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| Name: |
Rembrandt
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Age: |
Seventeen years old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Cockatiel
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| Home: |
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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In July 2000, a friend of ours who was working at a summer camp in a
local private school called to say he had found a bird walking down
the hall in the school building: Could we take care of it? He brought
the bird over later that day, and within a week, I had fallen in love
with this bird.
My then-husband and I agreed to name him Rembrandt because "cockatiel"
is originally a Dutch word, and because his colors were subtle but
beautiful. He proved to be intelligent, sociable, hand-tamed,
sensitive, and affectionate, equally fond of me, my husband, and our
daughter. One day I combined all the nicknames my husband had given
him and came up with Alphonse Ignatz Zoltan Hirohito Rembrandt van
Tiel of the Clan McTiel, a.k.a. Spanky.
In 2013, my husband and I separated. Our younger bird went with him,
but Rembrandt stayed with me. He has been my best buddy through moving
out on my own, being horribly sick for a whole week, going through the
divorce process, and all my ups and downs. I've had many smaller birds
with shorter lives and been grateful for their companionship, but
Spanky is the bird love of my life, even if he does destroy my
lampshades. I don't know what I'd do without him.
Talk about Rembrandt in Pet Talk!
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