The SO has been wanting to get another bird ever since Ozzie died. He says it is way too quiet in the house. Ozzie lived in the dining room which is the center of the house. I talked to him all the time. I just learned to walk through the dining room without saying something to his empty cage.
I was looking on petfinder.com for birds but I have an attitude problem when it comes to bird adoption groups. They tend to be nasty. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Birds can be hard to take care of properly and you want committed owners. But some of the requirements are ridiculous.
One group wanted a full paper trail proving you owned your previous bird. Photos don’t count. I don’t have that. I don’t have all the receipts for food for the last 15 years. I never charged myself so I don’t have vet bills. I could fake them on the computer but that’s not right. I could get sworn statements from everyone who knew him I guess.
Another group said you could only apply for species you had owned before. They were also quick to point out that owning a lovebird was NOT owning a parrot. My dearly departed lovebird would have taken huge offense to that. If you never handle the lovebird, maybe it is different. If you interact with him like a larger bird, it isn’t that different.
One group wanted you to go to several classes in a city several hours away and on and on. So I told people in the vet world who see birds that I was looking. Here was my thinking on what type to get:
1. Larger than a lovebird because I think it is so cute when they can use their feet to hold things. Shallow, I know, but so cute.
2. Not one of the really big birds like macaws, cockatoos, or Amazons. That’s just too much for me. Too loud, too big, too needy
3. Not a conure. Too loud!!!!
That left me looking at species like these:
Pionus
Senegal
Caique
Quaker
I finally found one of these nearby. But not quite near enough. This group required that you live within 100 miles of them because they do pre-adoption home visits. I live 113 miles away. I applied anyway. I waxed eloquent on the application about being a vet, having Ozzie for 15 years, being a vet, and apologizing for living 13 miles too far away but did I mention I’m a vet? I didn’t know if that would help. After all, I did fail the vet check when I wanted to adopt Freckles.
Last Saturday I got a phone call. They wanted to know when I wanted to come pick up the bird. No home visit, no interview, no nothing. Guess the vet thing worked this time.
To Be Continued….
