Dixie's Story
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My name is Dixie. I have been living here for quite some time now. I'm a lovebird with green wings, a red face and a blob of blue on my tail. When I was very young I lived with my Previous Dad. I loved him a lot. He let me fly about all day long in his living room, and when he went out he left his dog with me for company. The dog was my best friend. Then one day, I don't know why, Previous Dad brought me here. He said he didn't want me any more. He gave me to a lady here called Kaz. "Why don't you want her any more?" asked Kaz. "Because she sits on my shoulder and nibbles my ear when I'm trying to study," said Previous Dad. Then he said goodbye to me and left me here. I never saw him again. Kaz put me into an aviary with a small number of other lovebirds, thinking I would make some friends. She kept an eye on me to check that the other birds were nice to me and didn't bite my feet or anything, but they didn't.
However much I tried, though, I just couldn't settle down. I kept wondering when Previous Dad would come and take me home. But the days dragged by and he didn't come back. My heart hurt so much I thought I would die. I couldn't understand it. I had loved him so much and I had trusted him. I thought he loved me too. I became so upset that I began to pull my feathers out, first from my chest, then from my back, and then from my wings. This was very painful, but it helped to take my mind off the pain in my heart, which was much much worse. Birds can't cry when they are sad, nor chew their fingernails when they are anxious, all they can do is pull out feathers. In the end I pulled out so many from my wings that I couldn't fly properly any more. And when I couldn't reach any more feathers (you can't pull out your own head feathers) I began to pick at the skin under my wings and made myself bleed. This was even more painful but still the pain in my heart was worse. To love someone and not to be loved in return is the very worst kind of pain in my opinion.
Kaz became extremely worried when she saw me bleeding. She took me to the vet. "I'm worried she might get septicaemia," she told the vet. He gave me something to prevent septicaemia, but he didn't have any medicine for a broken heart. He put a collar on me to stop me biting myself. But I soon nibbled through that and carried on nibbling at myself. I went off my food. Kaz said I was so thin that my breastbone felt like a razorblade and I was completely bald apart from my head. "Dixie you look like a plucked chicken on a supermarket shelf!" said Kaz.
Then Kaz had a brainwave. She said to Chan (my New Dad): "Let's try to recreate the life Dixie had before she came here! Living in a living room with a dog…" So Kaz did just that. She let me live in her living room with Annie the dog for comany. Annie became my friend. Annie is a soppy brown and white spaniel with curly ears and a swishing tail. She used to like sniffing me and sometimes I pretended I was going to bite her nose if she didn't back off. Then she would indeed back off because she was scared of my big red open beak. If Annie came into the room and couldn't see me she always began to cry and sniff around till she found me. Sometimes I played tricks on her and Kaz and Chan. I would hide from them, under the coffee table, on top of the curtains, in the bookcase, under newspapers, once even in the video cabinet under the TV. Sometimes they took ages to find me - it was hilarious, well I thought so.
Kaz
gave me a beautiful big white cage to sleep in at night and to have my meals in.
The door was always open. She gave me tasty things, my favourites being
sweetcorn, apple and millet. Sometimes she let me listen to CDs. I especially
liked one, of peaceful Celtic music with birdsong and water flowing in the
background. Kaz used to call it my 'birdie music'. In the evenings Kaz and Chan would sit and watch TV with me and eat their dinner on the sofa.
These were happy days. I rarely picked at myself, and my feathers began to grow back. The pain in my heart gradually disappeared, and now my life with Previous Dad is like a far away dream. If he came to take me back now I don't think I would want to go.
I lived in that room with Kaz and Chan and Annie the dog for more than one year. Then unexpectedly last spring I had a sudden urge to get back to my roots. I felt so emotional about this that I am afraid I did have quite a big pick at my feathers, though not as badly as before. The vet said it was probably my hormones playing me up, as hormones are wont to do in springtime. I could hear the other lovebirds in the aviary and I began to yell to them as loudly as I could. "Can I come back and live with you?" "Of course you can, we'd love to have you back!" they yelled back in chorus. "Good grief Dixie," said Kaz, "what's going on? You used to be so quiet. And what's happened to your beautiful plumage?" I myself didn't really understand the cause, I just knew it was time to go back with my own kind. After about two weeks of our non-stop back-and-forth screaming Kaz finally began to take the hint. "Do you think she might want to live with the other lovebirds again?" she asked Chan, who was wearing earplugs. Chan hoped I did because the living room was becoming impossible for any sane humans to live in. Lovebirds love loud noise but humans on the whole do like their peace and quiet. Poor Chan! It was the only way we could make you and Kaz understand what we wanted. So Kaz eventually put me back with the others. She kept checking on me but to her surprise I took to life in the aviary like a duck to water, and my plumage was restored to its former glory. I felt as if I'd never been away, only my heart was in one piece this time.
Kaz says I am the most sensitive bird she has ever known. I admit I am a little highly strung - even now if I get over- emotional about something, like springtime, or a change in my routine, I can't help but have a little pick. It's just my nerves. But on the whole I feel a lot happier and more secure these days. I trust Kaz and Chan and Annie, and I get on all right with the other lovebirds. I feel I am wanted, and that's the main thing.
Dixie's Update:
I thought you might like to know that I now have a boyfriend who adores me. His name is Figaro - and here he is!
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Me, when I was on the shelf |
The look of love............ |
Me, on top of the world! |
