My Bud, Buddy
by: Angel

Writing about Cottonball reminded me of one of my most favorite pets I've ever had. A parakeet. Most people think that parakeets are lame, I'm here to tell you otherwise. I originally named him [her, it... I'll explain later] Christopher Columbus because of the way he would fly around the house.

At that time we had a manager in our apartment building that allowed us to have pets [they changed their mind all the time]. I got Buddy from a lady who raises birds in her home.

This bird was crazy. Buddy had this plastic mirror that he'd sit on and look at himself. Sometimes he'd push it to the edge of the table, hop on it and he would slide off the table onto the floor with the plastic mirror.

Buddy would sit on my glasses.

Buddy would groom my hair [the thing birds do to get bugs out of their feathers].

Buddy would chill on my shoulder.

Buddy loved to fall off that table.

Buddy was honestly my buddy.

At some point after I'd had him for a while the manager decided we couldn't have pets anymore, so I had to send him to my dad's house. I suppose you can see where this might be going...

Buddy had been living with dad for a while when he met Roxanne who suddenly proclaimed herself the parakeet 'know-it-all'. I mostly ignored her. But after dad married her and I started to drift to the point I didn't visit him anymore, I really missed my Buddy.

Then my oh so not sensitive father called me to wish me a merry christmas and to let me know that, oh yeah, my Buddy was dead. Merry Christmas indeed! Roxanne had [and still has] a cockatiel that was a boy. What I was told is that Buddy was actually a female and that she died trying to lay an egg because she was getting frisky with Roxannes cockatiel. They made a point of down-playing it like I shouldn't be upset. Just because I couldn't take care of him like I wanted to.

He, she, it... I don't care. I was told by the lady who sold us Buddy that he was probably a male but Buddy was still young and it's hard to tell on the younger parakeets. So I went through life assuming that Buddy was male. I still call Buddy a him. To me he is a he. Not to mention I have a hard time believing Roxanne and Dad's story. I find it hardly credible.

I cried a lot that Christmas. Christmas of 1999. I moved here in May of 2000. If only Buddy had held on for 5 months, I would still have my loving bird alive and well here today.

I have bought and tried to teach a new parakeet some of the same tricks that I got Buddy to do, but it didn't work. I named her Skuttlebutt, but I really should have named her "The Bitch" [or even Roxanne?! Haha, just kidding.]. She bit the crap out of me and hated being touched. I let my mom give her to a woman at her work who bought Skuttlebutt a friend which calmed her down... slightly.