Merlin's Story
My name is Merlin, and I am the Too of Toos.
Many years ago I was just Merlin, Great
White, or Umbrella Cockatoo, depending on who and where you
are. I was looking for a permanent place to live my life. As
a result, I was sometimes in residence at the Bird and Animal
Hospital. This place belonged to an avian veterinarian named
Lorraine. She allowed her friend, Gloria, to help with the
cleaning, give medicines to the sick animals, , and comfort
lonely fur and feathers. Sometimes she would help the people
that had to say good- bye to the fur and feathers.
One day, a most peculiar looking little
bird arrived. I thought it was a tiny owl, but Dr. Lorraine said he was a baby umbrella cockatoo.
Well, I knew THAT could not be
right. Even when newly hatched I did NOT look like that. He
was too small, and he was shabby, with his feathers all which
way, and he didn't have enough of them. The few I could see
were sticking out and looked as though they weren't made
right. He wasn't a proper cockatoo at all.
I tried to make Dr. Lorraine and the
Gloria person know this. I raised my crest VERY high, lifted
all my feathers, fanned my tail, spread my wings, and gave my
BEST voice, so they would KNOW, that this bird thing in their
hands was not right. I was incredibly SPLENDID! But the
Gloria person said, 'hush, Merlin, you'll frighten him. He's
just a baby, and he's very sick. You are so handsome, and so
big and strong, please be kind, don't holler at him so."
And, because I am MERLIN, I decided to be still. I could
tell, you see, that in looking at me she also KNEW; that she
would take this sickling and make him gone.
Only, she didn't.
Well, she made him gone from the
hospital, but not really GONE. She took him home with her. Dr. Lorraine said it would be best, as Gloria person had no
other birds., while this little sickling would be a Li-a-bility at the hospital. I could tell that was a bad
thing. That funny looking notcockatoo had a really bad
sickness called Beak and Feather disease. Well, as I said
before, I could SEE the feather part. They were NOT proper
cockatoo feathers at all; and, he was very small for a 4
moons past youngling.
The Gloria person didn't come to the
hospital very much after that, and so hardly ever visited
with me, the way she used to do. But she came with the sickling, and Dr.
Lorraine gave him a medicine they had made
from his own blood. I could hear them talking,..
"Opie", they called him,
"Opie." He still looked like a funny little lost
owl. I could tell that she, the Gloria one, and her manperson
really were taking GOOD care of this misfeathered cockatoo.
They would cuddle him to them and laugh and say, 'You'll see,
Lorraine, he and us, we'll beat this thing. Our Opie doesn't
know he's sick. And if his feathers NEVER grow in properly,
it won't matter. He's our boy"
And for many moons of passing this kept
on. I'd be gone from there, and then back again, while my
people traveled, and the Gloria and her Ben would come with Opie, to get his medicine put into him. He didn't look to be
getting better to ME. They loved him though, I could tell
that: He always went from the hospital with all the best toys
off the rack.
And then one night they came to the
clinic, and brought Opie, and I could tell it was very, very
bad.
The Gloria person was so scared, it made
me slick down all my feathers and I had to pace and pace my
perch. Her eyes were too big, and her mouth was twisted all
funny, and she wouldn't let me help her. I tried, I really
tried. I did all my best things but she didn't see. She
didn't hear. The Benman came then, and his mouth was all
funny too, no laughing on it at all. He held his big hands in
the warm-box so Opie could sleep in them, and feel safe. He
came every single day, and every night, and for awhile we
thought it was working, and the little bent cockatoo was
getting better. But then one night, he just curled down in
the Benman's hands and went to sleep. So still, so still; I
knew they couldn't wake him up again. He wasn't in that
uncockatooed body anymore.
The Gloria person and the Benman didn't
come to the hospital for a long while after that. Dr. Lorraine
made sadness all the time, so I was slicked down in my
feathers a lot. I was quiet. I went back to my people's house
again and just waited.
Then one day, there they were; the
Gloria person and the Benman, at my people's house. No more
sad feelings; They laughed, and laughed and talked with my
people. Dr. Lorraine had told them come, Merlin still needs a
place. Even when my people told them about the hanging stuff
on the windows, and the fat nesting so-fa stuff they sat on,
and how I had used my beak and nails on those things, they
laughed even more. Wicked boy ... they said, and Clever Merlin,
they said.
And then, They Took Me With
Them.
I am Opie's Legacy. Myself, Miss Truely
Scrumptious, Gabriella Thistledown, all of us who have found
our way home to this place. WE are the heritage Opie left.
And I, I am The Merlin, the voice of the
Legacy. I am the voice of Whitewings Farm.
Wind to your wings, my friends,
The Merlin of Whitewings Farm
Spring 2001
