This green and yellow female English Budgerigar ran up and down the perch and was pushing other birds aside and even off the perch in order to get Jeanne’s attention. It was as though this bird was saying,

” Look at me! Look at me! Don’t look at those other birds! I’ll be a good Mormon bird and give you lots of babies. Take me! Take me!

So Jeanne bought this green and yellow bird, hatched in 2005, and brought her home. Her head was yellow, but her back, wings and chest were a shimmering, iridescent green. She was absolutely beautiful! Jeanne named her “Sally.” (Jeanne would buy Sally’s older brother, who hatched in 2004, on 27 September 2008, and Jeanee would name him “Larkin II. The only way to tell Sally and Larkin apart was to look at each bird’s cere. The cere is the fleshy part just above the top beak and contains the bird’s nostrils.  Sally’s cere was beige, and Larkin’s cerewas blue.) 

True to her “word,” that she would give us lots of babies, Sally mated with one of our cobalt-blue feathered male American Budgies, which Jeanne had named “Cori-LeMay,” and Sally laid three eggs. Only one egg hatched and lived, and that one tiny hatchling was our “Imara”.

After laying three eggs, one every other day and sitting on them, by the time that Imara hatched on my sixty-first birthday, 4 March 2008, Sally was exhausted and too tired to eat or to feed her new baby. A seasoned OB nurse, Jeanne got up every two hours to feed both Sally and Imara. After the first 24 hours, Sally was rested enough to feed herself and her baby, and then Sally took over!!!

Birds have a “crop” or a storage sack on either side of their throat. Newly hatched bird’s crops are clearly visible and look like a pair of water wings. Miss Sally literally stuffed that bird, until we thought that Imara would explode. Hence, we called Imara “the great exploding bird!!!!”

It was so cute to see Imara lying on her back and wings and with her legs in the air. She was thrashing the air with her little left foot, like she was riding a bicycle. It goes without saying that Imara and Sally won our hearts, and we totally spoiled both Sally and Imara. We talked to Imara while she was still in the egg and picked up the egg constantly, which Sally did not seem to mind at all. We taught Imara to crawl into our hand and hide in our hand, and to climb upon our finger. To this very day, Imara will still crawl into and hide in our hand when we reach for her.

She learned to pick her feet from her father, Cori LeMay, who would quckly lose his balance and fall to the bottom of the cage. Imara does the very same thing. She cannot pick her feet without losing her grip on the side of the cage. The next thing we know is that we will hear a “thud” and find Imara on the floor of her cage…

It is our best guess that Imara is the flock leader, or at least, as spoiled as she is, she thinks that she is the flock leader. She fears nothing, and has a quick temper when she is challenged or she thinks that she is entitled..to everything. She is now almost 3 and a half years old, and will be on 4 September 2011, and we expect her to be with us for a very long time.

We did not wait to find Toodles another mate. I called Joe and Betty Pawlik, from whom we bought a Cockatiel for Janice a year or two ago, and asked Joe if he had any “Peach Cheeked” or “Orange Crested, Light Beige Throated” Female Lovebirds for sale. When Joe indicated that he had both, Jeanne and I drove across town to Kirby, Texas to see the birds.  

Jeanne could not decide which breed she wanted. She finally settled on a smaller version of Miss Ira, and immediately named the bird “Miss Mini-Ira,” or “Miss Mini,” for short. Like Miss Ira, “Miss Mini” instantly took to Toodles, who also immediate took to her. I wonder if Toodles thought that Miss Ira had revived, but I don’t know for certain…

In no time, Toodles taught Miss Mini to climb the power cord and to climb up the side and across the top of their cage, and yes, to climb head-first down the side as well. Toodles taught Miss Mini to do something else, of which Jeanne highly disapproves, and that is to climb up to the mantel over the fireplace or to fly up to the chain which is hanging from the ceiling to our chain-lamp.

Jeanne has resorted to carrying a long blue “feather” duster around in order to “usher” the two Lovebirds back to their cage. Toodles and Miss Mini are “scared to death” of that long blue duster, which Jeanne has started leaving on the mantel as a deterrent….

Although Miss Mini-Ira is about one-fourth smaller in size than was Miss Ira, nevertheless, Miss Mini has Miss Ira’s sweet disposition, and she is just as cute and cuddly!!!

Ira Wagner and his wife came over to our house a few months later to see his namesake, and he told us that “Ira” could be either a boy’s or a girl’s name. At first, we were concerned that Ira may have been a male, but Ira soon let us and Toodles know that Ira was a GIRL!!!

Jeanne saw Ira squatting on the bottom of hers and Toodles’ cage when Jeanne uncovered their cage on the morning of 23 Januar 2011, and Jeanne was concerned that Ira may have been sick, but nothing prepared Jeanne for Ira’s suddenly dying in Jeanne’s hands shortly after Jeanne picked Ira up from the bottom of the cage. We let Toodles say good-bye to Ira before Jeanne wrapped Ira in a bag in preparation for burial.

Our Wren I (10/21/96 to 8/10/97) the 4th of our Miss Buddy’s eight eggs to hatch and live, was the “Original Clown Bird,” but Wren I had nothing on our Toodles, when it comes to being a clown bird…

Jeanne and I bought Toodles on 31 May 2010, Memorial Day, from Irene Campos who lived near downtown San Antonio. He was among about ten to twelve identical “Peach Cheeked” Lovebirds who had a orange crest, a bright green back, wings and chest and green, royal blue, and orange tail feathers.

As always, I let my wife , Jeanne, chose the bird that she wanted to buy, and from among this ten or twelve lovebirds, she chose the bird which she quickly named “Toodles”. I do not know how she came up with this name, anymore than I know why she chose this particular bird, but the bird and its name just seemed to fit!!! He soon got another name, “Red Crested, Peach-Cheeked, Loud Mouth, Trouble-Maker” due to his loud mouth and his always getting into mischief and trouble…

We bought Toodles, which we hoped was a male, for Miss Shy Girl, who by this time, had tired of being in the same cage with the tempermental, hormonal, Miss Azure. But after two months of separation from Azure, Miss Shy Girl was lonely for companionship. We had been told, on more than one occasion, that a female Parakeet will kill a male Parakeet, if the female considers the male to be a threat or an intruder, but we never saw such an instance with any of our Parakeets. So, we decided to risk putting Toodles in the same cage with Miss Shy Girl, and we saw no instance of any fighting between the two.

Jeanne had already taught Miss Shy Girl to climb the power cord to Jeanne’s portable fan, which was fastened to the top of Jenne’s medicine cabinet, and Miss Shy Girl quickly taught Toodles to do the same. Shy Girl also taught Toodles to crawl all over the top and sides of their cage and to head “straight down, head first” down the sides of their cage. It seemed like whatever Shy Girl did, Toodles did also…

We had purchased a bird book on raising Lovebirds, and were told that Toodles would grow out of his organge crest and develop a red crest, as he got older, being that he was reported to be only about six weeks to 3 months of age when we bought him. He finally did grow a bright scarlet (reddish-orange) crest after a few months.

When Shy Girl died suddenly and quite unexpectedly on 8/13/2010, we were both shocked and saddened at her death, but we were not alone. Just like the male Swallow, who grieved for his dead mate, in “Birds Have Feelings, Too!” Toodles grieved for Shy Girl, too. Jeanne and I immediately decided to buy a female Lovebird to keep Toodles company, but we could not find a “Peach Cheeked” female Lovebird, so we drove across town to buy a cute little 9 month old “Orange Crested, Light Beige Throated, Female Lovebird, which Jeanne named Miss Ira, after Ira Wagner, a friend of our family. So now, Toodles had another mate…

Jeanne has also taught Shy Girl to jump down from the back of the couch to the livingroom carpet and race across the carpeted floor to her cage and either climb the rope or climb the ladder to her cage, which she used to share with a little light green female Parakeet, until the Parakeet suddenly died on 12/20/2009. The reason that Shy Girl jumps with her outstretched wings, rather than actually fly, is because she rercently reinjured her left wing, which droops to her body. Jeanne and I do not know when or how she re-broke her wing, but we only know that she did.

We were told, AFTER we had put her into the cage with two female Parakeets, that she would kill the two Parakeets. But no one told her, because she took up with both of them, and especially after they began to feed and to preen her. We had to remove one of the female Parakeets when she started becoming hormonal and started wanting to lay infertal eggs. Otherwise, she would attack “Gen-2,” the other female Parakeet, as well as Shy Girl. After Gen-Two died on 12/20/2009, Jeanne and I waited about a month before we placed Azure back in the cage with Shy Girl, because she was lonely after the death of Gen-Two, and we wanted to get Azure out of her cage where she had been laying infertile eggs. The two birds get along very well.

She will probably never again be able to fly or to properly use her left wing, due to the nerve damage caused by the cats’ chewing into her wing muscles. But Jeanne does “little birdie wing exercises” on a daily basis in order to strengthen her broken wing and also helps her to “fly,” as she holds her two feet and makes her “pretend “to fly around in a circle above Jeanne’s head. She does not actually fly, but rather, she spreads her wings and “soars” like an eagle with hewings outspread!

Shy Girl has been with us for almost a full year now, as of 11/28/2009, and although I still love her, it is quite evident that Shy Girl is Jeanne’s bird after all!

UPDATE: I am sorry to report that Shy Girl died suddenly Friday afternoon, 8/13/2010. We will miss her!

Initially Written Saturday, 11/28/2009.

Updated Tuesday, 5 May 2010, when we discovered that “Shy Guy” was a GIRL!

Final Update: Friday, 8/13/2010, at her death…

A true and contemporary story revolves around our “Shy Girl,” a cute little Peach-Cheeked Love Bird, and her lady friend, “Miss Azure,” who is sitting on infertile eggs. (You can see a picture of “Shy Girl” and “Miss Azure,” if you scroll down the Menu to the LEFT SIDE of the HOME PAGE, to where it says Shy Girl and then click on that button.)

The two cannot mate, because they are two different species of birds, not to mention that we just found out on Tuesday, 5/5/2010 that “Shy Guy” is a GIRL. Azure nests in the lower, back, right corner of their cage, and “Shy Girl” feeds her, protects her and covers Azure’s body with Shy Girls’s wings and her chest to keep Azure warm! I cannot get close enough with my camera to take an “up close” picture without my frightening “Shy Girl” and “Miss Azure”. This is one of the many stories of our birds… 

Love Birds have a very sharp and powerful beak and can pierce ones skin like an old-fashioned beer can opener. We suffered many such gaping and painful wounds to our fingers the first few days, and it seemed like this bird whom Jeanne named “Shy Guy” would not make it more than a few days with us.

Jeanne initially named him “Shy Guy” because the bird tucked its head down when we approached it and tried to pick it up, and because Jeanne initially thought that the bird was a ”male”.  Its large Black Eyes are simply gorgeous as well as very expressive. In fact, when one looks at its face, its eyes and the shape of its huge beak gives one the impression that it is actually and perpetually smiling!

Jeanne soon tamed the bird down enough to work with it.  It quickly became her bird, as she taught it to climb up on her finger and to climb up the power cord to her bathroom fan and then to look down at her and “cheep” . She also lets it climb up onto a washcloth-covered wooden block and look at itsreflection in her bathroom mirror.

But its all-time favorite pasttime is getting a bath. It knows that if it doesn’t bite Jeanne’s finger, it will get a bath. But even if it no longer draws blood, when it bites, if it bites Jeanne’s finger, NO BATH FOR THE BIRD!

Jeanne and I were faced with a quandry: if we took “Teal” out of the nest box to prevent her from killing “Midge,” who would feed and keep him warm? Most father birds will only feed their female who is sitting on eggs or incubating new hatchlings, and sometimes the father bird will not even feed the hen. But to our knowledge, no father bird will feed and nurture the hatchlings. In fact, most males will kill their young, if the hen is not there to protect them! Jeanne and I decided to take a chance and put “Candi,”the father bird in the cage with the nest box in which the four hatchlings resided.

To our surprise and delight, “Candi” fed his four babies and stayed in the next box to keep these four naked baby birds warm. Jeanne said that due to the fact that “Candi” was the grandson of our late “Buddy” and the son of Buddy’s daughter, “Marie,” he may have inherited both Buddy and Marie’s nurturing disposition. At any rate, “Candi” taught “Big-Bird,” “Wings,” “Third-Bird” and Midge” to eat seed, and to drink from the “Lixit” water bottle. “Midge” may have inherited his handsome purple plumage from his paternal grandfather, “Dana Brent,” but he also inherited his sweet disposition from his maternal great grandmother, “Buddy,” his maternal grandmother, “Marie,” his father, “Candi” and his paternal grandmother, “Amani Onjanue.” Thankfully, “Midge” got nothing from his mother, “Teal!”

Jeanne trained him to climb up onto her finger shortly after he left the next box at about 6 weeks of age. Birds forget who their parents, grandparents and siblings are, shortly after they leave the nest box. But it almost seemed like “Midge” with his purple plumage and “Dana Brent,” the orginator of the “purple line,” as they frequently hung out together, knew each other very well. “Midge” died rather unexpectedly on 27 January 2009 and “Dana Brent” died of old age about six weeks earlier, on 18 December 2009. Although both “Midge” and “Dana Brent” are gone, they will always be among our favorites, and we miss them sorely!!!!! 

The 24 September 2005 Bird Show was held only about 3 weeks after “Hurricane Katrina” hit the Gulf Coast around 5 September 2005. About 1/3 of the “Vendor Tables” was vacant, because of the hurricane. There was not an English Budgerigar to be found in the entire show. Jeanne got home from working a 12-hour shift and had to go to sleep in order to be able to go back to work at 5 P.M. Saturday afternoon. So she asked me to go to the Bird Show and buy a Green and Yellow Female English Budgerigar. Since there were no English Budgerigars to be found, I saw you in a cage with other parakeets and fell in love with you.

I have always considered you to be “my bird!” I loved to play with you, and you apparently enjoyed playing with me. One of your favorite past-times was to yank on one end of your navy-blue triangular house and flap your wings like you were trying to fly out of your cage and take your house with you. One of your favorite toys was the green and purple plastic ball, which you carried around in your beak and shook with your beak, until at last, you had “slam dunked” your ball in your water cup, which is where I usually found the ball.

One of our daily routines was to take you into Jeanne’s bathroom and to set you down on a piece of toilet paper and to tell you to “Go Poo,” which you normally did.

You were a “handful” in more ways than one. You were a little bird who fit perfectly in my hand. You were also a self-assured little bird who feared nothing and no one. Most of all, you gave us Amani Lynn, Ann Marie and Jeanne Marie as your legacy. But you didn’t stop there! You continued laying about 80 infertile eggs, all or most of which would have hatched, had your mate been in the same cage with you.

When I bought you, I was told by the bird breeder, that you were only 3 months old, so Jeanne and I thought that it was safe to leave you outside of our cages to be with our other birds. Little did we know that you were about 9 months old and able to reproduce. Jeanne and I always called you our “Mormon” bird, because of all the eggs that you laid.

I am going to miss you terribly, even as I miss you now. Jeanne suggested that we bury you in your navy-blue triangular house, but we forgot. I was also going to bury you with your favorite green and purple plastic ball, but I also forgot to do it. I set you on the compute desk facing the computer monitor, so that you can “watch” me type your eulogy. So long for now, “Little Bits II”, whom I often just called “Bits,” or “Scruffy Fuzz Butt,” or just “Fuzz Butt!” To me, those were “terms of endearment” to show my love for you. You were named after one of the babies who died just a few hours after hatching from one of the eggs that our “Buddy” laid in October of 1996, when we lived at 823 Thorndyke in Northwest San Antonio.

So long, for now, baby. We look forward to seeing you and our other birds on the other side of the veil. Please give our love and best wishes to all of our babies until we see and raise you all once more.

Jeanne and Randy Faulk

30 August 2007

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The Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr. was once asked if animals have souls. He replied that they did, and one day each of our pets will testify as to how well we treated each of them. Jeanne and I believe this to be true,  and we live daily in the hope that we will someday have each of our babies back for us to once again raise and love for all eternity.

(Randy Faulk, The Editor.)

Jeanne and I bought a beautiful green and yellow female English Budgie, which Jeanne named “Kari-Mel,” after Jeanne had first bought Kari-Mel’s brother, a handsome teal blue English Budgie,which Jeanne named “Kira,”  three weeks before. “Kari-Mel” fell in “love” with “Rho-Rho” at first sight. Although he could not mate because of his deformed leg, “Rho-Rho” was the only male for whom “Kari-Mel” would lay eggs, even though the eggs were infertile. When “Rho-Rho” died on 10 April 2002, “Kari-Mel” grieved for at least a week.

I never knew that a bird could grieve, until Jeanne and I saw “Kari-Mel” grieve over the death of “Rho-Rho.” “Kari-Mel” lived until 21 November 2004, and was the surrogate mate of Periwinkle II until she died, but she never laid any more eggs after the death of her beloved “Rho-Rho.” We discovered that birds have feelings too, and that they can love and grieve, just like humans do…

I took “Mandy Jeanne” with me to the Post Office one Saturday morning to mail some letters. While there was no one around, I weighed each letter on the postal scale: “letter, letter, letter, BIRD, letter, letter, letter! “Mandy Jeanne” weighed in at 5/8 of an ounce!

We took “Mandy Jeanne” to our Vet, Dr. Bill McGeHee to see if he could straighten Mandy Jeannne’s spraddled legs, Bill put a piece of styrofoam between her legs and taped the styrofoam to her legs with surgical tape. No sooner than we got her home, “Mandy Jeanne” would lie on her side and pick at the tape with her beak, until she freed herself. We finally gave up and let her be! “Mandy Jeanne” lived with us for 18 months and died on 25 June of 1997. I wrote her one of my most “moving” and “loving” eulogies, which is still in my journal. For a little bird that was considered of no value to others, she was our little treasure and our Christmas gift from Heavenly Father to love, protect and nurture as our very own.