Tara's Story

Tara's Story

How could I have neglected this little tale for so long? *I, too, have an AMAZON STORY!*

I guess maybe I had thought it didn't stand up to some of the epic Amazonia here, but, you know what? It does. The bird herself makes it worthy.

Let me set the stage. My then-husband and I were in New Mexico, both in college, circa 1990. I had had the Demon Rickeybird for 5-6 years. He had already subverted my every attempt at residential order or competent parrot ownership. Too, my marriage was on the rocks... BIG ONES... ICY!

I was in a parrot club... "The Las Cruces Parrot Club". Such clubs are/were common out West. Other members, a couple, had just had a baby, and their Double Yellow-Head(ed) Amazon (their companion for about eight years) had taken to attacking the infant. After a lot of trying and failing and crying, they decided to re-home the bird. Nobody else was stepping up. I was moved by the situation, and frankly, ready to toss a bold challenge into my marital arena. I agreed to take the parrot in.

The bird...
"Tara", named after the "GoneWithTheWind" plantation. Big, a little chubby, beautiful, proud, confident, friendly, sensual, passionate but respectful. Fell in love with my ungrateful husband, laid him an egg in his Lazyboy after just a couple of weeks. Languished, danced, displayed, and sang to him from her cage. She was everything fabulous and nothing of the negative/challenging. I marveled at her. Why she decided she had to eliminate that baby, well... I guess it was her one fault. But overall, just such a marvelous contrast to the horrific Rickeybird.

But the times were changing. I had to make a move (sans husband), and I knew I could not do it with both birds. ONE would be very difficult for many reasons. I knew that nobody in their right mind(s) would take the Rbird, much less put up with him long-term My friends, how I longed to keep the GOOD bird and revel happily forever after, claiming to have done a wonderful job raising a perfect parrot. I admit it: I thought long and hard, but in the end, the decision was clear.

Fotunately, Rita, also a club member, had been following Tara's tale. She agreed to adopt her. I am still in occasional touch with them. They're happy, healthy... together. Tara continues to be the amazing Amazon I knew... temperate, tame, tolerant...

So... I moved on with my demon, and she moved on with the single loveliest bird I have ever known. Never bit, rarey screamed. Sang, chatted. Hardly ever pooped except on her perch. Played gently with toys. Was tolerant of other birds/pets/humans. Absolutely... LOVELIEST... bird. Laid an egg or three a year for her new parront.

Here are two pictures of her from the Rickeybird Scrapbook, from the 1990s. In the top one, she was posing on a perch with the Rbird and a cockatiel friend. In the second, she is showing off by taking an impromptu bath in her water bowl. What a beauty. Inside and out.

Tara' Story is truly EPIC! A tale filled with Love, Happiness and a Joyful Ending... And, a true Amazon Position on Life: If you can't Love the one you Love; Love the one you're with!!!

It was not the Amazon's fault regarding the Baby. As is my standard statement: Its Never the Fault of the Amazon! It is always the Fault of the Humans. As April so well stated in a recent Post - it all starts with the introduction of the Baby's Magical Room and continues from there (yes, I know I did not state it in is original perfection).

Thank-you, for this Heart Lifting Tale! I so wished that ours' had such a Happy Ending...

My pleasure, Mr. Boat.
That's exactly what Tara did. She loved not always wisely, but well, and sequentially, and finally found somebody worthy of her little love-eggs! Dear Rita could never throw them away. She would pierce and drain them and make ornaments; some she kept, some she gave away. Still does, I bet.

I love Tara's story! Thank you, Gail! What a lovely girl Tara is, I'm so happy for her and her family and all the lucky humans she's got to know along the way. Beautiful story!

I had to laugh at the visual of you making your fateful decision, the sweet, wonderful Tara girl or the young lovable hoodlum, Rickeybird? Agh, we both know there was never a choice at all. Some things are destiny!

I am very curious now about Avon, the allegedly mean cockatiel!

Thanks, Allee...
I was so ill-informed, mis-informed, and un-informed back then. Poor dear Avon. He stayed with us briefly while his family was on vacation. When I would bring him out to visit, he would hiss and bite and shriek. Of course, NOW I know that he was just afraid and intimidated, what with two big birds, strange surroundings, and a totally unhelpful hostess. Happily, he survived my 'hospitality', and returned to his people. I know he was with them for at least 7-8 more years, and he was around 4-5 when the photo was taken. Avon, please accept my public apology (probably posthumously; he would be 30-something now).
Oh, and also note the wonderful quarantine techniques I practiced back then...

That's a terrific tale, Gail!! Seems both Tara and RB hit the jackpot. There is a great moral here.... sometimes we must make difficult choices, but if they can be done with fairness to all!

Thank you, Scott, sincerely.
I guess if you do the best you can, at the time, based on the information you have, then... you've done all you could.
Over the years, I have replayed the decision, usually when the Rbird was ruining yet another occasion or plan, or destroying yet another curtain, or catching me on the one time I had my hair up that year and doing a fly-by ear chomp. One time, I got a Christmas postcard with Rita and Tara posing, Tara sitting demurely on Rita's shoulder while holding an ornament delicately in her beak. I almost cried. Maybe I did. I fell in love with that bird. Who wouldn't have?
Finding this place has done a lot for me. The way you guys have embraced me and the Rbird have actually let me be proud of him, proud to have raised him, proud to have kept him. True.

What a nice tale , Gail. Buck up, the Rickeybird is gonna do a 180 any time now.
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Well hang in there, it MIGHT happen !

Luv ya, Mr. GoodWrench, but...
My luck... he'd do TWO 180s and be right back where he started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gail, what a wonderful story about Tara ( LOVE her name!)
You got Tara to where she was supposed to be, and I think that is a fabulous thing. If you hadn't taken her, she could have ended up being sent from home to home, but you made sure she went to a forever home. I applaud you, my Friend.