"Shy Girl" (Continued)*

A true and contemporary story revolves around our "Shy Girl," a cute little Peach-Cheeked Love Bird, and her lady friend, "Miss Azure," who is sitting on infertile eggs. The two cannot mate, because they are two different species of birds, not to mention that we just found out on Tuesday, 5/5/2010 that "Shy Guy" is a GIRL. Azure nests in the lower, back, right corner of their cage, and "Shy Girl" feeds her, protects her and covers Azure's body with Shy Girls's wings and her chest to keep Azure warm! I cannot get close enough with my camera to take an "up close" picture without my frightening "Shy Girl" and "Miss Azure," so the picture at the top of this page. showing "Miss Azure" on the upper left and "Shy Girl" on the upper right,  is the best that I can produce. This is one of the many stories of our birds... 

Love Birds have a very sharp and powerful beak and can pierce ones skin like an old-fashioned beer can opener. We suffered many such gaping and painful wounds to our fingers the first few days, and it seemed like this bird whom Jeanne named "Shy Guy" would not make it more than a few days with us.

Jeanne initially named him "Shy Guy" because the bird tucked its head down when we approached it and tried to pick it up, and Jeanne initially thought that the bird was a "male".  Its large Black Eyes are simply gorgeous as well as very expressive. In fact, when one looks at its face, its eyes and the shape of its huge beak gives one the impression that it is actually and perpetually smiling!

Jeanne soon tamed the bird down enough to work with it.  It quickly became her bird, as she taught it to climb up on her finger and to climb up the power cord to her bathroom fan and then to look down at her and "cheep" . She also lets it climb up onto a washcloth-covered wooden block and look at itsreflection in her bathroom mirror.

But its all-time favorite pasttime is getting a bath. It knows that if it doesn't bite Jeanne's finger, it will get a bath. But even if it no longer draws blood, when it bites, if it bites Jeanne's finger, NO BATH FOR THE BIRD!

During the early morning hours of Tuesday, 5 May 2010, Jeanne said she heard "Shy Guy" screaming!. But when Jeanne lifted the cover off his cage, Jeanne did not see anything unusual. Later yesterday morning, when Jeanne investigated further, Jeanne discovered a broken egg in the bottom of "Shy Guy's" cage! "Shy Guy" IS A GIRL! So now her name is "Shy Girl!"

Jeanne has also taught Shy Girl to jump down from the back of the couch to the livingroom carpet and race across the carpeted floor to her cage and either climb the rope or climb the ladder to her cage, which she used to share with a little light green female Parakeet, until the Parakeet suddenly died on 12/20/2009. The reason that Shy Girl jumps with her outstretched wings, rather than actually fly, is because she rercently reinjured her left wing, which droops to her body. Jeanne and I do not know when or how she re-broke her wing, but we only know that she did.

We were told, AFTER we had put her into the cage with two female Parakeets, that she would kill the two Parakeets. But no one told her, because she took up with both of them, and especially after they began to feed and to preen her. We had to remove one of the female Parakeets when she started becoming hormonal and started wanting to lay infertal eggs. Otherwise, she would attack "Gen-2," the other female Parakeet, as well as Shy Girl. After Gen-Two died on 12/20/2009, Jeanne and I waited about a month before we placed Azure back in the cage with Shy Girl, because she was lonely after the death of Gen-Two, and we wanted to get Azure out of her cage where she had been laying infertile eggs. The two birds get along very well.

She will probably never again be able to fly or to properly use her left wing, due to the nerve damage caused by the cats' chewing into her wing muscles. But Jeanne does "little birdie wing exercises" on a daily basis in order to strengthen her broken wing and also helps her to "fly," as she holds her two feet and makes her "pretend "to fly around in a circle above Jeanne's head. She does not actually fly, but rather, she spreads her wings and "soars" like an eagle with hewings outspread!

Shy Girl has been with us for almost a full year now, as of 11/28/2009, and although I still love her, it is quite evident that Shy Girl is Jeanne's bird after all!

UPDATE: I am sorry to report that Shy Girl died suddenly Friday afternoon, 8/13/2010. We will miss her!

Initially Written Saturday, 11/28/2009.

Updated Tuesday, 5 May 2010, when we discovered that "Shy Guy" was a GIRL!

Final Update: Friday, 8/13/2010, at her death...