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January 2006 Dear Birds, Elephants and Humans, Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Jackie......January 1st...my personal new years baby. Aristophanes, my scarlet macaw, must be Jewish. He loves spaghetti with butter and ketchup. That is the way I grew up eating spaghetti and every time I tell my Italian friends that I eat it like that they look at me with horror, so I guess Aristophanes comes from my lineage. He was walking back and forth on the table tonight during dinner eating spaghetti from my plate and mashed potatoes from Jackie’s. That is the same combination of food I remember when I was a child in Brooklyn, eating at the Horn and Hardart Automat. It brings back memories. There were lots of bird calls for adoption last month. Matt and I have been very busy. Macaws, Amazons and even a pionus were among those needing new homes. This involves a lot of work. There is, however, a tremendous sense of satisfaction when it works out well for the bird. They need so much love and care; I wish people would put much more careful research into getting birds in the first place. The purchase or adoption of a parrot should be done very thoughtfully. They are a HIGH maintenance pet. This is an act that should be fully researched before the acquisition, not after. Listen to the parrot of your choice yell. Watch them in action. Read everything you can get on the species and talk to many people who have them before determining to get one. Matt, Terri and I, also, rescued a goose. I was at a vet’s office today to pick up some food for my cat, Maxwell. One of the people who worked there told me that she had an umbrella cockatoo. I asked her how long she had the bird and she told me that she had had the bird for eight years. I told her how nice it was to talk to someone who had kept an umbrella for all that time because they, along with Molluccans make up the greatest number of unwanted pet birds we get. She said, "I would give him up tomorrow, if I could, but I know that nobody else will be able to stand the screaming and need for attention any more than I." This is a very sad commentary on a species of bird that has been so over exploited by the pet industry that it makes me personally sick. It is the rare pet shop owner who tells you how much umbrella cockatoos scream and demand. They are the most compelling baby birds I have ever seen, but they change dramatically as they age. I wish there was a law that prohibited the breeding and selling of umbrellas and molluccans as pets. It seems, that maybe one out of ten remain as permanent beloved pets, and that love and stability is so desperately needed. In my opinion, the worst thing about having cockatiels flying around your house is their decided propensity for walking around on the floor. You have to be so careful because they are not. I won’t go into how I lost my humanest (most human acting) cockatiel ever, Maurice Paulina Melvin, because I will get depressed. Just be as careful as you can be and even then be more careful than that. Zeke just decided to join me in my computer room as I type this. He is really a sweetheart. Even after fathering and raising 16 babies with Penelope, he remains a delightful and loving pet. Right now he is examining everything on my cluttered desk and rearranging things as he sees fit. I am sitting here watching the snow fall and spread its beauty all over the woods outside my window. I am so happy to be living in the country. New York City was so grey and gloomy in the winter; the mountains are so beautiful and white. I have to go out and make sure that my wild bird feeders are filled and accessible for the chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves, tufted tit mice, white breasted nuthatches, various sparrows, finches and all the other birds that live here with me. Oh yes, the squirrels and chip monks too enjoy the larder I leave outside for them each day. I know that many people resent feeding these little mammals but I just feel that they are hungry too. Actually, I think the squirrels who inhabit the area around my house are the fattest I have ever seen. I am going to close this letter with a wish for a happy and very healthy new year for all of us, myself included. I have to go and give my chickens their breakfast; they really enjoy a warm pot of oatmeal each morning during the cold winter months. Let’s hope for a great year. I have lots of really interesting programs scheduled for us......Until February (my birthday)............... Love, RICHIE PS: Please take the time and write to the government of South Africa and beg them not to kill the "extra" families of elephants in Kruger National Park. Over 6,000 are slated to be rounded up and shot. This practice is known as culling the herds. It is a simplistic, barbaric and very cruel way of ridding themselves of the elephants that they consider surplus to the amount of land allotted to them. They can relocate them or just extend the borders of the park to give them more room to live.........It is politics, people, disgusting politics. You can find out how to take action for this by going on line. |
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