Let’s hear it for the birds!
Before I begin this blog post, allow me to take you on a journey through my thought process…
Shoot! Tomorrow’s Thursday. What am I going to write about this week? What’s tomorrow? April 15th? Isn’t that Tax Day? I remember when I was struggling to make up a birthday for Sunny and Cloudy (my childhood birds), and Glori told me she chose April 15th for Tucker’s (her dog) birthday because it was easy to remember since it was Tax Day. Maybe I should write about Sunny and Cloudy? Or birds in general? Birds in general. Let’s do birds in general.
For all the suffocatingly exhausting love I have always given my pups, you would think I’d jump on here and love on my other pets on occasion, but I have absolutely failed to do so. So this one’s for you, Michelle and Mildred. Let’s hear it for the birds.
I didn’t really realize I had a thing for birds until I was picking out my wedding bouquet, and I decided I wanted feathers in it. (Side note: I went from wanting to carry Bailey down the aisle instead of a bouquet to wanting a 20-pound explosion of flowers and bird feathers reeeal quick after a visit to the florist.)
My mom was like, “Of course you want feathers in your bouquet. We’re bird people.” And I was like, you know what? She’s right. We are bird people.
It was evident when I received this letter from some dude named Tyler back in 1999:
“Bird girl.”
It was clear when I chose to create a wearable bird playground for a project in third grade. (It was basically an apron with bird food and toys glued all over it. Quite brilliant AND gave me an excuse to bring my cockatiels in for show and tell.)
Wish I had a pic of that one.
It was crystal clear when I asked Sean if we could get ducks and he said no, so we compromised and got chickens.
It was obvious when Sean and I went to Cuba, and Sean’s dad was like, “Hey, go pose in front of that giant chicken, you bird people.”
And that other time that we discovered there were some ducks swimming in our pool, and I was SO EXCITED and fed them instead of making them leave like Sean told me to.
I will admit that I am not super fond of Mildred. I don’t think that’s any secret. Honestly, I probably give her a harder time than I should because Michelle is just THAT amazing, so by comparison Mildred couldn’t stack up if she wanted to. (She doesn’t even try.) But other than Mildred, I have truly bonded with every bird I’ve ever had. Sunny, Cloudy, Larry, Kimmy, Pablo, Trisha, Michelle. Love/d them all dearly.
I’m not sure where this is going, but I do like lists, so let’s do some of those.
Why Birds are Better than Humans
They lay eggs. Every. Single. Day.
They are fluffy and SO fun to pet.
They can fly, which is really freaking cool.
Science has proven that humans can become more relaxed by simply watching them.
They are low maintenance and pretty much take care of themselves.
But Not as Good as Dogs
They are very cliquey and slow to welcome new friends.
They are (probably) impossible to housetrain.
If they get sick, it’s much harder to help them because there aren’t a lot of bird doctors around here.
They are messy/sometimes gross.
Anyway, happy Tax Day/Sunny and Cloudy’s birthday! I guess they would be about 22 this year if they were still with us.
