Did I ever tell you about my birds?

When I was in college I had a parakeet named Julie. She (he?) was named Julie because I got her in July.  Clever huh? Julie and I lived in a small studio apartment and she was one messy bird. Not only did she shed feathers every where she also spit her seeds every where.  I could hardly keep up.  I never had a cover for her cage so she always woke me up early. Even on days when I’d been up all night partying she’d start her sing song routine as soon as the sun came up.  I was actually fine with it because back then my cure for a hangover (who me?) was a 7 am bike ride down to the corner store for a bottle of OJ and then a trip around the university area on the bike.  Sunday mornings were great for bike riding. The air was crisp and fresh and the traffic was light and it cleared out the cobwebs from my head. I’d get back early enough to clean up more seeds and do some studying. ( Yeah I say that like I studied a lot. )

One day I thought I’d be a good bird momma and get her out of her cage and try to train her to sit on my shoulder. Not.a.good.idea. What I didn’t know enough to do was close the window shade before pulling her out of the cage.  Little Julie thought she was free, free, free. Well until she hit the window…splat! and fell down straight down.  OMG I felt so bad for her.  She wasn’t hurt too bad but it freaked us both out.  She because she just knew if she tried one more time, she could be free to roam the wilds of Albuquerque. I told you she was silly.  And I was freaked out because I couldn’t catch that darn bird and I was chasing her back and forth across the room. It was comical. I finally got smart enough to close the shade so she couldn’t hurt herself anymore. You know, if we hadn’t been in a one room apt she might still be loose today. 

I finally got a bath towel and threw it on her.  It blinded her so she couldn’t move and I was finally able to get her back in the cage.  Whew, we were both exhausted.

I’ll tell you about my other bird, Flower, another day.  Do you have any crazy pet stories you’d like to share?

I probably should mention that the journal page above and the coffee page from two days ago were inspired by the Prompt a Day workshop I’m taking from Kelly Kilmer.