How old were you when you got your first bird and what was it? For me, it was a parakeet named Petey when I was just 5 years old. I was hooked from the start! Back then (circa 1960) parakeets were readily available at the local Woolworths. Unfortunately, little was known about their health and dietary needs at that time so they often didn't live more than a year or two at best. I had a string of Woolworth parakeets until the 70's when we were able to get a much healthier budgie from a local breeder. Shelly went all the way through high school, college, graduate school and my first job with me and lived for 14 years.

Now I have a beautiful flock of nine birds as represented by the icons in my signature line.

- Zeke lives with me in spirit only now. I lost him to cancer a month ago. He was my oldest bird, a 25 year old African Grey who I raised from a baby. Zeke was wonderfully adjusted, charmed almost everyone he met and loved to go to work with me where his favorite job was paper shredding and supervising the warehouse staff from his lofty second floor window perch.
- Pico (aka Count Beakula), is a 12 yo African Grey who was adopted from an elderly couple two years ago and has a few issues that we are gradually working on (ouch!).
- Josie, a Double Yellow Amazon, also around 14 yo, came into my life about 9 years ago (along with my significant other). It took 8 years of patience to win Josie over to the point I could give her daily head scratches. In a typical amazon way she has to be first in line for scritches or there is hell to pay.
- Sky, my sweet little blue Quaker, has one of the gentlest birdie souls I've ever met. She's a wonderful talker and loves to sing and dance. Her favorite song is "If your happy and you know it clap your hands"
- Echo, an Eclectus, has been with me for 14 years, he is a plucker but healthy and sweet.
-And then there is the little terrorist society Parrotlet squad of four, two of whom are pets and two who were breeders who just needed a place to retire. They all share a special place in my heart.