 I couldn't find a photo of the real Peter, but this is very much what he looked like. We’re going back in time on the Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop. (farther back for some of us than others…)
A.S. Fenichel set the challenge: We all have stories from our childhood; good, bad and ridiculous. Tell us your favorite story from when you were a kid. (PAUSE HERE WHILE I TYPE, ERASE, TYPE, ERASE, TRYING TO DECIDE WHICH TO PICK. THERE ARE SO MANY...) I grew up on a small acreage just a few minutes from town. We had a couple of horses, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and for awhile a couple of cows that we bred for our own beef. The most unusual member of our small menagerie was Peter. Peter was a yellow-headed Amazon parrot. He’d lived in a large cage in the corner of my grandparent’s dining room for as long as I could remember, and then we took him in. All told, he was in my family for about forty years. Peter was a great attraction whenever I brought friends over. Much bigger than a budgie, he was very talkative, and the way he peeled the tiniest seeds was fun to watch. When his cage needed cleaning, my Mom would take him out and let him wander on the table. His wings were clipped so he couldn’t fly, but he could glide. Sometimes he’d launch himself off the table to the floor. Then you had to beware your toes! Not the friendliest of birds, being on the floor made him even crankier, and he would waddle as fast he could after anyone in reach. He was a one-woman bird, and that woman was my mom. He would let my mom, and sometimes me if he was in a good mood, scratch him on the head, but did not like men, including my dad. Once, my mom spent some time in hospital, and my dad was so proud because Peter had let him pet him. He tried to show Mom when she got home—and Peter bit his finger! We don’t know how old he was when he died, but one morning we found him laying on the bottom of the cage. That wasn’t the end of Peter, though. My mom is an amateur taxidermist, so she stuffed him and put him on a perch. My sister now has him in her house. It’s so hard to pick a story to tell. There are others that have more to do with me, but Peter was a unique part of my childhood that I thought you’d enjoy hearing about. Now it’s time to head over to Jenna Da Sie for her story! Have you signed up for my newsletter? You get a free short story just by subscribing, and with three new releases coming this year I'll be sharing excerpts, deleted scenes and all sorts of fun things. The sign up form is on the home page of this website!
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