Okay, a friend of mine who is a contractor assures me the robins were not really “attacking” the guttering on our house, but he agreed it was probably a good thing we cleaned out the guttering anyway.

In past years, we have had everything from a colony of bats to a family (several generations, actually) of squirrels living in our roof. Yes, it was nasty. And yes, all the critters are gone now.

So you can imagine I was a bit nervous yesterday morning when Shirley and I went out to the driveway to take her to work and I happened to glance up and see decaying leaves and stuff hanging over the edge of the guttering on the driveway side of our house. As I watched, a cocky little robin flew up and landed in said guttering. He was shuffling and hopping along the guttering as we drove away.

I immediately feared the worst: Bird would peck through the guttering and/or the fascia on the roof. Before the week was over, we would have critters once again living in the roof.

My wife, Shirley, is a much calmer, more mature person than I. She calmed my nerves, came home after work, and climbed the ladder up — waaaaayyyyy uppp! — to the guttering. As I moved the ladder along the roof’s edge and stabilized it below, she climbed up and down and scooped the decaying leaves, dirt, etc., out of the guttering.

(If you’re wondering why SHE climbed the ladder: Our ladder is rated for 200 pounds; I weigh closer to 300. *sigh*)

The story had a happy ending: Immediately after I put the ladder away, Mr. Robin came swooping onto the edge of the guttering. He hopped down into it, rattled around a couple of feet of the guttering, then launched himself into the tree in the backyard. I could swear he showed attitude about the whole thing: “Hmphf! How dare they take away all that stuff! Coulda been a bunch of good worms in there!”

Oh, yeah — no birds, or wives, were injured in the making of this blog post.

Technorati Tags: birds, home guttering, roof troubles, for pets and pet lovers

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Sorry, I couldn’t resist at least trying for a pun with that post title. I guess I spend far too much time sitting in front of this computer and need to get out more.

Anyway, I just discovered a good looking site with some good products if you own a bird, especially (as the name implies) if you have parrots: Windy City Parrot.

I love the name of the place. I haven’t shopped there myself, because we haven’t owned any parrots or parakeets for years. (We owned a large parrot for one overnight stay and we’ve had various parakeets, as well as a beautiful male cockatiel named Snoopy. Some day I’ll recount those adventures.)

Go look around the place, if you have birds. If you don’t have birds, look it over anyway. The pictures on the site are lovely — and they have a number of useful articles if you own birds or are thinking of getting birds.

Technorati Tags: parrots, birds, pet products, for pets and pet lovers

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I just read an amazing story about pet survival and reunion. You’ve probably read the occasional story about cats and dogs who were lost or who strayed in an unfamiliar area — only to return weeks or months later after miles of mysterious adventure.

But how about a pet macaw??

Here’s a story about Danny Boy, a pet macaw who flew away as his California family was in the process of packing and moving to Colorado. He turned up 15 months later in a city 80 miles away from his original California home. Danny’s distraught family had looked everywhere and even listed the bird on a lost bird site on the Internet.

With the help of an alert humane society group in Pasadena, California. They contacted the bird’s family in Colorado. The wife called the humane society. I was amused by what the story says happened next:

“Mrs. Vasilakos called the Pasadena shelter and said to put the bird on the phone. The skeptical humane society manager then put the woman on the speaker phone.

“It seems Danny Boy waves his foot when asked while offering him a treat.

“Danny Boy, who had been “sullen and morose,” heard the familiar voice of his owner and perked up, fluffed up his feathers and became animated. He waved his little foot throughout the ensuing conversation.”

Bird and family are to be reunited later this month.

What a beautiful, happy ending. It’s amazing the bird was able to survive. Either someone else took Danny Boy in to care for and he flew away from them, or he simply found a way to survive in the “wilds” of Southern California on his own for more than a year. The story said he was found flying free by whoever brought him to the human society shelter.

How amazing. I hope, if you have a pet bird — especially if you have a macaw — you’ll post a comment and tell us your reaction to the story. Are these beautiful, tropical birds REALLY that hardy. I’m impressed.

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Do you have a pet bird? If so, how did you decide what bird to get and where did you get it?

There are a ton of issues involved when you decide to get a pet — and pet birds have issues all their own. For example:

1. Does a bird fit into your personal or family routine? Larger birds such as parakeets, parrots, or cockatiels respond to companionship more than finches and smaller song birds, so the larger birds require owners who are around more. If you’re single with a busy career, don’t leave a parrot, cockatiel, or parakeet alone for hours and days at a time. If you have a family, especially with young children, you need to make sure the family is “introduced” to the bird and knows the boundaries of things like poking, petting, and holding.

2. Do you have room for a bird? We have owned two or three parakeets over the years and in each case we had to make careful arrangements simply to set the cage in a good location — and put up with frequent showers of bird seed and seed shells onto the carpeting and furniture. Birds demand a lot more cleaning up after than you might think.

3. Are you ready for the sound(s) of a pet bird? If you live in a crowded apartment setting, you need to remember your neighbors might not care for all the noise a pet cockatiel or parrot can generate just in the course of daily living. When we were first married, we almost had a run-in with a landlord because we brought a parrot home and were unaware of the volume of their “squawking” — and the bird was simply going through his “hello, sun, happy to see you today” normal parrot routines!

So, do you own a bird or birds? Where did you get it — pet shop or private breeder? And how do you cope with the special care your bird friend(s) require? Tell us, please.

Technorati Tags: pet birds, parrot owners, caring for cockatiels, for pets and pet lovers

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