Until the day he came into her life, Sheela Vijayan never thought she’d own a budgie.
“It was two years ago. My friend called me, saying a bird had been attacked by a crow, and asked if I would like to keep him,” Sheela tells FMT. She immediately said yes.
The bird had been rescued and was kept safely under a thick cloth. “I expected a bigger bird, like a mynah. But then I saw this tiny bird with pale blue and white feathers.
“He looked up at me and appeared shaken. Then he blinked, and that did it – I was immediately smitten.”
She took the budgie home and sought advice from friends on how to care for him as he had mild injuries. Based on their estimation, he was about a year old.
“I spent a lot of time with him as I was very concerned,” Sheela recalls. “He was my first budgie, so I did a lot of research to find out what they like.”
Over the next few days, the little bird began recovering his strength and, within a week, was happily chirping away. Sheela named him Hope.
One day she realised that Hope seemed lonely, so she began the search for a suitable companion for him.
She found a yellow-and-green budgie around his age and brought the bird home. She named the new budgie Faith.
“By that time, Hope had grown into a flamboyant budgie who was always flying and chirping around. Faith was quieter, so it was a nice balance,” Sheela says with a laugh.
“Faith can be rather comical and is always slipping off the perch, so it is very entertaining to watch them together.”
Over time, Sheela added two more budgies to the family – Sunshine, a female with yellow feathers around Hope’s age, and JV – short for “joie de vivre”.
Just like Hope, JV, too, came into Sheela’s life unexpectedly.
“A few months ago, I discovered a budgie on my porch. I initially thought it was Faith because it had a similar colouring.”
Upon walking closer, she discovered the bird was thinner and weaker-looking. She had no idea where it had come from and, suspecting it was lost, decided to give it a forever home.
JV has since been growing well and gets along with the rest of the budgies.
“In fact, JV loves to eat,” says Sheela, adding that the newest addition to the feathered family is also rather cheeky and enjoys nipping her hand.
Sunshine, who is the “mother hen”, can always be found “teaching” JV, the baby of the group, important life skills.
“At night, the birds like to sleep on the highest perches in their cage. But JV would initially sleep on the lower perches.
“Sunshine would nudge JV to move to the higher perches to be with the rest of the group,” Sheela says fondly.
All four budgies enjoy eating bird millet, fresh fruit, and vegetables. When it’s hot, they enjoy splashing around in a container of water.
Today, all four budgies live together happily.
“I enjoy seeing Hope playing with his friends,” Sheela says. “He is very active, so he’s usually chirping away with JV, nudging Faith to play with him, or disturbing Sunshine to get her attention.
“Whenever I see Hope, it reminds me how one shouldn’t give up no matter how difficult a situation might be.
“After all, against all odds, this little bird survived a crow attack and found a new family.”
And as the New Year rolls around, Sheela is looking forward to even more Hope, Faith, Sunshine and Joie de Vivre in her life.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR PET: FMT Lifestyle readers are invited to send in pictures (landscape format) and a short video (if any) of their furry, scaly or feathery friends to [email protected]. Don’t forget to include details like your pet’s name, age, breed and a short story about them.