A Girl Named Winston




The news is in. Our cockatiel Winston is a girl. But we hate the name “Winnie” and, since she has not objected, we’re still calling her Winston.

Winston went in for a spa day. What is a spa day for a cockatiel? Let me tell you it’s getting her wings clipped so she doesn’t crash into mirrors, windows and walls, and break her neck. There are pros and cons about clipping the wings of birds. Nasty arguments. The same about getting your cats declawed. I don’t think a bird with clipped wings will have behavior problems like they say cats will.

And if they do they will deal with it. It’s better than yours truly having a nervous breakdown over it.

After watching Winston fly around the house, hitting everything in sight and then disappearing one evening, my old heart had it.

She was at the top of our dining room buffet about 2 inches from the ceiling watching us run around the house calling for her. She went into house arrest immediately and was kept there until she had her spa day. They don’t totally cut the wings off they just trim them so she can fly low. This way she can make a low landing not a crash landing.

It was at her spa day we found out that she is probably going to start laying eggs. Did you know female cockatiels lay eggs? We city folk don’t know anything about that. Plus, not having a mate, I didn’t think that she could do it alone. Wrong. So here’s the deal on what to do with a female with an unfertilized egg.  You let her look at it and lay on it for a while, and then gently take it away.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a woman could just get pregnant on her own and have a kid? That could put these bossy men in their place.

Anyway, if you take the egg right away from a cockatiel she’ll want to lay more. My husband is going to take this on since I don’t want to touch the thing. My smart son said we could use it for scrambled eggs but I said I would give it to him and let him have the honor.

Well I read online that if the egg is fertilized, I guess you all know how that happens and you don’t want baby birds, you can stick a pin in the egg to destroy the embryo. No I’m not going to get political here but I certainly could not do that.

So any thoughts of us getting a second cockatiel to keep this one company have now circled the drain. Winston will remain an only child.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The New Buzz Around Town

Image
  There’s a new buzz around town and it’s not involving crime, baseball or politics. They’re called cicadas. They arrive every 17 years. I’m of that age that this will probably be my last visit with them. Cicadas are everywhere and people are constantly talking about them. You can hear them, you can see them, and if they land on you, they’ll make this irritating popping sound. I don’t like them. They’re disgusting. My husband knows when he buys my coffin that it has to be cicada proof. I will never lie in peace if I know my body is crept on by those things. Since they’ve arrived, I have not been outside much. I prefer to jump straight into my car in the garage, open the door and take off. I made the mistake of going out to the garden the other day. One of those irritants had the nerve to jump onto my clean hair. When I flipped it off it made that awful pop noise. My head hasn’t stopped itching since and it was salon clean hair. I told my husband Steve that I think t...
Read more

Holiday Thoughts

Image
  When I was a kid in the dark ages, I thought Jews were the only ones that did not celebrate Christmas. My parents and my friends would say you celebrate Hanukkah and get a gift eight nights. I don’t know anybody that got a gift all eight nights. If I was lucky, I got a gift one night and it was usually like pajamas. I would always look at beautiful Christmas decorations. We of course had none, just a menorah. That didn’t come close to Christmas decorations. If I could wear a Christmas tree lit around my neck I would. I think it was because I was deprived as a child but don’t quote me. So I was a stubborn little kitten. I decided to hang a stocking over the fake fireplace we had in our apartment. Don’t ask me how I got that stocking I didn’t get an allowance. I probably stole it. So I made sure to tell my parents that I was hanging a stocking. I didn’t care if we were Jewish or not. Well, I got a lecture from my Mom but since daddy was my Dad, he did not say a word and I hun...
Read more

Hey Gen Z, What Up?

Image
  So I read Generation Z doesn’t believe in emails and doesn’t open them. My kids’ generation was Gen X. They told me many years ago that if I wanted to hear from them I would have to email them. I had no idea what that was but I figured it out because I had a computer. I can’t figure out when kids started giving their parents rules. If I told my Mom that, I wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week, maybe a month. Then from email it changed to text. Something else to have to learn but I did it. But let’s talk about the people of today. They don’t care about anything. Try to get an answer from anyone about anything. “It was my day off.” “Not my area of expertise.”   “I’m off in 10 minutes.” The last time I was in the hospital I did not get a scheduled meal.   My husband brought it in. One nurse said her shift was over, the next person will feed you. Well it was right then and there that I was checked out and went home. Whoever heard of that junk? Did you ever ...
Read more