It seems like Kevin just can't escape our feathered friends, come spring time every year.
Normally around Easter we have bought baby ducks in past years. Kept them in our backyard for a few weeks and then released them into the lake near our house, or gave them to another friend who wanted them.
This year we were given a parrot by a patient of mine from the hospital, and since parrots live for a very long time, I don't think we will have our fetish for feathers coming out around spring time, each year, anymore...
I took care of an alcoholic woman a few weeks ago at the hospital. Since she had a head injury that required brain surgery because she had bleeding in her brain, which required staples to be put in...She needed constant supervision, as she kept forgetting she wasn't allowed out of bed. I was able to meet her whole family that was coming in and out of her room all day, and we pretty much got to know each other. I kept hearing her all day long complain of her hurting head, from of course being that staples were put in her head! And, as well she was sad all day, and complaining that she felt ugly with half her head shaved and exposing these staples. She continued asking her family to please go buy her a scarf to put over her head. I took her to the shops in the hospital in the wheelchair, but they didn't have scarfs there. Since her family seemed to be consumed by other stressors that did not include their Mother's request, I decided after work it would be a great thing for me and the kids to do, in order to help her out.
Brooke was very excited when I told her about my idea to help my patient out by going to Target and buying her a scarf for her head. Brooke loves to help people feel happy! She ran to her room and out she came with a hand written card that said, " I am sorry that your head is hurt, and I hope that you feel better soon. "
Will commonly asks me what I am doing when I am at work, and I explain to him that I am taking care of sick people. Will doesn't quite understand this, since his response is, " But, their Mommy can take care of them? " I tried to explain this situation by telling Will that this lady had hurt her head and we can help her buy buying something pretty to put over it. He became excited mostly I believe because Brooke was excited. He ran and started gathering things he could bring her, as he saw Brooke coming out of her room with a card and bag of gifts. When I noticed Brooke was trying to bring things that might not really be a gift I remembered the patient spraying perfume in her room all day long because she thought the hospital smelt bad. So I told Brooke about that, and suggested that she could give her Brooke's new Bath and Body Works plug in of a pretty smell, so that she wouldn't have to spray a perfume all day. Brooke did not even hesitate even though this was a brand new prize I bought her on a special date out with her the week before. She ran and got her plug in right away, and put it in her gift bag.
Brooke quickly chose a pretty scarf and hat for my patient and we headed to the hospital.
Upon reaching the hospital I allowed Will to bring one of his gathered gifts in to give the patient. He chose a long macaw feather he had recently had the chance to choose out of a basket at an animal park we stopped at on our trip to KC.
My patient was so happy that we thought of her, and she just loved the card and kindness that Brooke showed her as we visited with her.
When Will handed her the big long parrot feather she asked if we liked birds. When I explained that my Dad had lots of birds as pets when I grew up, she asked if we might want her Sun Conure, parrot? I explained I had the exact same bird when I was a kid, except mine was green and black, and she was very happy because she loved her bird but was worried about not being able to take care of as much since she fell and hurt her head.
Brooke was so excited she started jumping up and down...and it pretty much was a done deal...the bird was ours...
She called when she was out of the hospital and we went out to her pet grooming bussiness and we picked up our new pet. She gave us Skittles for free, and this breed of bird is at least three-hundred dollars. She also gave us a very nice cage that we keep in Brooke's room, since it is her bird.
Skittles is her name, and she is a very sweet parrot. She will get on anyone's finger and anyone's shoulder!
She is very social, so if she is out on her cage she wont just sit on the cage or playground for long...she will fly to your shoulder and primp and clean your hair.
So I guess we are truly a family with exotic pets now ;) Juma, our exotic cat, is not afraid of the bird anymore.She will do anything to get her Momma Brooke's attention right now. Juma will even put up with a bird softly cleaning her tail, as you can see below in the second to last picture. If you look close you can see the bird is cleaning Juma's tail!!! Juma shows no interest in attacking Skittles at all. The good thing is that if Juma ever did feel like she wanted to attack, Juma has no claws..so it works out...Juma still sleeps on Brooke's bed right next to her head at night...So Brooke is in heaven with her pets....
Will is a little jealous of the attention that our new bird is taking away from his big sister playing with him, and I do have more to worry about as I found a piece of chocolate in the birds water a few days ago...Plus, the fighting about who gets to hold Skittles, or if Will is teasing the bird...
But it's worth the fun! :)
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