Call Me Pet Owner ? Call Me Carol

The new pet & his ecstatic owner

Yep?we?re pet owners now. *Sigh*

Now, don?t get me wrong, I have nothing against pets, per se. But I?m just not a pet-person. I like my house clean. I don?t like to clean up excrement. I don?t want to have to find a pet sitter when we go out of town (which is fairly frequent.) And if truth be told, I?m a cat person, however, I will never be able to get one since hubby is allergic.

But my daughter Red was turning 7 years old and had been begging for a pet. And if you know her, you know it was not just any kind of pet. I tried to talk her into a guinea pig or hamster. Heavens, I even tried fish. Nope. She wanted a bird.

Now birds freak me out. Their feet/claws are gross and I have nightmares about beaks & eyes being pecked out. Yes, I have watched Alfred Hitchcock?s The Birds and that?s where most of my fears began.

BUT?after much research, my husband found a breeder in our area and decided a sun conure would be our best bet for a pet bird. These little macaws (and thankfully they are little?no more than 12 inches), are said to be the most cuddly and sweet birds. We needed a bird that would be open to being carried everywhere and cuddled frequently. Our daughter doesn?t like dolls but will treat her stuffed birds like babies. So we figured that?s what would happen to a pet bird.

Red went ballistic when we told her what her gift would be. She was so excited, she could hardly contain herself. Then came the waiting period. The little sun conure on ?hold? for us had recently hatched and was not yet able to leave the breeder.

Baby Loki

He was an ?only? just like our Red. She felt a kinship with him immediately. The breeder sent us pictures and Red started a list of potential names. We decided this baby sun was a boy since we weren?t about to do the genetic testing to find out for sure. Red had a list of over 30 names that included ?Honeytoes Glitterfeather,? ?Pharaoh,? ?Bob,? ?Princess Sun,? ?Sunshine,? and many other oddball choices. Since sun conures have a limited vocabulary and capacity for speech, we convinced her keep it short. She finally decided on ?Loki,? after the Norse god of mischief.

Loki was aptly named, so we discovered. We picked Loki up when he was 3 months old and after settling into his new home, he was on the move. He chews through everything and loves his little mistress. I had my issues with the little pooping machine but thankfully as he got older, he was potty trained. His favorite days are filled with lots of attention. Red will carry him, kiss him, play with him, and even tuck him into his favorite blankie and stroll him around in the doll stroller. He?s perfectly content to pull up a perch and listen to Red?s school lessons. In fact, I went upstairs to change the laundry out while Red worked on her math test. When I came down, Loki was perched on her shoulder listening intently to her describe the solution to the latest problem.

Loki and his "mama" Red

But beware of bird?he thinks he?s a guard dog and will screech his little head off whenever someone unknown comes through our front door. (Or known for that matter!) At least, I always know when a door is opened. He is gentle with most people but definitely loves his humans. Whenever my husband gets home from work, he has to head straight to the cage to say hello or suffer through screeching. Loki loves him and tells him so through his wing spreading. But we are punished whenever we leave him alone to long. Such a big personality stuffed into such a small bird.

So for now,

Call me Pet Owner

(And no, you may not call me a pet parent. But that?s another story for another time.)

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Source: http://callmecarol.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/call-me-pet-owner/

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