Gulf Coast Family

I was on my way home for lunch one hot summer day when I came upon four elderly women out in the middle of the road trying to catch a brightly colored green parakeet. Not wanting to harm the bird or the women, I stopped my car and offered my assistance. Before I knew it, traffic was backed up, and drivers were honking and giving some not so friendly advice as they pulled around us.

With swift footwork, quick hands and some very unique bird calls, I was finally able to coax the bird into the box I was holding. Actually, it was more like the bird jumped into my box out of sheer fright after seeing eight legs in knee highs stampeding its way. After I had safely contained the bird and escorted the women to their car, I proudly pronounced “Here is your bird, ladies.”

“But it’s not our bird, young man,” replied one of the ladies as she got into the car. “We are from out of town and we were just trying to save the bird from the oncoming traffic.”

After a long discussion with the ladies about what to do, I decided to take the bird home and seek my wife’s advice. When I arrived home, our little one saw that I was carrying a box and came running over to see what I had brought. “Is it for me?” he asked. When I opened the box to show him the bird, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. Then, before I could say a word, my son exclaimed, “I love you little birdie!” and right then I knew I was in trouble.

We left the bird in the box in our son’s room while I headed back to work and my wife and son took off for the pet store. After spending over forty dollars, they returned with a new cage, and every bird accessory you could imagine. The next hour was spent assembling the bird cage, lining the cage, filling the tray with bird food, and basically making the perfect environment for “little birdie.”

Once everything was finally assembled, my wife and son went to the bedroom to get “little birdie.” It wasn’t long after that, however, that I received a phone call at work. “What’s up?” I asked.

“We got everything ready for the bird,” my wife replied. “But when we went to get him, he wasn’t in the box. Instead we found him lying motionless in front of the mirror, and I’m afraid ‘little birdie’ is dead.”

While little birdie did in fact go to a place of eternal rest, and we did end up spending another twenty dollars to get another bird from the pet store, we learned a valuable lesson that day: Don’t put the cage together until you have made sure that the bird is still alive!