Single Married Widowed Divorced : Birds of a Feather

by Carolyn Alfvin Bucior

The average bird owner owns 2.1 birds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. For mental and physical stimulation, birds need interaction with other birds, or at least constant interaction with humans. They ache if deprived of social contact and downright suffer emotionally when a mate dies. Birds in the parrot family, which includes parakeets, cockatiels and cockatoos, are perhaps the most social of all birds.

This story of companionship starts with the shy and reclusive Louie, a parakeet living at Brady Street Futons. Louie’s life wasn’t awesome or harsh. But life was cool. He could leave his cage and fly around the store if he chose to, which he didn’t. He was fed, occasionally cooed at by customers. Perhaps Louie would have been content living out his days alone in the futon store. But that wasn’t to be.

Enter Rocky. The friendly, outgoing cockatiel was down on his luck, having recently crashed into a house in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee neighborhood after his escape from who knows where. Luck shined upon the bright yellow bird. He picked himself up to discover the house belonged to the sister of Kurt Bauer, who owned Louie and Brady Street Futons. Bauer brought Rocky to the store and introduced him to the parakeet. Something in Louie lit up. Could his world of one expand to a world of two? It could and it did. Louie’s daily life changed and with it his personality. “Rocky helped Louie come out of his shell,” says Bauer. “They were so tight.”

Exit Louie. With death comes grief, and when Louie died of cancer, Rocky’s tail feathers sagged. “He was needy,” explains Bauer. “He was lonely. He got loud.”

Enter Jimbo. A customer gave the reticent gray cockatiel to Bauer, who excitedly introduced him to the grieving Rocky. But it was not love, or even civility, at first sight. Rocky basically said, “Howdy, pretty boy!” Jimbo basically said, “Put a cracker in it.”

“Rocky just really wanted to be his pal. But Jimbo didn’t want a lot to do with him,” Bauer recalls. Seven months later, the two have sorted out their differences. They’ve even found common ground. They perch in the cage together. When Bauer enters the room, they both take flight and land on his head. The adventurous, party-colored, Type-A Rocky leads. The reticent, business suit-colored Type-B Jimbo follows. They’re not birds of a feather. But they stick together.

END

Single Married Widowed Divorced

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October 14, 2008

Birds of a Feather

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