Hi! I'm Colin McCloskey

Or bird, rather. This is Pepper, Liz’ Mom’s bird. Pepper is very pretty (she even acknowledges this by saying “Pretty Birdy” often) and is kind of cute. And then you get near her and she becomes quite the pest.

You see, Pepper is pretty spoiled. She gets to do what she wants and most of the time she gets to do it when she wants. When her Mommy went out of town, however, on a recent vacation, most of the bird-sitting duties fell to… me… the stranger with the beard.

She didn’t take to me right away. Oh sure, I’d occasionally bring her over to the garbage can so she could poop away from her cage. And I’d occasionally make some sounds that she could respond to. But sometimes I’d forget to leave her music on. Or I’d not get downstairs early enough in the morning to let her out. Or I’d yell at her for squawking so loudly in my ear. It wasn’t her ideal arrangement. After all, where was her Mommy? Who is this guy?

But a funny thing happened halfway through her second day being stuck with me. She started to like me. She started to like me so much, in fact, that she wouldn’t leave me alone. She demanded that I let her sit on my shoulder. She chirped and cooed at me and rubbed her beak on me playfully. She cried when I left the room. She wouldn’t let me take her off of my shoulder. She was generally sick without me nearby.

And I finally understood. If you’re nice (enough) to the bird, she’ll come to accept you. And while I was nowhere near as cool as her Mommy, I was better than nobody. A lot better than nobody. So she clutched to me fiercely.

It all worked itself out. A vacation in Miami can last only so long and when it was over, Pepper’s Mommy returned. She has since calmed down considerably. Oh sure, I’m not really important to her, anymore, because her mom’s back, and I’m more comfortable *not* having a bird all over me half the time… but we’ll always have those four or so days.

We’ll always have that.