February 2008

Dear Living Things Who Read or are Read to,

Aristophanes, my scarlet macaw, was quite the good boy this morning as he played with me and cuddled with me until Mugsy, my great Dane, came into the room and I did not get my hand away from his beak fast enough. Now I have a band-aid on the finger that he grabbed. Of course, he rubbed his face against that huge dog's cheek and couldn't get enough of him. I, as usual when this happens, become anathema to him. I have to learn to move faster and then I will be safer. It is like learning survival skills in my own jungle.

Emma, my yellow naped Amazon and Zeke, my cockatiel, played together in the elephant room. Neither one of them has Aristophanes' affinity for any of the dogs, but they seem to coexist copisetically. My only problem there is that Lola, my insane mixed Dachshund, tries to climb into Emma's cage when I leave it open and then she takes out all the papers and junk in the bottom of the cage. Shirley, my latest addition, a medium sized brown mutt, whose breeding I cannot figure out, has learned that wonderful trick from Lola and I either have to keep the door to that room closed or close Emma's cage while he is loose which prohibits him from going back inside if he chooses to do so.

I was worried when we got Shirley, my daughter's dog, to come and live with us because she had never lived with birds before. She, however, has become very used to them and at this point, she basically ignores them. I cannot stress how important it is to be very careful when you have different species of animals living together. Every dog and cat is different and they can hurt and even kill your birds so please be very careful when they are together.

Last month's speaker, Carol Cipriano, was very informative. She let us know about a potential law that was being considered in Pennsylvania to ban keeping nanday conures in the state. It was apparently no false alarm. I wrote to their legislature, and emailed everyone in the bird club whose email address I have, to do the same. My letter basically stated that it was a cruel and ridiculous thing for them to even consider. There were no feral flocks of nandays, they were pets and the people who had them truly loved them. I did not understand why this was being considered altogether, but it is coming from the same state that allows pigeon shoots, so what can one say. Anyway, it did not go through and the pet nandays in Pennsylvania are safe, at least for now.

Along the same vein is an awful hunt that was held here in Sullivan County last week. It did not involve birds, but coyotes. According to an article in the paper they were following suit from the coyote hunts in Pennsylvania. There was a contest to win for killing the largest coyote. What a disgusting thing to teach our children. Their arguments for holding this hunt were specious to say the least. They claim the coyotes take some of the deer but these are the same people who say that we must have deer season because the deer population is so big. They also claim that coyotes kill dogs and cats. I don't know of anyone who responsibly watches their dogs and cats who has lost one to a coyote. It is another example of people enjoying killing and calling it a sport. A sport to me occurs when both sides want to play. This is just sadism. If you care about stopping this latest battle against wildlife, write letters to the commissioner of the DEC, Peter Grannis, and let him know that killing contests are immoral, cruel and should never be held.

Tonight, our program will be presented by our own member, Laurie Rothberg. I called her Laurie Rothchild in our postcard by mistake so I apologize for that. Laurie is going to teach the people in our club to make toys for birds from household items. Laurie held a similar workshop for us once before and it was a good learning experience.

Next month board certified Avian Veterinarian, Laurie Hess, will be guest speaker. Laurie was with us a year or two ago and did a remarkable job talking about general bird husbandry with an emphasis on giving our birds a proper nutritious diet. We are anxious to learn from her again.

Our programs over the next few months will be Juan Romero on bird training, Steve Baldwin on Quaker parrots in Brooklyn and our friend and Avian Veterinarian, Lonnie Kasman. July will be our 21^st club anniversary dinner party and, it is never too early to start thinking about our next bird show in October. Matt is completing our 501C3, which makes us a legitimate charity for the good work we do and all is well.

Happy Birthday to me.......... My birthday was yesterday, but I celebrate for, at least, a month in either direction and somehow, I never grow up.

May the rest of the winter be white and beautiful for everyone one of us and all our animals. May we all stay happy, healthy and warm.

With love to every bird, every human and every elephant,

RICHIE