Six

Just to mix it up a little I thought I might try something I saw on one of my favorite blogs over at Pacing the Panic Room.

1. Go to your documents
2. Go to your sixth file
3. Go to your sixth picture
4. Blog about it.

Ok, so there's also stuff there about tagging six friends to do it too, but I'm not going to bother. I don't have six files of pictures on here. I'm not that organised. They're all sitting in My Pictures, so I'll just grab the sixth. So, without further ado, here it is!

This is Buddy. One of our three budgerigars. She was not originally ours. She belonged to my mother-in-law prior to coming to us. Before that she was hatched from an egg at my nieces place. Hayley had a whole aviary of birds and wanted to hand rear one...and this one conveniently "fell" out of the nest. We all think she had a little help.

So Buddy was given to my mother in law to hand raise when she barely had any feathers and was really quite ugly. I didn't think she'd survive, but survive she did.

I have this theory that animals raised by humans end up being a bit...shall we say...screwy. Buddy definitely has a few screws loose. When my mother in law had her she was a grumpy little thing. She liked a copious amount of attention, liked free reign of the house, thought plastic balls in her cage were eggs that needed hatching, bit you if you got too close, refused to get back into her cage and was just generally demented. My mother in law doted on her but this seemed to make Buddy even more screwy. I don't think she realised she was a bird. In fact, when my mother in law bought her a "mate" he survived a mere week before he met his untimely demise at the talons of Buddy.

Eventually my mother in law decided that yes, Buddy was screwy and needed the company of other birds so she came to live at our place in the same cage as our two other budgies - one male and one female. She has proceeded to bust up a loving relationship and place herself as "the other hen" and is quite shameless with her flirting with our male budgie.

At first I would let the three budgies out to stretch their wings in the house but the hassle of getting the three of them back in their cage is most definitely not worth it. They are incarcerated for the rest of their lives now. However, they don't seem to be too upset by it. My mother in law still manages to visit Buddy from time to time and is rewarded by a sharp nip on the finger. Nice.

I'd love to change her name, for personal reasons, but Buddy seems to have stuck. I must admit to not really being this budgies greatest fan because of her attitude, so maybe Buddy is the perfect name for her....Funny how you can manage to form a particular dislike for an animal because of their spoiled disposition....

So, that's a blog about Buddy - the weirdo budgie. One of the many animals in our slowly shrinking menagerie.

I'm sure Dixie the cat would love to give her a warm cuddle - and a big kiss.