George

     We might have come through the whole 'buying a pet as a Christmas present' thing more or less unscathed, but we've made some pet buying mistakes. They were more pet-owner mistakes though really. We can't blame the parrot for the things we did.
     Our very first parrot was a cockatiel named George. George was fabulous. He adored my husband and I. He talked, he whistled, he stood on the back of the couch and put his beak to my nose in the most loving and intimate gesture I've had from an animal before or since. George was my baby.
     And then I had babies.
     As anyone who has ever had children and newborns would know, there's a time when you simply don't have time to walk/ play/ spoil your animal babies. Some animals don't mind this. Lila, our overweight house cat is happy to be ignored, as long as she' s fed. She certainly spends a good deal of her day trying to ignore us.
     George was different. He was used to being the centre of attention. When he wasn't out of his cage, he was pacing back and forth like a caged lion and tweeting, not like a lion. If he could have said 'look at me, look at me!' I'm sure he would have. Well maybe not, but he certainly appeared to be agitated.
     When our second child was born, I had no time for a pet bird. George was relegated to his cage and, although he spent his nights inside, he spent his days out in a shady spot, far from the house, where I couldn't hear him tweeting loudly.
      I wish I'd made an effort to be a better pet owner to George, but I knew I didn't have the time. Rather than try to make time, I did the one thing I thought would be the best for George. I found him a new home, with older kids who would have plenty of time to love him.
I assumed he'd be happy and gave him little thought after that, instead focusing on my human children.
     About a year later, I went to visit George. It didn't seem that he'd been out of his cage in that time and it didn't seem that his cage had been cleaned either. It had always been immaculate before. I felt terrible. His new human told me that he was giving George to his father, who had cancer.
Luckily, it seemed that George and  his newest owner did bond. He was the only one George would allow to put a hand inside his cage. George ended up living to the age of fifteen. He died not very long after his owner did. I hope he brought some pleasure to his life, because I will always feel I did wrong by George.
      Before we even considered buying a new bird, we waited until the kids were old enough and we had time to spend with them, and the pets. I still miss George and feel terrible about the way he was shafted. He deserved better and had I put more timing into buying a bird, he would have gotten better.
Not that there weren't other mistakes after him.