Number Five

This is Gideon – a Rose Breasted (or Galah) Cockatoo – hatched on May 26, 1998. He was an unplanned addition to our family. We had taken our four birds to our favorite bird shop owner for wing and nail trims. Afterwards we always visited with the birds in the shop. I was gabbing with Linda, the owner, when my husband tapped me on the shoulder. “This one really likes me” he says. (The only bird of ours that he could handle was Spike – the others were bonded to me.)

Linda smiled and introduced us to Gideon. For some reason he was a year and a half old and no one had bought him yet. I couldn’t imagine why – he was just the cutest chubby little guy and he whispered in your ear! Linda told Mark that the bird really liked him and we should consider taking him home. We laughed and said we couldn’t do that. We already had four cages crowding our living/dining room! But of course all we did was think about him after we went home.

We went back for another visit the following week. While Mark was carrying him around someone else noticed how cute he was and asked Linda about him. That customer was informed that the bird was quite old enough to choose his owner and had chosen Mark! What could we do but take him home?? On October 30, 1999 we added another cage to the living room and another bird into our hearts.