Wednesday, November 04, 2009

in the right light, if you squint

In the morning the Sober Husband likes to take the green parrot out of its cage, and the two enjoy some toast together. (Since we acquired the African Grey parrot earlier this year, the two parrots are known by various names. The Sober Husband calls them "the green parrot" and "the gray parrot", I call them "your parrot" and "my parrot", and the children call them "Zoe" and "Pigwidgeon"). His parrot has come to regard this as her divinely ordained birthright and can get quite squawky in the mornings until she is in her proper place, on the Sober Husband's shoulder, picking out the most toothsome toast morsels and throwing inferior bits to the floor with disdain (where my weird little cat, Ray Charles, licks up the crumbs).

My parrot is a more flexible, easy-going bird and spends a lot of time out of her cage. The other morning I had her out at breakfast time as well, and we both sat, feeding our parrots, while having a cup of coffee and looking through the paper. "I like this," I said. "It's so nice, we have our parrots out at the same time."

The Sober Husband looked at me like I was an idiot. He thinks one parrot is enough to deal with at any time, given their strong personalities and his parrot's predilection for violence, and having two out at the same time is begging for trouble and bloodshed. "Why? Why do you feel that way?"

"Because it looks like we're sharing a common interest. Imagine, if someone came in here that didn't know us. They'd look over and say, 'Aww, they both love their parrots. Look at them, with their parrots. They're so lucky they found each other.'"

The Sober Husband let this conversational fancy die a natural death.

7 comments:

hughman said...

meanwhile, i assume the herd of cats don't portend any fuzzy feelings other than general mayhem and props for the girls to interact with.

Missy said...

The cats haven't made a play for one of the parrots?

We had hermit crabs for a short while, and it was hell protecting them from the cats.

the Drunken Housewife said...

The trick is to have a large, powerful bird. It's not recommended to have anything sub-Amazon parrot.

These parrots could kill a cat if they had to. They have powerful beaks and strong personalities. The cats recognize them as fellow beings in the home. The foster kittens aren't old and wise enough yet to know this and will try to go bat at the birds, but we've always managed to get the kittens away (the birds seem to have some tolerance for the very small kittens).

I was thinking of getting a cockatiel for Iris at one point, but a cockatiel is a sweet, fragile bird who could be killed easily by a cat such as Henry or Frowst. Not Zoe and Pigwidgeon.

Anonymous said...

Did you see the video I posted on facebook for you?

Kim

the Drunken Housewife said...

The cats elicit a lot of happy, fuzzy feelings in everyone but the Sober Husband, who loves to point out their excrement and excesses. He does like to take credit for Ray Charles, though: whenever I'm in a love groove with Ray Ch., he reminds me, "Who gave him to you?"

Kim, I need a new link to that video!!! Sorry, I suck!

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB52iP2a_MY&feature=player_embedded

the Drunken Housewife said...

Cute... I've been trying to teach Pigwidgeon to kiss. So far she has learned to submit to a kiss.