#only came in today to give us a heads-up one of the zoo macaws was sick

[birdy-rps]

The camera shifts slightly ad her face comes into view. Checking the settings one more time she smiles and waves to the camera,

"Hi! Today we are going to go through the various creatures I own and how I got them! Now, while I own an aviary, many of the birds just visit momentarily and then return home either to their owner or they are relocated to a proper habitat after rehabilitation. I own around 9 different birds, 2 different reptiles, one amphibian, one arachnid and 5 mammals."

She turns the camera around, showing her walking to a door. The door opens to reveal what appears to be a animal paradise, different glass domes showcasing brilliant fauna from different ecosystems. The first dome she walks into appears to be a north American forest, and the camera shows her sliding a thick leather glove onto her hand.

"First up, let's meet Arthur. Arthur is a Male great horned owl, who used to be a pet until his owners got tired of him. Instead of bringing him straight to a place like mine, they just let him out into the wild, leaving him defenseless and vulnerable to predators. He had no idea how to hunt for himself and hardly flew around unless he wanted to perch."

She makes a whistle noise and theres a barely there sound of flapping as a large owl swoops from the trees and lands on her gloved hand. The owl settles himself and preens lightly under the view of the camera.

"He was given to me by someone who found him practically starving to death out in the woods. I taught him how to fly and how to hunt by using treats whenever he did it well, but since he had been a pet most his life he refuses to leave and thus cannot be rehabilitated. He's very friendly and behaves well around all age groups so he is one of my best models for photographs when I go to teach kids about animals"

Raising her hand and making another whistle noise, Arthur flies off into the trees. Moving to another patch of trees, She reaches into a bag at her side and pulls out a small piece of raw cubed beef, clutching it between her thumb and index within the large glove. She makes a high pitched scree noise and a more noticable flapping noise is heard from directly in front. A gyrfalcon swoops down and lands on her hand, quickly gobbling down the beef.

"This is Fawkes, my gyrfalcon. Hes about 8 years old, and came to me about a year and a half ago, suffering from an injured foot. He was given to me by a retired falconer and very quickly got used to being pampered because of his injury and prefers to stay in the aviary where he can stretch his wings whenever he pleases but still get attention."

Raising her hand like she did with Arthur, Fawkes flies off into the trees. Taking the large glove off, she flips the camera to face her again,

"Those were my north American birds, now on to my tropical species"

There's a jump cut and now Sarah is shown standing in an area of lush fauna, two different species of macaws on her shoulders. The one on her left shoulder is a scarlet macaw, the one on the right is a hyacinth macaw. Adjusting the microphone on the small headset, she introduces the pair,

"This is Bow, the scarlet macaw, and Beck, the hyacinth macaw. Both are around the same age, about 4 years old, and I got both from a rescue program after their habitats were destroyed due to logging companies. Both are very friendly and will attempt to take any buttons you happen to have on you, hence why I'm wearing a regular T shirt without buttons on it. They hang out here in the tropical dome with each other and anyone who happens to stop by, so they're never lonely"

The camera now shows her sitting on a low branch next to a toco toucan, the bird walking back and forth along the branch.

"This is Tulio, the toco toucan. He has been with me ever since he was a hatchling, his species being a very popular pet. He was the runt and was gifted to me by a very reliable avian breeder. He's very friendly and loves to eat fruit, and I often let those who pose with Tulio feed him a berry or two as a treat for good behavior."

Another jump cut and now she is standing holding a greater bird of paradise, the bird preening his feathers as he perched on her arm.

"This is Tico, the greater bird of paradise. He is about 3 years old, and loves being in the spotlight. I got him after he was injured in his habitat by some logging crew after he refused to leave. Since being brought to me, he has recovered fully but now thinks I am his mate and consistently performs a display to hopefully get me to accept his proposal."

She visibly sweatdrops as she mentions this before the scene changes to her opening the door to another dome, this one lacking very many trees and instead having tall Savannah grass. As soon as she closes the door, a pair of wings can be heard getting closer, and the moment she turns around, a large African crowned crane is standing in front of her.

"Oh! Hello Majesty, heheh. This is Majesty, my African crowned crane. She was gifted to me by a local zoo after she got involved in a pretty bad spat between her and another of their female cranes. She enjoys attention and pretty much demands the focus be on her at all times, and there has been one or two incidents of her pecking at someone who didnt give her the attention she wanted. Because of this, I rarely have her pose for photos, although she loves having her picture taken."

The scene cuts and now she has the camera pointed to a secretary bird, standing tall with his head feathers moving in the slight breeze. He steps toward the camera and pecks at it before Sarah moves the camera away, laughing softly,

"This is Jaques, my Male secretary bird. He has a habit of pecking at anything he can get his beak on, Haha. Despite that though, hes much more behaved than Majesty and thus I have more pictures of him. He tends to stand on people's shoulders if I have them crouch next to him. He was also given to me by a zoo as they needed more space for different animals they had received and had no where to put him. He enjoys being scratched under the beak and that's usually what he's asking for if he shoves his head in your hand."

The camera cuts again to show Sarah holding a large bearded vulture on her arm. He has bright orange pigment in his feathers.

"This is Steve, my bearded vulture, or lammergeier. Their diet is primarily bones, and they put pigment in their feathers to make them more intimidating. Steve prefers to be left alone and thus keeps to himself when I'm not around. I've had him for about 3 years now, after being injured by a trap someone had set. These fierce birds are captured and poisoned in acts of illegal persecution, and seldom make it out before the person who trapped them comes back to check their traps. And that's all of my personal avians!"

The view changes to being inside a fairly spacious room with terrariums lining the walls. She walks over to the closest one, opening it to show an African fat tailed gecko, carefully reaching her hand inside for the small reptile to crawl into her hand.

"This is Kiwi, my African fat tailed gecko. She's very friendly and her favorite place to sit is on people shoulders or head so she can get a good look around. Kiwi is an oreo morph, one of the rarer ones as this morph type is recessive. She likes to lick things and it feels very ticklish when she does, heheh. I've had her for about 2 years, and I got her for my birthday."

Placing Kiwi back into her tank, she moved down to another one, opening it and carefully removing a piebald python. The snake immediately slithered itself up to rest around her neck, causing Sarah to flip the camera view.

"This is Cookie, my piebald ball python, shes about 3 years old and was probably the best Christmas present I ever received! She enjoys curling around people's necks and she's extremely photogenic, she poses in just about every picture I've ever taken of her. And given how comfortable she is around my neck right now, I think itd be best if she stays there for the rest of the video."

There's a cut and the camera focuses on a black salamander with yellow spots, leisurely resting in a small pool of water.

"This is Mino, my black and yellow spotted salamander. I got him from my college professor who told me she couldnt take care of him anymore because of her new apartment having a strict no pets policy. He prefers to stay in his tank and it's best to not handle him because the oils from human hands could hurt him very badly. So most of the photos I have of him are of him in his tank."

The scene changes to show a large tarantula crawling on her hand. Sarah whispers softly into the microphone to avoid startling the arachnid,

"This is Luna, my rose haired tarantula. She is one of my oldest pets, being 13 years old. I've had her since I was in highschool and she's been with me through pretty much everything. She's very docile and is very okay with being handled but since she's so special to me I only let her take pictures with those I know personally."

Coming up to the last few minutes of the video, the camera shows two ferrets, a cat, and two dogs, playing next to a couch. Of the two ferrets, one is a dark eyed solid white and the other has a standard sable coat, and they seem to be playfully fighting over a toilet paper tube. The cat is a ragdoll and is leisurely resting in a patch of sun coming from the window. The smallest of. the two dogs is a pomsky, the larger being a albernese mountain dog.

"To end my video, I'm going to introduce you all to my five mammalian pets, Jinx and Greg the ferrets, Maria the ragdoll, Skye the pomsky and Kiba the albernese mountain dog. Out of the five, Maria is the oldest at 10 years old, Kiba coming in second at 5 years old. Jinx and Greg came from the same litter, both being 3 years old, Greg being the runt. And Skye is the youngest at 2 years old! I got all of them from reliable breeders and I cherish all of them dearly. And that concludes all my personal pets! Thank you for tuning in, see you next time!"

The video ends with a slideshow of various pictures of the animals with various people.

[midoriyasbones]

Klance and a visit to the zoo

turned into an aquarium visit too... but i hope you dont mind!

pls suggest more fluff prompts ill love you forever if you do

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“Keeeeeith,” Lance whined like a two year old as Keith dragged him like a dead weight through the crowd of excited children and less excited parents. “It’s hot out! What are you even looking for? And why aren’t we using a map?”

“Because you were so impatient to get through the gates that I didn’t have time to grab one,” Keith grumbled, going up on his tippy toes in an attempt to see over the heads of zoo visitors with little success. God, he’d never realized just how short he was. Was this how Pidge felt all the time?

Keith was beginning to regret not bringing anyone else along with them to the zoo. They would have forced Lance to slow down, or at least distracted or entertained him enough to allow Keith to apply his sunscreen. But this was also supposed to be their first real date together of the summer, alone. They’d gone on a few ‘dates’ in June and July, but could you really consider it a real date when their friends almost always tagged along or? Or if Allura or Shiro practically chaperone them? Keith had just wanted a time where he and Lance could just be together, not that he didn’t enjoy the others. He just wanted some time when he could kiss Lance (more than a peck) and not have Shiro gently remind them that Pidge was still kinda young and then have Pidge not so gently remind Shiro that he was literally six years old. He would gladly slather aloe vera all over his body for that.

“Well, what are you looking for?” Lance asked impatiently. “And also when are we getting dinner? It’s like, 7:30, I don’t even think the zoo is open for much longer and… we haven’t stopped by the aquarium yet.”

“The zoo closes at 8,” Keith said with a bit of a sigh. “And the aquarium is still under renovation, remember? It won’t be open for a week or two. I don’t think we’d be able to see anything even if we did have time to stop by.”

“It’ll be okay, we can come back again soon, right?” Keith reminded him hopefully. “Our apartment is only a 20 minute drive from here. We can come up over the weekend sometime.”

“I know,” Lance sighed, discouraged. “But I really wanted to just see it before we go back to school and get swamped with homework and have to be adults again. There won’t be a lot of time to make day trips just to see the aquarium, you and I both know that.”

Keith bit his lip, feeling guilty. He hated seeing Lance disappointed. That face was almost enough to make him spill the other big reason they couldn’t go to the aquarium yet just to make him feel better. Almost.

Keith knew Lance had practically grown up going to this aquarium pretty much every weekend. He could make maps on it from memory. He knew where every exhibit was, he knew the names of every dog shark and stingray in the touch pools. He was best friends with the head of the marine life care department at the zoo, Coran. This aquarium was actually where Keith and Lance first met. It meant a lot to both of them. That was why it was bitter sweet when the zoo announced they were closing the aquarium last year to make some (very much needed) renovations on all the exhibits. On one hand it was sad to see the aquarium that meant so much to them change, but they were both excited to see the new additions. Today was supposed to be the opening day and Keith and Lance had planned this day trip months in advance, which was why Lance was disappointed when the zoo suddenly announced last month that the aquarium would need another week to finalize all the renovations, but there was nothing they could do about it.

They met 2 years ago when Lance was working with the zoo and Keith was here doing research for his architecture final project. Fortunately Keith’s teacher, Allura, was Coran’s niece, and Keith had been Allura’s favorite student, so when he asked if he could be allowed to look behind the scenes Allura had pulled a few favors. Keith remembered the first time he’d ever met Lance had been standing in a pool of baby sea turtles, inspecting them for shell rot. They’d gotten off to a bit of a rocky start, but since they both practically lived in the halls of the aquarium that year they soon became very close.

“Hey,” Keith said, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend’s waist. “We’ve still had fun today, right?”

And it actually had been a really great day so far. They’d went in a clockwise circle around the zoo, taking their time to look at all the animals, and occasionally stopping to compare each other to said animals. They’d compared their arm-span to the wingspan of giant bats, fed granola to budgies, and watched the new baby elephant romp around in a mud puddle. Lance was having a blast, reading all the facts and goofy signs out loud in an attempt to make Keith laugh, and it worked. They’d decided to eat lunch in the aviary and a beautiful macaw had landed on Lance’s shoulder and kept wolf whistling at him until a zookeeper came over with a little cup of nectar and showed Lance how to feed it without spilling the cup.

“His name is Frederick,” The zookeeper had informed them as Lance held up the cup for the hungry lorikeet to eat. “And he seems to think he can flirt with everyone that passes by him.”

“Wow,” Keith grinned at Lance slyly. “I can’t believe I found the embodiment of you in a bird.”

Lance had flicked a french fry at him in retaliation.

After lunch they’d seen tigers prowl around their enclosures and red pandas doze peacefully in trees. They ended up spending a lot of time in the enclosed desert area where they got to watch meerkats scamper in and out of their burrows and fat tortoises waddle their way across the sand. Now they were going through some of the last outdoor exhibits and Lance was getting a little tired. In fact, Keith was pretty sure the poor guy had crashed about halfway through the lemurs, monkeys, and apes exhibits. Keith didn’t blame him, they’d been here since 9 in the morning and the entire time Lance had been running around and chittering excitedly about every single thing.

“Well, if we can’t see my favorite animal,” Lance huffed, leaning into Keith. “We can see yours, what is it anyways?”

“That’s actually what I was taking you to see,” Keith said, continuing to walk towards the exhibit. “My favorite animal is a hippopotamus.”

“A what?” Lance said, incredulous.

“You heard me.” Keith’s cheeks burned a bit. “I like hippos. They’re uh… big and uh… kinda cute.”

“Cute?” Lance laughed a little bit, seeming to perk up. “I mean, the baby hippos are, but aren’t hippos like, one of the most dangerous animals in the world?”

“They are the most dangerous animal in the world.” Keith corrected as they approached the hippo exhibit and leaned against the railing. “But they’re still cute as fuck, look at them.”

Lance did, laughing a bit as the baby hippo swam circles around its mother. “I guess in a way they’re like you then: big and mean looking, but actually just adorable softies once you start digging.”

Keith turned to look at Lance, and was struck dumb for a moment. His boyfriend was leaning against the railing, watching the baby hippo dive in and out of the water as its mother stayed submerged beneath, ears flicking occasionally when a fly landed on them. The soft light from the setting sun cast an orange glow over his tanned skin and reflected back from his blue eyes. His sunglasses were positioned up in his soft, mousy brown hair. He looked… beautiful.

Wow.

That was gay.

“Attention zoo visitors.” A voice called out through the loudspeakers and startled Keith out of his gawking. “The zoo will be closing in 15 minutes. Please make your way towards the exit now. Thank you for visiting today!”

Lance sighed, pulling away from the railing. “Well, thanks for taking me out today. I had fun.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to see the aquarium,” Keith said, taking one of Lance’s gangly arms and slipping it around his shoulders. “I know you really wanted to see it.”

“Nah,” Lance waved him away with his free hand. “You’re right, we can come back on a free weekend. It’ll be a good date idea, right? Well, what are we doing for dinner. It’s kind of late, but I could look up a couple restaurants in the area on my phone.”

“I’ve already made arrangements for dinner,” Keith grinned as he pulled Lance by the waist away from the throngs of families pushing strollers and couples holding hands and towards a gated off path.

“Wait, Keith the exit is that way.” Lance protested, trying to tug them back. Lance may be bigger than Keith, but Keith had a strong grip on his waist. “What are you doing? We can’t go back there! It says employees only!”

“Does it?” Keith said, tilting his head at the sign in mock confusion. “It may be because I dropped out of High School and had to retake junior year, but I think it says ‘Keith is the best boyfriend ever’.”

“What are you tal-,” Lance stopped as Keith pulled out his key ring. He looked up at Keith and raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing, mullet?”

“Taking you out to dinner, and don’t try to pay me back, it’s my treat.” Keith replied, searching for the key labeled ‘AQUA’. “I wanted to scale the fence, make it like old times, but Allura wouldn’t let me.”

“What do you mean Allura wouldn’t let you?” Lance asked as Keith pushed the gates open. “Keith, you know we aren’t allowed back here, and I thought you left your life of crime in the past! And isn’t this the path to the old aquarium?”“Yup.” Keith confirmed, grabbing Lance’s hand and pulling him along. “Just shut up and trust me.”

Lance was probably going to argue some more, but then he saw the impressive shiny new entrance to the aquarium and his mouth fell open. He gaped in stunned silence, allowing Keith to pull him down the lantern lit mosaic pathway. The tiles were the color of soft sand with shell shapes embedded inside to give it the impression of a beach. The tiles faded into blue with specks of iridescent stones to resemble the rolling waves of the beach. As they ran down the path, lights (controlled by Pidge in their tech room) flickered on in the reflection pool and fountains shot jets of water high into the night sky.

They stopped a few feet in front of the large new glass doors to get a good look. The old weather worn marble exterior had been replaced by a sleek modern design meant to symbolize the way water ebbed and flowed over the shore. Their had been a contest to find the design for the architecture, and the winner’s name was to be kept a secret until opening day. But Keith already knew the winner, and now Lance did too.

He turned to Lance grinning, waiting to see his reaction. Lance’s blue eyes were blown wide as realization dawned on him.

“THIS IS YOUR DESIGN!” He shrieked incredulously. “OH MY GOD! KEITH! YOU WON?”

Keith nodded. He’d been dying to tell him since he found out from Allura, but decided to keep it a secret so he could surprise Lance. “I won the contest, and got an A on my project.”

“YOU-” But whatever Lance going to say he stopped when he pulled Keith into a harsh kiss. When they finally pulled away Lance spluttered wordlessly finally giving Keith the opportunity to explain.

“They emailed me at Christmas time saying I had won the contest,” He said, “And I was going to tell you, but I decided to make it into a surprise. It’s been killing me.”

“I cannot believe this.” Lance said, covering his face with hands as Keith swiped a card and the electronic doors unlocked themselves and opened to reveal the brand new interior. “This has to be a dream. There is no way this is- THE DOG SHARK POOL!”

The minute Lance saw the small, sleek bodies of dog sharks moving effortlessly through the water he was already running. Keith laughed, chasing after him. Lance knelt reverently by the edge of the pool, looking into the crystal clear water, then looking up at Keith.

“Can I…?” He began, and Keith nodded. He reached out with two fingers and let his fingers graze against a shark near the water’s surface. The shark glided past him, fin cutting a gentle wake behind it. The blue lights from the water cast a glow over Lance’s face. “I can’t believe they kept this exhibit. When I was working here they were considering removing it because of the stress.”

“You remember that rest area idea you suggested last year?” Keith said casually, petting a dog shark.“Yeah,” Lance nodded, not taking his eyes off the water. “But the old tank didn’t have the resources for it.”

“This one does,” Keith said, pointing towards the end of the pool where natural looking rocks blocked off a section of the pool and a sign stood that read:’ Dogshark rest area, please do not pet!’. “When I designed this tank I put one in so the zoo could keep the dog sharks.”

“Oh my God,” Lance managed, sounding a little choked up. “You are… just…”

“I’m glad you like it,” Keith smiled, pecking Lance’s cheek.

The rest of the night was spent holding hands and kissing underneath the tropical reef and watching jellyfish float lazily through the clear waters and being totally, tragically, sickeningly in love.

[bluesakurablossom]

Life's Gift Of Love: Mikey's Love Story

Chapter 2 Sky's Pov... Well another day, another dollar. Waking up in my comfy bed with my cat curled up beside me and the rays of the sun shining through my silky yellow curtains, starting my morning before I headed off to work for my late morning shift. I pushed off my puffy comforter and rolled up in bed rubbing my eyes open. Kisa was rubbing against my side purring like a motor boat as I gave the back of her head a scratch. "Love you Kisa, such a good kitty", I said She then looked up and stood up on her hind legs giving my cheek a nuzzle and I giggled nuzzling her back giving her head a kiss, only to have some of her fur cling to my face. I blew a few raspberries as some of the hair got into my mouth. "Remind me to take you to the groomers this week, you are shedding like crazy", I said, getting up I walked out of my room and headed off into the kitchen and prepared some hazelnut coffee. I then heard squawking coming from behind me and I turned around to see my scarlet macaw hanging from her cage door in the corner of my apartment, cocking her head side to side. "Oh how can I forget my baby bird?", I said, opening the cage door I held up my arm as she climbed on top of it and I gave her beak a kiss as she flapped her wings repeatedly. "Morning Skittles, you hungry this morning? Want a snack?", I asked "Yummy yummy", she said I giggled and I rested her on top of my shoulder. "Okay let's get you some fruit", I said I opened the fridge and there was many shelves stacked with fruit, vegetables, almond milk, sealed up garden salads and my two giant tubs of peanut butter and jelly. Now you are probably wondering why I didn't have meats, cheese, yogurt or anything else of that kind in my fridge? Well it's because I am a vegan. I have been one really for most of my life, I just never ate meat or dairy when I was growing up. After hearing and seeing some disturbing and shocking truths about what really goes on in those industries when I was nine by watching a protest parade on the streets, I decided to become one. Growing up when I saw those images and undercover tapes of what happens to animals, I was shocked and disgusted. I don't see why anyone could hurt such an innocent creature to pleasure our needy greedy lives. I wanted to prevent myself for being one of the millions of causes to exploit animals and I believe that many silent and sentient creatures have a right to life and freedom, just like the rest of us. And besides to me it is a healthier lifestyle to live and I really have grown into it. I took out a bin of cut up peaches and I took out a jar of walnuts from the cupboard and I poured each of them into a small bowl as Skittles then flew down and used her foot to eat a peach. "Good girl, eat up", I said, stroking her back feathers After giving the rest of my animals their food, I left my pets to eat their breakfast as I went back into my bedroom to get ready for work. I took a hot shower and then got dressed into a dark navy blue plaid shirt with silver stripes, rolling up the sleeves to my elbows, slipped on some dark black skinny jeans, and my grey and white high tops. I tied on a simple long navy blue bandanna around my head. I pushed the tails behind my shoulder as I grabbed my phone, my wallet, and my house keys. Thank goodness it wasn't smoggy out today and it was nice and hot, so I didn't need my oxygen tank today. I made sure all my pets needs were taken care of before I walked out the door locking up. I walked down the stairs till I got down to the sidewalk and made my way to work. I arrived at work at a good fifteen minutes early as I walked in thorough the glass door making the little bell ring above the frame. There to greet me was one of my co workers straightening out the desk, with long black hair in a low ponytail and dragon tattoos on his arms in a tough guy outfit. "Hey Sky, what's chilling?", he asked "Hey Clint, oh pretty much the same thing, different day", I said, shrugging "Fair enough, feeling any better?", he asked "Actually quite good today", I said, clocking into my shift on the computer "Best I have been feeling for months" "Well that's good", he said "Meghan got back in last tonight" "Oh really? Awesome! I can't wait to see the designs she was going to bring back from LA", I said "She got so lucky to go on the set of LA Ink, I can't wait to know what knowledge that they gave her", he said "Maybe it could boost up business" "I sure hope so, we have been kind of slow these past two weeks", I said, unlocking my door to my station "By the way what time do I have that appointment with Christy? It was for restoration on her back" "She called this morning she had to rescheduled because of a meeting, you got her at four today", he said, as I walked inside turning on the light "Cool beans", I said, setting up my tray with my inks and tools Well at least we did get some business today after Meghan had shown us what she learned while in California. I had at least four appointments of doing tattooing and restoration and made some pretty good tips. I was cleaning up my station by making sure all my inks were in colored order and sanitizing my tools. I decided to stay and help clean up the shop since one of our cleaning staff members didn't bother to show up at his shift. I dusted the counters and artwork, wiped the glass and mopped the concrete floors. As I finished mopping up the area, my boss Bryan came in from his office. He had short brown hair and flame tattoos on his muscular arms. "Oh Sky you didn't have to do that, I am going to give that guy a good talking to, this is the second time this month he has done that", he said "Nah don't worry Bryan I don't mind", I said, mopping around the front desk "It's gotta get done one way or the other" "How's the therapy?", he asked, sitting down and starting some paperwork "To be quite honest, I am pretty much sick of it", I said "I mean I haven't made any progress for years, and it's more annoying that nothing has changed since I got this" "I'm sorry to hear that, be a shame if this doesn't go away", he said "Don't want to lose my next manager" "Thanks for your concern", I said, smiling a little "But I'm hoping a miracle will happen soon, I'm sick of dealing with this shit" "I wouldn't say I blame you, I would be fed up and throwing in the towel right about now", he said "Anything going on for you tonight?" "Pretty much the same thing, going to go home and take care of my so called zoo", I said, giggling "Oh yeah Mrs. Dr. Dolittle", he said, snickering "Haha you guys are so funny calling me that", I said, rolling my eyes "Well you kind of own every animal there is", he said "Oh contrary, not every kind...yet", I said, laughing He laughed along with me as I dumped the mop water outside on the street and store the bucket and mop in the storage closet. "Though something did strange did happen last night", I said "Like what?", he asked "Okay I helped this guy out from getting beaten up I guess by thugs or something and when I tried to see if he was okay, he took off running", I said He looked at me quite surprised. "Really? He just like vanished?", he asked "Yeah! I mean he jumped the wall and climbed up on a rooftop and disappeared", I said "He was so fast, like lightning speed!" "That's really strange", he said, nodding in agreement "I know right, but he did leave me a message saying that he owed me one", I said "Someone called Mikey" "You know anyone named that?", he asked "Not that I know of", I said, shaking my head "But oh well, probably not going to see this guy again anyways" "Yeah probably not", he said I shut off the lights in my station and locked it up and I clocked out of my shift. "By the way I got those invoices and bids sent out today", I said, tightening up my bandanna "Oh thanks Sky! You work way too hard, it's like you are trying to run me out of here as quick as possible", he said "Not my intention", I said, giggling walking to the door "Good night" "Good night, see you at noon", he said "See ya", I said, as I walked out of the shop I walked down the street and decided not to go home straight away. I wanted a little breather from work before I tended to my home life. Going past my apartment complex I headed towards the docks at the end of the block. I walked along the rickety boardwalk and leaned against the edge watching the sea quietly ripple under the light of the moon and seeing a few sailboats out in the distance. "Ahhh fresh air", I said I always loved the boardwalk. It was just where I loved to be to get some peace and quiet and enjoy the crisp ocean air, that really enhances my breathing. Best of all I usually had it all to myself to enjoy. Or so I thought. I heard footsteps coming up behind me, that sounded loud and making the old boards cripple under my feet. "Hey!", a voice yelled I shot around seeing a man holding a knife in his hand and just from standing a far distance, I could smell alcohol and cigarette smoke. "Get off my spot!", he said "Excuse me, this is a public place, so I can stand here if I want to or not", I said, crossing my arms "Shut up! You little whore!", he said, walking closer I gripped behind my pants pocket and grabbed a little object hiding it in my fist. I backed up against the edge of the boardwalk, not knowing what he could be planning. "Strip off your clothes!", he said "I don't think so", I said, being brave "You bastard!" "Strip or I cut off your fingers!", he said, as he pressed the knife up under my chin "No!", I said, getting in his face "Do it...or I will!", he said, in a warning tone "I said no!", I said, as I revealed my weapon I sprayed a tiny bottle of mace that was very effective in his eyes as it created a cloud of smoke. He yelled in pain as I tried to push him away to run. But the spray only helped me so much before he pushed me back hard. "You little cunt!", he said, as he shoved me again This time he pushed way too hard and I slipped on the wet boards and went stumbling backwards falling into the ocean. I screamed as I started falling faster and faster till I hit the icy cold water. It was a sudden shock for me as I never felt so cold in my life. I swam back up to the surface catching my breath and I tried to swim to a dock post to hang on to since I was near the roughest part of the waves. I was close till a huge wave crashed on top of me pushing me under and making me do multiple somersaults. I tried to swim up to the surface again, but I wasn't moving anywhere. I looked down to see my leg was tangled up in some kelp and I reached down trying to get myself free, but it wasn't getting any looser. It felt like I was attached to a chain on a ball. I could feel my lungs tightening by the seconds desperate for air and I started to panic struggling faster to get free. Suddenly a huge wave came rushing towards me as I tried to swim away, but it smashed me against a wooden post on the dock and I hit my head hard. My vision started to go blurry and my whole body began to relax as I sunk down into the ocean. I never felt so calm, it was peaceful like I had just fallen asleep. My head looked up and from what I could see was rushing waves continuing to hit the dock. But I then saw something jump in making a huge splash and for some reason it started to swim towards me. I tried to keep my eyes open but everything went dark. "Come on", a voice said, sounding muffled "Come on, come on!" I felt a strange thump on my chest that was repeatedly hitting me. I suddenly shot up coughing hard as salty sea water came drooling out of my mouth. I coughed hard a few more times before I finally caught my breath and laid back down. My eyes slowly opened and I could see I was on the beach and sand was sticking to my wet clothes. I slowly looked up and I was stunned to see the exact same shadow I saw last night, with the exact same bright blue eyes looking down at me. "No need to thank me!", he said, clearly not noticing my shocked expression "I take cash and checks as repayments" My eyes then rolled into the back of my head and my head fell unconscious from everything happening so fast. I didn't remember anything after that. When I felt myself coming around I didn't feel the cold sea water surrounding me, instead I felt warm and cozy. I fluttered my eyes open to see I was back in my own apartment and I was laying in my bed, hooked up to my oxygen tank. "Wow that was some dream", I said, to myself "It felt so real" "That's because it was real", a voice said I quickly sat up and looked around in my dark room and I turned on my lamp on my nightstand, backing up against the headboard. "Who...who is there?", I asked, sounding nervous "It's okay, I'm the one who helped you out, I just stayed to make sure that you were okay", he said "Why are you hiding from me? I can't see you", I said, relaxing a little "You probably don't want to", he said "You would be afraid" "Why would I be scared of my own rescuer?", I asked "You saved my life, there is no reason why I should be afraid" I could hear slight movement and I can see the same huge shadow. "Please don't go, I really want to see you", I said, sitting up in bed "You will freak out", he said, sounding a bit sad "I won't freak out, I promise you", I said, softly He stood there silent for a few moments as I waited patiently for him to say something. He then took a step forward and I could see a huge sneaker wrapped in white bandages and going up his leg and I could see material of orange and black gym shorts and part of a grey hoodie around his waist. I got a look of curiosity and when the light had barely hit his face, the same bright blue eyes appeared. "It's you", I said, softly He then fully stepped out and I was right, he wasn't human. He was a giant turtle, like a head and almost shoulder taller than me. An orange mask was wrapped around his head and had a golden chain hanging from his neck along with shades with golden orange tint and a long skateboard was behind his back. He looked at me frightened. "You are that guy", I said, standing up "You are the one from last night" "Yeah, and you were the one who helped me out", he said, smiling a little "Told you I owed you one" "Mikey?", I said, remembering the name from the note "That's me!", he said, smiling more Without warning I suddenly hugged him tight around his neck and I then could feel the happiness spike up in him as he hugged me back tightly too. "Thank you so much! I would of been a goner if it wasn't for you", I said, smiling "Aw no worries little dudette!", he said, swinging me side to side as I giggled "Just doing what I normally do" "Man I thought I was dreaming for a second there", I said, letting go "Thought I was going on crazy" "Oh this is real, believe me", he said This guy had such a laid back and casual attitude towards me, and I hardly even knew anything about this guy. I knew he wouldn't have harmed me in any way, not with an attitude he has. Otherwise I would have been dead before I had blacked out when nearly drowning out in the ocean. Besides I did help him out so there was no reason why he would hurt me. "But don't worry, I am not afraid of you", I said, smiling "You are not?", he asked, surprised "Not at all", I said, shaking my head "Well that's a surprise you are the first human I have met who doesn't get all freaked out or faint at the sight of me", he said "A lot of people these days can be very judgmental about a lot of things", I said, crossing my arms and nodding in agreement "They just don't give it a chance" "Right instead of like running away, they could just stop and just try to understand it on what it really is", he said "I might just end up being the coolest thing ever" "But why did you run away when I tried to approach you?", I asked "I didn't mean to scare you like that, I'm sorry, it was just the only thing I could think of to help you" "No I wasn't scared of you, I just worried that you might be scared of me", he said "The reason why I ran, I panicked because I didn't want you to see me how I looked" I looked at him concerned. "What why?", I asked, gently "I didn't want you to freak out by my appearance, I thought you would called me a monster", he said, lowering his head "Pretty much everyone does" "Now why would I call you a monster?", I asked "I don't know because I am a giant talking turtle", he said I gave him a smile. "You ninny", I said, giving his shoulder a playful shove "If I was scared of you, I wouldn't have bothered to help you out back there, I kind of got the idea that you weren't human anyways" "Really?", he asked, surprised "I'm pretty observant of my surroundings", I said, giggling and crossing my arms "And besides I don't think any human could of been that big in size or fast to get on a rooftop unless they had some kind of special climbing equipment" "Well not entirely true, Spiderman could of done it", he said, smiling "Oh yeah! That's true!", I said "Love the part when he tries out his spiderwebs for the first time saying all those goofy pick up lines", he said "Oh my god! Me too!", I said "And right when he smashed into that billboard, too classic" "Like a bug on a windshield", he said "Hey that's a pretty good comparison, I never thought of that", I said Just then the sounds of scratching and squeaky meows could be heard from outside of my bedroom door. A big grin exploded on Mikey's face. "Awwww you have a kitty?", he said "I do", I said "Wanna meet her?" "Yes! Yes! Yes!", he said, excitedly Wow this guy really must love animals, well considering that he is one. I rolled out of bed and I opened the door and came running in quickly was my cat, meowing. "Hey baby girl, you miss mama?", I said, picking her up "Come here" She hugged me around my neck as I petted her along her back. "This is Kisa", I said, setting her down beside him with Mikey sitting on my bed "Awwwww she is so cute!", he said, petting her along her back as she purred loudly "So fuzzy and adorable!" I smiled. "Yeah she is my baby", I said "She is very affectionate, even when I found her in an alley on my block under a dumpster, poor little girl must of been on her own for quite awhile, thought she wouldn't make it" "You found her under a dumpster?", Mikey asked, shocked "Yeah I was walking home from work and heard a little squeak and I went to see what it was, and sure enough this little dirty fuzzy kitten came walking up to me", I said "Picked her up and took her right into my home and she has been with me since" "Awwwwww do you know how she got out there?", he asked, petting her head "Maybe getting separated from her mother, or possibly thrown out by an irresponsible owner", I said, shrugging "I am not so sure, but all I can say is that there was no way and how I was going to leave her there" Kisa had climbed up on top of Mikey's arm and walked along his shoulder till she laid down behind his neck curling up and purred rubbing up against his face. He chuckled smiling as he scratched her head. "Kisa really likes you Mikey", I said "Never seen her that affectionate before" "Well I can be quite the alley cat myself", he said "Maybe that's why she likes me" I giggled. "Maybe", I said "Um did you maybe wanna stick around for a bit? I mean you don't have to if you don't want to, just really enjoying the company, I don't often get visitors" "Let's go for it!", he said, suddenly I flinched back startled a bit by his answer. "You said the magic words!", he said "You really want to stay?", I asked, a bit confused and yet surprised "Why wouldn't I?", he said "Oh...well then okay", I said, smiling "Great! I could show you my other pets that I have too" "Wait Kisa is not the only one you have?", he asked "Oh no no no", I said, shaking my head "Come on I'll show you" I got up with Mikey quickly following behind me and Kisa running out in front of the both of us. There to greet us was my other pets in there tanks or cages Mikey looked like a little kid in a candy shop as he looked around seeing my pets that were going about their own things. "Wow! You are like in the office of Dr. Dolittle!", he said I giggled. "Yeah you could say something like that", I said "A lot of people do tease me for that, but hey I love animals, can't help it" "This is awesome! Show me everyone!", he said, happily "Gladly", I said, walking up to one of my tanks "First we have my fish, I have my cinnamon clown Sugar, my angel fish Shimmer, my blue tang Dory, my starfish Peach, and my snail named Slime", I said In the tank was beautiful colored corals and purple and blue pebbled rocks at the bottom, with a little light shining down into the clean water. Something like you would really see in the ocean. "So cool! I wish I had fish growing up that would of been awesome!", he said, getting on his knees and watching them move around "Glad you like them, come on I'll show you more of my critters", I said, patting his shoulder He got up and followed me to a good size metal cage and from the little hammock hanging I could see little whiskers pop up. "And this is Iggy and Lola", I said "What are they?", he asked, peering inside the cage trying to see "Here", I said, opening up the cage door and held out my hand A white rat with black patches and a plain white rat appeared and they started crawling up on my hand. "They are my rats", I said, pulling my hand out "Wow! I didn't know that you can own rats as pets, I thought you would really just find them in the sewers", he said, looking at them "Surprisingly they can be good pets, they have become more popular now", I said, as they started climbing up and down my arms "Not like the ones I would see lurking around in the tunnels for scraps", he said, as he looked at Iggy in the face "You see rats all the time?", I asked "Yeah I kind of live in the sewer", he said, sounding a bit uneasy "Not really a surprise", I said, shrugging, not really bothered by his answer "You don't think its bad?", he asked "I don't think so", I said, shaking my head "I mean you don't often see giant turtles living in penthouses" "Oh that would be the day", Mikey said, looking up at the ceiling dreamily "Tell me about it", I said, nodding in agreement Iggy and Lola came walking up my arms as Lola stood up on her hind legs and sniffed the air reaching out her little paws. "I think she wants to see you Mikey", I said He held out his finger as she rested her paws on the green digit. He looked at her with a smile and she then scattered up on his arm as Mikey looked at her with surprise as she then rested on his shoulder and began sniffing him. "This feels so weird, usually rats would scatter at the sight but to have one actually come up to you", he said, as he watched her move all over him sniffing around "It feels funny" "I know at first glance you might think that why would you own a rodent that eats everything in sight and is nothing but a pest in society", I said "But really I found them fascinating, I mean they are so adapted to living in such harsh conditions and can still keep living a normal life" Lola scattered on top of Mikey's head as she rested her paws on top of his face and her whiskers twitched. Mikey's face was scrunching up as he started laughing as she continued on. "Hey cut that out!", he said "That's her way of telling you she loves you", I said, smiling as I petted Iggy on his head "Hey! Come on! That tickles!", he said, with his face scrunching up more "Okay Lola, come here", I said, holding out my hand and she walked along my arm to rejoin Iggy Mikey shook his head with a bit of fur flying off his face as I then took a few fruit treats from a bag beside their cage in my hand. "Would you like to feed them?", I asked His blue eyes went wide. "Can I?!", he asked "Yeah, here watch this", I said I took one of the fruit treats and I made a little clicking sound to get Iggy's attention. "Iggy, stand", I said, holding the treat out in front of him Iggy slowly got to his feet as I began to move the treat farther away and he began to walk slowly on his hind legs following the treat. I made him walk along my arm a short distance before I held the treat to him and he took into his paws and began to eat it. "Good boy Iggy", I said, giving his back a stroke "Wow I wanna try!", Mikey said "Here", I said, handing him a treat "Just make that noise and tell Lola to stand and make her walk" Mikey tried mimicking the same clicking noise I made and he held the treat out in front of Lola. "Lola, stand", he said Lola heard him and got up on her hind legs and began to walk along my other arm towards the treat. He made her walk a distance till she started walking faster and faster till she got to my hand, before he handed her the treat. "Good girl Lola", he said, stroking her head with his finger "Wow never could get her to walk that far, that was really awesome Mikey!", I said "I am the King Rat, rodents kneel before me!", he said, in a dramatic evil tone teasingly doing striking out his arms I couldn't help but giggle at his child like behavior. "Nice try Mikey, but they are not that obedient", I said, as I set them back in their cage locking the door "So much for getting service", he said, teasingly I giggled. "Oh well", I said "And we have my last one, this is Skittles" I moved the sheet off the cage and resting on a perch was my macaw waking up. She squawked as she flew up and landed on my wrist and she stretched out her wings. "Wow never seen a macaw like that before! Not like in real life", he said, as Skittles looked at him "She is a scarlet macaw", I said "Had her since I was thirteen" "Why the name Skittles?", he asked "Okay so I was struggling to figure out a name for her because I adopted her from the humane society and I wanted her name to be a good one", I said "Try to use a different name than what people normally name a bird like Polly, Birdy or Tweety something like that. So I was eating skittles trying to figure out a name for her and then it hit me when I was saw the same colors of the candy matched her feathers and I am thinking, hey I should name her Skittles since she has all the colors and is very sweet like them" "Huh how creative!", he said, smiling I giggled. "Or weird", I said "How old is she?", he asked "She is 18 years old, so same age as me", I said "And she loves talking and doing impersonations" "She can talk?", he asked, surprised "Yeah really well, here I'll show you", I said "Skittle can you say hi?" She then held up her wing in front of her beak while Mikey laughed. "Oh it's okay baby don't be shy, he is nice", I said "Can you say hi Skittles?" "Hi Skittles", she said, laughing "Okay she is a little nervous, so can you say hi Skittles?", I said "Hi Skittles", she said, again still laughing He looked at her amazed as Skittles stopped laughing. "Okay being very literal, it's a comedy I get it", I said "Okay let's rephrase the question, how about you wave with your foot and just say hi?" She then rose up her left foot and waved it. "Hi, hi, hi, hi", she said, repeatedly "Good girl!", I said, petting her head "Wow that is so cool!", Mikey said "Here watch this", I said "Can you give a big kiss Skittles?" Skittles made a clicking noise making it sound like kissing sound effect. "And this one she does really realistic", I said "Can you cough?" Skittles did a coughing sound while shaking her head back and forth. "Good girl!", I said, giving the tip of her beak a kiss as she flapped her wings "Can you she do a Dark Vader impersonation?", Mikey asked "Not quite", I said, smiling "We do practice that one though, she is getting better each time, I'm hoping we can get it right very soon" Skittles then rested on top of Mikey's arm as he looked at her with a smile and Skittles looking back at him with curiosity. "You can sit down with her if you want, I'll get us some drinks" I went into the kitchen and I took out two glasses and got some ice from the freezer, sliding them inside. I then opened another cabinet and smiled taking two cans of my favorite soda. The fizzy bubbles made it look really refreshing and tasty, and best of all its vegan. I carried the two glasses back into the living room and I giggled seeing Skittles was swinging off from Mikey's gold chain as he swung her standing up. "Oh should of warned you, she loves to swing on anything that hangs", I said, giggling "Yeah should of warned me, she has got an iron grip", he said, still swinging her He then stopped and took her off his chain and set her on top of his shoulder. "It's really all I have that might be tasty for you, but I don't know if you maybe might like Orange Crush", I said, looking down at the glasses "You like Orange Crush too?!", Mikey asked, looking surprised "I knew it! I knew couldn't be the only obsessed with it!" "Me too! It's like the best ever!", I said, handing him a glass He took a big a gulp of it, nearly drinking the whole entire glass with one gulp, before letting out a sigh of refreshment. "Nothing beats the taste of a delicious beverage!", he said I giggled. "You got that right! I would be drinking this like there is no tomorrow", I said, as we sat down on the couch "I mean who doesn't like this?! It's full of flavor, just the right amount of bubbles, and creates the best burps", he said He then suddenly burped out loud as if it were by coincidence as he blushed in embarrassment. "Well excuse you", I said, shoving his arm "Sorry", he said, sheepishly "My bad" "It's cool", I said, smiling "But yeah I agree, best soda ever" "I mean who doesn't like this?", he asked "People who have no good taste", I said, cocking an eyebrow "Exactly!", he said, nodding his head firmly before taking another gulp "Um question?", I said "Yeah?", he asked "How did you even know where I lived?", I asked He looked at me sheepishly. "Oh that, I kind of followed you home that night you helped me out", he said "Just to make sure you weren't going to be followed or attacked. I also kind of saw you in your window" "I figured", I said, smirking "But I wasn't spying on you or anything!", he said, quickly shaking his head "It's cool", I said, shoving his arm "I would of done the same thing too if I was in your shoes" "How could you? Your feet couldn't possibly fit in these", he said, teasingly lifting up his foot We both started laughing even with Skittles joined in the laughter. "Haha that was a good one", I said, giggling "You are funny" "I have been known to please a crowd with my humor", he said, with a charming proud smile I giggled. "Well you proved me right", I said, taking a sip of my drink "So how long have you been living here?", he asked "A few months?" "Too young that's pretty much all I can say", I said, shaking my head "I have been living on my own since I was fifteen" He looked at me shocked. "Why did you leave so young? You run away or something?", he asked I shook my head as I took another sip of my soda, before setting it down on the table. "No", I said "I have a bad relationship with my mom, just everyday there would always be a fight about something, just had to get out of there you know" "Were you scared?", he asked "A little", I said, nodding truthfully "At first I didn't know what I was getting myself into, I didn't know where to start. I mean I was just a fifteen year old girl who has leukemia with no money or anything trying to find a new place to start. Luckily I had a struck of luck when a lady gave me a job assisting teaching kids art at the local school here, she even offered me a place to stay until I got my savings up. When I graduated from high school, I worked as a full time waitress while doing online classes to get my tattooing license" "You are a tattoo artist?", he asked, with his eyes going wide "Yeah been one for a little while now", I said, smiling a little "So you like own your own shop? That would be so awesome!", he said "Well not yet", I said "I'm working my way up to owner position. My boss Bryan is teaching me all the things I need to know how to do and everything before he allows me to take the reigns" "You will have to show me everything! Like where you work, your designs, your space! Everything!", he said, sounding ecstatic and shaking my shoulders "Okay woah woah woah!", I said, giggling from seeing his excitement holding my hands up "Of course, but we will have to wait till night to sneak in after hours and I can show you everything from there" "Can't wait!", he said I smiled and then my glow and the dark clock began glowing all different colors showing the time. "Awwww man it's midnight! I'm going to be so late to get home! The guys are going to kill me!", he said, suddenly getting up "Are you going to get in trouble?", I asked, getting up from my seat "Yeah! I'll be grounded for like a week!", he said, taking his skateboard and putting it behind his shell "Ugh hated being grounded as a teen, such a pain in the butt", I said "Right!", he said "Here I'll lead you out here", I said I opened up my huge window up to the top and Mikey crawled out by wedging his giant figure in sideways to get out on to my fire escape. "Oh you might want to have these back", I said, revealing to him the ninja stars out of my pants pocket "Woah! How did you get these?", he asked, taking them from my hand "Let's just say they nearly speared me in the head", I said, cocking an eyebrow "Oh my god! I am so sorry! I was trying to get the ninjas and I thought-", he said, sounding all panicky "I'm just kidding with you!", I said, shoving him playfully "I am fine, don't worry about it" "I didn't hurt you?", he asked "No, just nearly had my heart leap out of my chest and see my life flash before my eyes, I'm alright", I said, giggling "Oh good", he said, taking a huge breath "But yeah sorry I didn't know they nearly hit you" "It's okay", I said, smiling "Hey but we won the match, that's the main thing!", he said "Nah main thing is that I knock those guys on their asses with my air tank", I said "Girl power was on a roll that night!", he said, bumping up a fist I laughed smiling and we gave each other a high five, then a knuckle touch, doing an dramatic explosion sound effect. "Yeah boy!", I said, giggling "You know what, why don't you keep these", he said, handing them back to me "But they are yours Mikey", I said, as I took them "I couldn't take them" "Nah don't worry I get like a whole supply of them at home", he said, smiling and shaking his head "Keep them" "Wow thanks! I got my own ninja stars", I said, looking at them "Catch you later dudette, I'll see you around! Got to go!", he said, climbing out the window "Well it was really nice to meet you again and see you for the first time, Mikey", I said, sitting on my window sill "Bye" He was about to jump off my fire escape until he stops and looks back at me. "By the way I never caught your name", he said, pointing a finger at me "Oh right, that would be rather useful to know", I said, giggling "It's Skylar, Skylar Richards"

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Peacock Quotes

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• A few months ago, I had the pleasure of actually visiting the Playboy Mansion. I saw the peacocks, fed grapes to the monkeys, and even braved the fabled Grotto. After seeing the estate, I understood why anyone would be reluctant to leave. – Diablo Cody • A peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo and wandered around the city. Either that or I just saw a pigeon on his way to a gay pride parade. – Jimmy Fallon • A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey. – Dolly Parton • An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them. – Pope Francis • And that’s how the Peacock saved the Chameleon – Ally Carter • As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it. And this is the last vice to be conquered. – Leonardo da Vinci • At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all. – Baltasar Gracian

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• Be motivated like the falcon, hunt gloriously. Be magnificent as the leopard, fight to win. Spend less time with nightingales and peacocks. One is all talk, the other only color. – Rumi • British men are peacocks. You see a lot more style on the streets here than you see anywhere else, on every level. – Tom Ford • But why wasn’t I born, alas, in an age of Adjectives; why can one no longer write of silver-shedding Tears and moon-tailed Peacocks, of eloquent Death, of the Negro and star-enameled Night? – Logan Pearsall Smith • Dear Alec and Magnus, This is the first postcard of five. Don’t freak out or anything, but I need you to send me $150,000 to cover the cost of: 1) Two diamanté crowns 2) 20 peacocks 3) 300 chocolate lollipops in the shape of your heads 4) My dress 5) 500 lbs of glitter 6) One white horse (More to come in other cards) -Isabelle – Cassandra Clare Death, Stars, Writing • Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you. – Herman Melville • For all the feminist jabber about women being victimized by fashion, it is men who most suffer from conventions of dress. Every day, a woman can choose from an army of personae, femme to butch, and can cut or curl her hair or adorn herself with a staggering variety of artistic aids. But despite the Sixties experiments in peacock dress, no man can rise in the corporate world today, outside the entertainment industry, with long hair or makeup or purple velvet suits. – Camille Paglia • Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright. – Van Wyck Brooks • Hansel is certainly about comfort, while still sort of having a peacock principle of wanting to attract attention. – Owen Wilson • He said that people who loved [animals] to excess were capable of the worst cruelties toward human beings. He said that dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, that peacocks were heralds of death, that macaws were simply decorative annoyances, that rabbits fomented greed, that monkeys carried the fever of lust, and that roosters were damned because they had been complicit in the three denials of Christ. – Gabriel Garcia Marquez • Here is a kitchen improvement, in return for Peacock. For roasting or basting a chicken, render down your fat or butter with cider: about a third cider. Let it come together slowly, till the smell of cider and the smell of fat are as one. This will enliven even a frozen chicken. – Sylvia Townsend Warner • How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked. Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’ The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion. – Toni Morrison • I am Plato’s Republic. Mr. Simmons is Marcus. I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver’s Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and-this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. – Ray Bradbury • I can live without it all – love with its blood pump, sex with its messy hungers, men with their peacock strutting, their silly sexual baggage, their wet tongues in my ear. – Erica Jong • I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy … fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks! – Lilly Pulitzer • I do not believe that any peacock envies another peacock his tail, because every peacock is persuaded that his own tail is the finest in the world. The consequence of this is that peacocks are peaceable birds. – John Ruskin • I don’t know if it’s animalistic or what, but men become like peacocks with their feathers up when women are around. – Bradley Cooper • I fear I must agree,” Magnus murmured. He pressed a hand over his heart and his new peacock-blue waistcoast. “I strive to find some respect in my heart for you, but alas! It seems an impossible quest. – Cassandra Clare • I just love the way the ’60s rock stars put themselves together, because they were like dandies and peacocks. They really lived out their fantasies – and dressed their fantasies. – Anna Sui • I know exactly how strong he is… He is like a peacock, spreading his feathers and squawking loudly to distract you from the back that his body is but weak.” -Jason to Mahiya – Nalini Singh • If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock’s feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections. – Francis Quarles • If you get bored of doing it (Peacock Pose) with two hands, try it with one. – Dharma Mittra • It dances today, my heart, like a peacock it dances, it dances. It sports a mosaic of passions like a peacock’s tail, It soars to the sky with delight, it quests, Oh wildly, it dances today, my heart, like a peacock it dances. – Rabindranath Tagore • It is reported of the peacock that priding himself in his gay feathers he ruffles them up; but spying his black feet he soon lets fall his plumes. So he that glories in his gifts and adornings should look upon his corruptions, and that will damp his high thoughts. – Anne Bradstreet • It’s an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock’s tail was thus formed but … most people just don’t get it – I must be a very bad explainer – Charles Darwin • Le geai pare des plumes du paon. A bluejay in peacock feathers. – Jean de La Fontaine • Let me drive,” she said, reaching for the reins. He turned to her in disbelief. “This is a phaeton, not a single-horse wagon.” Sophie fought the urge to throttle him. His nose was running, his eyes were red, he couldn’t stop coughing, and still he found the energy to act like an arrogant peacock. “I assure you,” she said slowly, “that I know how to drive a team of horses. – Julia Quinn • Maggie threw her head back and laughed. ‘So you’re going to try…what? Birds of a Feather?’ she quested. ‘Of course not,’ Kat said. ‘Everyone knows the French government banned the importation of peacocks in 1987. – Ally Carter ��� Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes–and calls it his pride. – Friedrich Nietzsche • Men’s clothes are becoming kind of mod. They’re becoming more colorful and more flamboyant, and the male peacock is beginning to show his true plumage. – Liberace • Music really influenced me when I was growing up. I did go through a Jimi Hendrix phase. My hair was naturally quite afro, and I wore low-slung jeans with very high heels. Siouxsie and the Banshees had a lot to answer for. I was in a top hat with peacock feathers and thigh-high black boots. I was 17 — old enough to know better. – Helen McCrory • My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these, Because my love is come to me. Raise me a daïs of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me. – Christina Rossetti • My philosophy on what makeup is…it’s very different from what a woman’s is. Makeup came from a very psychological place – of the peacock. – Jeremy Renner • News is history shot on the wing. The huntsmen from the Fourth Estate seek to bag only the peacock or the eagle of the swifting day. – Gene Fowler • Only you could love such a vile, selfish peacock, Evie. – Lisa Kleypas Paradise, Way, Satan • Patterns drawn in ultraviolet might make those ordinary little petals into the exotic peacocks of the botanical world, and yet we cannot appreciate them. – Victoria Finlay • Peacock bass like to hide at ambush points, away from the strong canal currents. If you fish early and know those peacock hangouts, you will have little or no trouble catching peacocks on lures and live bait. – Mark Hall • Peacocks have the bright feathers. Fish have the long tails. Women have the mall. – Janette Rallison • People are crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet. – Saadi • Play not the Peacock, looking everywhere about you, to see if you be well deck’t. – George Washington • Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. – John Masefield • Recently, while I was in England, I saw a documentary on the BBC about the border between India and Pakistan at Wagah. When the border closes each evening around six o’ clock, the soldiers on each side do these amazing high-stepping peacock march-offs (like a dance-off). The displays are almost identical on each side and thousands gather to watch them. Though they’re patrolling along their separate borders, what comes across is how similar they are. – Matthea Harvey • Ruin, weariness, death, perpetually death, stand grimly to confront the other presence of Elizabethan drama which is life: life compact of frigates, fir trees and ivory, of dolphins and the juice of July flowers, of the milk of unicorns and panthers’ breath, of ropes of pearl, brains of peacocks and Cretan wine. – Virginia Woolf • She is a peacock in everything but beauty! – Oscar Wilde • Simple DNA gradually morphed and evolved, so that you had the coming into being of ever more complex and diverse creatures, until one day you wake up and find there are peacocks and giraffes. Nature is an open-ended experiment based on morphing a DNA code, and ours is an open-ended experiment based on morphing a crochet code. – Margaret Wertheim • Skaters are very much like peacocks. – Jon Heder • Tell me about this Wizard Howl of yours.” “He’s the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he’d only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he’s sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can’t pin him down to anything.” “Indeed? Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies.” “What do you mean, vices? I was just describing Howl. He comes from another world entirely, you know, called Wales, and I refuse to believe he’s dead! – Diana Wynne Jones • The Italians are fond of red clothes, peacock plumes, and embroidery; and I remember one rainy morning in the city of Palermo, the street was ablaze with scarlet umbrellas. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • The Italians have voices like peacocks – German gives me a cold in the head – and Russian is nothing but sneezing – Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton • The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories. – W. H. Auden • The peacock in all his pride does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed. – Joseph Addison • The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. – William Blake • The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. – William Blake • The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail. – Rabindranath Tagore • The sun fades like the spreading Of a peacock’s tail, as though twilight Might be read as a warning to those desperate For easy solutions.- John – Ashbery • The thing you fail to grasp is that people are not basically good. We are basically selfish. We shove and clamour and cry for adoration, and beat down everyone else to get it. Life is a competition of prattling peacocks enraptured in inane mating rituals. But for all our effacing and self-importance, we are all slaves to what we fear most. You have so very much to learn. Here. Let me teach you. – Christopher Nolan • There are eight different breeds of peacock. I have them all. – Bidzina Ivanishvili • There are no preconditions for jealousy. You don’t have to be right, you don’t have to be reasonable. Take Othello. He was neither right nor reasonable, and Desdemona ended up dead. I wouldn’t mind Leanne ending up dead. I wouldn’t mind exploding her into fireworks of peacock and pearl. – Franny Billingsley • To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let Nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require; The peacock’s plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable’s tail. – John Gay • To Paradise, the Arabs say, Satan could never find the way Until the peacock led him in. – Charles Godfrey Leland • Turkeys are peacocks that have really let themselves go. – Kristen Schaal • We ask ourselves all kinds of questions, such as why does a peacock have such beautiful feathers, and we may answer that he needs the feathers to impress a female peacock, but then we ask ourselves, and why is there a peacock? And then we ask, why is there anything living? And then we ask, why is there anything at all? And if you tell some advocate of scientism that the answer is a secret, he will go white hot and write a book. But it is a secret. And the experience of living with the secret and thinking about it is in itself a kind of faith. – Vaclav Havel • We may put too high a premium on speech from platform and pulpit, at the bar and in the legislative hall, and pay dear for the whistle of our endless harangues. England and especially Germany, are less loquacious, and attend more to business. We let the eagle, and perhaps too often the peacock, scream. – Bill Vaughan • When the peacock has presented his back, the spectator will usually begin to walk around him to get a front view; but the peacock will continue to turn so that no front view is possible. The thing to do then is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn. When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns. – Flannery O’Connor • Who cares what a man’s style is, so it is intelligible,–as intelligible as his thought. Literally and really, the style is no more than the stylus, the pen he writes with; and it is not worth scraping and polishing, and gilding, unless it will write his thoughts the better for it. It is something for use, and not to look at. The question for us is, not whether Pope had a fine style, wrote with a peacock’s feather, but whether he uttered useful thoughts. – Henry David Thoreau • Women are a source of energy in life. I’ve always wanted to be in a war or baseball movie, but the thought of having no women on set for six months – that’s hell. I don’t know if it’s animalistic or what, but men become like peacocks with their feathers up when women are around. – Bradley Cooper

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[equitiesstocks]

Peacock Quotes

Official Website: Peacock Quotes

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• A few months ago, I had the pleasure of actually visiting the Playboy Mansion. I saw the peacocks, fed grapes to the monkeys, and even braved the fabled Grotto. After seeing the estate, I understood why anyone would be reluctant to leave. – Diablo Cody • A peacock escaped from the Central Park Zoo and wandered around the city. Either that or I just saw a pigeon on his way to a gay pride parade. – Jimmy Fallon • A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey. – Dolly Parton • An example I often use to illustrate the reality of vanity, is this: look at the peacock; it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth… Whoever gives in to such self-absorbed vanity has huge misery hiding inside them. – Pope Francis • And that’s how the Peacock saved the Chameleon – Ally Carter • As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it. And this is the last vice to be conquered. – Leonardo da Vinci • At twenty a man is a peacock, at thirty a lion, at forty a camel, at fifty a serpent, at sixty a dog, at seventy an ape, at eighty a nothing at all. – Baltasar Gracian

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• Be motivated like the falcon, hunt gloriously. Be magnificent as the leopard, fight to win. Spend less time with nightingales and peacocks. One is all talk, the other only color. – Rumi • British men are peacocks. You see a lot more style on the streets here than you see anywhere else, on every level. – Tom Ford • But why wasn’t I born, alas, in an age of Adjectives; why can one no longer write of silver-shedding Tears and moon-tailed Peacocks, of eloquent Death, of the Negro and star-enameled Night? – Logan Pearsall Smith • Dear Alec and Magnus, This is the first postcard of five. Don’t freak out or anything, but I need you to send me $150,000 to cover the cost of: 1) Two diamanté crowns 2) 20 peacocks 3) 300 chocolate lollipops in the shape of your heads 4) My dress 5) 500 lbs of glitter 6) One white horse (More to come in other cards) -Isabelle – Cassandra Clare Death, Stars, Writing • Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you. – Herman Melville • For all the feminist jabber about women being victimized by fashion, it is men who most suffer from conventions of dress. Every day, a woman can choose from an army of personae, femme to butch, and can cut or curl her hair or adorn herself with a staggering variety of artistic aids. But despite the Sixties experiments in peacock dress, no man can rise in the corporate world today, outside the entertainment industry, with long hair or makeup or purple velvet suits. – Camille Paglia • Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright. – Van Wyck Brooks • Hansel is certainly about comfort, while still sort of having a peacock principle of wanting to attract attention. – Owen Wilson • He said that people who loved [animals] to excess were capable of the worst cruelties toward human beings. He said that dogs were not loyal but servile, that cats were opportunists and traitors, that peacocks were heralds of death, that macaws were simply decorative annoyances, that rabbits fomented greed, that monkeys carried the fever of lust, and that roosters were damned because they had been complicit in the three denials of Christ. – Gabriel Garcia Marquez • Here is a kitchen improvement, in return for Peacock. For roasting or basting a chicken, render down your fat or butter with cider: about a third cider. Let it come together slowly, till the smell of cider and the smell of fat are as one. This will enliven even a frozen chicken. – Sylvia Townsend Warner • How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked. Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’ The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion. – Toni Morrison • I am Plato’s Republic. Mr. Simmons is Marcus. I want you to meet Jonathan Swift, the author of that evil political book, Gulliver’s Travels! And this other fellow is Charles Darwin, and-this one is Schopenhauer, and this one is Einstein, and this one here at my elbow is Mr. Albert Schweitzer, a very kind philosopher indeed. Here we all are, Montag. Aristophanes and Mahatma Gandhi and Gautama Buddha and Confucius and Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Lincoln, if you please. We are also Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. – Ray Bradbury • I can live without it all – love with its blood pump, sex with its messy hungers, men with their peacock strutting, their silly sexual baggage, their wet tongues in my ear. – Erica Jong • I designed collections around whatever struck my fancy … fruits, vegetables, politics, or peacocks! – Lilly Pulitzer • I do not believe that any peacock envies another peacock his tail, because every peacock is persuaded that his own tail is the finest in the world. The consequence of this is that peacocks are peaceable birds. – John Ruskin • I don’t know if it’s animalistic or what, but men become like peacocks with their feathers up when women are around. – Bradley Cooper • I fear I must agree,” Magnus murmured. He pressed a hand over his heart and his new peacock-blue waistcoast. “I strive to find some respect in my heart for you, but alas! It seems an impossible quest. – Cassandra Clare • I just love the way the ’60s rock stars put themselves together, because they were like dandies and peacocks. They really lived out their fantasies – and dressed their fantasies. – Anna Sui • I know exactly how strong he is… He is like a peacock, spreading his feathers and squawking loudly to distract you from the back that his body is but weak.” -Jason to Mahiya – Nalini Singh • If a man knew anything, he would sit in a corner and be modest; but he is such an ignorant peacock, that he goes bustling up and down, and hits on extraordinary discoveries. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • If thou seest anything in thyself which may make thee proud, look a little further and thou shalt find enough to humble thee; if thou be wise, view the peacock’s feathers with his feet, and weigh thy best parts with thy imperfections. – Francis Quarles • If you get bored of doing it (Peacock Pose) with two hands, try it with one. – Dharma Mittra • It dances today, my heart, like a peacock it dances, it dances. It sports a mosaic of passions like a peacock’s tail, It soars to the sky with delight, it quests, Oh wildly, it dances today, my heart, like a peacock it dances. – Rabindranath Tagore • It is reported of the peacock that priding himself in his gay feathers he ruffles them up; but spying his black feet he soon lets fall his plumes. So he that glories in his gifts and adornings should look upon his corruptions, and that will damp his high thoughts. – Anne Bradstreet • It’s an awful stretcher to believe that a peacock’s tail was thus formed but … most people just don’t get it – I must be a very bad explainer – Charles Darwin • Le geai pare des plumes du paon. A bluejay in peacock feathers. – Jean de La Fontaine • Let me drive,” she said, reaching for the reins. He turned to her in disbelief. “This is a phaeton, not a single-horse wagon.” Sophie fought the urge to throttle him. His nose was running, his eyes were red, he couldn’t stop coughing, and still he found the energy to act like an arrogant peacock. “I assure you,” she said slowly, “that I know how to drive a team of horses. – Julia Quinn • Maggie threw her head back and laughed. ‘So you’re going to try…what? Birds of a Feather?’ she quested. ‘Of course not,’ Kat said. ‘Everyone knows the French government banned the importation of peacocks in 1987. – Ally Carter • Many a peacock hides his peacock tail from all eyes–and calls it his pride. – Friedrich Nietzsche • Men’s clothes are becoming kind of mod. They’re becoming more colorful and more flamboyant, and the male peacock is beginning to show his true plumage. – Liberace • Music really influenced me when I was growing up. I did go through a Jimi Hendrix phase. My hair was naturally quite afro, and I wore low-slung jeans with very high heels. Siouxsie and the Banshees had a lot to answer for. I was in a top hat with peacock feathers and thigh-high black boots. I was 17 — old enough to know better. – Helen McCrory • My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a water’d shoot; My heart is like an apple-tree Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these, Because my love is come to me. Raise me a daïs of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me. – Christina Rossetti • My philosophy on what makeup is…it’s very different from what a woman’s is. Makeup came from a very psychological place – of the peacock. – Jeremy Renner • News is history shot on the wing. The huntsmen from the Fourth Estate seek to bag only the peacock or the eagle of the swifting day. – Gene Fowler • Only you could love such a vile, selfish peacock, Evie. – Lisa Kleypas Paradise, Way, Satan • Patterns drawn in ultraviolet might make those ordinary little petals into the exotic peacocks of the botanical world, and yet we cannot appreciate them. – Victoria Finlay • Peacock bass like to hide at ambush points, away from the strong canal currents. If you fish early and know those peacock hangouts, you will have little or no trouble catching peacocks on lures and live bait. – Mark Hall • Peacocks have the bright feathers. Fish have the long tails. Women have the mall. – Janette Rallison • People are crying up the rich and variegated plumage of the peacock, and he is himself blushing at the sight of his ugly feet. – Saadi • Play not the Peacock, looking everywhere about you, to see if you be well deck’t. – George Washington • Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. – John Masefield • Recently, while I was in England, I saw a documentary on the BBC about the border between India and Pakistan at Wagah. When the border closes each evening around six o’ clock, the soldiers on each side do these amazing high-stepping peacock march-offs (like a dance-off). The displays are almost identical on each side and thousands gather to watch them. Though they’re patrolling along their separate borders, what comes across is how similar they are. – Matthea Harvey • Ruin, weariness, death, perpetually death, stand grimly to confront the other presence of Elizabethan drama which is life: life compact of frigates, fir trees and ivory, of dolphins and the juice of July flowers, of the milk of unicorns and panthers’ breath, of ropes of pearl, brains of peacocks and Cretan wine. – Virginia Woolf • She is a peacock in everything but beauty! – Oscar Wilde • Simple DNA gradually morphed and evolved, so that you had the coming into being of ever more complex and diverse creatures, until one day you wake up and find there are peacocks and giraffes. Nature is an open-ended experiment based on morphing a DNA code, and ours is an open-ended experiment based on morphing a crochet code. – Margaret Wertheim • Skaters are very much like peacocks. – Jon Heder • Tell me about this Wizard Howl of yours.” “He’s the best wizard in Ingary or anywhere else. If he’d only had time, he would have defeated that djinn. And he’s sly and selfish and vain as a peacock and cowardly, and you can’t pin him down to anything.” “Indeed? Strange that you should speak so proudly such a list of vices, most loving of ladies.” “What do you mean, vices? I was just describing Howl. He comes from another world entirely, you know, called Wales, and I refuse to believe he’s dead! – Diana Wynne Jones • The Italians are fond of red clothes, peacock plumes, and embroidery; and I remember one rainy morning in the city of Palermo, the street was ablaze with scarlet umbrellas. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • The Italians have voices like peacocks – German gives me a cold in the head – and Russian is nothing but sneezing – Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton • The masculine imagination lives in a state of perpetual revolt against the limitations of human life. In theological terms, one might say that all men, left to themselves, become gnostics. They may swagger like peacocks, but in their heart of hearts they all think sex an indignity and wish they could beget themselves on themselves. Hence the aggressive hostility toward women so manifest in most club-car stories. – W. H. Auden • The peacock in all his pride does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed. – Joseph Addison • The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. – William Blake • The pride of the peacock is the glory of God. The lust of the goat is the bounty of God. The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God. The nakedness of woman is the work of God. – William Blake • The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail. – Rabindranath Tagore • The sun fades like the spreading Of a peacock’s tail, as though twilight Might be read as a warning to those desperate For easy solutions.- John – Ashbery • The thing you fail to grasp is that people are not basically good. We are basically selfish. We shove and clamour and cry for adoration, and beat down everyone else to get it. Life is a competition of prattling peacocks enraptured in inane mating rituals. But for all our effacing and self-importance, we are all slaves to what we fear most. You have so very much to learn. Here. Let me teach you. – Christopher Nolan • There are eight different breeds of peacock. I have them all. – Bidzina Ivanishvili • There are no preconditions for jealousy. You don’t have to be right, you don’t have to be reasonable. Take Othello. He was neither right nor reasonable, and Desdemona ended up dead. I wouldn’t mind Leanne ending up dead. I wouldn’t mind exploding her into fireworks of peacock and pearl. – Franny Billingsley • To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride: Let Nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require; The peacock’s plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable’s tail. – John Gay • To Paradise, the Arabs say, Satan could never find the way Until the peacock led him in. – Charles Godfrey Leland • Turkeys are peacocks that have really let themselves go. – Kristen Schaal • We ask ourselves all kinds of questions, such as why does a peacock have such beautiful feathers, and we may answer that he needs the feathers to impress a female peacock, but then we ask ourselves, and why is there a peacock? And then we ask, why is there anything living? And then we ask, why is there anything at all? And if you tell some advocate of scientism that the answer is a secret, he will go white hot and write a book. But it is a secret. And the experience of living with the secret and thinking about it is in itself a kind of faith. – Vaclav Havel • We may put too high a premium on speech from platform and pulpit, at the bar and in the legislative hall, and pay dear for the whistle of our endless harangues. England and especially Germany, are less loquacious, and attend more to business. We let the eagle, and perhaps too often the peacock, scream. – Bill Vaughan • When the peacock has presented his back, the spectator will usually begin to walk around him to get a front view; but the peacock will continue to turn so that no front view is possible. The thing to do then is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn. When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns. – Flannery O’Connor • Who cares what a man’s style is, so it is intelligible,–as intelligible as his thought. Literally and really, the style is no more than the stylus, the pen he writes with; and it is not worth scraping and polishing, and gilding, unless it will write his thoughts the better for it. It is something for use, and not to look at. The question for us is, not whether Pope had a fine style, wrote with a peacock’s feather, but whether he uttered useful thoughts. – Henry David Thoreau • Women are a source of energy in life. I’ve always wanted to be in a war or baseball movie, but the thought of having no women on set for six months – that’s hell. I don’t know if it’s animalistic or what, but men become like peacocks with their feathers up when women are around. – Bradley Cooper

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[windycityparrot]

Why do we not trust our birds to fly?

Why is it that some of us don’t trust a bird’s 99 million year old instincts to fly - but will trust a teenager to navigate a 3500 pound terrestrial vehicle at 60 MPH on a crowded highway - after 36 hours of classroom and road training?  The below video received 349,906 views on YouTube. We got 11,000 views in a week after placing this video on our Facebook fan page. From the 11,000 views we received the following comments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THlHfFCtmqI   Jacqueline Hartmann I don't care how well trained a bird is. This is a horrible horrible idea. A bird still has its natural instincts. For example, the bird can fly too far and end up being out of reach. Todor Kostov Hey Would you like to live in a cage for a lifetime !??! Jacqueline Hartmann A bird isn't necessarily caged for a lifetime as long as the owner takes him/her out of their cage for social interaction inside of the home. That's domestication of a bird. People generally choose a bird for a variety of reasons-including companionship. Plus, I'm not the only person on this thread who has voiced their discomfort or displeasure of free flight. Thank you and have a nice day🙂 Debbie Edenfield Mcdaniel Todor Kostov how would like to be eaten by a hawk. Melinda Crews Kirkley Apparently you do not follow Roku. He is a free flying macaw. Check him out on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSj7Pq116No  Kim Gorman I would never be able to take this chance with my birds either. ❤ my lovie!  WindyCityParrot.com 90% of pet birds die due to human negligence inside the home Pam Johnson Your bird is beautiful but this is NOT safe. They can always fly just a little to far and get lost. Lots of preditors like hawks can grab them. Not worth the chance. I posted other videos of bird free flying along with motor scooters (see the zygodactyl footnote at the bottom of this post) and theirs always a group that says this is inhumane to make a bird work so hard and fly for more than two or three minutes Am I the only one seeing the disconnect?  The critics of in-home bird flight make the argument that "my bird will fly into a wall" "my bird will fly into a mirror" "my bird will crash into a window". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4ADbZQKrg  Let's examine this free flight thing.  Editor's note: if you want to clip your birds wings, we are not saying "don't" just do it the correct way. Simple lopping off feathers can cause more harm than good. If you have questions reach out to us and we will work with you to help build the best relationship you can have with your bird  Let's establish some definitions.  Hawks and Falcons are considered birds of prey. Their entire life is spent in search of the next meal.  Parrots and parakeets are prey birds that spend 40% of their life in the wild looking for food and 60% of the time of the wild try not to be food. In spite of those differences they have many similarities including feathers and flight. I know what it is to hold and fly a bird of prey. It's all about the training. 

Genghis Khan about (1206-1279) was believed to have an air force100,000 Falcons. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport of falconry, when you drop all the pretense it is hunting using a bird as the weapon.  Falconry, and I use the term loosely indicating any bird of prey used for the sport of hunting relies on the bird either staying with the caught prey or returning to the master.  That means for more than 700 years humans have been training birds to return to the trainer  If it were not for 500,000 pigeons in uses during WWII, me might all be speaking German today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl0Ii29XmNk We are learning more every day about how intelligent birds are and how they are able to process thought 3 times faster than mammals.  Do we think that once we step outdoors our birds have forgotten where they came from a minute ago? That they no longer realize where they can find food, warmth, companionship and a flock?  Is it possible to assume that if the bird is taken outside and flies away it really was unhappy with his environment? 20 hours a day of caged confinement. Erratic light cycles. Counterintuitive to food (pellets).  We know that a high percentage of pet birds die from malnutrition. I've seen it firsthand.  If not malnutrition humans cause most of pet bird deaths because of the following  Lands on edge of drinking glass, reaches down for liquid and falls in head first & drowns Flies or falls into a mop bucket Flies or falls into a toilet Flies into a mirror or window Water bottle malfunctions while you're out-of-town for 3 days - bird suffers dehydration Electrocution by chewing through electrical wire Flies into open oven Flies into boiling water pot Fumes emitted from Teflon cookware heated over 535 degrees (Birds are 90% lungs - people) Using Teflon coated heat lamps to keep babies warm has killed chicks even at zoos Bird gets stuck on single toy hung in middle of cage - gets tired and can't reach cage walls to leave toy - falls off toy from exhaustion Toe caught in knot of chain - flaps uncontrollably until injury or death Flies into old fashion glue fly paper - flaps uncontrollably until injury or death Mouse trap under couch Impaled on knife or sharp object on kitchen counter Bird get laid on because someone thought it was cute to sleep with their bird Flying out the door Ingestion of a home cleaning product Sucked into a vacuum Stepped on Squeezed too hard by a young child Bird bites finger, clamps on - person shakes hand to get bird to release - bird hits floor or wall and dies Run-ins with ceiling fans (Vets call them shredded tweet!) Second hand smoke Crushed in a sliding glass or any door for that matter Other house pet kills bird Other birds - Lovebirds will bite other birds toes - toe loss can cause a bird to bleed to death Wrong human food - avocado, chocolate, caffeine Place bird in outdoor cage in the morning, bird bakes in afternoon sun Introduce sick bird into home without quarantine Swallows remote control battery Poisoned or electrocuted by chewing on cell phone Leg band gets caught on toy part Wet seed and some wood debris can create Aspergillus fungus Oven liners Loose & threads threads on bird bedding Scented candles and room fresheners Heavy metal poisoning from an antique brass bird cage Ingesting medication that was dropped on the floor Bird of prey attack while parrot is unattended out of doors Tainted well water camp fires and fire places vinegar + baking soda produces co2 All I'm saying as you can't have it both ways. Simply because you socialize and feed it, you won't necessarily earn the bird's love - you need to connect with it. Training is the best place to start Many captive Bird Owners who feel that pet birds should be deprived of free flight and sunshine while believing that their Google search on how to make the best bird chop is somehow is more effective man the tens of millions of dollars and years of research pet bird food manufacturers invest in creating their nutritional products  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGqtH5YWBMM&t=23s Yet they don't question where the protein is coming from out of these vegetable salads.. Parrots have between 5000 and 8000 feathers. Feathers come from amino acids. Amino acids come from protein.  It's simple math. There are 2.9 g of protein in 67 g of kale which is the weight of a green cheek conure.  Tropican Lifetime Formula Food for Parrots contains 21% crude protein out of the bag.  If you want to offer a kale salad on the side to your bird, That's fine but we would advocate that keep a bowl of Hagan Tropicana pellets or granules available to your bird to satisfy the well rounded nutritional needs.  I got a kale story for you - not many people can say that. I've had two other careers beside being on Internet vendor of pet bird supplies. I spent a decade selling home improvements and 20 years in food service 10 of which were with Sizzler steak House of America. I hope one a chain of 11 in the Chicago metropolitan area. We were the first restaurant trained to introduce salad bars and I'm talking 1976 77. We physically built around salad bars and learned that we could fill the bar with stainless steel sleeves, then pour lots of small ice cubes to keep the sleeves in place and the product chilled.  The problem was the ice was always looking sloppy with pieces of vegetable produce and salad dressing and bacon bits. It just looked terrible.  The solution - not mine was to cover the ice with kale. As a kale got soiled we would put in a bus stub and rinse it. Ironically we found that rinsing and soaking kale in warm to hot water extended its life once it was put back on the ice.  After two or three days of recycling the superfood of today, went into the garbage of yesteryear.  We give our budgies and our Senegal lettuce on a daily basis. Our favorite is romaine because it stays relatively Chris rock the day in a slightly more nutritious than iceberg but iceberg holds up the best.  We tried hanging several all the greens in their cages including kale and found that kale will's, the quickest.  So that's my fireside kale story.  Circling back to some sort of point. Social media is great for sharing information but it doesn't make the information necessarily valid. Nutritional input that has kept birds alive for 99 million years hasn't changed in spite of the latest Facebook bird group trend.  We are telling you this because we want you to succeed. You don't have to raise your birds in a vacuum. We are here to guide you and your bird to help you help yourself provide the quality of life your bird deserves. (Facebook ) caveat: Erica Ospina June 13 at 2:51pm · Mindstream....hey rescues, if there were no breeders you would have no purpose. That's right, you would NOT be a parrot rescue. Breeders are not the core problem or root cause. Irresponsible pet ownership and poor planning are to blame. There is also not enough supportive avian community that welcomes and educates, bringing an interest and passion for our future care takers. As our community ages we are not bringing in the new generations as we should. I ask have you done your part honestly? The harsh reality is we are at a point ecologically around the world many rare species would be extinct if it wasn't for the pet trade. The damage is done and we need to band together and do what we can. Please support ethical breeders who are for repopulation efforts, whether that be a pet or wild. Rescues please don't be mad at the breeders (unless irresponsible and unethical), it isn't about you. I want to see generations of parrots continue but support healthy husbandry and responsible parrot keeping. I'm so tired of cynicism, back biting and getting wrapped up in your ill placed anger and emotions. Let's find good homes for parrots in need and address the real problem. written by mitch rezman approved by catherine tobsing your zygodactyl footnote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo-ZTTyKe3M Click to Post

[bluesakurablossom]

Life's Gift of Love: Mikey's Love Story

Chapter 2 Sky's Pov... Well another day, another dollar. Waking up in my comfy bed with my cat curled up beside me and the rays of the sun shining through my silky yellow curtains, starting my morning before I headed off to work for my late morning shift. I pushed off my puffy comforter and rolled up in bed rubbing my eyes open. Kisa was rubbing against my side purring like a motor boat as I gave the back of her head a scratch. "Love you Kisa, such a good kitty", I said She then looked up and stood up on her hind legs giving my cheek a nuzzle and I giggled nuzzling her back giving her head a kiss, only to have some of her fur cling to my face. I blew a few raspberries as some of the hair got into my mouth. "Remind me to take you to the groomers this week, you are shedding like crazy", I said, getting up I walked out of my room and headed off into the kitchen and prepared some hazelnut coffee. I then heard squawking coming from behind me and I turned around to see my scarlet macaw hanging from her cage door in the corner of my apartment, cocking her head side to side. "Oh how can I forget my baby bird?", I said, opening the cage door I held up my arm as she climbed on top of it and I gave her beak a kiss as she flapped her wings repeatedly. "Morning Skittles, you hungry this morning? Want a snack?", I asked "Yummy yummy", she said I giggled and I rested her on top of my shoulder. "Okay let's get you some fruit", I said I opened the fridge and there was many shelves stacked with fruit, vegetables, almond milk, sealed up garden salads and my two giant tubs of peanut butter and jelly. Now you are probably wondering why I didn't have meats, cheese, yogurt or anything else of that kind in my fridge? Well it's because I am a vegan. I have been one really for most of my life, I just never ate meat or dairy when I was growing up. After hearing and seeing some disturbing and shocking truths about what really goes on in those industries when I was nine by watching a protest parade on the streets, I decided to become one. Growing up when I saw those images and undercover tapes of what happens to animals, I was shocked and disgusted. I don't see why anyone could hurt such an innocent creature to pleasure our needy greedy lives. I wanted to prevent myself for being one of the millions of causes to exploit animals and I believe that many silent and sentient creatures have a right to life and freedom, just like the rest of us. And besides to me it is a healthier lifestyle to live and I really have grown into it. I took out a bin of cut up peaches and I took out a jar of walnuts from the cupboard and I poured each of them into a small bowl as Skittles then flew down and used her foot to eat a peach. "Good girl, eat up", I said, stroking her back feathers After giving the rest of my animals their food, I left my pets to eat their breakfast as I went back into my bedroom to get ready for work. I took a hot shower and then got dressed into a dark navy blue plaid shirt with silver stripes, rolling up the sleeves to my elbows, slipped on some dark black skinny jeans, and my grey and white high tops. I tied on a simple long navy blue bandanna around my head. I pushed the tails behind my shoulder as I grabbed my phone, my wallet, and my house keys. Thank goodness it wasn't smoggy out today and it was nice and hot, so I didn't need my oxygen tank today. I made sure all my pets needs were taken care of before I walked out the door locking up. I walked down the stairs till I got down to the sidewalk and made my way to work. I arrived at work at a good fifteen minutes early as I walked in thorough the glass door making the little bell ring above the frame. There to greet me was one of my co workers straightening out the desk, with long black hair in a low ponytail and dragon tattoos on his arms in a tough guy outfit. "Hey Sky, what's chilling?", he asked "Hey Clint, oh pretty much the same thing, different day", I said, shrugging "Fair enough, feeling any better?", he asked "Actually quite good today", I said, clocking into my shift on the computer "Best I have been feeling for months" "Well that's good", he said "Meghan got back in last tonight" "Oh really? Awesome! I can't wait to see the designs she was going to bring back from LA", I said "She got so lucky to go on the set of LA Ink, I can't wait to know what knowledge that they gave her", he said "Maybe it could boost up business" "I sure hope so, we have been kind of slow these past two weeks", I said, unlocking my door to my station "By the way what time do I have that appointment with Christy? It was for restoration on her back" "She called this morning she had to rescheduled because of a meeting, you got her at four today", he said, as I walked inside turning on the light "Cool beans", I said, setting up my tray with my inks and tools Well at least we did get some business today after Meghan had shown us what she learned while in California. I had at least four appointments of doing tattooing and restoration and made some pretty good tips. I was cleaning up my station by making sure all my inks were in colored order and sanitizing my tools. I decided to stay and help clean up the shop since one of our cleaning staff members didn't bother to show up at his shift. I dusted the counters and artwork, wiped the glass and mopped the concrete floors. As I finished mopping up the area, my boss Bryan came in from his office. He had short brown hair and flame tattoos on his muscular arms. "Oh Sky you didn't have to do that, I am going to give that guy a good talking to, this is the second time this month he has done that", he said "Nah don't worry Bryan I don't mind", I said, mopping around the front desk "It's gotta get done one way or the other" "How's the therapy?", he asked, sitting down and starting some paperwork "To be quite honest, I am pretty much sick of it", I said "I mean I haven't made any progress for years, and it's more annoying that nothing has changed since I got this" "I'm sorry to hear that, be a shame if this doesn't go away", he said "Don't want to lose my next manager" "Thanks for your concern", I said, smiling a little "But I'm hoping a miracle will happen soon, I'm sick of dealing with this shit" "I wouldn't say I blame you, I would be fed up and throwing in the towel right about now", he said "Anything going on for you tonight?" "Pretty much the same thing, going to go home and take care of my so called zoo", I said, giggling "Oh yeah Mrs. Dr. Dolittle", he said, snickering "Haha you guys are so funny calling me that", I said, rolling my eyes "Well you kind of own every animal there is", he said "Oh contrary, not every kind...yet", I said, laughing He laughed along with me as I dumped the mop water outside on the street and store the bucket and mop in the storage closet. "Though something did strange did happen last night", I said "Like what?", he asked "Okay I helped this guy out from getting beaten up I guess by thugs or something and when I tried to see if he was okay, he took off running", I said He looked at me quite surprised. "Really? He just like vanished?", he asked "Yeah! I mean he jumped the wall and climbed up on a rooftop and disappeared", I said "He was so fast, like lightning speed!" "That's really strange", he said, nodding in agreement "I know right, but he did leave me a message saying that he owed me one", I said "Someone called Mikey" "You know anyone named that?", he asked "Not that I know of", I said, shaking my head "But oh well, probably not going to see this guy again anyways" "Yeah probably not", he said I shut off the lights in my station and locked it up and I clocked out of my shift. "By the way I got those invoices and bids sent out today", I said, tightening up my bandanna "Oh thanks Sky! You work way too hard, it's like you are trying to run me out of here as quick as possible", he said "Not my intention", I said, giggling walking to the door "Good night" "Good night, see you at noon", he said "See ya", I said, as I walked out of the shop I walked down the street and decided not to go home straight away. I wanted a little breather from work before I tended to my home life. Going past my apartment complex I headed towards the docks at the end of the block. I walked along the rickety boardwalk and leaned against the edge watching the sea quietly ripple under the light of the moon and seeing a few sailboats out in the distance. "Ahhh fresh air", I said I always loved the boardwalk. It was just where I loved to be to get some peace and quiet and enjoy the crisp ocean air, that really enhances my breathing. Best of all I usually had it all to myself to enjoy. Or so I thought. I heard footsteps coming up behind me, that sounded loud and making the old boards cripple under my feet. "Hey!", a voice yelled I shot around seeing a man holding a knife in his hand and just from standing a far distance, I could smell alcohol and cigarette smoke. "Get off my spot!", he said "Excuse me, this is a public place, so I can stand here if I want to or not", I said, crossing my arms "Shut up! You little whore!", he said, walking closer I gripped behind my pants pocket and grabbed a little object hiding it in my fist. I backed up against the edge of the boardwalk, not knowing what he could be planning. "Strip off your clothes!", he said "I don't think so", I said, being brave "You bastard!" "Strip or I cut off your fingers!", he said, as he pressed the knife up under my chin "No!", I said, getting in his face "Do it...or I will!", he said, in a warning tone "I said no!", I said, as I revealed my weapon I sprayed a tiny bottle of mace that was very effective in his eyes as it created a cloud of smoke. He yelled in pain as I tried to push him away to run. But the spray only helped me so much before he pushed me back hard. "You little cunt!", he said, as he shoved me again This time he pushed way too hard and I slipped on the wet boards and went stumbling backwards falling into the ocean. I screamed as I started falling faster and faster till I hit the icy cold water. It was a sudden shock for me as I never felt so cold in my life. I swam back up to the surface catching my breath and I tried to swim to a dock post to hang on to since I was near the roughest part of the waves. I was close till a huge wave crashed on top of me pushing me under and making me do multiple somersaults. I tried to swim up to the surface again, but I wasn't moving anywhere. I looked down to see my leg was tangled up in some kelp and I reached down trying to get myself free, but it wasn't getting any looser. It felt like I was attached to a chain on a ball. I could feel my lungs tightening by the seconds desperate for air and I started to panic struggling faster to get free. Suddenly a huge wave came rushing towards me as I tried to swim away, but it smashed me against a wooden post on the dock and I hit my head hard. My vision started to go blurry and my whole body began to relax as I sunk down into the ocean. I never felt so calm, it was peaceful like I had just fallen asleep. My head looked up and from what I could see was rushing waves continuing to hit the dock. But I then saw something jump in making a huge splash and for some reason it started to swim towards me. I tried to keep my eyes open but everything went dark. "Come on", a voice said, sounding muffled "Come on, come on!" I felt a strange thump on my chest that was repeatedly hitting me. I suddenly shot up coughing hard as salty sea water came drooling out of my mouth. I coughed hard a few more times before I finally caught my breath and laid back down. My eyes slowly opened and I could see I was on the beach and sand was sticking to my wet clothes. I slowly looked up and I was stunned to see the exact same shadow I saw last night, with the exact same bright blue eyes looking down at me. "No need to thank me!", he said, clearly not noticing my shocked expression "I take cash and checks as repayments" My eyes then rolled into the back of my head and my head fell unconscious from everything happening so fast. I didn't remember anything after that. When I felt myself coming around I didn't feel the cold sea water surrounding me, instead I felt warm and cozy. I fluttered my eyes open to see I was back in my own apartment and I was laying in my bed, hooked up to my oxygen tank. "Wow that was some dream", I said, to myself "It felt so real" "That's because it was real", a voice said I quickly sat up and looked around in my dark room and I turned on my lamp on my nightstand, backing up against the headboard. "Who...who is there?", I asked, sounding nervous "It's okay, I'm the one who helped you out, I just stayed to make sure that you were okay", he said "Why are you hiding from me? I can't see you", I said, relaxing a little "You probably don't want to", he said "You would be afraid" "Why would I be scared of my own rescuer?", I asked "You saved my life, there is no reason why I should be afraid" I could hear slight movement and I can see the same huge shadow. "Please don't go, I really want to see you", I said, sitting up in bed "You will freak out", he said, sounding a bit sad "I won't freak out, I promise you", I said, softly He stood there silent for a few moments as I waited patiently for him to say something. He then took a step forward and I could see a huge sneaker wrapped in white bandages and going up his leg and I could see material of orange and black gym shorts and part of a grey hoodie around his waist. I got a look of curiosity and when the light had barely hit his face, the same bright blue eyes appeared. "It's you", I said, softly He then fully stepped out and I was right, he wasn't human. He was a giant turtle, like a head and almost shoulder taller than me. An orange mask was wrapped around his head and had a golden chain hanging from his neck along with shades with golden orange tint and a long skateboard was behind his back. He looked at me frightened. "You are that guy", I said, standing up "You are the one from last night" "Yeah, and you were the one who helped me out", he said, smiling a little "Told you I owed you one" "Mikey?", I said, remembering the name from the note "That's me!", he said, smiling more Without warning I suddenly hugged him tight around his neck and I then could feel the happiness spike up in him as he hugged me back tightly too. "Thank you so much! I would of been a goner if it wasn't for you", I said, smiling "Aw no worries little dudette!", he said, swinging me side to side as I giggled "Just doing what I normally do" "Man I thought I was dreaming for a second there", I said, letting go "Thought I was going on crazy" "Oh this is real, believe me", he said This guy had such a laid back and casual attitude towards me, and I hardly even knew anything about this guy. I knew he wouldn't have harmed me in any way, not with an attitude he has. Otherwise I would have been dead before I had blacked out when nearly drowning out in the ocean. Besides I did help him out so there was no reason why he would hurt me. "But don't worry, I am not afraid of you", I said, smiling "You are not?", he asked, surprised "Not at all", I said, shaking my head "Well that's a surprise you are the first human I have met who doesn't get all freaked out or faint at the sight of me", he said "A lot of people these days can be very judgmental about a lot of things", I said, crossing my arms and nodding in agreement "They just don't give it a chance" "Right instead of like running away, they could just stop and just try to understand it on what it really is", he said "I might just end up being the coolest thing ever" "But why did you run away when I tried to approach you?", I asked "I didn't mean to scare you like that, I'm sorry, it was just the only thing I could think of to help you" "No I wasn't scared of you, I just worried that you might be scared of me", he said "The reason why I ran, I panicked because I didn't want you to see me how I looked" I looked at him concerned. "What why?", I asked, gently "I didn't want you to freak out by my appearance, I thought you would called me a monster", he said, lowering his head "Pretty much everyone does" "Now why would I call you a monster?", I asked "I don't know because I am a giant talking turtle", he said I gave him a smile. "You ninny", I said, giving his shoulder a playful shove "If I was scared of you, I wouldn't have bothered to help you out back there, I kind of got the idea that you weren't human anyways" "Really?", he asked, surprised "I'm pretty observant of my surroundings", I said, giggling and crossing my arms "And besides I don't think any human could of been that big in size or fast to get on a rooftop unless they had some kind of special climbing equipment" "Well not entirely true, Spiderman could of done it", he said, smiling "Oh yeah! That's true!", I said "Love the part when he tries out his spiderwebs for the first time saying all those goofy pick up lines", he said "Oh my god! Me too!", I said "And right when he smashed into that billboard, too classic" "Like a bug on a windshield", he said "Hey that's a pretty good comparison, I never thought of that", I said Just then the sounds of scratching and squeaky meows could be heard from outside of my bedroom door. A big grin exploded on Mikey's face. "Awwww you have a kitty?", he said "I do", I said "Wanna meet her?" "Yes! Yes! Yes!", he said, excitedly Wow this guy really must love animals, well considering that he is one. I rolled out of bed and I opened the door and came running in quickly was my cat, meowing. "Hey baby girl, you miss mama?", I said, picking her up "Come here" She hugged me around my neck as I petted her along her back. "This is Kisa", I said, setting her down beside him with Mikey sitting on my bed "Awwwww she is so cute!", he said, petting her along her back as she purred loudly "So fuzzy and adorable!" I smiled. "Yeah she is my baby", I said "She is very affectionate, even when I found her in an alley on my block under a dumpster, poor little girl must of been on her own for quite awhile, thought she wouldn't make it" "You found her under a dumpster?", Mikey asked, shocked "Yeah I was walking home from work and heard a little squeak and I went to see what it was, and sure enough this little dirty fuzzy kitten came walking up to me", I said "Picked her up and took her right into my home and she has been with me since" "Awwwwww do you know how she got out there?", he asked, petting her head "Maybe getting separated from her mother, or possibly thrown out by an irresponsible owner", I said, shrugging "I am not so sure, but all I can say is that there was no way and how I was going to leave her there" Kisa had climbed up on top of Mikey's arm and walked along his shoulder till she laid down behind his neck curling up and purred rubbing up against his face. He chuckled smiling as he scratched her head. "Kisa really likes you Mikey", I said "Never seen her that affectionate before" "Well I can be quite the alley cat myself", he said "Maybe that's why she likes me" I giggled. "Maybe", I said "Um did you maybe wanna stick around for a bit? I mean you don't have to if you don't want to, just really enjoying the company, I don't often get visitors" "Let's go for it!", he said, suddenly I flinched back startled a bit by his answer. "You said the magic words!", he said "You really want to stay?", I asked, a bit confused and yet surprised "Why wouldn't I?", he said "Oh...well then okay", I said, smiling "Great! I could show you my other pets that I have too" "Wait Kisa is not the only one you have?", he asked "Oh no no no", I said, shaking my head "Come on I'll show you" I got up with Mikey quickly following behind me and Kisa running out in front of the both of us. There to greet us was my other pets in there tanks or cages Mikey looked like a little kid in a candy shop as he looked around seeing my pets that were going about their own things. "Wow! You are like in the office of Dr. Dolittle!", he said I giggled. "Yeah you could say something like that", I said "A lot of people do tease me for that, but hey I love animals, can't help it" "This is awesome! Show me everyone!", he said, happily "Gladly", I said, walking up to one of my tanks "First we have my fish, I have my cinnamon clown Sugar, my angel fish Shimmer, my blue tang Dory, my starfish Peach, and my snail named Slime", I said In the tank was beautiful colored corals and purple and blue pebbled rocks at the bottom, with a little light shining down into the clean water. Something like you would really see in the ocean. "So cool! I wish I had fish growing up that would of been awesome!", he said, getting on his knees and watching them move around "Glad you like them, come on I'll show you more of my critters", I said, patting his shoulder He got up and followed me to a good size metal cage and from the little hammock hanging I could see little whiskers pop up. "And this is Iggy and Lola", I said "What are they?", he asked, peering inside the cage trying to see "Here", I said, opening up the cage door and held out my hand A white rat with black patches and a plain white rat appeared and they started crawling up on my hand. "They are my rats", I said, pulling my hand out "Wow! I didn't know that you can own rats as pets, I thought you would really just find them in the sewers", he said, looking at them "Surprisingly they can be good pets, they have become more popular now", I said, as they started climbing up and down my arms "Not like the ones I would see lurking around in the tunnels for scraps", he said, as he looked at Iggy in the face "You see rats all the time?", I asked "Yeah I kind of live in the sewer", he said, sounding a bit uneasy "Not really a surprise", I said, shrugging, not really bothered by his answer "You don't think its bad?", he asked "I don't think so", I said, shaking my head "I mean you don't often see giant turtles living in penthouses" "Oh that would be the day", Mikey said, looking up at the ceiling dreamily "Tell me about it", I said, nodding in agreement Iggy and Lola came walking up my arms as Lola stood up on her hind legs and sniffed the air reaching out her little paws. "I think she wants to see you Mikey", I said He held out his finger as she rested her paws on the green digit. He looked at her with a smile and she then scattered up on his arm as Mikey looked at her with surprise as she then rested on his shoulder and began sniffing him. "This feels so weird, usually rats would scatter at the sight but to have one actually come up to you", he said, as he watched her move all over him sniffing around "It feels funny" "I know at first glance you might think that why would you own a rodent that eats everything in sight and is nothing but a pest in society", I said "But really I found them fascinating, I mean they are so adapted to living in such harsh conditions and can still keep living a normal life" Lola scattered on top of Mikey's head as she rested her paws on top of his face and her whiskers twitched. Mikey's face was scrunching up as he started laughing as she continued on. "Hey cut that out!", he said "That's her way of telling you she loves you", I said, smiling as I petted Iggy on his head "Hey! Come on! That tickles!", he said, with his face scrunching up more "Okay Lola, come here", I said, holding out my hand and she walked along my arm to rejoin Iggy Mikey shook his head with a bit of fur flying off his face as I then took a few fruit treats from a bag beside their cage in my hand. "Would you like to feed them?", I asked His blue eyes went wide. "Can I?!", he asked "Yeah, here watch this", I said I took one of the fruit treats and I made a little clicking sound to get Iggy's attention. "Iggy, stand", I said, holding the treat out in front of him Iggy slowly got to his feet as I began to move the treat farther away and he began to walk slowly on his hind legs following the treat. I made him walk along my arm a short distance before I held the treat to him and he took into his paws and began to eat it. "Good boy Iggy", I said, giving his back a stroke "Wow I wanna try!", Mikey said "Here", I said, handing him a treat "Just make that noise and tell Lola to stand and make her walk" Mikey tried mimicking the same clicking noise I made and he held the treat out in front of Lola. "Lola, stand", he said Lola heard him and got up on her hind legs and began to walk along my other arm towards the treat. He made her walk a distance till she started walking faster and faster till she got to my hand, before he handed her the treat. "Good girl Lola", he said, stroking her head with his finger "Wow never could get her to walk that far, that was really awesome Mikey!", I said "I am the King Rat, rodents kneel before me!", he said, in a dramatic evil tone teasingly doing striking out his arms I couldn't help but giggle at his child like behavior. "Nice try Mikey, but they are not that obedient", I said, as I set them back in their cage locking the door "So much for getting service", he said, teasingly I giggled. "Oh well", I said "And we have my last one, this is Skittles" I moved the sheet off the cage and resting on a perch was my macaw waking up. She squawked as she flew up and landed on my wrist and she stretched out her wings. "Wow never seen a macaw like that before! Not like in real life", he said, as Skittles looked at him "She is a scarlet macaw", I said "Had her since I was thirteen" "Why the name Skittles?", he asked "Okay so I was struggling to figure out a name for her because I adopted her from the humane society and I wanted her name to be a good one", I said "Try to use a different name than what people normally name a bird like Polly, Birdy or Tweety something like that. So I was eating skittles trying to figure out a name for her and then it hit me when I was saw the same colors of the candy matched her feathers and I am thinking, hey I should name her Skittles since she has all the colors and is very sweet like them" "Huh how creative!", he said, smiling I giggled. "Or weird", I said "How old is she?", he asked "She is 18 years old, so same age as me", I said "And she loves talking and doing impersonations" "She can talk?", he asked, surprised "Yeah really well, here I'll show you", I said "Skittle can you say hi?" She then held up her wing in front of her beak while Mikey laughed. "Oh it's okay baby don't be shy, he is nice", I said "Can you say hi Skittles?" "Hi Skittles", she said, laughing "Okay she is a little nervous, so can you say hi Skittles?", I said "Hi Skittles", she said, again still laughing He looked at her amazed as Skittles stopped laughing. "Okay being very literal, it's a comedy I get it", I said "Okay let's rephrase the question, how about you wave with your foot and just say hi?" She then rose up her left foot and waved it. "Hi, hi, hi, hi", she said, repeatedly "Good girl!", I said, petting her head "Wow that is so cool!", Mikey said "Here watch this", I said "Can you give a big kiss Skittles?" Skittles made a clicking noise making it sound like kissing sound effect. "And this one she does really realistic", I said "Can you cough?" Skittles did a coughing sound while shaking her head back and forth. "Good girl!", I said, giving the tip of her beak a kiss as she flapped her wings "Can you she do a Dark Vader impersonation?", Mikey asked "Not quite", I said, smiling "We do practice that one though, she is getting better each time, I'm hoping we can get it right very soon" Skittles then rested on top of Mikey's arm as he looked at her with a smile and Skittles looking back at him with curiosity. "You can sit down with her if you want, I'll get us some drinks" I went into the kitchen and I took out two glasses and got some ice from the freezer, sliding them inside. I then opened another cabinet and smiled taking two cans of my favorite soda. The fizzy bubbles made it look really refreshing and tasty, and best of all its vegan. I carried the two glasses back into the living room and I giggled seeing Skittles was swinging off from Mikey's gold chain as he swung her standing up. "Oh should of warned you, she loves to swing on anything that hangs", I said, giggling "Yeah should of warned me, she has got an iron grip", he said, still swinging her He then stopped and took her off his chain and set her on top of his shoulder. "It's really all I have that might be tasty for you, but I don't know if you maybe might like Orange Crush", I said, looking down at the glasses "You like Orange Crush too?!", Mikey asked, looking surprised "I knew it! I knew couldn't be the only obsessed with it!" "Me too! It's like the best ever!", I said, handing him a glass He took a big a gulp of it, nearly drinking the whole entire glass with one gulp, before letting out a sigh of refreshment. "Nothing beats the taste of a delicious beverage!", he said I giggled. "You got that right! I would be drinking this like there is no tomorrow", I said, as we sat down on the couch "I mean who doesn't like this?! It's full of flavor, just the right amount of bubbles, and creates the best burps", he said He then suddenly burped out loud as if it were by coincidence as he blushed in embarrassment. "Well excuse you", I said, shoving his arm "Sorry", he said, sheepishly "My bad" "It's cool", I said, smiling "But yeah I agree, best soda ever" "I mean who doesn't like this?", he asked "People who have no good taste", I said, cocking an eyebrow "Exactly!", he said, nodding his head firmly before taking another gulp "Um question?", I said "Yeah?", he asked "How did you even know where I lived?", I asked He looked at me sheepishly. "Oh that, I kind of followed you home that night you helped me out", he said "Just to make sure you weren't going to be followed or attacked. I also kind of saw you in your window" "I figured", I said, smirking "But I wasn't spying on you or anything!", he said, quickly shaking his head "It's cool", I said, shoving his arm "I would of done the same thing too if I was in your shoes" "How could you? Your feet couldn't possibly fit in these", he said, teasingly lifting up his foot We both started laughing even with Skittles joined in the laughter. "Haha that was a good one", I said, giggling "You are funny" "I have been known to please a crowd with my humor", he said, with a charming proud smile I giggled. "Well you proved me right", I said, taking a sip of my drink "So how long have you been living here?", he asked "A few months?" "Too young that's pretty much all I can say", I said, shaking my head "I have been living on my own since I was fifteen" He looked at me shocked. "Why did you leave so young? You run away or something?", he asked I shook my head as I took another sip of my soda, before setting it down on the table. "No", I said "I have a bad relationship with my mom, just everyday there would always be a fight about something, just had to get out of there you know" "Were you scared?", he asked "A little", I said, nodding truthfully "At first I didn't know what I was getting myself into, I didn't know where to start. I mean I was just a fifteen year old girl who has leukemia with no money or anything trying to find a new place to start. Luckily I had a struck of luck when a lady gave me a job assisting teaching kids art at the local school here, she even offered me a place to stay until I got my savings up. When I graduated from high school, I worked as a full time waitress while doing online classes to get my tattooing license" "You are a tattoo artist?", he asked, with his eyes going wide "Yeah been one for a little while now", I said, smiling a little "So you like own your own shop? That would be so awesome!", he said "Well not yet", I said "I'm working my way up to owner position. My boss Bryan is teaching me all the things I need to know how to do and everything before he allows me to take the reigns" "You will have to show me everything! Like where you work, your designs, your space! Everything!", he said, sounding ecstatic and shaking my shoulders "Okay woah woah woah!", I said, giggling from seeing his excitement holding my hands up "Of course, but we will have to wait till night to sneak in after hours and I can show you everything from there" "Can't wait!", he said I smiled and then my glow and the dark clock began glowing all different colors showing the time. "Awwww man it's midnight! I'm going to be so late to get home! The guys are going to kill me!", he said, suddenly getting up "Are you going to get in trouble?", I asked, getting up from my seat "Yeah! I'll be grounded for like a week!", he said, taking his skateboard and putting it behind his shell "Ugh hated being grounded as a teen, such a pain in the butt", I said "Right!", he said "Here I'll lead you out here", I said I opened up my huge window up to the top and Mikey crawled out by wedging his giant figure in sideways to get out on to my fire escape. "Oh you might want to have these back", I said, revealing to him the ninja stars out of my pants pocket "Woah! How did you get these?", he asked, taking them from my hand "Let's just say they nearly speared me in the head", I said, cocking an eyebrow "Oh my god! I am so sorry! I was trying to get the ninjas and I thought-", he said, sounding all panicky "I'm just kidding with you!", I said, shoving him playfully "I am fine, don't worry about it" "I didn't hurt you?", he asked "No, just nearly had my heart leap out of my chest and see my life flash before my eyes, I'm alright", I said, giggling "Oh good", he said, taking a huge breath "But yeah sorry I didn't know they nearly hit you" "It's okay", I said, smiling "Hey but we won the match, that's the main thing!", he said "Nah main thing is that I knock those guys on their asses with my air tank", I said "Girl power was on a roll that night!", he said, bumping up a fist I laughed smiling and we gave each other a high five, then a knuckle touch, doing an dramatic explosion sound effect. "Yeah boy!", I said, giggling "You know what, why don't you keep these", he said, handing them back to me "But they are yours Mikey", I said, as I took them "I couldn't take them" "Nah don't worry I get like a whole supply of them at home", he said, smiling and shaking his head "Keep them" "Wow thanks! I got my own ninja stars", I said, looking at them "Catch you later dudette, I'll see you around! Got to go!", he said, climbing out the window "Well it was really nice to meet you again and see you for the first time, Mikey", I said, sitting on my window sill "Bye" He was about to jump off my fire escape until he stops and looks back at me. "By the way I never caught your name", he said, pointing a finger at me "Oh right, that would be rather useful to know", I said, giggling "It's Skylar, Skylar Richards"