Meet our new friend! (and a new give away!)

We have a brand new addition to our little family! This sweet little parakeet just came into our lives by accident, and he needs a name! Ben has been calling him "Creampuff", which is terrible on so many levels. And I've been calling him "Ralphie", which is simply the first thing that came to my head, but it doesn't fit him that well. Then I thought...maybe you guys would be able to come up with something good and something that will stick. Therefore I'm having a bird naming contest! Scroll down to the end of the post for more details and to see what you could win! :)

Now for the story! (Feel free to skip this part if you want and just read the contest instructions below.)

We've had this new guy for about a week and his arrival couldn't have come at a better time. My wonderful goldfish Frasco just died. :( He was about 14 years old, so he had a good long life, but we still miss him! He left behind Little Guy, who is only about 3 years old and will need some new friends soon. I'll go to the pet store this weekend probably and rescue some more healthy feeder fish, but until then it's sad to see him in that giant tank all by himself. In addition to that, we brought Magic our kitty to the vet because of a bloody nose and found out that she might have a brain tumor! It's really hard to think about her being gone too...but we're enjoying her being well for now. Those two things happened on the same day! Talk about a double whammy. :(

But back to the birdie. It seemed like it was meant to be! A few days after the pet fiasco, I was walking to the post office and right on the side of the building on the sidewalk, I noticed something near my foot, looking up at me. It was this sweet little parakeet! It was a frigid and rainy day, and the poor thing was shaking (he is a tropical bird after all!). He was only about a foot away from me and I figured he might be used to being touched since he was so close and didn't try to fly or run. But I was wrong and he flew into a nearby driveway. After some back and forth and a bit of chasing, I finally caught him in someone's backyard by using my hat. I brought him home and after a few days of quarantine to make sure he wasn't sick, I introduced him to our other parakeets, Sam and Michelle. They get along swimmingly! Yay! The new guy is still too afraid to leave the cage, but in time he'll come around. I leave the cage door open all the time so they can fly freely, but they choose to spend 99.9% of their time either in their cage, or on a milkglass pedestal dish in front a mirror in my dining room cubby.

This sweet boy must have flown out a window or door and was probably lost for at least a day. I checked the message boards online, but no one was looking for a missing bird. So he is now a welcomed addition to our family!


So yes...the new guy needs a name! Leave a comment on this post with your suggestion for a name and if Ben and I pick yours, I'll send you this sweet spun cotton birdie! I'll leave it open for a week - So next Monday evening I'll annouce the winner and send this spun cotton birdie off to his new owner! And I'll give you a couple of hint about names. He is a boy...so boy name suggestions would be great. And I personally prefer real names for pets. I'm not really into "Socks" or "Snowy" or "Sky". Granted my cat's name is Magic...but that was almost 17 years ago when I was 9! :)

I really am so excited to see what names are suggested!! Good luck! :)