pacificpelican.us diary » pets

Jessica with Ava the parakeet

Daniel J. McKeown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:41:20 +0000

January 2010

(more bird stuff at the parakeets blog)

‘Tweet’ the goldfish

Daniel J. McKeown — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:00:23 +0000

At the Hotel Monaco in Chicago, we had a goldfish for the time we stayed there, as the hotel provides fish on loan to guests. We had brought our parakeets with us, and when Jessica asked them what they would name the goldfish, the birds responded “Tweet.”

link to video

Friday parakeet blogging

Daniel J. McKeown — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:16:08 +0000

Striker, Ava, Sparty, Belle and me
10/10/2008

Sparty the wild bird

Daniel J. McKeown — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:09:01 +0000

Jessica took this excellent picture of our budgerigar Sparty. The third bird to join our flock, he is a wild, flappy parakeet who has some powerful wings (even clipped as they are)–and he’s not shy about using them. I’m working on getting to know him, but for now our other birds Striker, and Belle to a lesser extent, are a lot calmer when I come to visit. I can’t help but wonder if he is even having an influence on the other two–it seems like the three of them are sort of developing a pack mentality. But we’re busy a lot of the time, so I’m glad that they have each other to play with all day!

Birds in the house

Daniel J. McKeown — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:34:27 +0000

Striker and Belle have their own personalities, for sure. Striker (green) is bold and confident, but with a mild temperament that makes him very cool–I just saw him grooming Belle between nips at their cuttlebone. Belle is a very sweet bird, with a quiet personality that responds much more to Jessica’s soft, loving voice and touch than to my chatter.

Fishasaurus the betta fish

Daniel J. McKeown — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:24:00 +0000

Tribute to Fishasaurus, February 2007

Fishasaurus, aka Daniel J. McKeown, jr., aka my cool purple beta fish, died yesterday after a brief apparent illness. Jessica and I tried very hard to take care of him, and I was glad to be with him in his final moments. I wanted pay great tribute to his wonderful animal spirit, and with that in mind he was buried in the Presidio of San Francisco in a private service.
Fishasaurus was a great pet and I was always humbled and entertained by his big personality–when the minor earthquake of a few days ago hit, I was here and his calm determined look reassured me after the tremors. But usually he was bouncing around slowly like that or whipping his tail to propel him up top for food or around the tank in some sort of circular pursuit. Probably my favorite memory is of his small front fins, one on each side, that he used to motor around the water slowly. A frequent user of those small propellors, Fishasaurus was a wonderful spectacle and a great animal companion.

(A photo of Fishasaurus, who was a cool-looking fish with a big personality, from February 2007.)

For a little while a very amazing beta (betta) fish named Fishasaurus, a Valentine’s Day gift from Jessica, was a spirited and fun companion for me. I feel so grateful and only wonder if I did something wrong, as he didn’t live very long–but I feel like he understands that I did everything I thought was right to care for him. I was actually more fortunate to have such a great fish rather than unfortunate about how short it was for.He and I were always hanging out whenever I was home. I think this photo was taken when I had him down near the computer with me while I videoed a movie.