Our story began during my freshman year of high school. Honestly, I was in such a difficult period of my life at the time. I had no friends, just got out of middle school where the bullying was the absolute worst, and I had a serious social media addiction. I was at such a time in my life where I felt nothing short of miserable. My dad recognized this and wanted to make a difference in my life.
Since a friend of mine’s bird obsession rubbed off on me, I constantly begged my dad to take me to the pet store so I could play with the birds. One day, he caved in to my requests and took me to Petco. Upon reaching the bird section, a kind man took each of the four parrots out for me. While I met all of them, one of them really stuck out to me. Though she was also skittish, this particular bird seemed much more willing to bond with me than the others. She held eye contact with me for a slightly longer period of time and didn’t scurry back onto the cage in seconds.
Her name was Butterfree.
Of course, Dad and I eventually had to return home for the night. I had school the next day, and he had work. But I couldn’t get Butterfree off of my mind no matter how hard I tried. My experience with that little green parrot was so special to me; my very first meaningful interaction with a bird.
Fast forward to Saturday. My dad got me up for Starbucks (... I used to be really addicted to their drinks) and took the truck. Somewhere deep down, I had a feeling I knew why he took the truck instead of his car, but of course I wasn’t going to comment on it. This intuition was proven when he pulled up to Petco instead of Starbucks.
My heart raced with excitement as I stepped into the pet shop. I raced over to the parrot cages and, lo and behold, Butterfree was still there, the very same bird I shared that beautiful moment with. To be honest, even if I didn’t want to put my hopes of buying her too high, I was kind of scared she would be gone by the next time we visited Petco. I was so relieved to see that she was still there.
And, just like that, she was in one of those little red and white cardboard boxes reading “Handle with care”. Upon leaving the Starbucks drive thru, I took her out of the box and held her once again.
What I felt was indescribable; something akin to a mother and her newborn child. Obviously, I have never had any biological kids of my own, but it felt just as magical. That day was truly the beginning of something special. And I really couldn't be happier.