Louie’s Story

Part One: The Arrival

 

Cliff brought the baby here today, (4/12/2002) and we cuddled for a long time, and got pix, and I even got kisses! I didn't have too much trouble talking hubby into him, since he is always preoccupied with something or sleeping so he can get up for work.   I told him I needed a cuddle bug in my life, and he said, but you have me.   I told him that is the problem. I DON'T have him, because he is always so busy.   I told him, that baby NEEDS me, and I NEED it, and had tears in my eyes (really, I have had a very hard year so far), so he said he would have to think about it.   I let it go at that, but told him it would be weaned in a week or so.   He went next door, to the rental house, to talk to his brother, and when he got back, he said, it is with the understanding that if anything happens that we cannot keep it, I am to give it back to Cliff.   I had already made that deal with Cliff, so I had no problem with that.   I think it is only right, since Cliff was nice enough, and thought enough of me as a bird mommy to give him to me.

This is a special need baby, and Cliff wants it to have a GOOD home, so he is giving it to me, along with a bag of food, it's bowls, it's cage, and 2 toys, and a book to learn about Quakers with.   It is a 7 week old, almost weaned down to one feeding.   I told him to start using the name Cuddle Bug with him, since that will be his name.   I told hubby I have always wanted a cuddle bug, and he knew that.   Its disability is, its daddy chewed off all it's toes, but he don't even know they are gone.   He can still climb, and even outruns me! He is fledging right now, and flew for me here today.   What a lovely sight!   Moochie hid from it, but kept a good eye on us, and Tuey came down his perch and came close, so he could get a good look at the baby.   I think the fids will be ok with him, as long as they can still get their scritches and tickles every evening, as usual, after supper.

Cuddle Bug is home now!   He got to try on his flight suit, which is a little big right now.   Then Cliff and I put his happy hut in his cage, and put him in it, and he hopped back out, and wanted to explore his cage a bit.
Then a while later, we put him back in his happy hut, and he stayed in there and took an afternoon nap, while I put a Quaker design on Cliff's shirt for him.    Cliff went home, and I went to check on him again, and he was still in his happy hut.   He stayed in there most of the night, and then a little later I seen he was out, so I slowly reached in and picked him up ever so gently, and placed him in his bird buddy babushka, and he snuggled in my neck for an hour or so, and napped, and then I placed a towel in his cage, so he would not be on that slippery newspaper, and to help keep him warm, in case he didn't go in his happy hut, and he kissed me gently on the lips, and did his little Quaker growl, and settled down for niney.   What a sweetheart!

 

 

Part Two: The Babushka

 

I am using a bird buddy to make a babushka for him to be in, with me, and I can still use my hands.   We got a picture of him in it, and he loved it, and snuggled down, and beaked the fuzz.   It may be too warm for him soon, so I will rig up something else yet.   I am thinking a ferret hammock might work too, if I ad some flannel or something in it, that he wont slip on.   The breeder was going to put this sweet baby down, but Cliff said he would find it a good home!   Bless you Cliff for saving his life, and bringing him home with you, and for thinking of me for his forever home!

I took Cuddle Bug into the bedroom with me today (5/1/2002), so he could roam and not have to be held or chased, to keep him away from the fids.   I let him walk all around the bed, and sensed that each time I called him Cuddle Bug, he would give me a *look*, like he didn't like it.   As I lay there watching him, and let him roam around on the bed, I tried different names with him, but the only one that got a response was Louie.   HE chose it, and now that is what his name is.   He perked up and came closer to me when I said it.   He has never came toward me before, only away.   I was making the come here whistle today, and he started making it too!   He has made it a few times back to me, and each time I will say Good boy!   I am going to work with Louie in the bedroom daily, and get him used to me.   When I reach in there to get him, I pet him first and tell him how pretty he is, and talking softly to him, I gently pick him up.   He even walked onto my hand, when it was time for me to take the sleepy boy back to his cage for a nap.   He doesn't seem to mind the camera, and I got a few more pictures, which I will ad to his album later tonight.   My BIL, Mike is helping me get him socialized and used to other people, so I think so far; I am doing all the right things.

I just wanted to tell you about the fun that Louie and I had today (5/5/2002).   I gave all the fids a bath, and then I slowly put my hand in his cage, and gave him a soft pet, and then gently got him to *kinda* (he's learning) step up on the flat of my hand, and we went into my bedroom, away from the fids, and I said down, and put my hand on the bed, and he stepped off.   He started walking around on the bed, and was walking away from me, so I started doing the kissing sound, and it sounded like a squeaky peeping sound.   Well, he perked up and came running towards me, and rubbed his cheek on my cheek, and was purring!   I cannot tell you the feeling THAT gave me! I never wanted it to end!   It felt SO wonderful! He would rub my cheek, and run under my chest (I was sitting up on my elbows) and run out and rub my cheek, and run under my chest, and all the while purring!   I am in LOVE!   I am teaching him to bathe in a pie plate, and he loves his baths!

 

Part Three: Socializing Louie

My BIL was staying in the rental house next door, and every time that Louie seen him (Mike), he would act like he wanted to get to know him better.   Mike was also interested in Louie, so I asked Mike if he would like to help me socialize Louie.   Mike jumped at the chance, and asked me what I wanted him to do.   I asked him if he would take Louie to his house, away from the *safety* of his cage and the security of me, so he would learn to trust someone else and get used to other noises, smells and people.   I only wanted to do this during the weekdays, and just for an hour to start, to see how it would work.   Every day about 4 PM, after Mike got home from work, he would come and get Louie.   He took Louie in his cage since we didn't have Louie wearing a harness yet.   Louie was only 5 months old at the time.   Mike would set Louie's cage in another room, and let Louie out to roam freely, as Mike watched him, and talked to him, and coaxed him to come when he was called.   He helped me teach Louie to give kisses and step up on command.   Mike eventually got where he could sit and watch TV, while holding Louie on a towel in his lap.

His first word, because he looked forward to the visits with Mike was Hello, because Mike would always say "Hello Louie", when he came to pick him up.   Some days were longer than an hour, and I would have to go and get Louie, or I think he would have kept him overnight.   It was hard to part with my baby for an hour, and I could not bear to be without him overnight.   However, because of the socializing we were doing with Louie, he learned to trust hands again, and how to show love.   He loved to learn new things, and learned what fun means.

 

 

 

 

 

Part Four: Bathing Louie

 

I have always been one to bath my birds religiously, and now it was time to teach Louie what a bath is.   I first put him in the sink, and turned on the water real slow, and just warm to the touch, but he freaked at that.   I picked him up, all wet, and screaming, and hugged him and assured him I would never hurt him, and I loved him.   We hugged a while as he dried, and then I got out a pie plate made of plastic, that you can see through, and filled it with warm water.   I placed a towel on the kitchen floor, and put the pie plate on the towel, all while holding Louie, and telling him what I was doing, as he watched.   I gently placed Louie in the water, and splashed around a little with my fingers, and made happy sounds.   Wheee Louie...what fun!   He seemed to not mind that so much, and then started splashing around himself.   I took the spray bottle and sprayed him also, and he LOVED that!   If I stopped spraying, he would let out a sound of disappointment to let me know not to stop.   As he splashed around, I got my camera, which I had nearby and took some pictures.   When he was finished with his bath, he climbed out of the pie plate, and walked to me, sitting on the floor with him, and I swept him up in a towel for more cuddle time.

 

Eventually, he didn't like the pie plate anymore, because he wanted to take a bath like the big boys, from the spray bottle on their cages.   He watched how Tuey, my Indian Ringneck would run to his water dish to dunk his head in as he was sprayed, so he jumped in his water dish too.   It was fun to spray Louie and watch him splash around in his water dish.   To this day, that is the way he likes to take his baths.   When the bath is done, I place a clean, dry towel on Louie's cage, so he can preen on a dry towel, while the other birds find a dry perch to preen on.

 

 

 

Part Five: The Play stand

 

When I first got Louie, I kept him in his cage unless I was holding him on a towel for fear that he might fall and hurt himself.   I didn’t want to spoil him by holding him too much, and as time went on I started to feel sorry for him sitting in his cage, while my other birds played on their play stands, even though Louie had a shelf in his cage, that he loved to sit on most of the day.   To make his cage more comfortable for him, since he has no toes, I folded 2 old t shirts and put on one side at the bottom of his cage, and I put a small bubble top of a container under the folded t shirt at the front, bottom of his cage, to give him a type of "lookout" stand that would let him see out easier, and be softer on his "clubs".

Cliff had also given me a happy hut for Louie, so I hung it on the quick links, under his shelf, so he could easily get inside and go niney.   The boing that Cliff also gave me with Louie was different than any I have seen.   It was fuzzy and shorter, so I placed that behind the shelf, in the back corner of his cage.   At first he would hide in it from anything that scared him, but eventually, and it didn’t take him long, because he is a smart little guy, he learned to climb up it and get on his shelf, and down it to get in his HappyHut, or to come to the cage opening, and stand on the cage door opening, and wait for me to pick him up.

He swiftly learned when I would grab a towel and opened his cage, and say "Up", that I wanted him to step up on the towel, which he gladly did.

I had to work hard with him for a couple of weeks, to teach him hands are not bad or scary.   I don’t know what this poor, frightened baby boy went through, that he was so frightened of hands, but whatever it was sure had him scared.   I slowly, a little at a time, would touch his head to give him a quick pet, as I would tell him "It’s ok and your ok".   He would allow me to pet him longer and longer each time while he cautiously watched me and if I petted him too long, or ran my fingers over a pinfeather, which would hurt, he would grab my finger and hang on.   It was hard not to pull away, but I held my tongue and didn’t move until he let go of my finger, and then I would tell him I was sorry, and I will be more careful, and we would start again.   It took many bites, and he learned to be more trusting with me, and we finally worked past the fear.   I am working with him now, to trust me enough to let me turn him upside down and kiss his belly. He lets me, but just quickly so far.

Getting back to the play stand, my brother-in-law was living with us now, and I mentioned to him that I wished they made play stands for special needs birds, so I could get one for Louie.   He mentioned that we should just make him one, so the next time we went to the store, we looked for something that would make him a good platform.   We found these heart shaped pieces of wood that were flat, and made of pine, and unfinished. There were only 3, so we bought them all.   The next day, my brother-in-law began making Louie’s play stand, and within the week it was done.   We attached it to Louie’s cage and Louie was frightened of it at first, so we left it there and gave Louie a chance to get used to it.   One the third day of it being there, as I was getting Louie out for one of our snuggle times, I placed him gently on top of his play stand, stepped back, and then picked him back up and told him, "See you’re ok up there, huh?"   Then the next time we had a snuggle, I left him up there a bit longer. On the seventh day of having his play stand on his cage, and working with him, showing him that it wouldn’t hurt him, I placed him on top of a towel on top of his cage, and walked away to see if he would explore the play stand on his own.   When I cam back about five minutes later, he was on the top!   He had climbed the stairs all the way to the top!   What a good boy! Now I had to figure out a way to hang a toy on it for him, but that will be another story.

Louie is Famous

Louie, The Little Quaker Who

Thought He Could ... And Did!

by Michelle Pinegar of Companion Bird Club

 

www.geocities.com/companionbirdclub

{Reprinted with permission)

 

Having no feet doesn’t stop Louie!

 

   Once upon a time, in the not-to-distant Kingdom of Illinois, there lived a Princess named Rose.  Rose had about everything she needed in the way of worldly goods, but still her heart was heavy.  Prince Terry was always away fighting dragons, jousting for gold and bartering for good things to bring home for supper.  Rose remained at the castle all day, every day, and like a good Princess, was engaged in her needlework, creating lowly embroidered clothing for the Prince and some favored courtiers.  What was the problem?   Rose's heart was overflowing with love, so much so that even Prince Terry and the favored courtiers did not provide a large enough vessel for her overflowing love. So...

 

OK, let's get real.  Whadya do when you want to give and get unconditional love? Adopt a pet! Rose Keith is a talented lady who capably does many things, from designing images to embroider onto clothing, to photography, to convincing her hubby, Terry, to do just about anything for her.   But there is one thing that Rose Keith obviously cannot do.   Rose cannot turn away from a bird in need!  From the tiniest, plain finch to the largest, brilliantly colored macaw, Rose just cannot turn her back on them.

 

Most of us begin with a budgie or canary, but not Rose.  Her first baby was a blue & gold macaw named Moochie,  After finding a neighbor's macaw out loose, she fell in love with it.  When they found the owner and restored his parrot.   Rose was heart-broken at having to give the little guy back.   With a sad Rose, missing the talkative macaw, what else could Terry do but buy Rose another blue & gold macaw that she christened Moochie.   The bird affair began at that moment, but there were to be no more purchases.  All the rest of Rose's birds are rescues.

 

Next came Chance, an abused African grey; then Tuey, an unwanted Indian ring-necked parakeet, and then a tiny house finch that fell from its nest and was hand-fed and tamed and now goes by the name of Buddy. No obstacles were too big for Rescue Rose!   And then she saw Louie. 

Louie is a. quaker parrot, sometimes referred to in Kansas as a "Madagascar Hissing Finch" (private joke for some of our bird club members!?), But Louie was not just any old ordinary quaker - that would not be enough of a challenge for someone like Rose. Louie is a quaker parrot who has no toes. NO TOES?!?

 As you can imagine, after watching his wife rescue a veritable flock of unwanted and abused birds, Rose's hubby, Terry, was beginning to feel the house was a bit crowded.  So, when Rose presented the idea of adopting a special needs parrot from a friend, Cliff Patterson,  Terry wasn't too excited.  Another hurdle?   Not to Rose.  After a well-placed tear or two, Terry gave in and Cliff brought Rose her new little "Cuddle Bug" home to stay.

 

Now Rose had a special needs birdie and she was pretty concerned about how he was going to get around. She outfitted his cage with a shelf, a Happy Hut, and a short fuzzy boing-boing. Only seven weeks old, Louie was a timid little chick, afraid of hands and a whole lot of other things. Eventually though, he learned to climb out of his Happy Hut and up the boing-boing to his shelf. Rose worked with him gently and slowly, and taught him that when she opened his cage with a towel in her hands and said "Up", he was supposed to climb up the towel and sit on it. For about two weeks, she worked to get him used to her hands. Talking to him gently, petting him, and allowing him to bite her and hang on until he decided to let go, eventually convinced him that Rose was neither

going to harm him nor give up on him. She is now working on rolling him on his back and kissing his belly. He is just fine with it as long as it is FAST!  Louie may be shorter than the average quaker, but he has the heart of an eagle and strongly objected to the name "Cuddle Bug", He stubbornly refused to recognize it as his name. One day, Rose had him exploring on the bed and every time she called "Cuddle Bug!, "he shot her his most fierce look of annoyance. Finally realizing that such a baby name would never do, she tried out different names on him and the only one that got a response was "Louie." For the first time since she 'd brought him home, he ran to her, whistling out his approval, while Rose whistled back. So Cuddle Bug renamed himself Louie. Very macho!

 As you might suspect, a birdie with no toes (his daddy bit them off), has special needs, and though his condition presented some problems. Rose "rose" to the occasion. The first problem wan pretty basic. How do you hold a birdie with no toes? Rose thought, "no problem"-she simply bought a fuzzy Bird Buddy, held it horizontally and let Louie step info it.  She calls it his "birdie babushka".  It was infinitely better than the towel and allowed Louie to fee! secure, yet independent, because he is able to "perch" in Rose's hands just like any other self-respecting parrot.

 

The next obstacle was a play stand.  All the other parrots in the house had play stands, why not Louie? Rose's brother-in-law, Mike, had taken quite a liking to the little Quaker with no toes.  In fact, he said “Hi Louie” every time he came over until "Hi Louie" was the first English Louie ever spoke, although he was already quite fluent in Quakerese. When  Rose complained to Mike that she wished they made play stands for special needs parrots, Mike (who obviously is even harder to intimidate than Rose) said, "Let’s make one!" So, they bought a platform, then found some flat pieces of' heart-shaped wood, which they stacked and made little stairs out of them.  After a few short introductions to this scary new world, little Louie exited his cage, hopped on the play stand, and climbed the stairway of hearts to become King of the World!

 Louie's next life lesson and Rose's next obstacle was THE BATH. First she tried the shower method. She put Louie in the sink and turned on a slow dribble of warm water. Baby Louie thought this was the most terrifying event he had ever taken part in and began to scream.  Mama Rose swooped him up, all wet and frightened, and cuddled him to her heart.  He was reassured, but they had to take a different tack on the bath problem.  So next, Rose got a small plastic pie plate, put a bit of warm water in it, followed by a somewhat surprised Louie.  She immediately began to splash around with her fingers and exclaim, "Wheee, what fun!" and Louie evidently thought what was good enough for mama was good enough for Louie, and he began to bathe in earnest.  It was not long before brave little Louie saw the BIG birds getting their bath from a sprayer and wanted to be sprayed too instead of bathing like a baby.  He watched Tuey, the Indian ringneck parakeet, duck his head in his water dish and then get sprayed.  Being very bright and also wanting to be every bit as grown up as Tuey, Louie ran to his dish, ducked his head and waited for the sprayer!  To this day, he takes a bath this way and then preens on a soft towel provided by "Management" while the other birds preen on a perch.

 Many lessons have been learned, many obstacles have been overcome, and an enduring friendship has been forged.  Life with no toes is no big deal for Louie and Rose together!

 In the not-too-distant Kingdom of Illinois, there dwells a Happy and fulfilled Princess Rose, Prince Terry, loyal courtiers and beloved children, Moochie, Chance, Buddy, Tuey, and Louie, the little Quaker who KNEW HE COULD!

Who says fairy tales don't have happy endings....!

 

Thank you to Michelle Pinegar of Companion Bird Club who allowed us to print her story about Rose and Louie!  www.geocities.com/companionbirdclub

Thank you also, to Jan Ross for submitting a copy of the newsletter to me, the Bird Heard http://thebirdheard.com/ that included this article in the January issue!

Rose Keith