The Balls are Sagging
Or…The Dragon might have to mulch the Christmas tree now

I waited until late in the season to get this year’s Christmas tree. I needed something short and skinny to fit in my pint-sized apartment and to keep my companion parrots from freaking out. While Petri, a 10-year-old Sun Conure, has been through this drill before, the newer flock members might have issues with a hunk of fresh-smelling nature suddenly standing half-dead in the livingroom.

When I entered the tree tent at the corner of Santa Barbara (seemed appropriate) and Golden Gate, there stood the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It was about three feet tall, skinny, more brown than green, and more patchy than full. I stared at it with pity. The song Percy the Puny Poinsettia began in my head.

“Percy the puny poinsettia

Hanging his blooms in dismay

If they had just kept him wettah

He’d be a houseplant today”

I stared at that poor little tree for a while, thinking of what a sad Christmas the $25 tree was going to have on a mulch pile if I didn’t take it home. The salesman told me I needed to get it into water pretty fast. I touched a branch. Many needles fell off between my fingers. “We’ll give you a good deal on it.”

To my great shame, I turned away from the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It was too much to bear. I found instead a 7-foot Frasier fir that was robust and unfit for my apartment. I stared at it until the salesman said, “we could chop it off at the top for you.” Now there was an idea. Butcher the poor tree further. With a sigh I went for the plan (and 50 percent off the price). I took home the cutest Christmas tree known to man. None of my pet birds were disturbed by it. They watched me decorate it as if watching an insane person eat jello with her hands…waiting for me to drool or drop the pretty baubles.

Now the baubles pull at the branches with their glassy weight and the tree mourns its once regal stature in a forest (or a tree farm). It will become mulch for someone’s garden and a part of me will feel guilty for contributing to its need to be dead. But I’m grateful for its sacrifice to bring such a gorgeous Christmasy glow to my livingroom!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Christmas tree, Charlie Brown, Percy the Puny Poinsettia, Frasier fir, companion parrot, pet bird

Hear Fantasy Author Sandy Lender on the Radio
Or...The Dragon talks about dragons, sea turtles, Charlotte Bronte, Amanda Chariss, blogs, companion parrots and the new release of Choices Meant for Kings on the radio

The interview was only 10 minutes, but we covered a lot of ground. You can hear it (and my parrot Daisy) at this link: http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/astorytotell/ Just scroll past the Google ads to the gray table--my interview is saved at the top of the list currently (Wednesday, Aug. 5). Enjoy!

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragons, sea turtles, Charlotte Bronte, companion parrots, Choices Meant for Kings, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Global Talk Radio

Petri's Singing Roxanne

Or...The Dragon's exhausted from stress

What do these things have to do with each other? Petri's breathing had an unacceptable "click" sound to it this morning. He panted at me and I heard the "click" once or twice. My vet probably didn't realize she was on speed dial...

So my poor little sun conure had to endure a trip to the vet where we learned that he has a small broken bone. At some point yesterday, he must have fallen off his perch or flown into something when I wasn't in the room...something happened and he broke his keel. I am beyond distressed! The poor little thing! I can't imagine what went through his little bird mind when it happened. And I can't imagine what pain his little bird body was in. I feel so sorry for him.

Luckily, this is all the vet found wrong. His breathing is actually fine. So she gave me an antibiotic (to be sure nothing "sets in" around the break or with any of the air sacs in the area) with a pain reliever mixed into it. I dropped the appropriate dose in a tiny cap of blue Gatorade (Petri LOVES blue Gatorade) and he drank it up like manna from Heaven. Thank goodness! So he's already had his first dose.

He's also settling in quite nicely under a heat lamp, which is the reference to the "red light" in Roxanne. When I first put the regular heat lamp on him this afternoon, it was just a normal heat lamp from one of the reptile cages. (Sorry, Josh.) But I be-bopped out to the pet store this evening and got this nice little night lamp for Petri. He seems to have accepted it with no worries. He's such a well-adjusted little sweetie. I really feel sorry for him and I'm mortified that I didn't notice he'd fallen anywhere hard enough to break a bone.

(The blue thing in the middle of his cage is his cozy hut. The yellow thing next to it is one of his toys. You can't see them all, but he's currently got four toys in there for tonight. I'll add a couple more to encourage him to spend more time resting/napping in his cozy tomorrow. He's supposed to be calm and quiet the next couple of weeks.)

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: sun conure, companion parrot, avian vet