Happy Father's Day

by Nany & Richard Diaz

Our bird Pito, a cherished member of our family for 14 years now, seemed to be feeling unwell. We noticed that he was not himself during the last couple of weeks and wanted to be left alone. He took refuge inside a towel-covered laundry basket we have on the top shelf in our laundry room. He would get inside the basket under the towel and spend many hours there in the dark. He ate very little. We didn't understand this behavior in our normally happy bird. We had a family get-together to celebrate Father's Day. Since we were busy with meal preparation, we paid little attention to Pito until everybody had gone.

Poor Pito, he looked so tired and puffy. Later in the day he began to make strange noises. Richard and I had the feeling that our precious Pito was going to die. We tried to make him as comfortable as possible. Every time he shook or made loud breathing sounds, we became more alarmed. Richard took Pito into the bathroom and set him on the counter top hoping to comfort him with the image of himself in the mirror. Richard watched nervously as the noises Pito made grew more frequent and he got puffier and puffier as time passed. I could stand it no longer and left the bathroom resigned to the fact Pito was going to die at any moment.

 Suddenly Richard called for me to come back. My heart stopped for a second and my legs grew weak as I ran back to the bathroom. “LOOK, Richard said,” and pointed. My mouth flew open and my eyes widened in amazement. I could hardly believe what I saw when I looked down.

Our boy Pito had just laid an egg!  
Happy Father's Day, Richard, Pito is a girl!