Birds and Fishes

Yesterday, Taryn phoned me at work and asked me if she could bring a Ring Necked Parrot home. Apparently, the kids at the children’s home caught this bird a while ago, and have been torturing the poor thing.

So I told her that her cockatiel, which has just moved into a parrot cage, will have to take a downgrade. When the bird arrived, the scene was worse than my creative mind could conjure up. It was stuck into a budgie cage (!!!), and it looked truly bewildered and confused. So he got moved across into the large cage. The look on its face was like “Why are you doing this? I don’t deserve to be in this cage!”

This is my chance to make up for that little dog, Peppy. I still feel like shit because of the little thing, it’s hard to describe. How the fuck could I have been so cruel? I know that I was just a kid, but he was just a dog! Anyway, so now I can see if I can at least sorta rectify this situation.

We named the parrot Pookie, since Taryn’s been nagging about all sorts of animals that she can call Pookie. So now we have a Pookie, finally. I got some food and fresh fruits during lunch, as well as a toy for the bird. I hope that we can recuperate him successfully, and make him feel safe. At least he has a large cage now, that helps a little already. I’ll be spending lots of time with him tonight, since they need plenty of attention to form a bond. Hopefully it won’t take too long. I’ve read up a lot today about the birds, and there are mixed opinions on how one should go about taming them. When I caught him yesterday for the cage transfer, he was moaning lots and biting a lot, until he realised I’m not hurting, at which point he calmed down a little. Only a little though.

I also started my fish tank last night, got the stone washed, filled up the water, added the stuff to clear the minerals, metals and chlorine, and added a pump, filter and activated charcoal. Quite a few plants too, so it should be a nice habitat for the fish. Tonight I put in the new heating element I purchased this afternoon, so that the water temp can be ready for the weekend when some fishies will be coming to their new home.

A few years ago, I used to have an awesome aquarium, with all kinds of very well matched fish in there. I’m intending on making this tank a livelier one, but I’m struggling with the decision on which fish to use.

Oh well, time will tell, I guess.

Random thought of the day: Think before you do something, not all damage is reversible.