I love life’s little opportunities…
I was showing off Anoki to the evening staff, when a little girl about 8 years old ascended the staircase. She was followed by her mother, and grandfather. The mother was there to return some books, and the little girl, and grandpa had to come along for reasons that do not need to be aired here. Our library, being an academic library, is not really kid friendly. Most of the time kids are bored out of their minds here. This time it was not the case. The little girl stood at the desk along side her mother looking down while quietly shuffling her feet. I moved closer to the counter, she, curious of the movement looked up. At the site of Anoki, her eyes grew wide and a faint smile appeared on her face. I waved with one hand, and she waved back. At this I stepped over to one side of the desk and she and grandpa followed. He then played along and prompted her to wave to the bird, which immediately scrunched its head down, slightly shy. The little girl drew back a little as if to give Anoki some room. He of course responded by raising his head back up. The grandpa said “see, he’s watching you” Some one else moved behind the desk, and Anoki turned to look at what was behind me, breaking contact for a moment with the girl. He turned back towards her and stared again. she smiled. The grandpa said, “see he likes you!” Anoki nodded his head. The girl smiled bigger. I nodded. She again waved, and Anoki raised his head fully. The grandpa again repeated “See I told you he likes you!” Anoki again nodded, this time very pronounced. The girl giggled and then there was silence as she just stood and stared as Anoki looked around the room interested in any movement going on.
By this time the mother had moved off to take care of some other business in the library, and realizing this, the Grandpa and the little girl moved on to join her and Anoki went back to his perch on my file cabinet.
As I said to someone this morning, I think I live a charmed life…
Day: July 28, 2008
Anoki and his human, John T Hawser
Here is a great picture of Anoki and John snapped by Emily Gardner on Sunday afternoon.
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Me and my… Parrot?
This weekend at faire turned out to be a pretty good weekend. Saturday and surprised me at the front gate. It was so nice to have them both back. We got to spend some time together off and on during the faire day, and then also at dinner with , , and . Overall Saturday was pretty much a blur for me, as I didn’t have a lot of sleep the night before.
Sunday was Dave day, and it was nice to catch up with a lot of Dave’s friends. Unfortunately his folks couldn’t make it, but we still had a good time. Some time before the parade I was rowing along and ran into and . They informed me that Mid-summer nights dream had a parrot puppet. So we headed off to investigate this new oddity. Once there, I chased the owner around the shop to get him to let me see the bird. 🙂 To my surprise it was a wonderful green and blue color, and with very little prodding I tried it on. a minute or so of wearing it, and playing with it in the mirror had me sold. So the rest of the day was spent with my new parrot on my shoulder. Seconds after stepping out of the shop someone came up wanting to see it, and asked its name… I blurted out the 1st thing that came to mind, “feathers” and so for the rest of the day his name was feathers.
Feathers and I wandered the site getting stopped regularly for pictures, and to talk to people. After the parade I met up with the sweetest little girl, by the name of Eve. Eve is 3 years old, but will be 4 next week. She came up and met Feathers, and then struck up a conversation with me. She told me all about her pet gerbil who’s name I have forgotten, and her pony Lilly. Then she prompted to tell me about her boyfriend. At the mention of a boyfriend, her father who was standing off to one side looked at me with a look of shock. “Haven’t met him have ya dad?” “No… this is news to me!” I prompted Eve for a bit more information about the boyfriend, and was informed that they were getting married soon. Dad’s reaction to this was priceless, and I needled him with a “Yer’ invitation must have been lost in the mail” “uh yeah, I guess so” “So, do you have an engagement ring yet?” “Nooooo “, I nearly lost it. Someone listening to the conversation chimed in, “Typical male”. At that point my friend Gabriel, also 4, walked up and I introduced the two of them. Gabriel had the typical 4 yr old “ewww girls” reaction, while Eve seemed thrilled to meet another boy. I feel sorry for Eve’s dad in a few years. 🙂
I tried a few times during the course of the day to get some food but never could make it to a booth. I stopped for a while to watch Ogham, and cracked them up as feathers started to bob his head in time to the music. When I noticed I was starting to steal focus from Ogham I excused myself and wandered off. Finally, around 4:00, I managed to get near enough the nacho booth to grab some nachos. As I made my way to sit and eat I was engulfed by a group of kids again. 🙂 “Are you a real one???”, “Real one what lad?” “Pirate!” Poking myself in the arm I responded, “Well I sure feel real enough ta me!” His eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Then after much conversation, gifting of messages in a bottle, attempted tipping, and some petting of Feathers I did finally get to eat my lunch.
I did a little research today, and have decided to re-name Feathers to “Anoki”, which means Actor in Native American, according to the baby name website I found. Seems appropriate…
John's Musings 