The Cockatiel Woman
June 25th 2009 21:00
Photo by Magalaes. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
As a shy person, I seldom interact with people, especially strangers. But one day I saw a woman walking towards me with a big smile on her face. She was walking a small black dog and had a cockatiel perched on her left shoulder. I decided to overcome my shyness and strike a conversation with her, which wasn’t hard given the cockatiel.
“Is it yours?” I asked.
“Yes, she’s mine,” she said. “Do you like animals?”
“Yes,” I said, almost adding I prefer them to most people. “Aren’t you scared she will fly away?”
“No because her wings have been clipped. She can fly downwards but not upwards and certainly not enough to be able to fly away. I’ve had eight budgies and none of their wings were clipped and that was how I lost one of them.”
“Same here,” I said, remembering the day my mother – in a burst of stupidity – decided to let one of my sister’s budgies fly out of the house to see if it would come back. Of course it didn’t and my sister was devastated.
But still, it seemed cruel to clip her cockatiel’s wings but I wasn’t going to go there.
“You should get a pet,” she said.
“I would but my landlord won’t let me.”
“What about a bird? Surely he won’t know.”
“He will because the property manager does a lot of inspections.”
“That’s a shame. I own my unit so I can do what I want. The first day I moved in there was a big sign outside saying ‘No animals allowed’. I ripped it off and brought my animals in, including this one which I got from the RSPCA,” she said, moving her hand to her dog. “Now there are eight people in my building who have animals.”
If only my building was so pet friendly.
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