Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

Hope you and Mrs. Clause are doing well. I know this your busy time of year, so I’ll try not to take too much of your time.

A lot of things have changed since I wrote you last. Something happened with my family and I got really sad and angry. My emotions made me so nervous that I started to pluck some of my feathers out. I didn’t mean to, as I always quite liked my feathers, but I just couldn’t seem to help myself. As I lost more and more feathers, I got even more upset, then I started to hurt myself. I know I was being a very bad bird, but I didn’t know how else to express how sad I was. Anyway, I ended up having to move into the hospital. I miss my family, but I really don’t blame them because they didn’t know what to do with me. 

But guess what? While I was at the hospital, I met a lady and she really liked me and she wants me to be her parrot and become a member of her family. I’ve been staying with her for over a month now, although I did have to go back to the hospital for a little bit. I’m trying my best to be a good bird and not pluck or hurt myself. Of course it helps that I have this collar around my neck that stops me from reaching my body (sigh!) My foster Mom is trying to teach me to take my frustration out on toys instead of myself. I’m trying my best, but I might still need to wear my collar for a while yet.

Dear Santa, for Christmas this year, could you work some of your magic and help me to be a better bird and not hurt myself anymore. I love my new family and I want to stay here forever. With your help, the help of my vet and my new family, I’m sure I can be a healthy and happy again.

All my best to the elves and reindeer.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Kosmo

PS. Sending you a picture, Mom made it on Photoshop (I think she needs more practice!)

 

Slave to Love

Kosmo is back home after 2 weeks at the vet’s. One of the main purposes for his visit was to find a way to keep a collar on him for longer than a couple of days. As I’ve mentioned, my avian vet isn’t close, so travelling there and back regularly is difficult.

A couple of days before Kosmo came home, my Mom arrived for her usual winter stay here on the west coast. So now I’ve got my mother, as well as my long-lost, self-mutilating, Quaker parrot living with me and my dog. This may not seem like much of an issue, except that Kosmo has been very loud since his return, and when you’re not used to squawking parrots, well it isn’t easy on the ears (or the nerves.)

Poor Kosmo now has a double collar, one “dicky” collar bolted right around his neck, then a wide plastic collar over that that stops him from basically reaching any part of his body. This is quite invasive for an animal without hands, and he now has both limited ability and mobility.

As a result, I have become his attendant, care aid, servant…holding pieces of food for him while he eats, moving him from place to place (the collars really throws off his equilibrium.) I also need give him 3 different medications and a special “pabulum” 4 times daily.

Finally, I’ve been trying my best to keep Kosmo relatively quiet so that he doesn’t drive my Mom completely around the bend!

Needless to say, my alcohol consumption has increased significantly.

However, my little family is all together again and my favorite time of year is fast approaching.

There are much more terrible things to be a slave to than compassion or love, so I’m happy to make the effort, but still thankful for the wine 🙂

Empty Nest

So Kosmo has been at the vet’s since Nov 3rd. I surrendered him there after 4 days of having him home wearing this huge collar – not even a cone that just covers his head, a collar that was literally about twice his girth.

Have a look.

My poor little guy 😦

He was obviously very unhappy about this impediment and worked labouredly to remove it. After 2 days he had chewed a good section out of the rim and by the fourth day he was getting his lower beak stuck under the plastic, so thinking this might be dangerous, I removed the collar. Within a few minutes, he was repeating the same behaviour that got him in trouble in the first place.

Sigh!

As you’ve probably guessed by now, Kosmo started self-mutilating again; picking a big sore deep under one of his wing. Which I totally missed GUILT-GUILT-GUILT!

So, getting back to my removing his collar only to have him start picking again and all this was happening while I was expecting a client, who has actually become my friend (thank God) to arrive at my place any minute for a meeting.

I knew I needed to stop him from picking, so I took a pillow case and swaddled him so that he was very much immobile.  Thus, when my client arrived, I greeted her cradling a squawking, miniature, mummified, Quaker parrot, who she took one look at and said, “We’ve got to get that bird to the vet.”

And so because of this woman’s kindness and understanding, our meeting took place in my car, with the squawking bird and the whining dog (needed to be walked) in the backseat, while I drove at break-neck speed across town (to avoid rush-hour) and surrender my poor little baby to someone who we both hoped could help him.

I’m going to pick him up tomorrow. I hope I get a chance to talk in depth to the vet. Funny stories aside…I’m very worried about this situation.

As I said in my first post: I really, really hope this will be a happy story.