Blue Red and Grey for the Birds

["Jim Sigel" <drjimmy_mrjim@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Weird tales from the Animal Kingdom...This is a true story; sorry for the
lengthy post, but there is a Who connection, trust me.  It happened today,
only a little while ago.

In my house, which I affectionately call "The Zoo", my wife and I own more
animals than Noah had on the SS Minnow.  We have three dogs, a cat, two
finches, two large tanks full of fish, an iguana, and the protagonist of this
story, Chancie - the Sun Conure.  For those of you who aren't bird literate
(neither was I until I married Dr. Doolittle), a Sun Conure is a breed of
parrot, about 9 inches long from beak to tail, with brilliant green, yellow
and orange feathers.  She's an extremely affectionate bird, perching on your
shoulder while nibbling on your ear or quietly cooing if you stroke her neck.
However, she hates being excluded from anything and gets quite annoyed if you
leave the room without her.  In other words, she's a damn brat.

Sun Conures aren't know for their talking ability, in the "Polly want a
cracker" sense.  No, that would be too easy.  Conures - Chancie in particular,
have this high pitched, ear shattering SCREEEECH that has the potential to
break glass at twenty paces.  It's a good thing we don't live near a church
because we would have spent our last dime on stained glass window replacements
whenever Chancie feels particularly bratty.

Today while her mother was volunteering (guess where?) at the Animal Shelter,
I decided to put Chancie in her cage while I went off to take a shower.  She
wasn't having any of that and the horrid screeching began.  Once it starts,
there is no stopping it unless you take her with you, and believe me if you've
been exposed to her incessant screeching, it can drive you to sheer madness.
So, I decided to bring her into the bathroom with me while I showered.  It was
a good idea at first; she quieted down as I shaved.  However, when I stepped
behind the shower curtain, the screeching began again.  It was painfully
deafening bouncing off the tiles in the shower and I tried talking to her to
keep her quiet.  No good.  Louder and louder the screeching came.  So I
thought that perhaps if I hummed a tune, the melody might work.  Nope.  The
curtain began vibrating as her awful screech bounced back off the tile.  Maybe
if I sand a little lullaby, that might do the trick.  I quickly chose
McCartney's "Golden Slumbers" to softly sing (hey, it was the shower after
all) as I started twitching from the vicious screeches.  That got her real
mad; she doubled the intensity of the noise.  Apparently, she isn't a big
Beatle fan.  I had to think fast before I couldn't take anymore and threw her
into the oven for an "exotic chicken" surprise dinner for the wife.  I had
it.

I'm not much of singer (sorry Mc), but alone in the shower I feel pretty
confident.  I started to softly sing "Blue Red and Grey" from Who by Numbers
and by the end of the first verse, I heard Chancie calmly cooing.  I stopped
for second and the screeching began again, so with my eyes full of shampoo, I
started into the second verse.  She quieted down again.  I sang the entire
song twice before shutting off the water and she gently cooed the entire time.
Chancie my dear bird, knows a beautiful song when she hears one, even if it's
from her stressed out, crappy voiced old man.  We've been trying to figure out
a way to quiet her down when she gets like that for the entire year we've had
her, and now I know how.

And that's just another reason why I like every minute of the day.  Just
thought I'd share...

Jim in Colo Springs