Pretty Bird

Back in the olden days when Jeff and I were dating, a cockatiel walked up his Mom's driveway. She caught it and brought it inside. Jeff's mom just so happened to have a bird cage in her shed, even though she had never owned a bird. (She is a major pack rat, and I used to tease her that if an elephant walked up her driveway she would probably find something to put it in, and she would agree with me) She put the bird in the cage and kept it as her own. As it turned out, the bird talked. Its favorite phrase was "Pretty Bird " which it would loudly proclaim every time you walked in the door. The bird would also whistle at you. Between Pretty Bird and Tater, a person could get to feeling pretty good about themselves.  I taught it a specific whistle just by doing it whenever I was over there. My mother-in-law taught it to say 'Shwoo, shwoo!' That was what she always said in place of whistling when she thought someone looked good, because I guess she couldn't whistle. 'Pretty Bird' stayed around for quite a while, until one day it flew out the door. Oh, the horror! They drove around for a few days looking for the bird with no luck. I can't remember if it was days or weeks, but low and behold the bird showed back up at the house. Pretty Bird lived with her for almost 10 years I think, before meeting its demise. If there were to have been an autopsy I would bet money that bird had lung cancer from all the second hand smoke. But we shall never know.