In the beginning, there was Nick & Nora, and they provided avian company to my father in his new home in Colorado Springs and it was good. Then came Craig's List, and it delivered unto my father a "parakeet mansion" of enormous dimension (and containing many new perches and toys) and lo, it seemed empty with only two parakeets inside (besides, they wanted a new roommate to split the heating bills). And so PetSmart begat a third bird, Asta, and feathers of a new color joined those already sailing through the air following the nestlings' frequent flyovers. These were the three caballeros and they chirped and tweeted and chortled and frolicked and when their cage was covered they shut the hell up and rested.
But hark, trouble in the menagerie! Asta's arrival threw off the alpha/beta order of the universe and the chirping turned rancorous. The wildly popular "keetcam" even had to be pulled offline due to the effect of violent images on at-risk youth. There was nothing to do but add a fourth budgie to the mix, though this could only occur after a color consultant made a careful assessment of how best to achieve aesthetic congruity in the cage. Finally, Topper the Grey was procured, and harmony prevailed once again.
And now, from my cacophonous bunker in Colorado Springs, I present to you, for the first time ever, your guide to The Four Caballeros:
NICK, "the gregarious one"
Representative sound: warble with staccato chirp
Likes: swings, chewing on rope, throwing things off cage
Dislikes: squirts of water
Pecking order: alpha when outside the cage, zeta within
NORA (/NORMAN), "the peacemaker"
Representative sound: vibrato chirp
Likes: millet, classical music
Dislikes: bad jokes
Pecking order: beta
ASTA, "the nervous nellie"
Representative sound: high-pitched warble
Likes: heated perches, the sound of dish-washing
Dislikes: visiting parrots, hats, vacuum cleaners
Pecking order: beta
TOPPER, "the homebody"
Representative sound: allegro chirp
Likes: broccoli, mirrors, a roost of one's own
Dislikes: leaving the mansion, human fingers
Pecking order: alpha within cage (especially at snack time), zeta outside
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