure the birds are thankful you gave up your naughty ways. I am too LOL.

~Bethany~

Mary Frances said...

Remember I thought they were baby eagles when you sent the pic Bethany>>>> LOLOLOL!!!

I'm really not into animals buuuuut if its any consoltation to you,I always STOP for the birdies to cross the street!!! I'm sorry for your loss tho!!! I had this cat named Freckles that the coyotes got! I loved her! She ate pasta like a true Italian and would come running to me when I screamed, buuuut ONLY MY SCREAM, all my siblings would try to scream and she wouldn't come JUST MINE!!! And she was actually my sister's cat buuuuut it was like she chose ME to belong too!!!

Anywayz, I think the chick in the middle of the first pic is THE CUTEST!!! Jus sayin!!! Hee, hee!!!

Mary Frances said...

p.S. I just checked to make sure it was YOU in the first pic, I was like, OMW what if its HER DAD????? AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

The Wakefields: Missionaries to Mexico said...

Mary!! HAHA! You crack me up!

Thank you for the hilarious comments. I enjoyed that story about Freckles! :D

~Bethany~

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