Birdie

I found this picture on our fridge. I don't know which one of the kids drew it but I love it because it really sums up their relationship with our cockatiel. We got her a few months ago, she's very sweet, but I know if you're not a bird person, no amount of bird charm will win you over. I can understand the aversion. Just the other day I was telling Auntie Sarah how this bird is so much better than the parrot I used to have. I said, "She doesn't scream very much, she doesn't bite the kids, and when she poops on me it's really small and hardly wet at all." Wow, that sounds so great doesn't it? All good qualities to have in any pet. The kids love her but they trigger her "Oh my god a predator!" instinct mostly because they are able to startle her on a pretty regular basis, (she'd be dead in five minutes in the wild) usually with a poke to the back of the head, as depicted in the picture above. The picture doesn't tell the story of what happens after though, when she screams and flaps, and sometimes falls right off her perch (birds are VERY clumsy) and then complains for 20 minutes afterward with little bickering chirps. Hard to draw a picture of that.