A while back I wrote about our kitty Wolfman, and his brother Grimmy, our 10-year-old black cats who unfortunately did not live to see another spring.
Mr. S finally buried them on Friday, together in a shady spot in the orchard . . . 
As I mentioned in the other thread, Mr. S had put forth the idea of perhaps adding to our bird population, which has consisted of just Oliver the cockatiel for several years now. Oliver is at least 19 years old, so he won’t be with us for too many more years, and we’ll miss his songs when he’s gone. In addition to a second cockatiel and a one-eyed lovebird, we also had a parakeet once and enjoyed that experience, so we thought maybe a parakeet or two would be a good addition.
On Friday afternoon we went bopping to The Big City to run errands, have dinner, etc. We had to stop at the pet store, and Mr. S wanted to look at parakeet cages. He’d measured the spot where a cage would go, and we picked out a cage. We weren’t quite ready to bring home a new bird or birds just yet. But we did watch the parakeets for a while, studying personalities and wondering how we would ever choose two or three parakeets out of 20.
We picked up a few other things and circled around to the checkouts. And there, over by the grooming area . . . was a large cage on a stand with two parakeets up for adoption. The sign said they needed to stay together because they’d been together their whole life, about 2 years. They had been at the store for only a few days. The cage, toys, and food were all included for $50.
Hmm . . . well, we are suckers for hard-luck cases, and besides, here we already knew that these two would be buddies. We watched them for a little bit, and then Mr. S said, “Well, should we?” I hemmed and hawed a little bit, only because it seemed so sudden. But then he said, “I buried two cats today . . . I think we need this.” That did it.
So Milo and Spike are now ensconced over in the corner by Oliver, chattering and chirping away. We dusted off our hazy memory of parakeet sexing, and did a little Googling, and determined that Milo is actually a female (Spike is clearly male). She likes to make the “mad budgie” sound (there’s a sound file at the link above), which we call “bitch bitch bitch.” 
Oliver seems to be happy for the company. Unfortunately their cage doesn’t quite fit in the space next to Oliver, even without its stand, so for now they’re on the stand a bit below him while we figure something out.
I’d forgotten how complex parakeet song can be!
Oh, and the cashier asked if we’d like to make a donation to the Humane Society . . . and we did, in honor of Grimmy and Wolfman. Miss you guys . . .
:: Scarlett clicks Submit, with a chattering and tweedle-deedle-deedle in the background ::