Tag Archives: cockatiel

If I’d had a tree house when I was little (which I didn’t – I was way too clumsy to manage to hoist myself up an actual tree) I imagine this is the sign I would have hung on the door. “For Bird Lovers Only: All Others – KEEP OUT.” So when I first heardContinueContinue reading “For Bird Lovers Only”

For 10 years I have had a birdie companion. For 10 years that birdie companion has tried to bite my nose whenever I pick her up and go to kiss her soft feathery belly. For 10 years I have been trying (clearly unsuccessfully) to break her of this unwelcome habit. But after reading more booksContinueContinue reading “Beak to Beak”

IMO, you haven’t truly lived until you’ve taken a car ride with a cockatiel. I am going to spare you the audio version, but while Pearl gets revved up when she thinks she is going somewhere, and she is super-excited when we arrive (unless we are arriving at the V-E-T), the getting there can beContinueContinue reading “Are We There Yet?”

When I was 6 years old, I began begging my folks for a bird. By the time I turned 8 years old, I had my first parakeet, Perky. Perky and I spent hours together each day – he taught me about handling and understanding birds (some days I was a better student than others) andContinueContinue reading “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”

The other day I tried to brown one of my mom’s homemade veggie burgers on my stove. I almost burned my head off. Let me tell you, burning hair smells just TERRIBLE. When I told my good friend Monica about the incident, the one and only question she asked me was, “And what were youContinueContinue reading “Shiny Tasty Things”

I don’t know if all birds have the kind of love affair with the toothbrush that Pearl does, but there is definitely something special going on there. Mine is electric. It looks like this: It is long, slim, and two-toned. So I suppose my long, slim, and two-toned avian might be forgiven for assuming thatContinueContinue reading “My Toothbrush, My Friend”

As previously mentioned in detail, Pearl has a fondness for shreddable things. There is a reason my folks have nicknamed her “The Great Destroyer”. After countless attempts to lure her away from the metalwork, the wicker, and the grout, I finally got the bright idea to get her her very own shred basket. I filledContinueContinue reading “The Great Destroyer”

Like babies, puppies, and vacuum cleaners, you just never know what a certain feathery someone might decide to ingest. Once my parents’ dachsund, JP Morgan (like the bluegrass song not the bank), decided to consume an entire box of his emergency medicine. Caps, containers, instructions and all. He not only survived, but appears to beContinueContinue reading “The Mashed Potato King”

It’s an interesting contrast – to watch myself go through an average day…. And then to watch Pearl. Once I haul my booty out of bed in the morning, for the most part I know there’s no going back until the day is done. For Pearl, on the other hand, waking up is just aContinueContinue reading “The Nap Champion”

Recently I started my pre-spring spring closet cleaning. I always travel around to colleges during the spring, usually starting in February, and sometimes it can be quite cold in the places I visit (we Texas gals are heat-lovers). Plus, fashion trends inevitably shift every decade or so, and I often don’t notice, which is whyContinueContinue reading “Spring Cleaning”