Tollers

Yes yes, I am finally getting around to this Tollers post! Shall I begin at the beginning? Tis always the best place to begin, dost thou not agree?

As I was saying: Tollers. Most of you know that I have been wanting a parakeet for ages. I finally managed to get a cage and all my parakeet accessories (perches, mirror, toys, food dishes, etc) ready a few weeks ago, and began hunting for a parakeet. Living in Cambodia, this is not an easy thing. In the US if you walk into a pet store, there will be parakeets. Guaranteed. $14 parakeets. Every petstore. But in Cambodia we don't exactly have regular pet stores. With that said, I will continue from the almost beginning.

We heard from our bird-people-friends that you could find people carrying little cages of birds around on the other side of town. My dad set out on the motorcycle and drove for what seemed like ages, to the other side of town. My foot, brilliant thing that it is (or not), decided to take a nap as we drove. We reached the location and found birds, but none were parakeets and they decidedly looked like they had mites or mange in one form or another. I felt so sorry for the poor birdies, but we left without finding my parakeet. Dad and I went to the bank afterwards, where I made a fool of myself by being unable to get my stupid foot to actually work (I hate it when it falls asleep), I practically fell over and then I couldn't put my shoe back on. I limped for a few minutes, but eventually my foot started to work again, which was a relief. As afore-mentioned, we went home without a parakeet.

This was when the dreams began.

I had dream after dream about buying parakeets--and trust me, these were strange dreams. I won't relate them because you would probably never look at Tollers the same ever again and I wouldn't be surprised if you never spoke to me again, either. Let's just say that they involved glasses, pets for blind people. mutant penguins, parakeets trying to fly away, and eggs hatching into bright pink parakeets... Not your normal dreams, if you ask me.

The dreams occured for several nights, until my mom managed to take me up to Central Market to follow a parakeet lead... Well, we didn't find parakeets, which was heartbreaking, but a very nice man who sold locks told us where to find a petstore! I was ecstatic, so we quickly went to the street where the petstore was supposed to be.

As we drove down the road suddenly I spotted them--hundreds of parakeets, all jammed in one little cage. I screamed something about parakeets (what else? Did you expect me to start babbling about the hidden theology behind LoTR?), and we pulled over. I jumped out and ran over to the cage of birds.

The petshop wasn't exactly well cared for... The birds, as I said before, were in a cage far too small for the many birds, and the other pets in the store didn't look healthy. Most of the birds had feathers falling out and didn't look too good, but I managed to spot a few healthy looking ones. I watched the birds for a while, until I spotted one that looked young, healthy, and very active (he was attempting to shove another bird off of his food dish in order to get more for his greedy little self). I pointed to the one that I wanted, the store owner stuck his hand in the cage, and pandemonium broke out. The birds were going crazy, flying from one edge of the cage to another as fast as they could--it wasn't a surprise when the store owner grabbed the wrong bird. I decided to give this bird a chance, so I looked at him for a while, then discovered that he was missing a toe and did not look healthy. I told the store owner that I wanted the other one, and attempted to point out my bird amongst the masses. The next bird wasn't the one I wanted either, but finally the store owner managed to grab the bird I wanted and put it in my little travel-cage. I paid the store owner, and headed home with my own little parakeet!

Well, I can't give you the full minute by minute analysis of my bird, but he is adorable, I trimmed his wings myself (with a lot of help, admittedly), his name is Tollers, thanks to the suggestion of one of my fellow TPSers--oh yes, about the name. For a brief time I had people shocked that I had not named him something Tolkien related. Sorry to burst your bubble, my friends, it is Tolkien related, just too obscure for most of you to know of =P. Anyway, he is my dear little birdy, he likes to eat my rings, my fake vines, my hair, and my fingers. He is one of the cutest little birdies ever and I am really worried that one of my friends is going to try and steal him.

And that, my friends, is all. Oh, and here is Tollers and his favorite "snack."