Today, I've had my dear, sweet little budgie for six years. I bought her at a pet store at Logan Central Plaza for $26 on this very date - and day - six long years ago and it's been a roller coaster of a ride since. I picked out a blue male budgie, called it Stevie-K and proceeded to teach it to talk. And he learned to chatter and talk to me for around eight months... until he got into a fight with another budgie, got sick and I was told I had a female bird.
The great thing was when my bird had been a boy for all that time, he had learned everything I wanted him to say; from 'blue boy', 'Stevie-K', 'Lynda' to 'budgie-boo, 'pretty-boo', and even got him to say 'I love you'; but only once. Otherwise, I had the most intimidating, horrid little bird with the worse attitude towards me for the next two or three years! She bit me all the time. I had my attempts at piercings of my nose, lips and eyelids (the latter being the most uncomfortable and eye-catching as they left me with a black eye most times). My fingers bled from where she'd catch me on my knuckles with her beak and hang on until I pulled away in pain crying because it hurt so much; and she knew it hurt me!
Then the day came I forgot about the door! I had opened the back door and completely forgot that her door was open on the cage. Well, she took the opportunity and took off! Outside she went, hung a right and kept going! I saw her in a tree nearby... well, she was blue after all; I couldn't really miss her. I ran after her and she kept on flying. She looked great, but really, she didn't know how to feed herself or where to say once the sun went down... so I want to get her back as soon as I could. Too soon, three Mickey Birds smacked right into her - one after the other - throwing her off her flight path! My heart was in my mouth when I saw her get hit so hard! She went from soaring through the air like a plane to crashing into the back fence of the unit complex! And Stevie crashed hard! I raced up in my Doc Martens and found her next to the BBQ in the dirt looking very lost and disorientated between my huge feet. I bent down and picked her up gently, looked at her and said, "Come on, now you seriously didn't think that'd work, did you?" then put her against my chest where she pooped all down my favourite brown shirt... not that that bothered me at all. I just had my little bird back. I looked back at my house and found I was locked out of my unit! Fortunately, the caretaker at the time, had my spare key. A few days later, and a quick trip to the vets, Little Stevie had a clean bill of health.
After that, Little Stevie turned into a Miss... a right Miss! She also got very sick in 2009 on Melbourne Cup day with a Bacterial Crop Infection; and I had to change all her food trays and make sure her cage was clean. Once she was better and I had her on a special diet, she was on her way to a better way of living; and happier.
It's been over a year since that scary day of her puking everywhere. And even now, I know that she can get sick within the day and there's not much I can do about it. So, my little bird is something of miracle every day to me... and I treat her like that. If she's not around next year; that's fine with me. I'm just happy she's here now with me; as she's the sweetest little thing I've got in my life.
What I do with her at night is I open the cage and take her out, giving her a cuddle, and scratch under her chin while I watch television at around 7pm or so. then, I put my left leg onto the coffee table and let her walk out on it and she looks like she's on a long branch where she goes right out onto my feet... such a cute little thing! When she looks like she wants to go back to her cage, I pick her up and toss her into the air in the direction of it and she flies to it... eventually putting herself away within the hour.
So happy 6th year with me, my sweet little bird! I hope to see you through this year. If not,it's good we had the time together; as pets are the best thing to have in people's lives. Little Miss Stevie has been a bright light in my life; and I've been one in hers.
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