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Birdman of Chandler


Image by gwilmore (I HATE THE NEW LAYOUT!)
This past Saturday afternoon I dropped Vanessa off at a nearby Target store, where she wanted to do some shopping. Rather than hang around at Target, where I tend to become bored rather quickly, I wandered over to a nearby establishment called The Bird House and decided to hang around there instead. As the name suggests, it is a pet store which specializes only in birds. I stuck my finger into a cage full of cockatiels, one of which came right up to it and tried to climb on. I asked the manager if I could take that one out and hold it for a few minutes, and she told me I could. The bird spent the next 15 minutes or so climbing all over me, mainly on my arms and shoulders, but atop my head as well. The manager said this had been a friendly bird, but that she had never seen him this friendly with anyone — not until that moment, at least.

I left after a few minutes when the store closed, went to pick up Vanessa, and took her home, where I told my wife I had come within an eyelash of bringing home yet another new member of our family. (About three weeks before, we had purchased a new cockatiel to replace Ceci, who had died on April 23. That one is named Yo-yo, and I will be posting pictures of her soon.) But then I spent the entire weekend thinking about the friendly little bird in that pet store, and Sunday evening I told my wife that even though she might think I was crazy, I had thought it over, and wanted to go back and buy it. She agreed, so after work Tuesday — the store is closed on Mondays — I went over to The Bird House to pick up the new cockatiel, who as yet does not have a name, but probably will by week’s end. (Dante is one possibility, by the way. I wanted to name him Slim, but Sheila opposed it, saying the name reminded her too much of a song by Eminem. I, on the other hand, thought of General Jonathan Wainwright — a lanky soldier whose nickname actually was Skinny — as well as countless western movies and stereotypes.)

This is a baby cockatiel, only about three months old and barely weaned. He is also perhaps the friendliest bird I’ve ever seen or known, and he appears to be bonding very easily with all three of us, plus the other two cockatiels we already have. The newcomer has some interesting and entertaining little quirks; for instance, he likes to perch himself squarely on the back of my neck, where it is very difficult for me to reach him to put him back into his cage. (That was essentially the reason I had to ask my wife to drive me to my bus stop this morning. I usually walk to it.) He helped me shave and eat breakfast today as well. I took a pinch of my granola cereal out of its box and put it on the table for the bird, but he more or less ignored it, made a beeline for my cereal bowl, stepped right up on the rim of the bowl, and started gorging away happily on cereal and milk before I was able to move him away.

When I arrived home this evening, he was sitting at the bottom of his cage, which briefly concerned me — but only briefly. I quickly realized that he simply wanted to get out of it, and the bottom of the cage is where the door is located. I took a number of pictures, of which I liked this one the best. (He is sitting on my shoulder right now as I post this image, by the way.)

I can’t believe I was unable to resist buying yet another cockatiel, but with this one, it was love at first sight, plain and simple. But for the sake of our already-tight budget, I think I should avoid visiting pet stores for awhile. My wife, meanwhile, has started calling me the Birdman of Chandler, and perhaps the title fits.

(Update: It took us about 10 days to do it, but we finally came up with a name for this newcomer — or rather, my wife did. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Spoots! That name is unusual enough that I don’t think anyone else would come up with it, but it brings back some amusing memories for us. When our daughter Vanessa was very young and learning how to talk, she came up with some creative pronunciations for some basic words. For example, we might drive by a pasture, and Vanessa would say something about the "cwows" that were grazing in the field. "Spoots" were something you wore to protect your feet against the snow.

My own first three choices, in order, would have been Spike, Scooter, and Calvin, but Sheila prefers Spoots, and I can’t come up with anything she likes better, so I’ll let her have her way on this by default. At least my first choice and our final one are alliterative names!)

Tags:Cockatiels, Nice, photos