MaraJade
07-19-2005, 09:07 AM
I had something kind of sweet happen to me over the weekend along with my fiancee John that I wanted to share with you all. Not a lovebird story, but a bird story.
It's kind of long. I posted it in my blog so I wrote it as a little short story. Hope you all enjoy (those of you who make it through. lol):
A couple years ago (my ex husband) Ray’s brother Shawn and his wife Natalie called us up and said they had a surprise for us. We thought for sure it was that they had purchased an Irish wolfhound, which they’d been wanting forever, and they had just moved into a house so it was perfectly feasible.
We went there and they had bought a black capped caique. About as far from an Irish wolfhound as you can get. They are basically right down the street from this bird store in Marlborough called Feathers. S&N already had a canary so they went in for some supplies and fell into the trap. See, at Feathers they let you hold all the birds (if you’re one of their preferred customers) and just stay in there and chat for hours. When Shawn was talking to one of the baby caiques one of the workers came in and opened the cage and plopped the bird on Shawn’s arm. They were in love and they took Poppy home that day, buying a cage, food and tons of accessories in a matter of minutes.
After that Ray and I were hooked on the store as well. In fact (even though we’re divorced we still manage to do this) I saw him and Shawn in there just a few weeks ago.
Feathers is probably one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. If they just sold a few little cat and dog supplies too I’d never go anywhere else. I hate shopping in petco or petsmart for anything bird related when Feathers is so complete and awesome. I like to think I’m on their preferred bird owners list because if another customer is annoying them or something they have no problem complaining in front of me.
I bought my Quaker parakeet Gunther from them and he wasn’t finished hand feeding when I put the deposit down so I’d go in to visit him after work. I sat there until closing one night just chatting away and playing with the Quaker babies.
I also bought Gimli, my lovebird, there. By that time I was well-known enough and when I called with an interest in lovebirds (after having a TERRIBLE petco experience) Laura, the owner, actually had about five in there and by the time I got there had picked out a couple to choose from that she thought I’d like more than the others. One was a cinnamon blue rump or something close (I kid you not) and the other was an orange faced. I chose the orange faced because he snuggled into my collar the entire time I walked around the store. Gimli came home with me that day.
Now we have the two new lovies and they’ve got a few babies (THREE yesterday!!) and the tradition continues. You know, John isn’t much of a bird person. He’s a dog guy all the way. He adores Pixel and even though she’s “my” dog I think we all know who her favorite person is. That’s right, it’s Nana!! Just kidding. It’s totally John. He was never a cat person either until he met Amelie. But almost everyone is a cat person after meeting Amelie. She’s the most amazing cat in the whole wide world. He loves Gunther and Gimli and he’s slowly coming around with Quicksilver and Goldmoon. In fact, Quicksilver is John’s new best friend. Silver sits there and eats while John watches and Silver chirps away happily to him. It warms my heart (so cheesy, but true) to see my “dog guy” bonding with all my animals.
I told you that story so I could tell you this story (says Ron White).
On Saturday we went into Feathers for wing and nail trims for Gunther and Gimli. Also, we had them DNA sex Gimli.
When I’m in Feathers I love to wander. I’ll stay there for two hours at a time if you’ll let me. John’s not really like that. Get in there, get done what you need to, and leave. It’s not that he hates the place. It just doesn’t hold the same sense of wonder as it does for me, the crazy bird lady.
Saturday was a different story. They have this hyacinth macaw named Goliath. They’re the biggest breed of macaw. Usually he’s kind of stand offish with people and stays up on his cage playing with toys. When John and I walked by his cage to go look at bird cages for the possible new birdy (from Lori) John stopped to chat with Goliath for a minute.
When we walked back through after our browsing was done Goliath had climbed off his cage and was on the floor, seemingly waiting for John. He was fascinated with him for the next fifteen minutes or so. It would have been longer if we’d had more time to stick around. He followed John around the room and then the other John (Laura’s husband) said he should kneel down. When he did, Goliath climbed into his lap for scritching. I was holding Gunther and he was sooooo jealous that dad was playing with another bird. He kept mumbling “I love you” under his breath and when I went to kiss him he bit me on the lip cuz he was mad!
So Goliath was all happy and did his little parrot run around the room a bit (if you’ve never seen a parrot run it’s a must see before you die). Everyone in the place was in awe. They said John must remind Goliath of someone he loved. And of course everyone was jealous as well because who doesn’t want such a beautiful bird to fall in love with them and want to be scritched by them? Heck, I was jealous.
So we bought egg food for the baby lovies and some seed for Gimli. We were telling Laura how picky Gimli is so she gave us a “sample” of fruits and veggies dry mix of seed. The sample was an actual container that was worth $4. She does stuff like that once in a while and it’s so nice. Gunther had fun talking with the other Quakers. There must have been five of us in at once. He amazed everyone by saying “Whatcha doin’?” to the other birds. They even had a wild Quaker found on a roof in Queens that Laura was already falling in love with.
We headed for home and then the most amazing thing of the day happened. We were driving and talking about birds, kids, houses, winning the lottery (John’s dream). He said if we could ever afford to do it with our house he’d turn a finished basement into a bird room for me. I just about cried I was so amazed at how he was being. Usually he won’t kid around about things having to do with money but at the store when Goliath was sitting with him and I asked, “You want your own macaw now, honey?” he actually smiled and nodded. He reminded me of a little kid in awe. I know he didn’t entirely mean it, but it’s the fact that on a “normal” day he would have just killed the mood by saying, “We can’t afford it” and not even have dreamt about it. But for one magical hour or so he was dreaming along with me and it was really nice.
It's kind of long. I posted it in my blog so I wrote it as a little short story. Hope you all enjoy (those of you who make it through. lol):
A couple years ago (my ex husband) Ray’s brother Shawn and his wife Natalie called us up and said they had a surprise for us. We thought for sure it was that they had purchased an Irish wolfhound, which they’d been wanting forever, and they had just moved into a house so it was perfectly feasible.
We went there and they had bought a black capped caique. About as far from an Irish wolfhound as you can get. They are basically right down the street from this bird store in Marlborough called Feathers. S&N already had a canary so they went in for some supplies and fell into the trap. See, at Feathers they let you hold all the birds (if you’re one of their preferred customers) and just stay in there and chat for hours. When Shawn was talking to one of the baby caiques one of the workers came in and opened the cage and plopped the bird on Shawn’s arm. They were in love and they took Poppy home that day, buying a cage, food and tons of accessories in a matter of minutes.
After that Ray and I were hooked on the store as well. In fact (even though we’re divorced we still manage to do this) I saw him and Shawn in there just a few weeks ago.
Feathers is probably one of my favorite places in the whole wide world. If they just sold a few little cat and dog supplies too I’d never go anywhere else. I hate shopping in petco or petsmart for anything bird related when Feathers is so complete and awesome. I like to think I’m on their preferred bird owners list because if another customer is annoying them or something they have no problem complaining in front of me.
I bought my Quaker parakeet Gunther from them and he wasn’t finished hand feeding when I put the deposit down so I’d go in to visit him after work. I sat there until closing one night just chatting away and playing with the Quaker babies.
I also bought Gimli, my lovebird, there. By that time I was well-known enough and when I called with an interest in lovebirds (after having a TERRIBLE petco experience) Laura, the owner, actually had about five in there and by the time I got there had picked out a couple to choose from that she thought I’d like more than the others. One was a cinnamon blue rump or something close (I kid you not) and the other was an orange faced. I chose the orange faced because he snuggled into my collar the entire time I walked around the store. Gimli came home with me that day.
Now we have the two new lovies and they’ve got a few babies (THREE yesterday!!) and the tradition continues. You know, John isn’t much of a bird person. He’s a dog guy all the way. He adores Pixel and even though she’s “my” dog I think we all know who her favorite person is. That’s right, it’s Nana!! Just kidding. It’s totally John. He was never a cat person either until he met Amelie. But almost everyone is a cat person after meeting Amelie. She’s the most amazing cat in the whole wide world. He loves Gunther and Gimli and he’s slowly coming around with Quicksilver and Goldmoon. In fact, Quicksilver is John’s new best friend. Silver sits there and eats while John watches and Silver chirps away happily to him. It warms my heart (so cheesy, but true) to see my “dog guy” bonding with all my animals.
I told you that story so I could tell you this story (says Ron White).
On Saturday we went into Feathers for wing and nail trims for Gunther and Gimli. Also, we had them DNA sex Gimli.
When I’m in Feathers I love to wander. I’ll stay there for two hours at a time if you’ll let me. John’s not really like that. Get in there, get done what you need to, and leave. It’s not that he hates the place. It just doesn’t hold the same sense of wonder as it does for me, the crazy bird lady.
Saturday was a different story. They have this hyacinth macaw named Goliath. They’re the biggest breed of macaw. Usually he’s kind of stand offish with people and stays up on his cage playing with toys. When John and I walked by his cage to go look at bird cages for the possible new birdy (from Lori) John stopped to chat with Goliath for a minute.
When we walked back through after our browsing was done Goliath had climbed off his cage and was on the floor, seemingly waiting for John. He was fascinated with him for the next fifteen minutes or so. It would have been longer if we’d had more time to stick around. He followed John around the room and then the other John (Laura’s husband) said he should kneel down. When he did, Goliath climbed into his lap for scritching. I was holding Gunther and he was sooooo jealous that dad was playing with another bird. He kept mumbling “I love you” under his breath and when I went to kiss him he bit me on the lip cuz he was mad!
So Goliath was all happy and did his little parrot run around the room a bit (if you’ve never seen a parrot run it’s a must see before you die). Everyone in the place was in awe. They said John must remind Goliath of someone he loved. And of course everyone was jealous as well because who doesn’t want such a beautiful bird to fall in love with them and want to be scritched by them? Heck, I was jealous.
So we bought egg food for the baby lovies and some seed for Gimli. We were telling Laura how picky Gimli is so she gave us a “sample” of fruits and veggies dry mix of seed. The sample was an actual container that was worth $4. She does stuff like that once in a while and it’s so nice. Gunther had fun talking with the other Quakers. There must have been five of us in at once. He amazed everyone by saying “Whatcha doin’?” to the other birds. They even had a wild Quaker found on a roof in Queens that Laura was already falling in love with.
We headed for home and then the most amazing thing of the day happened. We were driving and talking about birds, kids, houses, winning the lottery (John’s dream). He said if we could ever afford to do it with our house he’d turn a finished basement into a bird room for me. I just about cried I was so amazed at how he was being. Usually he won’t kid around about things having to do with money but at the store when Goliath was sitting with him and I asked, “You want your own macaw now, honey?” he actually smiled and nodded. He reminded me of a little kid in awe. I know he didn’t entirely mean it, but it’s the fact that on a “normal” day he would have just killed the mood by saying, “We can’t afford it” and not even have dreamt about it. But for one magical hour or so he was dreaming along with me and it was really nice.