Floydsie

My mom loves talking birds. She had several over the years. Her favorite was Floyd. Floyd was a scarlett macaw who she named after her dad. He had a whole room to himself and even though there was a cage in there, he usually lived on top of it. Mommy and Floyd spent hours together. There was even a tv in their room.

Floyd never did learn to talk. He just made a kind of squawking,screeching noise (like something you would expect one of those flying dinosaurs to make). Consequently we called him the $1200 dud! He had all kinds of treats but the most unusual thing he liked was to chew on cigars. Personally I was kind of afraid of Floyd so I didn't spend much time with him.

One day my mom put Floyd and his cage out on the balcony. A short time later Bobby came in and asked me if Floyd was SUPPOSED to be out on the balcony. I said "yes, what do you mean SUPPOSED?" He told me Floyd was not there. I said, "Oh God, don't say that!" and I ran out to the balcony to see. Floyd was nowhere to be found.

One of the hardest things I ever had to do was tell my mom that Floyd was not there. She immediately went to look for him and she actually found him about 1/2 a mile from the house in a very tall tree. She tried her best to talk him down to no avail. He flew away. That night there was a raging storm and we never saw Floyd again. She ran an ad in the paper offering a huge reward, but nothing came out of it. There were rumors that someone up Mill Creek had him but to the best of my knowledge nobody ever saw Floydsie again.

That was a terrible day.