Spike

When Luke and I moved in together in the spring of 2002, my mother offered to buy us a house warming gift. Instead of a bath mat or towels, Luke and I decided to bring home our first pet. The three of us went to Bird Crazy, the queer friendly, owned, and operated speciality bird store that most of my families feathered friends have come from. They sell only the birds they breed and help to rescue abandoned and no-longer-desired pets. After playing in the store for a good long while we decided on the bird for us: a baby spoon-fed cinnamon cockatiel.

I've lived with birds (and cats) for almost my whole life. For those who have never been exposed to birds, they are friendly, intelligent, quirky little creatures who really develop distinct personalities. We got a bird we figured was probably a male (it's hard to tell by coloring until they've hit puberty) and after three days, settled on "Spike" for his name (Turbo and Killer were also in the running). However, much like Dude (the grey cockatiel who we were sure was a male - until she started laying eggs) and Fred (my father's very confused bisexual female cockatoo), we realized within a couple of months that our baby boy bird was actually a baby girl bird. The major difference in tiels is that the males make much more noise and are more easily able to mimic sounds, so having a quiet female actually worked much better for apt living.

Spike was a picky bird. She wasn't nearly as adventurous with food as my other tiels, but she adored peas and popcorn. On the whole she preferred men to women, loved chewing on glasses, and found the true love of her life in Luke. She rarely screeched, frequently cuddled, and was never happier than when she was able to liberate a tension-held ball from someone's piercing.

Spike journeyed with us from San Diego to Glendale and Pasadena. In our big move to Santa Cruz we decided to leave her temporarily with my father and his wife, while we adjusted to grad school and new schedules. We were trying to figure out a time this summer when we could drive down to San Diego and bring her home to Santa Cruz, when I got the call from my father that they found her ill in the cage this morning. She passed while they were on the phone with the vet.

I'm more upset about Spike dying than I thought I would be. By now, we've all had pets and we've all had pets die on us - even if it's just the godlfish you won at the local fair. But Spike was Luke's and my first pet together. Luke never lived with birds and since having one in our home he's become a real bird lover. She was very much a part of our family - a very missed part that we were hoping to bring back home. She died fairly young for a tiel, I just hope she had a good life and knew how much she was loved.