And here I am taking a bath!!

Hi, my name is Sugar!

I was adopted a few years ago.

Unfortunately, my previous parents weren't very good to me and I had beak-mites and a chopped off beak.  I am all recovered now, although I have to get my beak trimmed every few months.

Anyhow, after I was adopted I came to live with my good friend Lila.  We were best friends.  I loved her so much, I turned inside-out for her until she stopped being frightened and came out to play with me! 

But then Lila got sick.  She was sick for a long time.  The predators kept grabbing her and making her swallow medicine.  But finally she died.  I was really sad and lonely.  I even started landing on the predators sometimes and taking food from them, but I didn't really feel like they were my friends.

When Dewey came to live here I got really excited.  I tried to meet him many times, but he would shreek and flap his wings and snap at me.  That wouldn't stop me from being friendly, of course! but the predators kept scaring me away.  I just wanted to be friends!

Finally, a few months ago, I met Kiwi.  He seemed vauguely familiar but I couldn't remember why.  Oh, well.  Now he is my best friend!  We do everything together!  Well, if he wants to go in the other room, we call back and forth, so I always know where he is!  We kiss and preen each-other and fight over our food...all the things good budgie friends do!

Here is a picture of our first meeting:

Here is a picture of me flying.  I am a super good flier!  I can turn on a dime, and even hover to look at something. 

 

I also love to take baths.  Here is a picture of me swimming, with my best friend Kiwi looking on.

Hi, my name is Kiwi.

I met Sugar and Lila in the winter of 2004.  Me and Lila... it was love at third sight.  She kept telling me how handsome I was, what a fine figure of a male budgie...well, it took me a few minutes to understand what was going on, but then I realized she was one hot budgie herself!  We had a great evening together, except that Sugar and my friend Angel kept getting in the way.  After Lila and Sugar left, things were never the same between me and Angel or any of the other birds.  I became the low bird in the flock and everyone kept attacking me.

I don't remember that all too well now.  In January, 2006, I went to stay at my new grandparents' home for a month's quarentine.  I didn't like it much there, even though they played me music and bird song dvds and gave me lots of special things to eat.  I missed haivng birdie friends around and was scared in that new place.

But then I met Sugar.  She had grown up into a beautiful budgie!  I love it when we preen each-other and kiss.  I like spending my days with Sugar...and my new friends, Bell, Window-sill, Curtain-rod, and Bobbing-Reflection-In-The-Wall-Bird.

Ok...sometimes I wish Sugar were a little nicer to me.  Here is a picture of the time she decided she had to land exactly where I was and knocked me off a chair!

In fact...if you really want to know what life is like around here, check out this cartoon my dad made:

Since she's been mentioned a couple of times, I thought I'd tell a bit about Lila.

We adopted her from the Greater Chicagoland Bird Society in the summer of 2004.  She was a very timid little bird.  When she first came to us she was so scared that she never moved in her house unless it was covered and dark...she would just sit there, and shake if we came too close.  For a while we were even afraid she was not eating.

That all changed when Sugar came to live with us.  Although Sugar might not have been Lila's choice of best friend if she had her pick (in fact, we know she wouldn't have been after seeing Lila and Kiwi meet on a play date), Sugar made a world of difference to her.  After Sugar came to live with us, Lila really perked up and started flying, cheeching, eating, and bossing around her new little friend in no time!

Unfortunately, less then a year after she came to us, Lila developed a kidney tumor.  We took her to multiple vets and tried every kind of medication we could, including some herbal remedies that we believe really helped make her comfortable and extended her life but reducing inflamation and allowing her to regain use of her leg for a few extra months.  However, eventually Lila's body just couldn't keep going and she passed away.
Although Lila never learned to like us, we hope we gave her a good birdie life.  We know Sugar made a big difference to her life.

Here is our little underpants girl (unfortunately, I couldn't find a photo that really shows off her bright yellow "unterpants" marking :) )

Finally, I wanted to mention the first budgie we had together, Mucha.

Mucha found my cousin when he was jogging around campus and went home with him.  He was passed around in my family and we fell in love with him and begged our landlord to allow us to have "a small caged bird".  Mucha came home with us and became the center of our little family.

I know this has been said before many times and will be said again... but Mucha really was the best bird ever.  He was a great friend to both of us as well as assorted household objects.  He had a great vocabulary and loved making up new sentences.

We were devistated when he died suddenly in spring of 2004.  We didn't think we'd ever get a bird again after the heart-ache (whcih we still haven't totally recovered from), but when we saw Lila needed a home and no-one wanted her, we just couldn't leave her.  Since Mucha's mysterous death, we have become fanatical about our birds' health and other needs.

Here is a picture of our little Mu.  As he would tell you... "Mucha iz Bird"... and a "pritja birdja" at that.