Bird with foul beak offends cat
I decided today to introduce Drusilla Barbarella to the cockatiels properly; she has, after all, shown great interest in eating them.
I held our newest family member up to the cage and Baldwin, the male we’ve had since his mother laid his egg, came right up to the front of the cage. He cackled in her face, called her a ‘wanker’, said ‘I’m a pretty boy’ and then laughed again. I’ve long known he can say these things but I’ve never heard him say them so clearly or with such obvious delight.
Drusilla was, understandably, somewhat confused by this outburst. Introducing her didn’t do any good. Five minutes later she was back on top of the cage with Baldwin and Spike huffing and puffing to get my attention, which they did. I’m inclined to think the water spray is going to have to be dusted down from the cellar and put to use. My aim may be off through lack of practice in recent years but Drusilla Barbarella is certainly going to give me lots of opportunities to get back up to speed.
Baldwin learned the word ‘wanker’ from his father, who in turn learned it from a very quiet Israeli guy my ex and I shared a flat with in the early 1990s. You wouldn’t have thought him capable of such language but he taught Byron (now long deceased) that and many other words. All but ‘wanker’ were not passed from father to son, which is strange to say the least. Baldwin’s laugh, in the meantime, is a near-exact copy of my own. We don’t actually know where he got ‘I’m a pretty boy’ from; neither of us has said that kind of thing in front of a mirror. Honest.
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