Juliana Moore with Cockatoos
Everyone relishes a great love story, especially on Valentine’s Day. And sometimes, well, St. Valentine is for the birds!
Take this story for example from the Edmonton Journal.
A retiring undertaker told a story of an 84-year-old widow who did not want to be buried in a joint plot with her husband, Rather, she wanted to be interred with her pet parrot. No doubt she and the bird spent quite a few Valentine’s Days together.
Now that’s devotion!
It has been said by reviewers that my memoir Lift is a lovestory between a falcon and a girl. (Anakin and I will not be buried together thank you very much.) If that’s truly romance though, I have plenty of love stories to tell and surely, the good readers of Heckled by Parrots must have just as many.
So in honor of the day, I want to hear YOUR avian love story. Tell me about your feathered paramour. How did you meet? How did you know it was love?
Post them in the comments or email them to me by February 29th. The best three will win a signed copy of Lift.
A small part of my love story is published on pages on the website above. Phoenix came to me after I lost an African Grey, and most other thing in a house fire in 1996. He was wrongly kept from me in 2005 and is some place unknown to me now. I continue to hope that we will one day be reunited.
I got Parker when I had a broken foot. I wrote a story about it, too long to post here, but this was what I thought of Greys at the time and why I chose Parker:
“Greys were smart. Greys were elegant and understated. They reminded me of that well dressed but not overbearing, intelligent guy at the party who took in everything and only opened his mouth when he had something extremely witty to say. I thought of a Grey as that guy who had a half smile on his face and found being a part of things far more fun than being the center of attention, but then became the center of attention because of his personality. He got the attention from his brains and his manners, not his looks.
I visualized Greys as a combination of Nathan Lane and Gene Kelly in a gray tuxedo. Not flashy like a Cockatoo, (Mae West) brilliantly colored like a Macaw, (Carmen Miranda or Rue Paul) or as standard as a budgie or cockatiel, (The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and The Rockettes).
I saw a Grey as fitting in with what I am like: sort of understated and efficient. I’m not real quiet, but I’m to the point. I’m bookish, but I have a sense of humor.
It was as if I thought a Grey would get my jokes.”