Casey M

Our Perfect Parakeet

I love fish. In fact, I have Garlic and Gregory the Goldfish for pets. They make entertaining creatures, with their fantastic synchronized swimming and ability to sometimes eat their food right as I drop it into the tank. The thing is, they don’t exactly count as family pets since they technically belong to me.  I’m the one that feeds them, cleans their tank, and watches them swim peacefully around. Because of this, my younger brother and sister decided to petition for a pet that they could also call their own.  I was also happy with the idea of having another animal friend, so I joined in with bugging our parents for a furry critter.

 “Please?” my younger brother, sister, and I begged.

“Can we pretty please get a dog—“

“—or a bunny—“

“—or maybe a bird?”

This went on for a while until my parents finally gave in.

“Okay,” they said. “Since birds seem easier to take care of than a dog or a cat or a bunny, we can get a budgie when school is out. Remember though, you guys are responsible for it—that means you are the ones that have to clean out his home every day, not us.”

That was fine with me.  We were going to a get a pet—one that could actually be petted—on the first day of summer break! Even though June was still months away, we started getting ready right then and there.  We must have taken out twenty different “How to Take Care of Your Bird” books from the library before the school year ended three months later! Looking at all the cute parakeet pictures in those books got us even more excited about the upcoming summer.

 Leading up to the last day of school, we went to the pet store to get a bird cage and some of the other things we would need. My mom even went back to the shop a few more times to ask questions and make sure we were getting all of the right things for our future budgie. Before leaving with the newly purchased supplies, we stopped to say hi to the parakeets in the bird display. All of the little parakeets were as cute as little buttons as they sat napping on their perches with their heads snuggled into their backs. I couldn’t believe that in just one more week, we would have a budgie that was our very own!

When the first day of summer came, we were all bouncing off of the walls with excitement. There was swim practice in the morning, though, so we had to wait until the afternoon before getting our new friend.

At the pet store, there were two sections of parakeets to choose from.  In the bigger enclosure were seven sky blue budgies, laughing and chirping playfully together. Next door to them in another compartment were two bright yellow budgie birds. Their bellies were dotted with light green feathers, and on their heads were a few little gray stripes. They were so cute!

 The hardest part of getting our new animal friend was deciding which one to get. To start with, we were only going to get one bird. And while we really liked the yellow ones, if we were to get one of them, then the other yellow one would be left all alone in his cage. Then would feel bad for the one left all by himself.  The blue ones were also nice looking, but there were SEVEN different ones to possibly choose from. What if we accidentally took one that was best friends with one of the other ones left at the pet store? I didn’t want to make a parakeet sad for the rest of his life.

Getting a bird was really complicated!

As we sat staring at all of the little critters, puzzling over our dilemma, a lady approached the bird display with a pet store employee. It turned out that she was also getting a bird: and the she was getting was one of the yellow budgies!  Thanks to that lady, the parakeet decision we had to make became ten times easier.  Now the only thing to do was to get the remaining yellow bird so she wouldn’t be lonely all alone (it worked out, because that was the parakeet we were leaning toward in the first place). As the pet store worker got our new friend set up for the ride home, we debated about a good name.

 Eventually, we went to the expert for advice.

“Hey Mom,” I called. “What do you think we should call her?”

My mom thought about it for a second. “How about Sunny?” she suggested.

It was perfect. It fit her all the way from her lemon yellow feathers to her perfect black button eyes. On the ride home, my sister insisted on holding our new little friend in her cardboard carrier. Once we parked the car in our garage, we scurried excitedly up the stairs to get the food and water set up for Sunny before she went into her new home.  Once that was all together, we opened the door to the little white birdhouse so Sunny could move into it. Timidly, she jumped out, and then she flapped around frantically for a few seconds before settling on the top perch.  We all smiled fondly at her, and she stared shyly back.  Just looking at her made me feel happy and sun-shiny inside.

The next morning, Sunny was still a little shy around us. To help her feel more at home, everyone spent lots of time reading, chattering, and sitting next to her. As the day went on, she seemed to be getting more and more comfortable. She jumped around her cage some, and we even heard her tweet a couple times. Unfortunately, she still wouldn’t go near me if I put my hand nearby.

On Saturday, she was a little more outgoing, but by Sunday it was a whole new story—Sunny was having a ball with us!  When we went into the laundry room to wake her up, she was already energetically crawling across the bars. Her tummy feathers were sticking through, and she agreeably let me stroke them. The expression on her face as she pressed her beak against the bars of her home was so bright and happy that it was impossible not to smile back. Then she went on to show off her inner gymnast as she did a flip from the top bar to the one directly below. I still don’t know how she did it!

When we got back from church, Sunny was still full of energy. In fact, she was jumping in her food bowl, spilling colorful food pellets all over the floor.  Then she ran down to the bottom of her home like she was waiting for someone to come and play with her.  I put my hand in, and she immediately jumped on it.  Boy, did it tickle!  Me and my sister, who was next to me, both started laughing.  We spent the next hour holding Sunny in our hands as she playfully nibbled at our fingers. Even though it tickled more than hurt, I still felt like she was trying to eat my hand!

That evening, after a long day of play, Sunny settled down for the night.  Quietly, she snuggled herself into the paper towel tube we had put in the bottom of her home for her to play in.  As she discovered, it also made a perfect bed.  We wished her a good night—“We love you, Sunny!”—and then went off to the pool for our evening swim practice.

When we got back, Sunny wasn’t there.

I won’t go into too many details to avoid making this story too sad, but that night Sunny passed on into the world of Birdy Heaven.  As we found out later, the pet store employees had accidentally given us the wrong food to feed our parakeet. They gave us pellets instead of seed, which isn’t what Sunny was used to eating. We didn’t realize that she wasn’t eating, so she went hungry.

Losing Sunny like that after only three short days of getting her was really hard for us. But the fact that we actually got to meet her and create those special memories with her is what is important. We were lucky to know such a perfect little parakeet and she will always have a special place in our heart.

 I love you, Sunny.