Silly People

The other day my wife and I were discussing people who have dogs and cats, how silly they can be. If you get them started they will go on and on about how smart their dog or cat is, how they understand English and how they communicate with them. When they call them they say, “Come to papa or dad, or mom, silly stuff like that. They will even sign letters with the name of their cat or dog added as a family member. When I hear that I’d like to yell, “Come on, peoples, those are animals. They’re not human! They don’t understand what you’re saying. They read your gestures but don’t understand the words!”

We don’t have a dog or a cat. I can’t see myself getting up early in the morning too take a dog for a walk. No, sirree. We have a bird. Less trouble. And he’s not running our lives.

Since I mentioned bird, I might add his name is Eddie. He is a canary. We bought him last year in September from a private breeder. It’s cheaper that way and we knew when he was born. We only paid $50.00 instead of over $100.00. Canaries are too expensive to buy in a store. We had just lost our little canary Robbie. We had him for 12 years. And to fill the gap little Robbie left in our hearts we decided to buy another canary.

Now talk about a smart little guy. First thing in the morning, even before we have breakfast, my wife cleans his cage and gives him new seeds. While she is doing that, Eddie is outside the cage. He flies around in the Kitchen. We have breakfast and we let him stay outside his cage. When we are finished with eating, we move the cage onto the table. Sometimes he sits on top of the cage, sometimes not. Should he still be hopping around on the counter when we move the cage, he will fly to his cage and sit on top of it for a while. Then he hops onto the table and picks and eats the crumbs I left from my breakfast buns. He still flies around for a bit, but once he has enough and when he is ready he hops back into his cage, and then we put his cage with him inside onto his stand. That’s already routine for him and he demands it.

I said Eddie is smart. When we call his name, he will answer. He communicates with us and lets us know what he wants. If we sit too long at the table, he will fly around us, sometimes just skimming our head, usually mine, and he will chirp loudly, telling us it’s time for us to move, because he needs to walk around on the table.

For lunchtime he gets either a piece of lettuce, or an apple, or a piece of broccoli. He loves them all. If we forget to give it to him, he will sit on his perch near the place where we put his food and scream loudly until he gets his lettuce or apple. Then he is silent. Yes, he is a smart little fellow and he sings beautifully...when he isn’t complaining about something.

The other day we left him alone for the whole day and we knew he’d be lonely. So at lunchtime we called home and left a message on the answering machine for Eddie. No, he can’t check the messages. Come on! When we leave the message he can hear our voice. Hopefully, we cheered him up a little and made him feel less lonely. The moment we walk into the house and he hears the door, he starts chirping.

In the evening when it’s time to go to sleep, all we have to say, “Time to sleep, little guy. Onto your perch.” He will jump onto the perch and will sit on his spot. That’s how smart he is. He probably understands English.

Anyway, that’s our little Eddie. He is a part of our daily routine and gives us much pleasure. He’s not a dog, neither is he a cat. They are too much trouble to have around and we may just become a couple of silly people, too. That can’t happen with a bird. Oh, I’d better run, Eddie is chirping. I’ll have to see what he wants.

Here are two pictures of Eddie: