A picture of something that makes you happy

What makes me happy? Lots of things! There is one ‘thing’ that just melts my heart – allow me to introduce Cookie, one of my two pet Cockatiels. Cookie has graced my life for the past 10 years. We’ve been through a lot together, but she has always been there. Even if she can’t understand me and vice versa, all she wants is to sit on my shoulder and love me and for me to love her, well actually, scratch her head on demand.

Cookie

A few years ago, I faced the decision of whether or not to put Cookie down. She’d all but plucked herself bald. After very expensive vet treatments at the exotic pet specialist all the way over in West Auckland, she has fully recovered, even if she does resent me for getting her a ‘friend’ called Lucky.

Cookie likes to think she is human, one of us. Her favourite foods are cheese, vogels toast and corn chips. Even though she is meant to be on a very strict organic diet. I suspect she eats better than the rest of us in the house

Every morning when I leave for work, the minute she hears the garage door going up, or hears the jingle of my keys, she is quite vocal in expressing her displeasure at my impending departure, because she’d rather I be kicking around the house talking to her all day. I know she misses me while I’m at work or the race track.

She has been partially trained. She is hand/shoulder friendly and loves a scratch, or she knows it as Boogas. I did that to prove a point that she knows the sound and not the actual word. She knows other commands like ‘come here’ and ‘can’t reach’. The second command is awesome when she is demanding a head scratch from me and I can’t reach because my fingers only fit so far into her cage.

I always tell people that I love parrots over real children because unlike real children, I can keep my parrots in a cage, throw a towel over the cage and they go straight to sleep, they feed and bathe themselves and there are no diaper changes required. I know the day will come when Cookie and I will part company, and thinking about that makes me cry, but for now, I’m happy letting this little grey bird colour my world.