Here is the very first picture that Polly allowed me to take of her with my camera.  I think she loved having her picture taken. 

I took this one of her in January of 2015.

Here is the first picture that Charlie had taken on my camera.  He had to take some time to get used to the camera, in his first picture he just wanted to show off his backside.

Which was very pretty. 

Stay Tuned!

Polly's Forage N Play pose is coming right up!

God Bless! 

    Hello again!   I finally was able to upload Polly's new picture that I took of her in late March of 2015.
   She was on one of her favorite perches, this one is really cool because it is a Forage N Play. This perch satisfied her urge to chew which she did not chew her perches at all, but
she had fun trying to tear off the colorful yarn.  She also uses it to rub her head when she has a stubborn feather.  She also loves to climb to the top of her balls and her mineral treat that is shaped like a pineapple.  She has been with me for 11 months now! Next month will be her first year and I am so excited. 

She was so much fun to have I loved watching her play and look into her mirrors too. One has beads on her ladder and the other is a blue one with hanging beads that she has had since
the day I brought her home.  She actually picked it out at the store while she was in her box, and I was looking for a special toy for her.   She loved hearing that she was a pretty bird, and I even asked her if she thought she was a pretty bird, before she bopped her head up and down in agreement.   Polly was an Elvis fan, she loved hearing him, I am not kidding while Elvis played, she was quiet, and she looked like she was in a trance. Both Polly and Charlie loved to watch Let's Make A Deal and The Price Is Right, and they would get mad if anyone tried to change the channel.

Here is her picture. 

 Charlie's picture is coming up next!

Enjoy! 

God Bless! 

   I took this picture of Charlie on the same night I took Polly's.  Charlie had been with me for 9 months.  I loved him more every day, he loved having Polly as a friend, that year, I put Polly's cage close to his.

He came up to her and they looked at each other, chirped excitedly and after that, they wanted me to do it the majority of the time. But I did not let them get too close in case they would fight.  Their conversations with each other never got old, it was so cool how they respond to one another from another room. Charlie was still working on eating off of my finger, he watched Polly, and he seemed more interested where at first, he was scared of the carrot or piece of fruit.  Then, he liked eating the little piece of carrot, but he liked to eat it on his toy.  He took two steps forward and a giant one back, so I met him halfway, I knew when he is ready, he would take it from my finger too, he did get closer to my finger, before he backed away.

But, when he backed away, he did not run completely away, so I gave him all of the time he needed. He still loved to hang upside down, but he also loved climbing on his new swing and his rings he straddled them both while he gurgled and played with the bell on his swing.  I hoped to take a picture of it if he allowed me. He also liked his other toy it had a spinning shape and rings that spin the other way, before he went to sleep, he climbed up there.  However, when I covered his cage, he knew that I wanted him to get down and I made sure that he did before I closed my eyes at night.  He just enjoyed playing with all of his toys, and they both loved eating millet. In his first new picture he shows you all his other side lol.   One of these days I will catch him facing forward for the camera.


                                                                                                                     

Now his next picture was very surprising, he allowed me to take it while he was hanging upside down! 
Bonus you all will see what he looked like from the front too!  Yes!  I did it!  

I am going to take my morning break now. I have to uncover Sammy and Gracie, have breakfast and watch The Price Is Right.

If the weather permits, I will try to share more. 

Until next time!
Enjoy your summer and your pet pals! 

God Bless! 

    I was finished with the holidays back then and, I thought that I would share new pictures of Polly and Charlie.
I took the first picture of Polly the past summer in 2015 around June after she turned a year old.  She was happily sitting on top of
her favorite toy balls before she started chewing on them.






I will share a new one of Charlie in a little bit!

Here was the new picture of Charlie that I took in August of 2015 , when he turned a year old.
In this one he was busy preening (grooming) his feathers.  He did let you see his front he was getting used to the camera.  

       

Another new picture of Polly is coming right up! 

   I had a  picture of Polly that I just discovered from August of 2016.

She was posing for her picture in this one on her Forage N Play perch. 

In this one she decided to face another way for her close up.  She never was camera shy lol.

Stay Tuned! 

God Bless! 

 In his last picture from August 2015 Charlie showed his love for his blue star, by putting his foot on it.






I will share the pictures of Polly and Charlie from September 2015 in a few!
Enjoy! 

God Bless! 

 Here was another picture of Polly that was taken in September of 2015.
Yes, she was on one of her favorite perches again the Forage N Play.

Stay tuned for Charlie!  

God Bless!

   Here was the picture that Charlie let me take of him in September of 2015.

Another great view of his front side. 

Only one more picture to go!  Polly's is coming up!

Enjoy!

God Bless! 

2016-06-22T23:20

2016-06-22T23:20

  I took two more pictures of Polly around December of 2015 and notice that her balls are missing?  Yes, she chewed through the plastic, and I had to throw some away, but like I shared before after searching in pet departments on Christmas Eve we finally found her another set. It was not the ones she loved, but she grew to like her new ones too.
I think it is also safe to say that the perch she has sat on in the last few pictures is her favorite.

She posed for a picture on it again.  

Charlie's picture is coming up!

Enjoy!   

God Bless! 

2016-06-22T23:59  

Here is the picture that I took of Charlie around the same month of 2015.

God Bless! 

I took two more pictures of Polly in maybe January or February of 2016.
I think Charlie was in the middle of losing his feathers, and he did not feel like having his picture taken.
So, when Polly climbed up onto her new set of ball toys, I quickly snapped a photo of her.
She did mind one bit, and I was happy she was starting to play with them, I had two left over from her old set, so I combined them all.

Then, I took a picture of her on her top perch near her balls and mirror.

She did a very rare thing too she showed me and the camera both of her eyes!

   Hello!  Thank you again for visiting! I thought that while you all wait for more pictures of Polly and Charlie, that I would share some fun and interesting facts I learned about birds and parakeets.  I found these facts on the back of their toys or other items I bought at Petco from the brand J.W. Pet Company.

Here are two that I will start off with for today:
The first one I read asked me if I knew, and I honestly did not know that there are times when a bird owner might have wondered why their bird was flapping its wings like really crazy.  I have seen this done by both Polly and Charlie and yes, I did wonder about it. Well, it turned out that they do it because it feels good to them and that was the only reason.  Some other times were because of stubborn feathers, but yeah, they would be sitting on their perch, and their wings will just suddenly start flapping.  I was glad to know that, and Polly added a new spin to this fact when there were times when turned around in a circle. That could have been feather related flapping, but it was very funny and cute.

The second fact that I read was really cool and interesting. Again, I was asked if I knew this fact, and once again it was news to me.
It said that parakeets and other parrots can see to their sides, front, and even can have a partial view of what is going on behind them.
No, wonder I could never sneak anything behind them lol they already saw what I am doing!  I don't know about you all, but I think parakeets and birds are amazing!
I have some more stored away and I will share them as soon as I can on another day.

Until Then! 
Enjoy your pet pals! 

Enjoy Your Weekend Too!

God Bless! 

My prayers are with the conflict in the Middle East.

I don't think a president of any country should launch an attack on another country, just because he or she has a feeling.

USA needs a new president ASAP!

Also, he would not help Ukraine, but he jumped in for Isreal?  That is not fair!

We need to help all of our allies!

2016-09-22T20:16

 Hello again!  I just wanted to share two more fun and interesting facts that I had kept back from products by JW Pet Company.  The first fact is about why birds stretch.  I have noticed that both Polly and Charlie stretched out their wings, or foot to one side.  I never knew that what they did was called "mantleing" They did that because of one simple reason, they enjoyed the feeling of stretching just like us!

The second fact that I want to share is about bird's metabolism that I found very interesting.  Birds have a metabolism that is among the fastest of all animals.  Birds have to eat 20% of their own body weight each day to satisfy their energy requirements. 

I hope you all enjoy the fun facts! 

Until next time!

Enjoy your pet pals! 

God Bless!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Happy 4th of July to everyone celebrating!  Stay safe, cool, and have fun! 

Let Freedom ring for all! 

I hope all of you are having a great week, I have the last set of fun and interesting facts ready to post.

This post was from October 17th, 2016 

 Hello again! I have the last three facts that I have been trying to share for a while. The website crashed on me or something, and then Florida was visited by Hurricane Matthew, but my prayers were with the people in Bermuda, Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, along with everyone on the coast of Florida.  All I can say is that God was with us, but other places in Florida are still cleaning up, and so are the other countries that were in his path.

Alright, now I will share those facts.

The first fact came from Wild Harvest, they provided Polly with her pineapple flavored Mineral Treat, it helped keep her beak nice and trim, and healthy. She also got valuable calcium from it.  Charlie was not a big fan, but Polly liked to chew on it from time to time and climb on it. When she did that, I called her, "Queen of the pineapple."  I really wanted to try to snap a picture while she was on her pineapple, but I never got the chance. 

Anyway, this fact was more for their health and well-being but that is very important too.  The Bird Fact said that "Birds need natural lighting as much as they need food or water."  I made sure they had plenty of sunshine every day.

The next fact explained why Polly and Charlie were always preening.  I never knew that even small birds like parakeets could have as many as 3,000 feathers! Whoa! I was amazed when I read the fact on the back of another product from JW, they also make food water dishes for birds.

The last fact is the one I wanted to save until the end. I thought this was the most interesting fact of them all. I read this on the back of the package from Polly's Fancy Mirror. I never knew that birds and it included parakeets were able to sense vibrations with a very great sensitivity in their legs.  They have special cells called, "Herbst corpuscles" These cells, have the ability to sense the most subtle vibration.  I believed they could, because when anything like a truck or a big machine was around, they knew it and they got pretty excited. I hope you all enjoyed learning about these facts.

I hope to be able to share a few more pictures of Polly and Charlie as soon as I can.

Until Then!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Enjoy Your Pet Pals! 

God Bless! 

I have been praying for California they recently had a major Cat 3 Hurricane, Texas after the flash flooding that happened last weekend, and sadly another mass shooting in Philadelphia last week. 

2017-05-04T20:16

    Hello again!  Thank you for visiting Once Upon A Dream!   I have more pictures that I took on May 3rd, 2017. Polly and Charlie.  The molting slowed down a bit, and they were in the mood to have their new pictures taken.  Both Polly and Charlie were three years old, and I shared some really exciting news, last year Charlie finally started eating a carrot from my finger!  He also had apple, banana, and lettuce, But I mostly stuck to carrots, and he loved them.  They knew when I was making lunch, and they also knew that I would bring a little piece of carrot with me.  Charlie always did a little dance for his carrot it was so cute. 

Anyway, here are Polly's new pictures.

Here is Polly's next picture. She loved that Forage N Play perch.

Here is the last picture that Polly had taken by herself, she was on her pink sand perch, in front of her mirror and ladder. 

I will share Charlie's picture next week!

Enjoy Your Weekend! 

2018-03-16T02:13

 Hello again!  I promised a while back that I would share how Polly and Charlie did during their first hurricane, Matthew really did not count, because it did not directly hit my area of Florida, we still had some rough weather, and I just told them what was going on when it rained a lot or became really windy.  Hurricane Irma was a different ball game all together, first of all we really were not sure where she was going to hit, I listened to the reports and breathed a sigh of relief when the reports said that she would hit the coast and not the side I was on.  But, then as time for the storm hit approached, the reports started making it more likely my side was going to get hit.  So, my mom and I got as prepared as we could, we even prayed that we could get a generator, my friends always wanted us to have one.  We praised the Lord when mom found one the Thursday before Irma came.  We wanted to buy a gas can, and they were out, so I tried calling people to just see if we could borrow one.

I had a call back from the wonderful guy who helps us with our lawn, and he takes care of our shrubs, our trees, he called back, and he not only brought a gas can, but he also had it filled, he showed us how to start the generator, and our neighbors helped us with it as well.  I also worked hard on getting our yard ready, this was not my first hurricane, so I knew what the wind was like and how things could get blown around.  So, we brought in all of the flowers, and she helped me secure our fountains and we covered them.  We also covered our shepherds hooks with old pool noodles and tape, because some of them I could not pull out.  I tried and tried, we brought in our yard decorations, and I brought in the wind chime I had for Petie's memorial. We also bought some more water, and food that we could eat if the power went out, because you could not use our type of generator in rain or get it wet.  So, we had to be prepared for during the storm. We did the best we could, and we were even out in the rain that Sunday it hit, because I saw our shepherds hook swaying, so I did not want anyone 's property to be damaged, or worse get hit by it while its air borne.  So, we brought that inside, and I also took old wash cloths and stuffed them under our front porch's screen door, when I saw water coming in, from just the rain bands that were coming in.

Then, we had one more hot meal, and as for Polly and Charlie, it was like a normal Sunday for them until that night when my mom had all of us come into her closet. It is a nice walk- in closet, but it quickly became cramped. We had Polly and Charlie sitting on some plastic storage cabinets, and they were sturdy.  We all listened to a Christian music station using my boom box with batteries.  They liked hearing us sing, but they did get upset, when we were all trying to sleep.  I just needed to move my legs, and I scared them to pieces when my leg accidently hit their space. We soothed them, and I apologized at one point, I thought Charlie's cage had fallen off the cabinet, so I had a heart attack myself until mom showed me that he was still up there.  That night was terrible the eye went over another area really close to us. We prayed a lot, and we prayed for the people in the Keys, the hurricane made multiple landfalls.  We lost our power the following Monday, but we were all safe, and I made sure that Polly and Charlie did not get too hot.  We opened our windows, and they were just happy to be out of the closet.  I was too, and we all were even more happy when our power returned.   We did not use the generator to cool our house, just to cook.  After Irma, it took some time for Charlie to act like himself and he even lost his song, but he did bounce back.

To Be Continued! 

Enjoy Your Pets!

   Now I will share about some hard times that I went through with Charlie.  

It all started when Charlie started picking at his nails, I was in my room, but I was having fun playing a video game, but I remember this like it was yesterday.

It happened in the summer of 2017 I looked over and I saw the blood on his perches, he had pulled one of his claws off, or created a sore, but that started an adventure, where 

Charlie had to get his nails clipped.  During his injury, I did what I knew I could do, I kept him calm, cleaned up the blood, made sure the blood stopped.

Not long after that happened, we took Charlie to get his nails trimmed at a local pet shop, I went into the room with him, which was a bathroom, and I helped soothe him through the whole process, it was stressful and traumatic for both of us.  Still, I did not want Charlie to get hurt again, the woman told me that there was another person who trimmed bird's nails that was cheaper. She also told me not to have the middle claw clipped.  One good thing came out of it, I learned how to place the cage in the car during the ride home.  

A couple months later, I took Polly and Charlie to the other person, and they had their nails clipped, Charlie also started making a loud sound and he acted scared, I gave him comfort, and I looked for answers online, especially after he vomited on the day before we lost him. I looked up information online about symptoms of a sick budgie or parakeet.  I knew he was sick, but he was trying his best to act normal, he even ate his carrot after he got sick.  I did not know who I could turn to for help, but that night I found the online ask a vet, I described what was going on, and Charlie's symptoms, the night of February 21st was very difficult, even Polly knew something was seriously wrong.  I did not hear back from the vet, and I just tried to comfort Charlie, and make him as calm as possible.

During the night that little budgie fought a long and hard battle with death.  The next morning, I uncovered Polly, and I told her that I was going to check on Charlie, after I lifted his covers, I saw him, he was gone, and my heart broke all over again.  I also checked my e-mails, and I heard back from the vet, he was very sorry to hear that Charlie had passed away, and he gave me some helpful information that I keep in my e-mails to this day.  So, you all are probably wondering why I did not get Charlie to a vet, believe you me I would have, I was given some numbers for vets from Petco, when I brought Polly home and then Charlie, I was excited and I was relieved, but when I called the numbers, I was told that they don't treat birds, they did not have an avian specialist, so I honestly felt alone when it came to that.

When I told a couple that I knew from church about Charlie, the wife told me that Charlie could have had a blood infection, so he did not completely heal from the injury from his claw.

I did not know what happened, but I knew one thing and that was that Polly was going to need a friend, and I needed to try again in searching for a vet in my area that took care of birds.

Next week, I will share about Polly's passing.

Until then!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Stay Cool and Safe!

Enjoy Your Pet Pals! 

God Bless! 

My prayers are with everyone who has gone through a natural disaster this year.   

   Sorry that I did not post as promised last week, I had to get a new router, and that turned out to be a challenging adventure, but it is set up.  Am I still facing challenges? Yes, I am but I am taking a break from the mild frustration to post about Polly.

July 9th,2018

On the morning of July 18th, 2018, Polly was happy and playful, and she made me laugh while I watched her play.

That afternoon, around my lunch time, I gave Polly a Sweet Cherry to eat, after I had peeled away the skin, rinsed the fruit, and I pulled a tiny piece off.

She liked it and she made me laugh, when she got some of the juice on her beak.

Later on, that same afternoon I noticed that Polly kept to herself, she withdrew from Sammy.

Sammy could tell that something was wrong, he screamed at her, and I scolded him I told him that he scared her.

She acted like his scream had startled her. Then, she went down- hill.  I had a number for a vet that treated birds.

When I called, I was rudely told that they were full and that I should take Polly to a place in a big city up in northern Florida.

I knew I would have gotten lost while trying to find the place.

I looked in the phone book, where I found another vet and I told the very nice receptionist what Polly's symptoms were.

I told her that Polly was on the floor of her cage, flattened out with her wings, kind of curled in. I was told that it was not good.

She was also very apologetic for them almost closing.  It was okay, because I knew that Polly would have died on the car ride to any vet.

She tried to fight, but we said our loving good-byes, covered her cage a little, and we played soft music on Z-88.3 until she passed away a couple of hours later. 

After she was gone, we found a big flower- pot and we placed her in a box that had her name on it. I also dug the hole as deep as I could go, and we laid her to rest.

Then, we decided that Sammy needed a friend, before I cleaned, scrubbed, sanitized and disinfected the cage and a few toys in soapy and scalding hot water. 

Until it was clean and ready for our new feathered friend.  In case you were wondering if I blamed myself, yes I did and I wished that I hadn't fed Polly that Sweet Cherry.

I even did an online search to see if they were not good for Budgies.  I did make up my mind, Sammy and the new friend would never ever eat any kind of Cherry to stay on the safe side.

Next week, I will share about Henry, he was my sister's turtle, I have to sort out the pictures she shared with me a long time ago, then I will share his story.

Until Then!

Keep Safe And Cool!

Enjoy Your Weekend!

God Bless! 

I am praying for everyone and everything, while keeping up with Hurricane Erin.