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Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Pets (09/13/04)
TITLE: Flying Blue Smurfs
By Andrea Hollander
09/16/04
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"I must be seeing things or she must be using some illegal substance"...you thought as you found yourself opening this article. Flying blue smurfs. Yes. I have a pet. Sometimes known as the flying blue smurf. Why you may ask and what is it? I have a parakeet named Mackie. Mackie is turquoise blue and enjoys, like any other pet bird, playing with toys that make noise and will screech when enough attention isn't paid him. Which, like smurfs, can become highly annoying at times.
In 2000 I was living alone and working a third shift job. I decided to get a pet to help with the loneliness. So I got a parakeet. I lovingly made all his toys out of beads, bells, and raw hide by hand. I bought all the accoutrements a parakeet needs to be happy. I then taught my little darling how to play the drum. Parakeets mimic behavior they are taught as babies. I took the hanging bell toy he had and swung it against the side of the cage that had the mite protection circlet on it, a little metal drum to keep away insects from the bird. The bird picked it up and kept doing it...over and over and over. And 4 years later he still does this over and over and over.
Last year for Christmas, my parents who are dog and cat owners...gave my smurf a parrot sized metal bell for Christmas (thanks Dad and Judy). The bell is bigger than the parakeets head and I thought to myself...Do I dare hang this in his cage? I did and the bird after a little prompting discovered the melodious strains of the big metal bell. He happily spends his days rattling his beads and bells and squawking at whoever will listen to him and singing away when people are paying attention.
Some things never change.