Two years ago, on an innocent trip to the pet shop, we bought our first cockatiel. My phycic abilities being somewhat dull that day, I drove home humming a happy
tune. After several days of "trying on " names we settled on Buddy.
Buddy was such a pretty little boy. Still sporting some of his baby feathers, his topknot perched jauntily to one side. Buddy loved his new cage and all his little toys. He loved whistling in the mornings. He loved flying around the house. Careening wildly past doorways and lamp shades. But did Buddy love us ?
I tried EVERYTHING. But each time I approached his cage he hissed nastily, spread his wings and opened his beak in anticipation. So, we fed and
watered him daily. Bought him treats and talked sweetly to him, but had to face the sad fact that any personal contact was out of the question.
And so time passed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
One morning I awoke feeling so energetic and happy. I hurriedly dressed, threw open all the doors, and began my annual spring cleaning.
It was such a beautiful day I began to whistle. But wait! What was that ? Someone was whistling with me. I hurried to the front of the house to greet my
visitors. There was no one there. Suddenly, I realized...... YES!.. ......YES!. ....BUDDY!......... YES! ...Yippeeeeeeee! ............I turned and thrust my hand into
his cage, giving the command we'd practiced so many months. "Step up".. I sang out, ....."Step up" he ...replied, ........and then he did.
Having witnessed a minor miracle, one would have thought I would have been satisfied with my triumph,
and left well enough alone. But no, that's never been my way. Ever watchful of new and unusual ways to add a few bucks to the family income, I began to think. Hmmmm.. ..................If Buddy had added so
much fun and frolic to our lives (by this time his daily antics had grown to such extremes the whole house was filled with laughter), I was sure if we got us some
breeder birds we could make a fortune.
That was a couple of years ago. We now have 18 fine looking birds. We converted an unused bedroom into a very nice aviary. There was a lot of initial expenses. Birds, cages, feed and supplies, an incubator, just in case.
This is our baby bird Poco. We love her so much ........she is so sweet we couldn't even consider selling her.
But if we did,........ we'd only need to get $4800 out of her to break even. Ahh well , maybe next year we'll do better.
My Graham Genealogy