The Newest Member of the Family

A week ago, I came home from work to find we had suddenly, erm, acquired a new pet. While at recess, a parakeet had flown down to the monkey bars near the kids and hung around while they played. Eventually, Mom got the kids to sit in a circle and the bird flew into the middle of it, walking to and from the different kids. Clearly it had some experience with humans and it was probably hungry, so Mom decided to steal it.

Okay, she'd argue that she "rescued" the bird, but she accomplished that by throwing a jacket on top of it and then taking it home in a basket, which sounds more like abduction than aid. Then again, I'd better watch what I say or I'll find out how she rescued me from a park one day, and surely my real mother wasn't any good or she would have kept a better eye on me.

The bird doesn't have a real name yet, though Mom and Dad insist on calling him Pretty Bird. So cliche, guys.

That evening, Mom and I picked up all kinds of bird stuff from Pet Supermarket, from this snazzy cage to food, millet, and bizarre bird-specific minerals. Since then we've been enjoying him daily as he sings along to the horn section on our Joe Cocker CDs, squawks whenever he hears rustling paper or running water, and the occasionally launches into a poorly planned flight around the house. Apparently you have to train them to trust you and jump on your finger before you let them take off. That was my mistake. At least we turned off the ceiling fans!

We rescued him...and then put him behind bars.

All in all, he's surprisingly enjoyable. I never thought I wanted a bird of any sort, but this little fella isn't overly loud and is actually very cute. We're working on spending time with our hands in the cage to encourage him to relax around us and eventually step on our fingers like a perch like we read on this super helpful website. Then we'll try letting him fly around the house again, confident that he'll actually come back.