unusual pet.....

I am usually in the cat and dog section, but just had to post about an unusual pet I had as a kid: a seagull.
I tell people that and they look at me strange!
What happened was that my Dad worked at Scott Paper, and a tiny baby seagull fell out of its nest, and momma would not let it back, so he brought it home. It was very small- about the size of a childs fist. We named it Herman (original I know).
It ended up being the coolist pet- NO kidding! He knew his name, followed me around everywhere, learned a few tricks. Also all the dogs in the neighborhood were afraid of him because he would chase them while sqwacking and flapping his wings- just totally freaked the dogs out! He also loved to sit on my arm when I held it out, and have me walk him around- have a couple pics of that.
He did not know how to fly, so we had to teach him when he was full grown by standing and kind of tossing him. Gradually we would get up higher and higher. Finally one day he decided to take off on his own from the 2nd story deck, only problem was that he did not know how to land. It was okay though, he landed in the bushes and called to me. I had to go find him and bring him home. After that, he started doing that quite often, but he would always come home. Gradually he would stay away longer and longer- but he would aways stop a short ways from home and turn around and 'talk' to me, then take off again. Once I found him down at the beach hanging out with the wild seagulls. When he saw me, he came swimming over and we went home.
Finally one day my Dad said "we need to let him go now forever". So we did.
It's kind of silly, I think, a seagull for a pet. I know alot of people don't like them and think there just dirty birds, but having had that experience showed me that they are not.
Herman was very smart and spoke to me in his own little seagull language (I really think that he thought I could understand him, cuz he would go on & on while he looked at me).
He also had a funny, qwirky personality, and got very attached to his human 'family'.
It's funny too, because it was just about a year later that the book 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' came out. I mean who would ever have thought that a book about a
seagull would sell?