Coming-of-age draft 3

  I have never had a pet till I was 15 years old.  Before that, my parents had the opinion that I was not able to take care of myself and a pet takes a lot more time and energy than I thought it would be.  I begged for a pet for so many years, but it didn’t happen. At the same time, my mom is always really afraid of animals especially dogs and cats.

  Only God knows how much I want to have a pet. I always saw the touching relationship between animals and human on TV and movies. Since I am the only child and my parents are always busy at work, it made me want to have a friend at home so badly so I can have someone to talk to when I am at home by myself. 

  It was the summer of 2008.  I was still in junior high school. My grandparents got a bird. Once I visited their house, I saw they trained the bird so well that they just left the cage open all the time. The bird flew in and out the cage all the time. He stood on my grandparents’ shoulders and get food from their hands. He is so tiny and cute, with green feather and a little white and green head. He turned his head to different directions all the time. I could see he was observing people in the house. At first, he was really afraid of me. He was terrified when I tried to come close to him.  With the time past by, I stayed in my grandparents’ house for a week, he began to open his heart to me.

  This experience made me have the thought of having a pet grew even stronger. I told my dad I would be at home for more than 3 months to be with my pet. I promise I will take care of him. I told him that I don’t need a pet like dog or cat anymore because I knew it won’t happen. I just want a bird. That’s enough for me.

   He finally agreed after a week. I think he couldn’t stand my “torture” anymore.

   I got a bird, same type as my grandparents have. 

   I knew we would be friend from the first time I saw him. He was jumping up and down in the cage because he was nervous. This made me feel disappointed because I want to be close to him as soon as possible but my dad told me this would just made him more afraid of me. I was told that I needed to be patient.

   “ I have a pet now!!! “ I shouted in my room. It was one of the best days in my life. I have never imagined that my dad would agree to buy a pet for me.

    I called my grandparents for advice about how to get close to him. They suggested that I should bring a book and just read beside him. He would be more comfortable around me after a while. So I did. I didn’t do anything other than just sitting beside him and reading. He was still jumping around for the first 3 days, then from the fourth day on, he became more quite, or more calm and comfortable with me. I was really thrilled by this improvement.

   The next day I tried to put food on my hand and let him to get food from my hand. When I put my hand close to the cage, he was nervous again. It didn’t make me give up. I stayed there for more than 20 minutes without moving my hand. He finally stopped jumping and slowly walking towards my hand. My heartbeat was so fast that I could almost feel it would bounce out of chest. He came, slowly and quietly. Then I felt his tiny sharp mouth pecking my palm.

   “He trust me now!!!” That’s all I thought at that moment.

   Everything became easier after that. Just several days after he can eat from my hand, I opened the cage. That’s the final step.

  I love to look at him flying around the house like a real bird. Bird supposed to fly freely like that.  But he never flies to me.

  One day, I was doing homework. He landed on my desk. At first he was pretty far away from me, observing me from there. He realized that I wasn’t going to harm him. He began to move step by step towards me. Then he jumped on the top of my mug, bowing down and drank my water, turning his green head and looking at me again. I smiled to him and continue doing my homework. Then he seemed released, he flied to me and stopped on my shoulder. I stopped writing because I didn’t want to scare him away. After a while, I turned my head carefully, he fell asleep on my shoulder! I can see his grey eyelid cover his eyes, his red feet ware covered by his green feather. I moved my shoulder a little and he was still sleeping. I guess he was dreaming.

  This is not just a process or a story of describing my first pet. The most important is this is the process of building trust between us. It also applies to human:

  This is also one of my coming-of-age memory because I realized that trust is not built in one day. We need to be patient and wait for a day that trust will find us.