(This is an old blog post from my old blog. I wrote it in 2009, and the details are out of date, but I’m sharing it here as is because I don’t feel like rewriting it right now. But here’s a rant I wrote:)
I am a great believer in adopting “used” pets. Too many people get a pet on the spur of the moment, and then realize later how much work it is to be a pet owner. When I adopt a pet, I keep it for all its life. All three of my dogs are rescued. Belty was on death row at the pound at the age of one and a half years. Nicki was abandoned as a mixed breed puppy when a kennel changed locations. Lily is very old and was found all messed up and brought to a vet for care.
The saddest story of all is for parrots, as they mate for life and can live as long as a person. Parrots grow to love one member of the family who is his mate. When that person is tired of having a parrot, or dies, that parrot can get very sick.
I have first-hand experience with homeless parrots. Our parrot, Peanut Boy recently died. We adopted him after his elderly owner had died. Poor Peanut Boy was a mess. Because of the stress of losing his owner, he had pulled out most of his feathers. He lived out his geriatric years a very happy bird being in love with my hubby. Rufus, my other parrot, is also adopted. His owners got a divorce and neither one wanted him. I was working at a pet shop between engineering jobs about eight years ago and he fell in love with me. When Peanut Boy died, Rufus fell in love with my hubby.
I also have adopted old, handicapped and injured parakeets. They are so small, that there is always room for one more. Over the years I have had a parakeet with no eyes, one with no legs, one with one leg and one with one eye. They have since all died. Fred and Ginger, who I still have, were found in a shoebox in front of a house where a parrot owning lady lived. The lady brought them into a pet shop because they were itsy bitsy babies with crippled legs, hardly any feathers, and needed to be hand fed. She didn’t have the time to take care of them. The next day, I walked into the pet shop and the personnel, who know what a soft touch I am, asked me to please take these babies, which I did. Their legs are still crippled with a condition called “splay leg”. They are happy and manage to get around alright. They both have mates.
I don’t pay for handicapped birds, as a rule. I always manage to talk the store owner out of them, promising to give them a loving home for the rest of their life. When I first saw Pipsqueak, my lovebird, he was one big scab, and hardly any feathers. He had been attacked by his parents, and was all torn up. He was really pitiful. I took him home, of course, and my other lovebird, who has since died, tended his wounds, nibbling off edges of healing scabs.
Penny, my sweet cockatiel and my first bird, was very homely. Penny is old, as I found out from her leg band later on. She was wild when I first saw her, and she was missing a toe. The missing toe makes her walk crooked, and it makes her tail feathers break off and bend in half. She has never been able to grow out a nice tail. But she loves Mom, and that is all that counts.
There is a lot of love out there who can be found for free. Please consider adopting a homeless, or handicapped pets.
Thank you.
Update:
I’m not married anymore, all but three of my birds have died of old age, and my dogs live in Puppy Dog Heaven. I can’t have more pets because I have messed up lungs, and my doctor won’t let me.
Here’s a blog post I wrote about my adopted puppy dogs, Nicki and Belty:
Here is another blog post I wrote that has info about some of my other pets. Rufus, Jonah and Candy still live with me:
Cynthia Kinman's Ramblings 