Post by criswell on Aug 13, 2018 9:21:34 GMT
It's taken a long time for me to be able to write this. Criswell died in January and I still miss him so much. He was one of the best friends I've had and I will miss him forever.
Criswell was a such a loving budgie. I had no idea budgies could be as affectionate as he was. I spent hundreds of hours face to face with him, holding him on a perch while I watched TV or browse online. We would sing together and he would preen and sometimes have a little nap. He'd also spend time with my partner, David and David had particular songs that he would sing for him, including Truely Scrumptious from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Both of us loved thinking up new songs to sing to Criswell and whenever he had a new song he would sit quietly listening with his head on one side. If he liked a song he would sing along and he had favourites. If he didn't like a song he would squawk or give us a little nip until he changed to one of his favourites. When Dexter came along Criswel spent less time with me but we still used to have a little chat and a song most days.
Criswel was very excited to have a budgie friend again. He was a little too boisterous with Dexter to begin with and since Dexter was tiny when he arrived it took a few months before I felt it was safe for them to live in the same cage. I'd started to wonder if they would ever live together but they got there in the end. Their favourite game was racing each other from the top of the curtains to the speaker and back again, and chewing on balsa wood and paper toys. Criswell loved his toys and his favourite game was to throw them on the floor. He had toy soldiers, little Scooby doo figures and balls and once he'd thrown them on the floor he's wait for me to pick them all up again. Dexter didn't enjoy throwing toys on the floor but would sit and watch Criswell dropping them. They'd both look over the edge to watch them fall. Criswell also used to sit and look up at Criswell as he sang to him and every night he would sit next to Criswell as he chattered to him like Criswell was telling him a bedtime story. Criswell liked to feed Dexter and they played together. I never saw them preen each other probably because Criswell didn't like to be touched by us or by Dexter and he would hop away if Dexter tried to touch him, but I'm glad Criswell had a new budgie friend as he was so much more contented after Dexter came to stay.
Criswell also loved our other pets too, especially one of our gerbils, Allan. Criswell would sit on top of Allan's tank and call to wake him up. When I was sitting in the playpen with Allan in the evening, Criswell would fly over to see me and he'd watch Allan running around. After Allan died, he befriended another gerbil, called George and also our roborovski hamster, Souvarine. He loved having human visitors too, and was very good friends with my Step-dad, Bob.
Criswell loved sitting on top of the curtains. It was one of his favourite preening spots. He also loved sitting on top the cage and singing and pecking his lamp. He was a big fan of TV too and he'd call for me to come and switch it back on if it went off. Then he'd go back to singing, preening or playing.
Last September I went away to visit my parents for a couple of days and once I got back Criswell started spending much more time with me again. I guess he was relieved that I came back. He had a lot of hardship in his life before he came to live with us and became quite anxious if he didn't see me, even when he had Dexter for company. There was always a bit of jealousy between Criswell and Dexter around me but in his last few months Dexter started joining in with our songs and chats. I'd have Criswell on a perch in one hand and Dexter sitting on my other hand. They were really lovely times.
Criswell loved to sing and he loved to watch me too. If he went quiet I'd look round and he'd usually be sitting on his rope spiral watching me, and I'd hold up a perch and say 'come on, budgie' and he'd fly over to me. Or sometimes he'd just fly over and land on my hand and I hold up the perch and he'd jump on and we'd sit nose to nose, and chatter and sing. He would join in with my phone calls to my mum and she would talk to him down the phone and he'd put his head on one side and listen. If I did too much listening to my mum and not enough talking he would nip my finger to make me talk more. When I was talking to my mum the other day and she said she misses him joining in with us. After he died it felt so strange having phone conversations without him as he'd been part of almost every phone call I'd had with my mum for 3 years.
Criswell was amazing and I'm so glad he was part of my life. I'm glad we were able to give him a new home and make him happy. He made me very happy too, and he will always have a special place in my heart.
This is a video of me chatting to Criswell. My Stepdad filmed us in December and I'm so glad he did. I never did film him throwing his toys on the floor although I always planned to.
And some of my favourite photos of him.
