Asool

My Guy

The song My Guy from the Sister Act movie soundtrack has been the inspiration for this month's series.

Nothing you could say could tear me away from my guy.

Like birds of a feather we stick together,

I'm tellin' you from the start I can't be torn apart from my guy.

He's very social and incredibly affectionate. Small, playful, intelligent, inquisitive, and amusing. Asool is my peach-faced lovebird.

He's My Guy.

He's mostly baby-blue except for the peach coloration between and behind his dark brown eyes. His cheeks and throat are white with light-peach tinges. The chest feathers graduate delicately from light-blue to gray, interspersed with bands of pale yellow. The beak is deep yellow, tipped with gray. He has the genuine look of his genus Agapornis which means love.

Each day with Asool is a happy duplicate of the next.

When the first streaks of sunlight wink off the dew on the grass, he is the first to greet the morning with a hopeful, Chirp, chirp! I nod my head in response. Yes, 'Sool, it's going to be an exquisite day. He enjoys the conversation. I can tell, for he perks up, looking happy to listen and chatter.

For the most part, he just looks like he's having a ball - playing, whistling, tweeting and clucking joyfully. Like a silly little clown, he sometimes twirls upside down or bobs his head around.

Oftentimes, he preens and applauds his likeness on a mirror attached on the side of his cage. Admiring yourself, eh? I tease him. He peeps back at me with a gallant sniff and a chirrup.

Waking up from a nap, he cocks his head to the side in greeting and vocalizes to let me know he is awake. On cloudy afternoons, I'd look out the back garden and make a comment, Looks like rain, Asool, to which he responds by simply swiveling his head and looking at me from the corner of his eye in puzzlement for having stated the obvious. 

Clearly considering himself part of a family that should eat together, he comes down from his perch to nibble on his millet and sunflower seeds every time we humans sit at the table for a meal. 

As it becomes fully dark, Asool retires inside his twig house. I know from the beak grinding that he's happy and content. I peek through and see that he has settled down, his bill pressed back under his wings. Tulog na, I nudge him a good night. He looks up momentarily and eyes me drowsily with a shy yet inquisitive glance, but quickly tucks his head back into peaceful sleep.

Looking at Asool, I would have liked to categorize my feelings, but it seems all I can do is grin and chuckle and wave at the world in foolish happiness.

I can't be torn apart from this guy.

Chirp!