Remembering Our Founder

           After Widgets passing in February I’ve had a lot of time to reflect back on life with my little feathered friend.  I’ve come to the conclusion that our time together reminds me a lot of that loveable and mischievous Golden Retriever in “Marley and Me.” Widgets life, much like Marleys, was spent in one misadventure after another.  Despite this he was never, not for one moment, anything less than endearing. I miss him so much. He was supposed to grow old and grey and retire with me and instead im stuck with this empty cage and an all to quiet house.

I remember when Elliot, my son, was about 2. He was going through that unfortunate phase of throwing temper tantrums. He would throw himself down on the ground screaming and it wasn’t very long before Widget would throw himself down on his back and scream too. Just like Elliot. 

Next Widget became the great escape artist. He wanted to sleep with us. He just loved to cuddle under the blankets with us, but we feared he would manage to get into bed with us and get hurt by us rolling over on him. So we decided to give him Elliot’s room. So Elliot moved into our bedroom and Widget moved into Elliot's bedroom.. We shouldn’t have been so worried. Widget was way too much of a big mouth. I mean seriously, what were we thinking? How can you possibly miss a 12 inch green monster running down the hall towards your bedroom screaming “Widget steppin’ up, stepping up?” Not even our neighbors missed that one.

Then there’s the time we clipped his wings to keep him out of trouble- that didn’t work. He quickly learned  what I like to refer to as the "Swing and Fling Method." He would swing and fling himself from toys and other objects throughout the room. He took out two laptop computers with this technique.

Moving forward the pantry raids begin. Tim, my husband, put a lock on the pantry door, as it had become Widgets favorite no-no hideout. Inevitably he would poo on a can of green beans, or something. Completely disgusting.  Off birdie limits, right? Not for Widgee. He just ate through the slats. Apparently so he could acquire a bag of cheetos.  At least that was what was stuck in the pantry door where the slats used to be.

I will always remember how he took apart cages. He always escaped, and he always took at least a couple of screws out and sometimes we found them. It was never enough to just liberate himself though. I think he took great glee in liberating all of the birds in rescue at that time. He’d open every cage.  You don’t know what a mess can be until you’ve had 10 or so parrots all loose, unsupervised at the same time.

 That was my boy and I loved him dearly, antics and all. He was really the start of this parrot rescue. I always say this rescue will be my legacy. Something that I did and left to make my little part of the world a better place, but in truth it always was and always will be Widgets and it was my life that was made better for it.

RIP Widget: Founder of Feathered Friends of Michigan.