Charming

When I was little, I really wanted a pet that would be all mine. I went through the whole process of explaining to my parents how I would be responsible and caring and love the pet. I wanted a ferret. My mom wanted a snake. We settled on a parakeet. And so began 15 years of being a "bird person".

The first bird I got was a green and yellow parakeet I named Jessie. She was presumably a female, but her gender was about as ambiguous as the name "Jessie" is. Probably a girl... slight chance it's a guy. A year following Jessie, my brothers decided having a pet bird was pretty cool... thus Mars and Curtis came to be. After years of having these birds (13 years to be exact), they succumbed to old age. Curtis was the last one around and during the last year of his life, we started talking about how weird it would be not having any birds after years of them. I think my parents were secretly eager for the day we'd be bird-free.

And then a couple of years ago, Charming happened. My neighbors had found a small blue and yellow parakeet flying around their car trying to eat the rubber on their tires. Knowing we were the only ones in the neighborhood with parakeets, they assumed we had lost him, so they caught him and brought him over to us. I told them we would take him for now and give him food and water until we figured out who his owner might be. We never found his owner, and we ended up falling in love with this little bird. And so, just as soon as we thought Curtis would be the last, Charming unexpectedly joined the family.

Charming was so different than the other three birds we had owned. He was extremely friendly and he had personality. He bobbed his head to music, and tried to imitate noises he heard. He chirped louder when he heard his name because he knew you were talking about him. He'd try to squeeze out of his cage just to be closer to you. He'd kiss your nose if you put it up to his cage. He would run back and forth on his perch when it was time for food because he was trying to guess which door your hand would come through first so he could jump on it. He fell in love with people too easily and tried to regurgitate his food as a sign of affection towards them, which in reality just ended up scaring them off. He meant well.

Unfortunately, he got sick yesterday and died early this morning. Birds tend to hide their sick symptoms until it's too late. Apparently that's an instinct. I wish we could've helped him, or at least known something was wrong sooner. I'll never know what killed him, I just know he was still way too young to die.

As a bird person, I didn't think you could get that attached to them as a pet.

But now as my Dad plays music while I write this, I'm realizing just how much I'll miss Charming chirping along trying to be louder than the music to make sure I know he's still there. I'll miss him chirping in the morning trying to talk to the birds he hears outside. I'll miss him chirping as we all eat dinner together. And I'll miss him running over my laptop keyboard trying to get my attention as I try to get work done.

I used to tell him that if college didn't work out, we could become pirates together, and he could sit on my shoulder. Maybe he wasn't too fond of that idea.

Our house is a little quieter without birds, and it's a little less colorful without Charming. He died in my hands to the sound of the morning birds. I believe that's the best way to go. I'll miss him, but I think he loved us as much as we loved him.