Tweetie Bird

We had a pretty close call with our Tweetie Bird this past week.

I got Tweetie for Chelsea on her 8th birthday. Chelsea just turned 13 in August, so we've had Tweetie for quite some time.

Parakeets are funny and sweet birds. They have tons of personality and, other than the mess they make with their food and poop, are nothing but delight to have around. I've had several parakeets over the years.

The first parakeet I ever had was when I was a kid. I was devastated when, returning from a winter trip to Maine for school vacation, we returned home to find the heat had gone off and Kelly, our beautiful green parakeet, had frozen. That stayed with me over the years and I've always made sure that if I had to be away, my parakeet was safe from cold temperatures. I would either take the bird with me or leave it with a friend. Most of the time, however, my birds were safe at home because I had a low temperature monitor added to my security system. This way, if the temperature dropped to 55 degrees, I would be notified and be able to make arrangements to get the bird to a warm place.

Many years ago, in the late 80's, my friend Jude had one of his windows open in his 3rd floor apartment when a pretty green parakeet flew onto the windowsill. He had the parakeet in his house for several days, pooping all over the place as it flew around, when he asked me if I had a bird cage. I didn't, but I knew who did. I headed to Mr. Cooper's house where I had my pick of many cages because Lillian had always had birds. So I brought a bird cage to Jude's and then took the cage and the bird home with me. That bird, who I named Kelly (in remembrance of my childhood parakeet) was with me for several years. Kelly went on vacation with me to Cape Cod and several times to Maine. Kelly would also tattle on Hooke when he was acting up. I think Kelly realized that I would yell at him when he was trying to dig a hole through the couch, so when I was out of the room, Kelly would yell at him, which would really crack me up. Kelly ended up with a brain tumor (yes I took him to the vet's - twice.) She (or he) died in 1996 and Dennis and I buried her/him down by the pond near my red house.

My next parakeet was called Birdie. Birdie was given to me by my friend Becky and was a very happy, loud funny little character. I had Birdie for a few years and when he/she became ill, she died laying on my chest.

Now Tweetie is one of the funniest parakeets I've ever had. He or she (it's really hard to tell what sex a bird is) interacts with me all day long. Every now and then Tweetie will flap her/his wings as if she/he is flying away. I'll say "Tweetie, don't leave us, we love you, don't go anywhere" and then Tweetie will start squawking and talking back to me. It's very funny and I love it!

Two weeks ago on a Thursday night I noticed that Tweetie had his/her back to us. Vanessa was over with Jaelyn for dinner. I thought that Tweetie was tired, but every day since Tweetie got much worse. I found myself watching him/her constantly and hoping that he/she would get better. I also monitored how much food Tweetie ate and it was very, very little. Two days ago, I thought for sure it would be Tweetie's last day. Then yesterday Tweetie started to be a little more active and ate some food. Today Tweetie is pretty much back to normal, which I am just so happy about.

I'm going to keep a close eye on him/her and hope that whatever the problem was, it's long gone.