My Grand-doggie Deoji
Well, it’s 9:30 pm and we just got home from taking our grand-doggie to the emergency room. Normally, when our beloved Deoji visits us for the day we play Frisbee or with a tennis ball. We played Frisbee for about 20 minutes but stopped after he seemed to be panting too hard. It was a hot and humid day today and if it were up to him, he would never stop chasing the Frisbee and just keep going until his legs give out. So I make the decision when I think he’s had enough, even though I know he’s thinking “thanks a lot Gram-mom- you have to spoil everything”. Also, his normally long, lean body has gained some weight of late, being that his doggie-day care place closed down for the last two weeks due to an outbreak of kennel cough. Fortunately, Deoji didn’t get it, but two of his girlfriends did- really bad even though they were inoculated against it. Anyway, later in the day, I decided it was time to go out and get some more exercise (good for me too!!). I don’t normally like playing with sticks with Deoji, but he kept bringing them to me and dropping them in front of me and looking at me with those huge dilated eyes saying “throw the stick, throw the stick – come on Gram-mommy, throw the stick!” So of course I did. He’d fetch and bring them back (making sure to break them in half each time) and I’d throw the smaller stick and watch him run absolutely FLAT OUT to catch the darn thing. I kept thinking the whole time, “I don’t really want to play with these stupid sticks, he’s going to get hurt one of these days”. Well, he broke all of the big sticks but found a skinny one and brought that one over for me to throw. Darn dog anyway. I KNEW I DID NOT want to throw this stick but flung it anyway. I watch in slow motion as the stick twirled end over end in the air with Deoji looking up to see where he should run to catch it. The stick came down in front of him and he grabbed it – my heart went up in my throat. He just stood there – not moving a muscle – I wanted to throw up- I knew it was bad. He started gagging with this stick just protruding from his mouth and couldn’t get it out. It seemed like it took me minutes to run the twenty feet to get to him. The stick seemed to have virtually impaled his throat. I pulled it out and it was covered in blood. Deoji was gagging and try to throw up- I was SURE there was a piece of stick stuck in his throat. Oh God – my daughter’s vet is closed and the nearest emergency vet is over 40 minutes away. I had a million things going through my mind at once. I called the emergency vet across the County and tell them we were coming in. I was thanking God Deoji could breathe okay because I knew it was going to take FOREVER to get there! I got behind every single slow jerk that was out on the road and it wasn’t even Sunday!. It was agony and I must have hissed and cursed under my breath more than 100 times on the way there. I kept wishing I had the money to open an emergency vet office in my area. This long of a drive when you NEED to get somewhere is just unacceptable. And I know there are MANY people in my area that must have gone through the same thing I was at that very moment. I had that stomach in my throat fear that something so bad has happened and you can’t get to the doctor’s fast enough! After an hour and a half hour wait (yes that’s 1 1/2 hours), it was finally Deoji’s turn. They took him for an x-ray and thank you God, there were no pieces of stick in his throat. They DID find that he seemed to have a small esophageal tear though, but said he should be okay and it would heal itself with some medication. I walked out of there with two medications that I now had to explain to my daughter how to give him. One was to help repair the tear, the other was for pain. Did you ever notice what nice people you meet in the same situation you are?? There were several people in the waiting room that I felt like they had been my friends for way longer than 5 minutes. My gripe for this whole ordeal, is that the hospital charged outrageous fees for their care. Yes, I know it was an emergency and believe me, I would have paid anything to make sure that he was okay, but this is just outright taking advantage of people in need. Just one of the fees was $104 for ONE x-ray. Not a CAT scan or ultrasound or anything like that- JUST an x-ray. The fee for the “visit” was acceptable because it WAS an emergency, however they charged almost the same amount for the “exam” and then the medications on top of that. Deoji’s life is more important to me than money but I do think it’s disgraceful how these emergency centers start rubbing their hands together the second you walk in the door. Deoji will be okay, (I am SO relieved) and my pocketbook will recover but he will NEVER play with another stick in his life. I am going to make sure he only plays with Frisbees from now on. Darn animals anyway. Gram-mommy loves you honey. I’m sorry I let you get hurt today. I’ve got lots of hug and kisses for you when you feel better.
Are You Sure You Want That Bird?
Being an animal lover I always wanted to be surrounded by lots of furry and feathery things. Besides having dogs ALL of my life and cats a good portion of my life, I decided about 18 years ago I needed MORE. Okay – DUH!! I thought it was time to add feathery things now. Yes, even with the three cats I had at the time.
I started off small – a parakeet for each of my two kids. My son got a blue Parakeet, which was named Gemini and my daughter picked a greenish/yellowish parakeet and named it Sprite – clever –hehe. All was going well for about a year, until I walked back into that pet shop one day and there was a very handsome Gray cockatiel, who proceeded to climb right up on me when I went over to talk to it. My new “Smokey” (didn’t wait until I was out of the store to name it ) didn’t seem to mind the car ride home in that little box at all. He loved his new surroundings and being home with people that really enjoyed him and fussed over him. He was only 13 weeks old and was just so incredibly beautiful – such bright yellows and orange cheeks! You could pet him and kiss him and squish him (gently, of course!). He was quite smart too! I was able to teach him to whistle part of “Some Enchanted Evening” and he became quite well known for that.
I decided months later that he needed a friend. He was friendly with the parakeets, but let’s face it – they were DIFFERENT from him. He was the happiest little birdie when I came home one day with Dusty. A very beautiful FEMALE pearl cockatiel. They became inseparable from the get-go. Love at first site, there was no stopping them. It became clear that I needed to get a nesting box, as his version of Some Enchanted Evening became more fervent every day. Little did I know that song would actually MEAN something to him hehe.
I got the “penthouse” of nesting boxes and they wasted no time in setting up their little boudoir once I attached it to their cage. Long story short, they raised six clutches over the next several years. I LOVED hand-raising cockatiels. Those little babies are just so prehistoric looking, you can not help but fall in love with them. I let Smokey and Dusty take care of the babies for the first two weeks and then I took them away to finish up hand-feeding for then next 6 weeks and acclimating them to people. The 2 am and 4am feedings were the best – NOT! Most of the babies were given to my friends. A few babies I sold back to the pet shop only because I knew the owner was VERY fussy about who he sold ANY pets to. I knew they would have good homes.
During this time of raising cockatiel babies, my daughter fell in love with a Peach Front Conure (a/k/a 
Peaches) and I found a gorgeous Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Zachary) from the same darn pet store. A BIG bird!! I read up on cockatoos and KNEW I could give him a great home and teach him all kinds of words and tricks. Zachary is now 13 years old and not sociable at all, says maybe only 8 words and the only tricks he knows consists of a decibel that is truly deafening. He literally freaks when my daughter comes to visit (yes, that’s correct - she doesn’t live here any more but her bird, Peaches, does). I have to move him and his cage to a completely different room when she comes over. I can not have him out of his cage when she comes in because he will actually fly after her and try to attack her. He is extremely jealous of her. 
Over the next few years, while Smokey and Dusty were raising their families, there were a couple babies I absolutely could not part with. Okay, there were EIGHT babies I could not part with. My living room and dining room became my own little aviary. I do believe I was the only one who actually enjoyed listening to 12 birds all chattering at once. Smokey still loved me too and he used to fly over to me and sit on me for hours. But you could just tell that Smokey and Dusty we true “life mates” if ever you saw that type of thing in birds. They were SO happy together.
As time went on, it was not without some heartache along the way. I lost three birds to cancer. One of them was Dusty, the Mommy of all the babies. She had a tumor the size of big fat nickel removed from her chest cavity the first time. The vet had never seen anything like it and actually paid for lab fees to have it analyzed. Turned out it was a rare type of cancer that almost never shows up in the Avian world. Dusty survived and was fine after a couple of weeks of recovery. There was no more breeding after this though and I tried to make sure she ate healthy and was happy. Unfortunately, only a year later the cancer returned and took her one day while she was sleeping in the nest box I left on for them to sleep in. She was only 12. My Smokey was so upset. His wife of a little more than 11 years was gone – the love of his life. After that he hardly even wanted to come out of the cage any more. I would leave the door open and he would just stay in anyway. I took the nest box off because he wouldn’t even go in there to sleep any more. My heart broke for him. I never saw a depressed bird before and it is not something I really want to see again.
In the 14 years I had the cockatiels, three merely fell off their perches and were instantly dead. I never understood that and did not have the money for a necropsy, so I am just assuming they had a heart attack or stroke. I don’t know, but it was very distressing. Two others died at different times when I was away on vacation and another died of natural causes. I found my Smokey when I came home from this past New Year’s Eve party. He was on the floor of the cage when I came in. I was sick when I found him. It was a terrible thing to start the New Year off with and I felt to badly I wasn’t home when it happened. He was 17 and I know he was happy but he was really never the same after Dusty died 5 years ago. He was really the best. I wish I had not forgotten to say good night to him that last night before I left for the party.
So now, after 17 years of birds, I am left with Peaches, who would just as soon bite you as look at you, and Zachary. Oh Zachary. The incorrigible Zachary. I don’t know what I am to do. As much as I read about owning a cockatoo, there really just is not enough to read. You truly can not possibly understand what it is like to own a parrot. They need so much of your time and A LOT of patience. They are usually only one person birds and frankly, I do not think they should be in a home that has small children. I have been bitten three times with that big beak and it is extremely painful, never mind bloody. If he wanted to bite me hard enough, I know he could either sever part of my finger or at least break it. I don’t think I would want that around a young child for sure.
Zachary has about 50 years left in his life. I have 20, if I’m lucky. Sooooooooo, that means I will have to leave him in my Will to a family member – my kids said they would be happy to SPLIT him. Yeah, right. I am smart enough to know what they mean by “split”!! Very funny kids. So that is another thing to consider before buying one of the beautiful, large birds -your time frame. They will, more than likely, outlive you, so make sure you have arrangements in your Will after your demise. You want to make sure he will be taken care of by someone who is not afraid of big birds or big beaks. They need to understand their body language and what their eyes are saying. You NEED to put careful thought into that.
I feel lucky that I had all those years with my beautiful birds (and more to come with the two I have). But I miss the “noise” and I miss having a flock of birds flying around my house when something spooks them all at once. (well, okay, I don’t really miss that part). So now, I am down to two birds, one of which will definitely have the last laugh. The point of this whole thing, is you really need to talk to people that own a parrot and you need to read every article you can find about them. They change your life almost as much as having kids. All I can say, is after you do all of your research and have made a decision to actually own one, you are either going to have a genius on your hands or one that will make every day a challenge. Either way, you have they can be a joy to watch, to pet, to teach, and most of all to love with all your heart.
Does My Pet Need A Bed??
I look at it this way: Your dog is part of your family - he/she is not just “something” to have around for petting pleasure when you feel like indulging in some furry love. I would not expect ME or my significant other to sleep on the hard floor, even though it may be carpeted. Well, okay - MAYBE sometimes I feel like shoving my significant other on the floor when he won’t stop his snoring - hehe. I would never MAKE my children sleep on the floor unless they had their “good to minus 20 degrees” sleeping bags for their sleepover parties. But to MAKE my pets sleep on the floor??? Nuh-uh!!! Personally, I always preferred that my dog sleep on my bed but then she always demanded more than her share of the mattress. I always ended up with a sliver of mattress, like it or not. She is gone now but that is one of the memories I have of her that always makes me smile. And she would hog the mattress so effortlessly!!
So, anyway, the answer folks is, YES!! Your pet DOES need a bed - just not yours. He/she needs a place to be comfortable and know that it is a special place just for them to spend the night until it’s time to wake up Mom or Dad to go outside to relieve themselves in the morning.
Having their very own bed could possibly help with them constantly climbing up on the furniture too. They know it’s the place for them to go to sleep or relax. If your pet feels better sleeping or relaxing where you are, get another bed for the living room or wherever it is you spend your hours before going to bed at night. That will make him more like he’s part of the family too - being right in the middle of everything going on and not missing a trick and watching it from his very own spot.
There are several types of beds that you can get. One type is a ”cushion bed type”. This one is like a big overstuffed pillow. Mostly, they come stuffed with either a type of foam cushioning or cedar chips. The beds with cedar shavings can get “lumpy” sometimes though and require constant “plumping”, otherwise they can become uncomfortable and your pet may end up not using it at all. The fragrance of cedar can help keep fleas away but you will want to make sure your pet does not find the fragrance objectionable.
Next there is a ”nest or oval bed type” bed, which is cylindrical in shape with 5 to 7 inch walls and allows your pet to curl up. A lot of pets like this type of bed because it makes them feel “secure” and comfortable in their curled up position.
Then there is a ”mat type” of bed. These can either be a fleece type of mat with very shallow sides (good for crate beds) or just a totally flat mat. Some of these mat beds have a system for heating in the winter months or cooling in the summer months. There is an inner core in the beds that you soak in hot or cold water for 30 minutes (depending on the season) and then insert back into the mat itself. These mats definitely make your pet more comfortable if he/she likes to spend a lot of time in the outdoors.
The best one yet, resembles the ”Papasan type” chairs. These are for the the pets that just love being “up” on something. They are round and cushioney and give that feeling of security since they can really only curl up in this type of bed. Very nice!
So I say “spoil away”. There is no other animal on earth that deserves our pampering more than our furry family members. Why shouldn’t they have some of the same comforts we have!! You can find all of these beds and others located in our store at FurandFlora.