Meet My Birdies

Captain Nemo is named for the Jules Verne character.  Captain Nemo, the bird, however has not had quite as exciting a life.  Nemo does have one odd trait.  When frightened, he will let out a loud "SQUACK!" and then fall backwards off his perch in a dead faint.  He usually stays knocked out for about 2 minutes, but is his normal self when he wakes up.  He got to use this trait the time I tried to eat...er...I mean RETRIEVE him.  I was a young pup and my human had introduced us gradually.  We got along great until the day that Nemo decided that he was going to fly around the room.  I got excited and chased him.  He decided to land on the dresser, but he didn't know that it had been waxed, and he slid right off and landed on the ground.  I jumped on him and picked him up and my human jumped on me and pried open my mouth, pulling out the limp Nemo.  My human could feel him breathing so she put him back in his cage and a couple minutes later he recovered.  For some reason Nemo no longer comes out of his cage if I am in the room.

Siva was named for the Hindu god.  The god Siva is male, but the bird Siva was a female.  She was originally going to be called "Kali" but the godess Kali is associated with the color red and the bird was the perfect Siva blue instead.  Siva created havoc twice in her life.  One time she escaped from her cage when everyone was away on vacation.  She flew into the kitchen and perched on the stove, dipping her tail in the pilot light.  She somehow managed survive burning all her tail feathers off without burning down the house.  Her second memorable event was a vet visit.  Our human warned the vet that she was a biter, and he said, "Budgies may bite, but they NEVER break the skin."  Then he grabbed the bird.  Siva turned her head and took a chunk out of the webbing between the vet's thumb and index finger.  The vet went in back for bandages and our human had a good laugh.

Fred Astaire was named for the dancer because Fred, the bird, likes to dance back and forth across his perches.  He also likes music and plays the bars of his cage like a harp.  Fred used to live in a giant bird cage at my human's brother's house.  There were six parakeets and six lovebirds in the cage.  One day, Fred's mate, Ginger Rogers, was found beheaded on the bottom of the cage.  Her head was in Marge Simpson's nesting box.  Even though it was quite clear that Marge murdered Ginger, when the birds had to be given away for the human's health reasons, nobody would take Fred.  They either said that they didn't want a "cursed" bird in their house, or they didn't believe that Fred was innocent of the crime.  Therefore, Fred came to live with us.

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