Feathered Friends
Feathers & Fur

Feathers and Fur

We enjoyed visiting in the home of relatives several months ago. Adding to the fun were their very entertaining pets: a parrot, a little lovebird, and a German Shorthaired Pointer named Harper.

The lovebird is a sweet little thing. When it is ready to go to sleep, it gets on top of the parrot and they snuggle together as they sleep.

Harper reminds me of a human child in a dog costume – a child who never matured beyond two years of age - a perennial two-year-old needing constant one on one attention. Then she notices a stray animal in HER yard and immediately goes into the classic “point” stance - once again becoming the beautiful dog that she is. Then back she comes making sure everyone in the room is OK after her brief lapse of attention. And apologetically (but pointedly) offers each person an opportunity to pat her head and scratch her ear.

That parrot they have is a hoot! I do not know what kind it is, only that it is small, loud for its size, and has been around for years. They had it when they had Henry, the black Giant Schnauzer. Henry has been gone now for many years, but the parrot remembers him. And, every time Harper walks through the room, the parrot yells “ 'ENRY!”

Now a Giant Schnauzer and a German Shorthaired Pointer look nothing alike to you and me, but I think a parrot is clever when it recognizes that this is another of the same kind of four-footed animal walking through the room. Maybe he thinks Henry has gotten gray like the rest of us.


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