Oscar

I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you about Oscar (left)! This is another of those "where do I begin?" posts. I've loved birds since I was a kid. Had a couple of parakeets. Always wanted a parrot, one that talked. Always. When my father z"l passed and left a few bucks, I bought my first African Grey, Dorian. I loved him a lot. Then I made one of my biggest mistakes in a life with quite a few of them: I traded my Dorian for wife #2. And he was a lot cuter than she. Sexier, even. Go ahead, ask anyone. It was one of those "it's me or the bird ultimatums." Is the plural of "ultimatum" "ultimata"? anyone? But I digress. A few years and one divorce later, I bought Oscar when he was 12 weeks old. He was amazing. He started talking almost immediately. He was also moody as hell and hated everyone but me. Greys are the best talkers in the parrot world, but they're also notoriously neurotic. You have to be able to read their body language when they don't want to be bothered (fluffed-up feathers, pupil-pinning) or you're liable to lose a piece of your finger, literally. They're a lot of work but I think they're worth it. He was funny (he laughed when I laughed), he imitated just about everything he heard (dogs outside, other birds, the phone ringing). We used to whistle to each other every morning when I was in the shower and then break into calling each other..."Rocky!" "Oscar!" "Rocky!" "Oscar!"
What I forgot to tell you yesterday was that a few of the doctors in the Roosevelt/St. Lukes and NYU thought that Oscar might be contributing to my pulmonary woes. I was in a studio apartment, immaculate though it was was, that had an atmosphere rife with bird dander and dust and poop. There's a type of pneumonia called psittacosis that you get from bird droppings
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Psittacosis. There was also the possibility that I was allergic to him. Now all you "animal people" will understand this: I, of course, paid the doctors no heed. I lived alone and Oscar was my buddy, my companion. Just like Felix and Oscar (although in this case there were two Oscars), we bickered a lot but there was undeniable underlying affection between us, when I wasn't cursing him and running for a band-aid. He said "good night, I love you, see ya in the morning" when I covered his cage at night and "I'll be right back" any time he saw me putting on a coat. None of the doctors were saying anything definitive; I wasn't gonna give up my grey again! Not without a fight, anyway.