First On The Tree

Day 69: It is the tenth of December, and as is my custom, I spent the morning putting up the Christmas tree, a tradition which begins with the placement of one very special ornament which represents someone who was the core of my existence for many years.

Cocoa was a Goffin Cockatoo, smart and funny and full of play. He didn't talk much (Cockatoos are not the talkers parrots are), although he addressed me as "Mama" when he really wanted to get my attention. Having lived with a variety of other psittacine birds over the years, I figured I'd have pretty much the same relationship with a Cockatoo as with any other parrot, but I quickly discovered that it was more like living with a perpetual four-year old who was capable of anticipating your every move. There was no doubt in my mind that he understood every word I said, even to the point of grasping abstract concepts such as the difference between "don't do that because I don't want you to do it" and "don't do that because you'll get hurt." When presented with the former, he'd get a gleam in his eye and test the boundaries, but in the latter case, he'd give me the eye and then walk away, as if to say, "Well, okay, if you say so."

When I was home, we were inseparable. He would ride around on my shoulder or sleep held between my two hands on my lap (a situation which made reading impossible), and at night, he slept snuggled between my shoulder and my face.

My Christmas tree is decorated with dozens of birds from a tiny hand-carved Nuthatch less than an inch long to a larger-than-life Cardinal which serves as a spire. There are Parrots and Goldfinches and Jays and Grosbeaks and Hummingbirds and fantasy birds no eye has ever seen. And there are a few Cockatoos, but this is Cocoa's ornament...always first on the tree as he will always be first in my heart.