Post by J.T.N on Jul 21, 2008 10:39:05 GMT -5
On a bitterly cold January morning a neighbor stopped by (I was not at home) and asked our teenage son if he would be willing to watch her parakeet while she vacationed. She was not at all apologetic for the last minute request. He told her he'd have to check with us. Within the hour, unwilling to wait for an answer she simply dropped the bird off and then headed to the airport.
My son saw no harm and decided to accept this last second delivery. She told my son the bird was very special and a well loved [only] pet of her children. This bird was special, she explained, since the death of her husband. The father had never allowed pets and this bird was a first pet for the children.
Upon my arrival home I saw the caged bird in my living room and naturally inquired where it had come from. My son told me about her hasty request and delivery and how he did not know what to do when she handed the bird over. I immediately noticed there was no covering on the cage and wondered if she had transported the poor thing without covering it when she dropped it off. Apparently she had. So I covered the cage to warm the poor thing but he was real quiet the rest of that day.
The next morning I checked on the bird and sure enough he was dead. Now what to do. So I decided the best approach was to place it in a zip lock baggy and put it in my freezer. [I wasn't quite sure when my neighbor would return and figured she could deal with this, i.e., bury the bird when she got home. Little did I know she had told my son she would call sometime during her vacation to check on its' status. About a week went by and call she did - letting the children leave voice mail for the bird also.
This was not going to be an easy task for me to tell her of the bird's demise. Suddenly I got a brilliant idea. I removed the frozen bagged bird and headed to the nearest pet store. Parakeets all look alike right? What these kids wouldn't know wouldn't hurt them right? A bird costs like 10 bucks. Soooo my plan was to buy another bird and replace it. No harm no foul.
Well, I quickly learned all parakeets are not the same. Their markings differ in varying degrees and I wondered how I would find an exact match. My first trip out hunting for a match resulted in horrified responses from pet store clerks as I pull a dead bird from my purse only to return home with a thawed bird and no replacement. So back in the freezer it went. Another day I head out to scour another pet store I could looking for it's twin. Well, the second trip out again resulted in a severely thawed and deformed mass of green feathers. By now I could distinguish 2 particular markings on it's melting face and snapped a digital to bring with me to continue my quest. By the third trip out I finally found a bird that was an almost exact match with the exception of two black dots at the corner of each eye. Not a problem I decided - I had a waterproof black laundry marker and I had a steady hand
So my neighbor returns and arrives with children in tow to collect her "doctored" bird. All is well as no one seems to notice any changes to their special pet. The following day I received a phone call from her prompted because of a question from the children: "Why are there black mascara type streaks running down the sides of the bird's face?" Well, the gig was up and I admitted what had happened and what I had done to remedy the situation. Her response, "I hated that friggin bird, you shouldn't have bothered." Nice.
Part two of this story: My husband and I grow Basil and make batches of pesto every year. We freeze it in zip lock baggies. We put each batch into gallon sized bags. One day I have a friend over and we served pesto. Of course my friend wanted our recipe. Better yet I offered her a batch of frozen pesto. I had a few loose bags frozen together and I gave them to her to enjoy. I guess a month went by when I received a frantic phone call from my friend. "What the hell did you give me frozen with the bags of pesto, it looks like a block of frozen feathers!" I stammered, "Oh Good God, just throw it away." You know the moral of the story.
My son saw no harm and decided to accept this last second delivery. She told my son the bird was very special and a well loved [only] pet of her children. This bird was special, she explained, since the death of her husband. The father had never allowed pets and this bird was a first pet for the children.
Upon my arrival home I saw the caged bird in my living room and naturally inquired where it had come from. My son told me about her hasty request and delivery and how he did not know what to do when she handed the bird over. I immediately noticed there was no covering on the cage and wondered if she had transported the poor thing without covering it when she dropped it off. Apparently she had. So I covered the cage to warm the poor thing but he was real quiet the rest of that day.
The next morning I checked on the bird and sure enough he was dead. Now what to do. So I decided the best approach was to place it in a zip lock baggy and put it in my freezer. [I wasn't quite sure when my neighbor would return and figured she could deal with this, i.e., bury the bird when she got home. Little did I know she had told my son she would call sometime during her vacation to check on its' status. About a week went by and call she did - letting the children leave voice mail for the bird also.
This was not going to be an easy task for me to tell her of the bird's demise. Suddenly I got a brilliant idea. I removed the frozen bagged bird and headed to the nearest pet store. Parakeets all look alike right? What these kids wouldn't know wouldn't hurt them right? A bird costs like 10 bucks. Soooo my plan was to buy another bird and replace it. No harm no foul.
Well, I quickly learned all parakeets are not the same. Their markings differ in varying degrees and I wondered how I would find an exact match. My first trip out hunting for a match resulted in horrified responses from pet store clerks as I pull a dead bird from my purse only to return home with a thawed bird and no replacement. So back in the freezer it went. Another day I head out to scour another pet store I could looking for it's twin. Well, the second trip out again resulted in a severely thawed and deformed mass of green feathers. By now I could distinguish 2 particular markings on it's melting face and snapped a digital to bring with me to continue my quest. By the third trip out I finally found a bird that was an almost exact match with the exception of two black dots at the corner of each eye. Not a problem I decided - I had a waterproof black laundry marker and I had a steady hand
So my neighbor returns and arrives with children in tow to collect her "doctored" bird. All is well as no one seems to notice any changes to their special pet. The following day I received a phone call from her prompted because of a question from the children: "Why are there black mascara type streaks running down the sides of the bird's face?" Well, the gig was up and I admitted what had happened and what I had done to remedy the situation. Her response, "I hated that friggin bird, you shouldn't have bothered." Nice.
Part two of this story: My husband and I grow Basil and make batches of pesto every year. We freeze it in zip lock baggies. We put each batch into gallon sized bags. One day I have a friend over and we served pesto. Of course my friend wanted our recipe. Better yet I offered her a batch of frozen pesto. I had a few loose bags frozen together and I gave them to her to enjoy. I guess a month went by when I received a frantic phone call from my friend. "What the hell did you give me frozen with the bags of pesto, it looks like a block of frozen feathers!" I stammered, "Oh Good God, just throw it away." You know the moral of the story.