Posts tagged ‘love’

Courtesy of The Pagan Sphinx

clipped from thepagansphinx.blogspot.com California Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Prop 8 Legal Challenge on March 5 The California Supreme Court must issue its decisions within 90 days of oral argument. On January 15, 2009, 43 friend-of-the-court briefs urging the Court to invalidate Prop 8 were filed, arguing that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in California’s Constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote. The supporters represent the full gamut of California’s and the nation’s civil rights organizations and legal scholars, as well as California legislators, local governments, bar associations, business interests, labor unions, and religious groups.

As many of you know, I rescue and occasionally rehome Parrots and Cockatoos. My current flock numbers 6, and I’m hoping it stays at this manageable number for awhile, although I know that if I hear of a psittacene in need I’ll be rearranging the furniture and finding a safe place in the house to quarantine a new bird. I can’t help it. Hildy, my African Grey parrot was my first rescue and actually my first up close and personal contact with a large parrot. I guess you could say it was

When I met Hildy she was living in a round cage about 2′ tall and 1-1/2′ across. There was no sunlight in the room, she had no toys and was living on a diet of seeds, pepsi and french fries. Her then owner introduced me and warned me that she liked to bite. I went over to her cage and began talking to her and she climber sumemersaults in her cage for a bit before settling down close to the bars while saying “Come here. Come over here. No Biters!” as she put her head down, beak on her perch as if waiting for a lil scratch. I was a bit hesitant with everyone watching, not yet knowing, but somehow sensing that these folks thought it great fun when the bird bit someone. I waited a bit near her cage, until attention had shifted away from us, talking and cooing softly to her all the while. Before long, I was scritching the top of her head, and she was pumping her head up and down like a baby chick.
I went to that house a couple times a week for awhile, and every time I’d stop and give Hildy some scritches. Over the course of a couple weeks, I was able to put several fingers in her cage and scratch her under her wing and on the back of her neck. Her owners were amazed (and a bit resentful, I think) that she didn’t bite me.
I was simply fascinated withy her, and even knowing nothing about parrots and their needs, hated seeing her in that too small cage, without even enough room to properly stretch her wings out. One evening I asked if she couldn’t come out for a bit, and the owners hurriedly opened the cage. She promptly flew out of the cage and across the living room directly into the window above the kitchen sink, before seeming to bounce down to the floor. These people thought this was pretty funny, but I was horrified. She was walking around on the floor, saying “Hildy?” over and over. I could tell she was ill at ease away from the safety of her cage. I asked if I could “step her up” and was laughingly told to give it a try.
They said to use my right index finger at floor level, so I leaned down, put my finger in front of her and said gently “Step up, Hildy”. To everyone’s surprise, she did just that. Stepped right up onto my hand without a fuss. My heart was pounding and I was overjoyed at her trust. I raised her up to a level with my face just to look at her more closely and tell her what a beautiful bird she was. My newfound bird confidence was soaring. Hildy looked into my eyes and emphatically stated “No Biters!”, just before stretching her neck out and grabbing my left nostril in her powerful beak and chomping down and then laughing maniacly. The pain was instant and exquisite. Tears sprang to my eyes and I’m amazed that I didn’t startle and drop her.
Her owners, having finally recieved their long awaited outcome of Hildy’s bite laughed along with her, and I had to laugh through my own tears as she tilted her head to look at me as if to size me and my reaction to her “Love Bite” up and began to coo and rub her beak on my hand. That was all she wrote. It was Love at First Bite.