Love is a joy to be near.  It brightens our days, reduces our stress, and supports our dreams.

No, not the bubbly cocktail.  I mean Champagne, our green and yellow parakeet.  He has been with us for nineteen years now, an incredibly long life for a parakeet.  Three months ago he was very sick, lying on the bottom of his cage twitching.  My wife took him to the veterinarian, who said that he had suffered the parakeet equivalent of a stroke.  The veterinarian suggested that we put him to sleep and end his pain.  But Champagne had always been so feisty in fighting back from life threatening injuries and sicknesses.  I was not willing to be the one to snuff out his last breath.  He never quit, and he did not quit this time either.  We fed him sugar water three times a day with an eyedropper, and he pulled off yet another miraculous recovery.

Champagne has been a joy in our house for almost two decades.  He has tamed his dragons (if he ever had any) and helped me tame mine.  He brightens everyone's days.  He says "I love Champagne" in a cheerful, squeaky voice that instantly makes people fall in love with him.  He says "Merry Christmas" every day of the year, even the Fourth of July.  I think the only phrase he really understands is "Let me out", which he says standing at the door to his cage.  Occasionally we let him out.  He enjoys flying, even though he is nearly blind and sometimes crashes into a wall.  The best he can do today is crash land on top of his cage.  He shakes it off and infectiously says: "I'm so cute. I'm so cute."  If reincarnation exists and Champagne comes back as a man or woman, I look forward to being close to that spirit in human form.  We have all met people who are like Champagne, although they are rare.  No matter what happens, they are a joy to be with.

Footnote:  Subsequent to this vignette being written, Champagne died about two months past his twenty-first birthday.  But not before being recognized officially by the Guinness World Records7 as the "Longest Lived Budgerigar (Parakeet) in Captivity in the USA".