I'm not really a bird cage person. 

I think they're pretty.  I like that everyone likes them.  In fact, at one point I guess I did want to hang one in my bathroom as a sort of shelf/storage type thing for towels.  But... besides that, I haven't gone crazy about them.  And I think I just realized why:  I've had birds.  We've had dozens of birds in our home over the years.  And guess what bird cages are covered in?  Hint: continue the alliteration.  Oh yes. Crap.

I think I've cleaned too many bird cages to really enjoy them to the full aesthetic whimsical delight others do.  They are pretty.  Birds are pretty.  But they are work too in my mind.  And I don't mind work, so don't get me wrong.  Just a sudden light-switch moment.  I saw this lovely photo and thought
"Dang, you'd have to clean that every day with that many birds."  But it sure is pretty.  :) I also tend to see photos of beautiful birds, and imagine the sort of squawk they'll make based on what family they appear to be related to.  I blame my father for that, if there is something to blame.  My dad's probably had more birds than pairs of shoes.  Just this past year a couple of a my close friends heard a noise coming from his den and said in surprise "You have a bird?"  Yes, we have two.  I'm not sure my dad has settled on names for these ones, or if he ever will.  We spent a good hour brainstorming recently, he and I.  I'm a fan of Willow and Lewis.  Those don't work for him. 

Pet names we've had in our home:
Precious
Wicket
Chewy
Reign
Rocky
Runt
Skipper
Sounder
Frodo
Gandolf
Arsenio
Pipen
Pinkie
Tex

(See any common themes?  We're trying to complete the cast of LOTR and Star Wars.)
Which includes: dogs, birds (the three types of love birds, micahs, parakeets, parotlets, etc.), turtles, hamsters, frogs, every kind of fish, just not cats.

For those of you who've seen Garden State, you know the seen where they bury "Jelly"?  I laugh ridiculously and uncomfortably hard, "It's not that we're bad pet owners, it's just that we've had a lot of them."  And as she cries as she barries him... yep.  I still remember crying in my bed when our first dog disappeared.  I was only three or four, but I can still feel that deep hurt that I had.  Kim and Kris laugh about it now, because really I hadn't even known the dog for that long, I was a baby! But it was my first sense of losing something/ someone I loved.  And when you think about it, I probably spent more time with that dog than with my sisters even.  They went to school, and he and I ran around naked in the back yard.  So... there you have it.  Bonding. ;)