Last night went like that.
So at 4, John zipped off to the airport to pick them up, only to be told when he got there they weren't arriving til seven. As he finished up at 5, I had to go pick them up. Which, in honesty, is not something I mind at all. I like the short drive to the airport and picking the flight boxes with all my new arrivals up from Australian Air Express, and driving back to the store with them chirping in the backseat.
So, with the store nice and quiet by seven I was off to pick them up. I didn't get much time to spend with any of them individually in the two hours before we closed, but the new hand-raised birds seem lovely. The two cockatiels I'm sure won't be there when I go back to work on Sunday. I must have taken about a dozen calls and enquiries asking about hand-raised cockatiels this week. They seemed very sweet, a lovely pair of young greys. Buddy, the whiteface cinnamon who is going to his new home sometime over the weekend (that's actually him at the far right of the topmost banner image) was pleased to have a little company.
Bailey the blue quaker got pretty excited when he saw the two new quakers! I got a blue and a green, both who were very reluctant to come out of the flight box - and who could blame them after two flights and then faced with a noisy, unfamiliar birdroom - and I had to gently lift them out myself. I put them in a separate cage to Bailey, since I wasn't going to be there to supervise how they'd get along today. Friday and Saturday are my days off. As odd as it seems to me to be away from the birdroom for two entire days I'm usually pretty wiped out by Thursdays, the end of my week, and looking forward to a couple of sleep-ins and a day with James - and of course, extra time to spend with my own kids - the avian, canine, and feline kind, that is.
Speaking of Bailey, he too, goes to his new home tomorrow. His new owners finished paying him off yesterday, any paid him a final visit. They have been setting up for him, collecting tree branches for his cage, and buying all sorts of goodies for him. I know he will be spoiled and loved by his new owners as much as I love him now, but I've never found goodbyes easy. I had him out of his cage with me yesterday evening before the new-bird excitement, and then for the last half-hour of the night, to properly say goodbye. He's been with us since Christmas, having had a rough landing soon after arriving and injuring his chest, which had to heal before he went back on sale. He's a little sweetheart, curling up in a shirt pocket or under a collar, wheaking and 'quaking' away in the funny little voice quakers have, lying quietly in my hand while I groom out his pin feathers.
I let him cuddle up to my cheek, then gave him a quick kiss on his little head. "Love you, Bailey. Be a good bird." I let him hop back into his cage. I knew that when I arrived on Sunday and didn't hear his urgent 'come see me!' calls that I would miss him dearly.
Much as I love the residents of the birdroom, particularly those who've spent a little time there, I learned one thing a long time ago. I can't personally take every single one of them home. That's not what it's about for me. I could never run the birdroom and not care about the birds I spend my days looking after. They are, as I sometimes call them, my kids, and I love them all. But goodbyes, difficult as they can be, are not a sad time. They're a celebration. My job is to find a home for these birds, a home where they'll be loved as much as I love them - a 'forever' home. With each goodbye, which is the closing chapter for me, it's the start of a whole new story for the bird, and their new owner.
I will miss him, though.
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