Friday, March 1, 2013

Kino

 
This is finally a good picture of Kino , my blue fronted Amazon.
I raised him from a chick.
This young man was raising birds in his apartment and they were making a lot of noise
so his neighbors were complaining.
In Singapore Lee Kuan Yew built government homes and depending on the size of your family, this was the size apartment you got. There was a waiting list but it was affordable housing and had hawker stalls in the basement where any one could buy meals very cheap. It didn't pay to cook at home especially in the heat.

This young man lived with his Mom so I guess their apartment was maybe a one bedroom or maybe two.
It was very small and full of bird cages.
I loved going into parks in Singapore because people would bring out their song birds and hang them on trees and such and you would walk surrounded by birds and singing and chirping.
It was great.
I think they even held competitions for the best song bird.

So I came across this little chick he was selling. He told me how to feed it and care for it and I could see he was heart broken to sell it.
He came to my house to make sure his bird was ok a few times and once he was at peace, he stopped.
Parrots are ugly little fellas when babies but he was so cute and just like a baby.
You fed him milk and bread among other things and soon he became yours.
A loving companion.
I taught him many nice things like his name, I love you. Hi! How are you. I'm Fine.
Since his cage was above the front door every one who came in would be greeted by Hi! How are you?
I'm fine.
He mimicked my voice and he was so pleasant you'd forget everything as soon as you walked through the front door  and began naturally talking to the bird as if he were a person.
You'd always be in a good mood in my house. lol
Once he was looking at us holding onto the cage with his claws and fell asleep and fell down.
The fall woke him up and sleepily he said bad bird Kino and climbed back up on his perch.
If he got too noisy I'd tell him Kino, you will go into bird soup.
So he'd say
Bird soup ? Bird Soup?  MMMM good bird soup lol
This always made us laugh.

He'd say kissy kissy Kino and he'd bark at the dog and he would call my husband Bear!! Bear! and Alex would be Ayeks! and I would be MOM!!!
He would eat at the table with us and help himself to what ever he liked. lol
We had so much fun with this bird and I loved him dearly.
It was heart breaking to say good bye but he was relocated to a Swiss family which was only too glad to inherit him.The long trip in air planes and cold weather is not advisable for birds.
and people are all such a complaining lot. No one cares about pets.

If anyone is looking for a good companion, this is a swell one.
I think customs also allows you to take your bird across the border with you on holidays
because they know the bird needs its' family.

I am glad I was finally able to find one good picture of him.
I hope and pray he is still alive and having a good life.

On a sad note. Something got into my garage and killed my chinchilla .
My husband was devastated. He was his friend.
We fed him in the morning and in the evening he was lying without a head.
My little dog is hunting all the time and I did see a mouse or maybe it was a rat running away.
The other day my dog escaped outside the yard and she was punished for it but she will not stop and now I know why.
Since now we know something got into the garage, it's not a good sign.
I have no cats to catch them anymore so.....
what's left?
I won't risk my dog losing an eye to catch a wild killer rat.
It ate only the head which means they are smart and did it before, so as not to get worms.
My cats did the same with mice.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

8 comments:

George said...

Kino sounds as if he was a character. I'm glad you found a good picture of him, but I know you hated to part with him. I'm sorry to hear about your chinchilla.

A Lady's Life said...

I am sorrier the rat is still somewhere in the garage George.
It doesn't make you feel good knowing this cause they mass produce like crazy

Betsy Brock said...

What a sweet bird. I love that they take their cages to hang in the trees of the park! How cool...kind of like our dog parks here.

So very sorry for your chinchilla! Aww. :(

A Lady's Life said...

Betsy you feel violated when intruders begin to touch and especially kill your things.
But this is life. Nothing you can do about it.
This little guy was with us for over 6 years. He wasn't afraid of dogs or cats and we were just saying we should get him a ball to roll around the house in so he doesn't have to sit in a cage or in peoples hands.I don't know how that rat got into the garage.
I need to make sure he is escorted back outside. The poop is huge from this guy Bigger than the chinchillas'

Rick Watson said...

When I was in the Army, I was stationed in Panama. There were exotic birds everywhere down there. Canaries, parakeets, and others I can't name.
They were beautiful.

A Lady's Life said...

Rick it's really nice to have birds chirping in trees I always liked it. Then some people put up bird houses and complain about the birds.lol
I love the life that goes around in there.

Anji said...

I heard that they live long lives so perhaps Kino is still making someone smile.

Sorry to hear about your chinchilla.
I hope that the poison works - I smelt animal in the garage the other day but it seems to have gone now. Perhaps something sheltering from the cold.

A Lady's Life said...

Anji I am petrified they will multiply and come into the house. They go everywhere and into everything They eat through thick plastic containers . It can become a night mare. You have to use glass gallon jars to keep them out of things like beans and flour and then you have to continuously clean all the droppings. I went through this once until the cats cleaned them out. I sure don't want to go through this again.
My neighbors also must have had problems because my two cats were very busy in their homes as well. lol Sometimes I would catch a small baby mouse myself and put it into a glass aquarium but they were already traumatized by the cats and would all die. I like mice but not all over my house.