My Feathered Friend

"Hi Lulu!"

We hear that a lot around our house. Lulu is a six-year-old Goffin cockatoo that rules the roost in our home. "Hi Lulu" is kind of her version of "Aloha" - it means everything from "hello" to "I know you are awake, get me out of this cage".

We're not sure Lulu is a girl. It takes a DNA test to determine gender. I figure any animal that requires lab work to determine its sex doesn't really care, so to me Lulu is female. She is a huge flirt. She coos and jabbers and does all sorts of adorable things when she wants something (or when squawking at the top of her little bird lungs hasn't done the trick).

Cockatoos are in the parrot family, but aren't great talkers like some of their kin. However what Lulu lacks in clarity, she makes up for in expression. There are times when she is jabbering away in her cage that you can hear intonations and know she is repeating a conversation she has heard. (Making her owners very glad she's not a great talker!)

My hubby calls Lulu his $2,500 bonus. She and her massive cage were given to us. One of his former students worked in a pet shop and Lulu was an abandoned bird. The student thought of us as adoptive parents. We now have the blessing of raising Lu. And it is a blessing, despite what some friends and family members may say.

We had always wanted a bird, but the more exotic ones were too expensive. Maybe a parakeet or the like, we thought. We look on Lulu as our little gift from God. He does that. He provides our needs abundantly and then He tosses in a few of our wants for good measure!

Praise to the Lord,
who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth.
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea so gently sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy desires e'er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth.