Dear Parrots magazine,
Happy Family
About two and a half years ago I bought a hand-reared cockatiel and called him, Billy, after the TV series, Hale & Pace - they did a sketch with characters called, Billy and Johnny that I found hilarious. I bought him a cage and some toys to play with. He seemed to get on well with his new home and soon became one of the family, that is my daughter, Sally and myself. Billy and Sally got on really well and became firm ‘mates’.
Sally, like most teenage girls, was becoming restless and started to discover boys and I am sure that anyone reading this could guess what was to come. As Sally turned 20, she would go out more and more and spent less time with Billy. This, I thought, was unfortunate but understood that young people want to go out with their friends and have fun. Mind you. Sally was still very fond of Billy and their bond was as strong as ever, but life has to go on.
This presented me with a problem as I felt Billy was getting lonely so what could I do. The obvious thing would be to buy another bird to provide company and a playmate for Billy, which is exactly what I did. So Billy’s new mate is another cockatiel, and a female. The pet shop owner was certain Billy was a male so I now have a pair. They seem to be very happy together, Sally makes a fuss of them both, she is happy with her friends so everyone is happy including myself.
Jeanette Hopkins, Sheffield