Thursday, July 12, 2007

Pets

I spent today visiting with an old friend. We had a very good time and a lot of laughs. One of her friends came by and we got to talking about pets.



Like everyone else, we've all had an assortment of pets. Also, like everyone else, some of our pets have had unusual deaths. I remembered that when I was growing up, we had tropical fish. One of the fish had babies and since it was winter, my mother wanted to keep them warm. She thought she was doing the right thing so she put the tank on the radiator. Unfortunately, the heat came up and cooked the fish.



At the other extreme, my friend's friend was concerned about the cost of heating, so she kept her house temperature very low and wore sweaters. Unfortunately, she didn't have any warm clothing for her two tropical birds. They froze to death.



The strangest death, I think, was my parakeet "Pete". I had had him for a few years and he seemed happy and healthy. One night we were watching a movie on TV and when it was over, we went to check on Pete. There was Pete laying on the bottom of his cage - dead. The movie? The Birds. I guess it frightened him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Poor Pete. I remember the first time I saw that movie, THE BIRDS. I was as scared as Pete. Now when I view it, I wonder what was so thrilling about it back then? If only you had waited a few decades before showing Pete the movie. Maybe his taste would have changed and he would have been less impressionable...and alive. How did YOU adjust to that shock, of finding him dead, right after the movie? It would have rattled my nerves some, I think.

Anonymous said...

GREAT STORY----WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. BUT YOU HAVE SO MANY GOOD ONES THAT I COULD KICK MYSELF FOR NOT GETTING ON MORE FREQUENTLY. WHEN IS YOUR BOOK COMING OUT?

PF/SSS

Anonymous said...

pat told me of this blog thing about my bird and i was amused to see i made it to the internet with my story hahahahaha... you forgot to tell how i lost that same bird before he died and searched the neighborhood for months while blasting his tune i taught him over a loud speaker.NEIGHBORS didnt like me too much back then, they were sick of hearing the tune that made no sence to them at all. hahha well low and behold i found my bird and got him home safely only to freeze him to death just a few short months later . aweeeeee poor stewie i guess he would have had a better shot at living if he werent found and brought home to a cold house hahaha... aweee, well hes with his brother elvis now in a warm climate somewhere up in birdie heaven.. I HOPE!.... laurie