I used to keep parakeets as pets. Unlike most other birds - though I don't know much about other ones - , they are friendly, funny, and entertaining. They learn to say some words and that's very cute. The typical one I first taught them was "Pee-chan." Well, don't look to its English meaning. Birdsong can sometimes sound like "Pee, pee" (Um, again, the sound, not the meaning, fellows) to our (Japanese) ears.

I happened to find an interesting and funny article in a local newspaper the other day.

A parakeet called "Chibi" flew away from his owner's house. After several hours, he came down on a man's shoulder, and the man took him to a police station. He kept silent for a few days after that, but suddenly started repeating his address and name like "North Avenue, Hatano Chibi-chan." The police looked up the phone number in the directly and, whew, found his owner.

The owner's comment: "Next, I'll teach him the phone number."