Six years ago I decided that I once again wanted a pet--over the years I have had dogs and salt and fresh water fish but dogs were out as I couldn't afford the $500 pet deposit required if you have a dog. Didn't want to get back into fish because I wanted some interaction and it's a lot of work with the tanks.

A friend at work suggested a bird--I had never given thought to that and decided I would check it out. A lot of people said a parakeet (what you call a parakeet is really a budgie) so I went to the pet shop and got a pair--big mistake on my part and that's what you get for not doing research first--they had each other so they didn't need me for fun and games--just to give them water, food and clean their cage--before I knew it I became a 'bird person'!!

Of the pair I bought Sky died last year but Butch is still with me--plus another budgie, 16 zebra finches (they are worse than rabbits--I quickly learned to separate the males from the females) and two cockatiels.

Butch is (probably) 6 and 1/2 years old now and is constantly a joy--now if I can only get him to breed with Spitfire!!!