Tommy.

Watching the birds feeding in the garden made me think back to the time I thought it was OK to keep a bird in captivity. Times were different, I was very young and the prevailing culture less concerned with the well-being or best interests of the animal kingdom.

I was about 4 or 5 and had been persistently asking for a doggie, but as we lived in at flat, with a no pets rule, at the time it wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t understand and even if I did it wasn’t going to stop me asking!

I had white mice for a while, when I was very little, that I remember playing with and having them run through my hands, I loved the furry feel and the way they squished themselves through tiny places, it didn’t work so well for me when I tried to fit through small gaps like bannisters, but we won’t go into that.

Anyway one day my Dad came home with a shoe box with holes punched into the lid and inside was this cute tiny, little green baby budgie. Obviously he and Mum had bought a cage and sand and bird seed for the new addition to the family.

I loved him instantly and named him Tommy, I have absolutely no idea why, I don’t remember anyone named Tommy at school or anywhere else but I must have heard the name somewhere and liked the sound of it. I remember Mum and Dad were surprised at how definite I was about what the bird should be called.

He was a friend for many years, he would be allowed out of his cage to fly around the flat, windows closed of course. I would go to the pet shop with Mum and buy him cuttlefish and millet and he had a mirror and budgie toys that I spent some of my pocket money on.

When I was little I would crawl along the floor and he would follow pecking at my slippers, I would play all sorts of games with him especially in winter when I couldn’t play out with my friends.

He learnt to talk and had a wealth of phrases, most of which you could determine from whom he had learnt them, my favourite was one he picked up from my Grandmother, who lived with us for quite a chunk of my childhood, “Bloody English weather, raining again!”

It taught me to nurture small creatures to be gentle with the vulnerable and helpless and gave me an understanding of power and how it can be used to be cruel or kind to those less able to protect themselves.

Mostly it gave me a love of small warm living things and yes, here we are again back to the gorgeous little baby grandson, who, to be fair, even though he is vulnerable and helpless, seems to already hold quite a bit of power over those around him!!!