Female, green, three weeks old.
My last parrotlet never really got named; I tried a few, but always just called him “bird.” So I decided that was his name and called him Byrd. I’m tempted just to call her Burd or something.
My friend Matt, who’s a fellow Flannery O’Connor fan, just read her essay about Peacocks, which she bred. She referred to the chicks as pea biddies. Matt says I should call her Pea Biddy. So I’ve been trying that; calling her Pea Biddy as I’ve been syringe-feeding her tonight. But then it dawned on me: I’m going to get her a boyfriend–I gave my other parrotlet away because after I moved, and started a new job, that had very long hours, he became very stressed. In the past when he’d overgroom himself, I’d get him some new distraction: a branch, a bell, whatever; he’d spend a few days getting to know it, meanwhile forgetting to overgroom himself. This time though, the stress with the move, him moving with me when I couchsurfed, the new job–I couldn’t stand to see him continue to overgroom himself. So I gave him to a friend who had several birds. He’s happy there.
So anyway, things are a little more settled, and I just really miss having some little noisemaking creature around the place. So I found a local breeder with several broods hatching right now. I’m going to pick up a male blue parrotlet from her in a couple weeks. So they won’t get lonely when I’m working late.
Point is, calling her Pea Biddy, it suddenly dawned on me that that would make him, when I get him . . . P. Diddy. And I can’t have that.
So I’ve been calling her Kitty. The contrarian obfuscatrist in me has always gotten a kick out of naming an animal the “wrong” animal name. I once had a dog named Rooster, which tickle me no end, although other people not so much.
But Kitty just seems like such an old WASP-lady name. Doesn’t feel right.
Any suggestions?