A Feathered Tale By Anusha Singh

– A Feathered Tale –

The day was usual. I got back home late evening post work, unlocked the door, peeped into the hall and, as everyday , called out aloud–“Birdeeezzzzzz”!!! – my way of saying hello to my little feathered friends – a pair of male n female bright yellow coloured  miniature cockatiels with orange patches on their cheeks.  (For the benefit of those homo sapiens who are not versed with the splendid world of birds, cockatiels are a species of the parrot family – very
intelligent and social). Without losing track, I take liberty to highlight a unique feature! The only way to differentiate between a male and a female cockatiel is by judging the shade of the orange patch on their cheeks – the male has a dark orange patch, as bright as the good old orange bar candy, while a lighter shade of orange adorns the female cockatiel  (Nature and its innumerable secrets!)

So I call out “Birdeeeezzzz” but there isn’t any enthusiastic response. Never mind! Who says birds cannot be moody! I dunked in a ripe pomegranate into their cage and made a hot cuppa of tea and soon found myself sprawled on our gigantic bean bag. As I gently lifted the cuppa to savour my creation replete with the goodness of ginger and cardamom, I saw that the male cockatiel was scratching itself with its claws and its beak in an unusually frenzied motion!

I thought to my self that by any stretch of imagination, there was nothing unusual about the motion called scratching. It is simply body’s reaction to any irritant sensation. Humans, dogs, cows, cats, in fact all terrestrials, arboreal and amphibians scratch!  On close scrutiny, I soon realized that  the male cockatiel is in a miserable state!! He is wasting all his energy in scratching himself intensely.
That is not good. He should be investing his energy in happier pursuits like playing with the female cockatiel, singing, cleaning, talking to me  and eating.  So, thoughts of my cockatiel running high fever etc due to lack of treatment  crossed my mind. The last straw on the camel’s back was when my father’s wise words rang in my head –
“When in doubt or trouble,  don’t think too much; take action .

Immediately, I sprung up, disallowing guilt and conscience from getting the better of me! I picked up the cage (which weighs 2 kgs at least!!), locked the house, literally scurried down four floors like a mouse and caught the first auto crossing the road.  Thank God for small mercies, the auto driver, a kind and patient man, appreciated that  he had to reach the avain veterinary doctor’s clinic as soon as possible because it was clearly a case of Emergency (pun not
intended).  Just for records, I keep contact details of all animal care centres, veterinary doctors, avian veterinarians, animal helpline numbers et al stored in my mobile, handy and ready to use, always…you never know when God throws an opportunity upon you to do good! And it is my firm belief that we all come across such opportunities on a
daily basis.

So I reached the Avain Vet’s Clinic. Dr Srinivas Rao, a highly reliable and experienced vet in Bandra, Mumbai, took over the situation like a complete pro. And gave his verdict – the male cockatiel was suffering from a skin infection. Wow! Now that was a moment when my Jekyll and Hyde Personalities expressed themselves in full form.  I was troubled that my poor feathered friend was inflicted with an infection which will definitely take time to go away, would
need regular intake of medicines and the female cockatiel was also in danger of contracting the same as the infection was contagious.
Simultaneously, I felt so pleased that I had brought the cockatiels to the avian vet doctor well in time! The skin infection could be treated comfortably and my cockatiels were saved from actually falling sick because if left untreated, the itching would have spread very fast affecting all organs of the body.

Armed with my able vet’s guidance and my persistence, I cleaned up their entire cage (I humbly admit that I haven’t cleaned my own room apartment with such passion and perfection in a long time!); I exposed them for their daily dose of sunlight by waking up every morning at 5 am, putting them out in the balcony, strategically positioning their cage at an angle where the maximum sun rays were likely to fall!

Further, I mixed their medicine in their drinking water every day before leaving for office. And finally, I provided them multi vitamin supplements apart from the regular diet of oil seeds, nuts and fruits. Phew….yes! Maintaining any variety of pet is hard work! After all, pets have the same characteristics as children. They are dependent, attention crazy and utterly lovable.

Lo and behold, after two weeks –  I got back home late evening post work, unlocked the door, peeped into the hall and, as every day, said aloud– “Birdeeeeezzzzzz”!!! In response, I heard the delightful sounds of whistles, enthusiastic screeches, off and on twitter and livelyflapping of wings…..

As for me, I felt my spirits uplifted….tracing their journey from the lowest points of Mariana Trench to the highest point of Mount Chimborazo!

Happiness comes in small packages in life. I believe I unwrapped one of them today.…..

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