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Every once in a while, I feel like drawing a picture. Usually I draw birds, since that is the only thing I can draw without making myself cringe. Penelope was my model for this picture, but it was hard to get her to stand still long enough for me to get a good look at her. This was the result of my artistic craving:
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We went to the zoo last Saturday. It was extremely fun and interesting, for the zoo had added many new animals including peacocks, meerkats, and bats.
These peacocks are lovely, aren’t they?
This snow leopard decided to check Dad out.
This tiger doesn’t look very fearsome.
Joseph found some bird poop on the fence.
He accused this bird of doing it:
Now we were in the African Savannah.
These meerkats are the foraging team.
This meerkat has been assigned the job of keeping watch for predators.
This is the regal trumpeter swan.
The camel was chewing his cud.
King vultures are grotesque looking.
The mother gibbon is nursing her baby. Can you see it?
What good posture they have!
The mother gibbon is baring her teeth at the other gibbon for getting too close to her baby.
This swan does the same things Clover and Penelope do.
They have a really nice merry-go-round at the zoo. I helped Joseph
I can remember a few years ago, this baby rhino was nursing.
This is a huge stuffed walrus in the museum.
These are stuffed wolves. They did have live wolves in the zoo, but all the pictures turned out blurry. There were even pups.
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Here are some good pictures of me and my bird. The starfish earrings in the last pictures were gifts from my grandparents on Mom’s side. Thanks!
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It is starting to look like my bird is going to be a girl. I have the name Penelope picked out for it’s girl name. I have learned some things about Penelope/Louie. She/he is much more receptive to new foods if it is chopped up into small bits and strewed across the table. He also likes to eat off of peoples plates. He has eaten popcorn, mashed potatoes, lettuce, kale, nuts, and a lot of other things. He likes to be rubbed on the back of his head, will tolerate petting on his back, but if you pet him on his chest when he isn’t in an amiable mood, you risk getting nipped. He likes playing with toys outside of his cage, but inside his cage, he ignores them. If he is up to late, he gets grumpy, and doesn’t tolerate petting very well. He also will bend his head down, asking to be petted on his head. I can put a bird leash on him and take him outside pretty easily, and he nibbles at the leash and doesn’t bite me. He isn’t fond of baths yet, but he will take them if I put him in the water. Overall, I am really enjoying him.
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I have only had Louie five days, and already he has done something better than Clover. He came to the door of his cage, all by himself, and stepped onto my hand. With Clover, you have to go and grab her inside of her cage. He is also asking for me by chirping when I am not in the room. His chirp is a delightful sound, so sweet sounding I don’t hesitate to come to him when he calls. I think he is going to turn into a great pet.
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I wanted a cockatiel. There was one at the humane society, but when Mom took me there it was already gone, So we went to the pet store. The first pet store was out, but the second pet store had several. I chose this one. In a few months I will now if it is male or female, because the pearl marks on the back will disappear if it’s a boy. (The pearl marks are the white/yellow spots.) Until then, I am going to say it’s a he. I named him Louie.
Louie is less timid than Clover, but he bites harder when he is scared. I got nipped pretty good when I tried to take him out of his cage for the first time. I had him out a lot last night, and he has calmed down quite a bit, and now he will stand on my shoulder and hand without biting me. At first I used a glove to handle him, but now I pretty much only use my gloves when taking him out of his cage.He hasn’t eaten anything yet, so I can’t feed him treats to calm him down. His wings aren’t clipped, so he can fly away if he wants to. I have only had him since Saturday, and I hope he will continue to adjust just as fast as he has been doing.
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Clover likes Landon’s glasses a lot. It’s not just Landon’s glasses, but I don’t let her chew on mine, for fear of her scratching the lenses.
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Clover and Dad have gotten off to a good start. Clover will sit on Dad’s shoulder nicely, and let Dad pet her. She also tries to climb up Dad’s neck in order to get a better view of her surroundings. Last night, while Dad was playing with her, she saw a dark place to hide. She still wants to get into dark places to escape from us, so up she went. Dad had a bit of a hard time getting her out of his sleeve. This morning when she was in her cage she was eating. It really is fun watching her eat with her feet.
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Clover is warming up a bit to the family. She hasn’t bitten anyone hard yet, and she hasn’t made much noise. She still makes quite a fuss about being brought out of the cage though. We have fed her apple, orange, celery, grapes and raisins, and she really like orange and apple. In the pictures, you can see her gorgeous green back that shines in the light, one reason we named her Clover. She sits well on fingers, but if she feels like she is going to fall she tries to fly off. When you hold Clover to your chest, she likes to climb up your shirt and onto your shoulder and sit facing backwards. She doesn’t like sitting facing forward for some reason. She likes to climb into hoods, pockets, and under arms. We are trying to teach her to say, ‘You’re my favorite.’ by repeating it often to her. I like Clover, she is turning out to be a good little bird.
John Paul is always calling Clover by different names. Even though when we named Clover he said, “I love the name Clover!” he won’t call her by her name. He has called Clover Daniel, Popeye, Tarzan, and probably a couple other names I either haven’t heard, or can’t remember. Oh, John Paul.
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Hurray! Today Dad took us to the pet store and we brought home a cute little bird. We have a nice little pet shop in town called the Ark that has lots of birds. Mom had been looking in to getting a bird, and the Ark happened to have the kind she wanted, a green-cheeked conure. Here is a good article about them Dad said yes, and so we piled into the car and went to the Ark. They had two green-cheeks, but one was a color mutation that didn’t look as nice in my opinion. So we bought the other green-cheek. It is very tolerant, and even though it is still scared of us, it lets everybody hold it without biting. We can’t tell if it is a boy or a girl without a DNA test, so we just decided to call it a girl since our Golden Retriever Isaiah and our Ragdoll cat Solomon were both boys. We named her Clover. I will post about her progress as she gets used to our family.
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