Forum Overview :: Earthbound :: details, details.

[quote name="up with pod people"]cats are expressionless <i>to me</i> because I have never known them. however what you write here: [quote name="Zsenitan"]It is wonderful to be loved by hunting beasts, especially solitary ones. Their affections are selfish, protective, territorial; inasmuch as they are interested in you, you belong to them. Cats and hawks both have a kind of vicious passion that they will exercise on you if you deserve it. They are aware of when they hurt you, and sometimes they do it on purpose. Sometimes they will avoid you because they know perfectly well that you've been seeing another cat or hawk, and they mean to punish you for your faithlessness.[/quote] more than describes intelligent parrots. particularly the selection, and the jealousy; it is precisely <i>because</i> they are snacks that their affections are so hard-won and tenuous. [quote name="Zsenitan"]What on earth do snacktoys like cockatiels have to compete with that?![/quote] birds are like stars, distant and twinkling, and if one falls into your hands or, more accurately, <i>comes flying through the air when you call</i> it is a gift rarely matched. I enjoy the delicate, knowing, possessive relationships that birds form with people who understand them. they are all the better for those moments of shocking vulnerability in which you suddenly find yourself with a soft, impossibly light skull pressed against your lips, feathers lifted, neck totally bared.[/quote] compare with the slobbering, hierarchy-bound retriever, dumbly mauling and wuffing over anyone but a single step above him on the totem pole. I'll never have another bird, I think. they compete too much with children. I am glad my son prefers cats.[/quote]