Random Thoughts from a Random Memory

By Edward Master

I’ve never been much of a fan of so-called exotic pets. Never been a fan of snakes, lizards, hamsters, gerbils, or such critters. Hamsters or gerbils seem like rats to me. Lizards and snakes are reptiles, and I’d like to keep them that way.

We had a friend in Indiana County who had a large red bird. It may have been a cockatoo. I remember a long tail. She kept it in her cosmetology (beauty) shop. I don’t remember if the bird “talked.” I can’t recall any other, out-of-the-normal, pets other than a gerbil or hamster, especially for a young child.

The lizard/reptile thing never caught on with me. Maybe it was the slimy over-tone that went with the term exotic.

Other than a bird or two or maybe a hamster, we were dog and cat people. I swear someone I knew had a bird, maybe a parakeet, but again I can’t swear to that.

I don’t recall the story behind the bird in the beauty shop either. It seemed to just appear, and that was that.

We have a couple of birds here at PPC that I know nothing about. I don’t feed them, and the little chirping they do does not bother me. Residents walk by and say ‘Hello.’

My mother-in-law may have had a bird at one time. I do recall an occasional parakeet, though, in some homes. I guess I never asked.

I suppose if you didn’t need to change the paper at the bottom of a bird cage, then you didn’t change newspapers in bird cages for fun.

I also was never a fish tank person. A Clarion restaurant at the bottom of a stairway leading downstairs to the eatery had a fairly big fish tank for decoration. It may have been the ‘Clarion Restaurant’ on Main Street down under. It was a fave haunt of my mother’s. I always thought the big fish tanks were neat as a kid, but I still had no desire to own a fish tank and fish. I’ll leave that for the younger folk or for someone who can devote the time.