Neighbor Ted knocked on our door one night. “Are you missing a parakeet?” Um no. “Well there’s a stray parakeet who’s not afraid of people walking around the patio right now.”
I walked outside and Ted and I watched the little guy pecking around the cement patio for stray seeds. Ted informed me that he had knocked on a bunch of doors in the neighborhood already and nobody said they were missing their pet bird. He couldn’t fly well because his wings were clipped, and I was having visions of him clamped in the mouth of the neighborhood cats. We watched him for awhile and then when he flew on the rung of chair, I decided to bring the chair inside to see what he would do. He freaked out and flew back outside. I left the door open and then went to work convincing Dan that we should let him spend the night with us and then try to find his owner the next day. (Beside the cat hazard, I had googled that parakeets don’t usually survive outside in the area since they are originally from Australia.)
Meanwhile the little bird changed his mind about not wanting to be in our house and walked right back inside (probably remembering the warmth), hopped in the nearest plant and fell asleep! He must have been so tuckered out from whatever trauma had gotten him outside in the first place! I read that they eat millet so I put some millet and a bowl of water on the floor underneath the plant. We half-assedly bird-proofed the living room and went to bed.
Two days later, after nobody responded to the found parakeet signs we posted around the neighborhood, we were already pretty attached and were convinced that the little bird was a gift from God and his magical Universe straight to us. We had already been speculating how grounding he had been for us because we were both in a weird place job-wise. I had just found out my part-time nanny job was ending and was looking for a new one. And Dan was applying to jobs waiting to hear back and also contemplating new careers. So our new feathered friend was working as a much needed distraction from obsessing over the unknowns of our future.
That night we decided to get him a cage since he was currently living in the plant and pooping all over the wood floor. We picked him out the cutest cage, the prettiest toy, and the fanciest organic seed mix they had, and brought it home to him. The next day he was chirping more than he ever had, and it seemed clear that he was used to being in a cage and felt safe in his own space.
As the week went on, we decided to take down the signs in the neighbor hood and give him name! The name Jasper had been in my head since the first or second day. I had no idea why . . . I had never had an affinity for the name before and we didn’t even know he was a male until later in the week.
So Jasper it was, and one day, I looked up on the internet what the meaning of the Jasper stone was, and found out that the name had been divinely inspired because it described exactly what Jasper was bringing into our life including. . .“good in time of needed change without the chaos a total upheaval would cause” . . . “protecting us from ourselves” . . .”and keeping us grounded and from getting carried away, or lead astray, and being diverted from your goals.”
So we have a bird! Who would’ve thought? We’re reading up on how to get him to come in and out of the cage, we play music for him everyday (he LOVES Mumford and Sons and pretty much anything with a good beat), and we talk constantly about him to our friends, probably even more than our friends with actual human children talk about their children.
Oh! AND we’ve already duked it out over his last name so we’re all prepared for when we have kids. Jasper Kilmer-Nordheim. Dan gave in to the hyphen. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment