Animal Tales - Tippy

Talking to Alissa last evening, she reminded me of Tippy, the only bird in this menagerie that passed through our lives in fifty-one plus years as a family. I've tried to keep this chronicle in a time order, so this chapter should probably be Chapter Two and a Half.

When Father Eugene Gould became pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Peoria, his housekeeper was Helen MacSomething - her B-I-L was the chaplain at OSF for years. She was the best person and we all liked her very much. She and Lora became fast friends and when Lora was Confirmed, she asked Helen to be her Sponsor. Helen called me and asked if It would be okay to give her a parakeet as a Confirmation gift. She told me had had a parakeet as a child and she had named it Tippy. She had fond memories of her pet bird and wanted Lora to have that experience as well. Vern and I said it was fine and Lora named her parakeet Tippy too.

Tippy was really a pretty bird, green and yellow. I don't think he ever talked, but he tweeted on occasion. Our family - Vern was the worst - would not keep the bird in the cage. No matter how much I protested, the bird was on someone's head or shoulder or on the drapery rods or the top of the hutch. The top of the hutch and the drapes were his favorite place to do bird doo. And if someone came to the door or went outside, the cry went up "Bird's out!". One warm day, Mary was going outside, Tippy was on someone's shoulder, and before you could shout "Bird's out", Tippy was on Mary's head and out the back door. Lora was devastated and the whole family began calling and looking around the neighborhood. My brother, Richard, was a police officer and our neighborhood was his beat that night. He came by and wondered why everyone was out on the street - because Lora and her sisters had enlisted all the close neighbors into the search - and when we told him what was happening, he got that silly grin on his face, picked up his microphone and pretended to send out an APB on the capture of Tippy. Lora felt reassured that the police were on the case. I remember him driving away, head out the window, hand on the bill of his cap, searching the skies for a lost bird. What a character.

Lora felt so bad about Tippy being out in the weather that she wrote a letter to a local children's show, Captain Jinx and Salty Sam and Captain Jinx read a portion of her letter on the show and asked the whole city to be on the lookout for a lost bird. As for me, I had the drapes cleaned and washed off the top of the hutch.

The rest of the story: Lora married Randy, who coincidently as a child had a parakeet who flew out the door and .....it's name was Tippy.