Aunt Rose absolutely loved pets, any pet. She fed the birds, the squirrels and the chipmunks in her yard. She took care of the neighbor’s dogs and cats when they were gone. She wanted a dog in the worst way. But, Uncle David grew up on a farm and said that dogs had jobs to do and there was no job for a dog at their house. Finally, one day Aunt Rose bought a pretty little turquoise parakeet. She named him Petey. He practically lived on her shoulder. Every time we were over at her house she demonstrated what Petey had learned to say since the last time we were there. Who is Petey? she’d ask.  Pretty boy, pretty boy! he’d answer. She’d always show us how she cleaned his cage every day and then filled his little bathtub so we could watch him splash and bathe himself. She’d let us hold him and feel his little heart beating. By the time we were ten we practically thought Petey was our cousin!

To this day, I love to hear the birds sing and try not to miss their evening concert by grabbing a front row seat on the deck. We have books about identifying the birds in our neighborhood and records of their songs to see if we can identify them. We even have a little recipe book for making treats for different bird breeds. We like the woodpeckers in the palm trees and the annoying blue jays just as much as the beautiful gold finches, cardinals and wild green parrots. There are so many people that are totally oblivious to the birds around them. Thanks to Aunt Rose we learned to love and appreciate birds when we were kids!