Thursday, January 26, 2006

Double or nothing

Murphy, Harley, and Buffet on the back of dh's chair --waiting for a snack, snack, mommie!
Double or nothing?


Having birds is like having a bunch of kids….some days, I feel like I run birdie day care. We have three adorable macaws: Murphy, the B&G, Buffet, the Greenwing, and Harley, the Harlequin. Today’s tale belongs to Buffet.

One of my bird clients was visiting her baby sun conure. She enjoys my macaws so they were all out to visit in the den that afternoon. They had a popcorn and peanut butter sandwich party, so all three macaws were excited and happy. Buffet has such a sweet personality. He loves everyone and everyone loves him! He just melts before your very eyes when someone wants to pet him. He’ll roll over and raise his left wing for a good scratching. Well, Karin knew this and went to visit Buffet. She rubbed his head and under his wing. Did I mention that Buffet is a jewelry nut? He grabbed her engagement ring with that mighty beak and gave one good twist. Karen had the most startled look on her face! “He got my diamond!” Buffet just looked at me with those big eyes and said, “Ark!” Immediately I tried to look in Buffet’s mouth, nothing. Karin, her son, and I dropped to our knees and proceeded to crawl around the floor looking for her diamond. Nothing…. Did I mention I had not swept or vacuumed after the popcorn party? Yikes!

As soon as Karin left, I got on the phone calling our local vet. No, he is not an avian vet but he has an x-ray machine. I wanted an x-ray to see if Buffet had indeed swallowed that diamond! Dr. Curtis Crawford told me to hang on; he would do some calling and see how urgent an emergency this was. Of course, this is after 5 pm on a Friday! How fast could a diamond go from a bird’s crop to his gizzard and then into the intestines? Could Buffet pass this ½ ct. round diamond?

Dr. Crawford called me back about an hour later. He had spoken to a couple of avian professionals and the consensus was that a greenwing macaw could and prolly would pass a ½ carat diamond with no problem. I called Karin and assured her that all was well. I went through the poopy papers for a couple of days without finding the diamond. Either Buffet passed it and I missed it in the paper; he didn’t pass it and is still carrying it around, or he never ate it to begin with.

Buffet is not officially for sale but my husband says that everything has a price tag or you will lose it. We figure that the diamond retails around the same thing a Greenwing macaw would sell for…. Hmmmm…buy the bird, get a chance at a diamond….almost as good as double or nothing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sure hope the diamond shows up. A few years from now you'll move the couch or replace the carpeting and there it will be. I had a friend who was digging in her garden and lost hers. 12 years later...can you belive that...she was standing in the doorway and something sparkling caught her eye near the porch step. There it was.