Bye, Bye Birdie!

My family members would consider me "not a pet person". I do not like cats! If we had property, I'd love to have a few Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs. Jason has already named the dogs for when that day comes - Omar and Rommel. Part of my problem with pets is that I am slightly (cough, cough) OCD. I need my surroundings clean and tidy and you just can't do that with most pets. The kids had fish for awhile, but I wanted the tank algae-free, and that wasn't possible. I kept killing fish because I'd keep the tank too clean.

Last spring we had a turtle. He/She was saved from the road and we were only going to keep him a few days, but I was the one that didn't want to get rid of him. His/Her name was Josie. Josie lived on the screened-in porch, never hiding when we were all out there. Josie was the best turtle ever!! Toward the end of the summer, Jason left the door open to the porch by accident and we assume Josie wandered out. I cried (ok, a few tears), why? I don't know, I'm not even a crier. Who says I'm "not a pet person".

About four years ago I decided I wanted a parakeet (for the kids, of course). I grew up with Bilbo Baggins, a green parakeet. So we got a beautiful blue parakeet and we named him Whistle Britches. He was great. He never made any noise at night and he always greeted me each morning. He never bit the kids very hard, even though he was poked at and tortured. He loved to sit on the screened-in porch with Jason when it was warm outside. We tried to get him a friend, a yellow/green parakeet that the kids named Jedi Master. Britches was not friendly to him and Jedi Master ended up in a seperate cage. Jedi Master never seemed strong or healthy, and passed away (unfortunately to Jedi Master, his death didn't bother me and the kids didn't even notice). It wasn't hard to take care of Britches. Jason built him a big, beautiful cage. He didn't even eat much. The biggest annoyance was the feathers and open seeds that were always all over the floor around his cage in the kitchen. Jason suggested that to get rid of one more mess (for my sanity), maybe we could find him a new home. We put an add in the paper for a free parakeet. Let me tell you, I don't know if that many people like parakeets or if it was the word FREE but the add ran three days and we have received about 30 calls a day. We gave him to the first lady that called and it seemed like he was going to a good home. I was thankful that Jason was home because I got teary as he left. I felt like an idiot, but no one can say I'm heartless to animals, I loved Josie and Britches.

This morning it was sad not to have Britches chirp "Good Morning", but I hope to have a cleaner kitchen without him. Maybe I should remind the kids what happened to Britches because he was too messy........ :)