Taming the Parakeet

They are clever, inquisitive little birds who enjoy attention and praise. If you would like to tame your feathered friend and teach her a few tricks, you must first gain her trust. Then she will look forward to spending time with you. Items you will need: a tiny bell, water, seed, an assortment of colorful, plumed toys. Now, be humanly patient, for she comes to you from another world where stiff feathers cover skin; she has a hard beak, not soft lips, and feet like twigs, a perfect example of form following function. She does not seem to grow weary of her brief existence, not even caged, although when sleeping you can almost notice an Albrecht Dürer-like melancholia pass over her walnut face. At night she sleeps covered up like us. She clutches her perch and pecks at her food, delicately sipping water from a little glass bowl which I find so beautiful I could cry.