-> Wowee- you had a grackle for a pet????
I did for a fact!  Nearly thirty years ago when I first came down here
we lived in a tiny rental house in an older part of town, and it was
SURROUNDED by a local form of Lebanese Cedars.  IN which the
mockingbirds nested in GREAT profusion.
Well, the Grackle, being kin to the cuckoo (In a round about fashion)
loves to lay his/her eggs in other birds' nests to get a free 'raising'
of their young.  You probably know how bad mockingbird chicks jump out
of the nest, and they were, around our house and I kept putting them
back in the nests..... Until one day I was up there fighting with the
old momma mocking bird and what did I find, but a GIANT black fledgeling
occupying the WHOLE nest.  So I put the mockingbird baby back and took
the humongouse black beast down with me and sure enough it was a
grackle.  He grew up to be a big male boat tail....
-> What was its personality like?
VERY gregarious!  Loved to sit on my wife's head while she put on her
makeup.  Thought he'd look good powdered and painted.  Would walk back
and forth in front of her dressing mirror by the hour admiring
himself...  Used to fly down and land on the dog and pester him
unmercifully.  Kept the wetback maid in terror for her LIFE whenever she
tried to cook or clean.  Seemed to be a music lover beacuse he'd sit on
the record player and TRY to sing.  All the guys who worked for me loved
to play with him, and one day while they were getting drunk and
disorderly together (He'd drink beer out of a saucer and scream and
curse and stagger) a strange dog wandered by and when Zopolote (Spanish
for Buzzard) dive bombed it, it didn't know it was supposed to flee in
terror, and just snatched him right out of the air.  Liked to have
KILLED that bunch of roughneck linemen!  They cried like babies!
-> How did you come to have it?
Just raised him on CATFOOD!  Dry, hard, catfood, soaked in milk.  Poor
mockingbird momma hadn't been able to bring him NEAR enough bugs, and he
kept throwing HER babies out of the nest.  Got fat as a mud fence and
sassy as could be.  I'm convinced he thought he was a kitten that could
FLY!
 Details, Elvis, details. . .
In short, I thought he was about the neatest bird-pet anyone could have
and have always wanted another one. (But I just plain DON'T rob nests.)
I figure if God wants me to have another he'll provide.
He was absolutely the closest thing to a parrot I ever hope to
experience.  'Cept he was about 4 times smarter than any other bird I
ever had.
 ^..^
--- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j'
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