To this day, I have no idea what I did to anger it, but I had been over numerous times with no problem.
A couple of years ago we ventured into the canary world. The song was MARVELOUS and he was an absolute gem, as he had been at the petstore/animal clinic I was working at at the time and horribly ignored, and when not ignored, having children pounding on his cage while the petstore attendant texted her husband. He was very flighty (haha!) at first, but warmed up to us quickly. One day he died. He wasn't showing signs of illness or distress, and had been singing earlier in the day, and the next time I looked he was gone. It baffled us, and we sadly put his cage away.
Fast forward to about 2 or 3 months ago, and we decided we missed our dearly departed Burt, and decided to give it another go. As I have always been anti-petstores, I found a breeder and bought a pair of mated fife canaries. We are not, at this time, planning on keeping the eggs, just to focus on the ones we already have. They have been doing very well thus far, and just last week I remember stating that I was happy having birds, and couldn't see myself getting another one.
(HAHAHA. you may now refer to me as a "sucker".)
I attended a partylite party on Sunday (yes, yesterday) in a home that was also very fond of animals. After being introduced to the other attendees, the kids, the cats and the dog, I heard some chatting in the corner under a blue blanket, so of course I beeline over and take a peek after making sure it was alright with the owner. Sonny and I had some wonderful exchange before the presentation started, and the owner asked if I wanted him. He was hatched around 1995 (we can't get a clear look at his band, but it's either '95 or '96) and they had him for 6 or 7 years at that point. He was once a "free roaming" bird, but the owners had to move back in with their parents for financial reasons, who had a pair of cats. The cats were fairly unruly, and continuously stalked Sonny with an obvious malicious intent so they had to start locking him in his cage when there was no one around to supervise. A baby was born shortly after, and he became jealous, so got less time out of his cage. Once the baby was walking, there had been one too many incidences for anyone's liking, putting both Sonny and the baby at risk, so they left him caged from then on, but would handle him inside the cage. That was about 3 years ago, so now is there not only a toddler running around, throwing toys at him and banging the cage, but another cat and another baby, adding to the chaos. She felt horrible for Sonny, so was trying to find a suitable home for him.
She had heard of my history of animal softness -- my husband and I have opted not to have children for many reasons (none of which are the reason I'm here, so is therefore not up for discussion), but have filled out home with many animals, both sought after and rescued. The list is much larger than people believe possible, but one thing I have learned is that a person can be just fine living with ADD without drugs. Give me a Red Bull, and I will be on the go from sunrise to sunset with minimal or no breaks, as dealing with the animals is a break in itself. I work full time as a Patient Referral Coordinator, own a small business dealing with reptiles supplies and feeders, producing babies and home-crafted gifts. I also "work" part time for a friend doing educational reptile presentations for a variety of audiences. The list of animals in our care is as follows:
1.1 fife canaries
1.0 ringneck
1.2.2 crested geckos
0.0.1 tailess whipscorpion
2.0 green iguanas
0.2 canines
1.1 felines
1.1 bearded dragons
6.5.2 uromastyx
1.0 sulcata tortoise
2.1 kingsnakes
2.0 bull/pine snakes
5.3.7 kenyan sand boas
2.7 african fat tail geckos
1.0 common boa
1.1 dumerils boas
6.5 cornsnakes
1.1 ball pythons
6.19 leopard geckos
0.2 tokay geckos
1.0 milksnake
1.2 pixie geckos
1.0 savannah monitor
0.0.14 various arachnids
1 25-gallon SW fishtank
1 20-gallon FW fishtank
1.0 husband.
While many people look at the list and are quick to judge, they will walk into our home and be surprised to see none of the above "creepy crawlies", as some people refer to them as. They are greeted with excitement by all three dogs (one said dog is actually a cat, but we don't have the heart to tell him otherwise). We have two rooms in the basement that are dedicated to the caged animals, with the exception of a few whom are housed in my office upstairs (including the birds). Otherwise, we are not the kind of family that like cages throughout the house, despite the number of them we do have.
As I am a moderator on the reptile forums I frequent, I fully understand the politics involved in forums. I'm not here to argue, prove anyone right or wrong, succumb to unnecessary trolling or perform unnecessary trolling -- I am simply looking for some resources to help us get to know our newest member and make him feel at home. While I have already done a bunch of reading on his kind, there is still much, much more -- and I am fully aware of this. There is, however, much conflicting information that I am attempting to dig through, and since I have not owned birds for nearly as long as I've owned reptiles, I am unsure which resources are trustworthy and which are not. Hopefully the forum can help me out a little.
Hope to get to know you all! I'll be posting up another thread shortly. In the meantime, here are some pics and videos!
XOX
This was Sonny before coming home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CENKF2jr4A
Sonny very shortly after arriving home (which, as I'm to understand by a fellow aviary enthusiast, is Sonny.... "loving" my husband?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qubu7tPGpSI
, 
, Caique, 2 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and a MH Cat.
I'm jealous about a lot of them plus unfortunately I can't drink Red-Bull! And of course Sonny is gorgeous!