Week 8:authorial presence: problem/situation/question/explanation piece

I have written about my Doves. When I took them I knew I was not going to keep them. Even so it’s hard not to get attached.  They may only be birds but they are alive.  I took them for a purpose, to give them a better life and now I am conflicted.

I bet your first thought was that I want to keep them. Oh I do want to, but I can’t. The other day a new, but good, friend called me.

“Hey are you selling your Doves or giving them away?” It was Kathy. We met in one of our classes and are so much alike that it is seriously disturbing. Oh my god is she fucking funny. Anyway, I had been talking to her about the birds and how I needed to find good homes.

I tell her I am not selling them, that they are going to good homes and all that speech. Then she tells me that her friend’s mom wants to get two of them. So I ask her…

“Has she ever owned Doves before?” Kathy asks her, then after a hesitation the woman said yes. I told Kathy, “Look, when it comes to my animals, I got to be honest, I’m a bitch about homing them. “ 

“Well do you want to get rid of them or not?” Kathy said, sounding a little irritated. At this point I am actually starting to get pissed off because, to me, it seems like she is pushy.

“I don’t want to get rid of them. I want to find them homes with people who know what the fuck they are doing. Not just someone who decides ooooh I want a dove only to get bored after the first two weeks.”

“Oh she will totally take care of them. She even said she would take the breeding pair.” Oh Jesus was my only thought.

“If she has had Doves then she can tell me what they need to eat and what she would need to do with the breeding pair to keep them from breeding, because I’m not giving them to her to breed. They aren’t even the same species of dove and breeding them would be ignorant and selfish. Especially as hard as it is to home them, and you can’t keep the babies in the same cage so she would have to get another cage.” Kathy relays the information and then says the lady changed her mind, maybe she will only take one.

“Just let me talk to her.” Already having a feeling that this woman knows nothing about Doves, I wait for her to get on the phone. I ask her a bunch of questions, none of which she can answer. I asked her what she fed her doves, you know what she said?

“Well... tell me what you feed them to refresh my memory.” Now tell me this… if she had had Doves, why in the hell would I need to refresh her memory? Now what do I do?

I do need to home the birds, but would this be a good home? She doesn’t have a clue! But, is she one of those people who are willing to learn that will really take care of the bird? Oh, and she has a cat.

Not only that, but if I say no right now I could possibly ruin a new friendship. It’s not often I find someone I really like hanging out with, and Kathy is funny people. Very funny, and we get along so well. Then again, would she even be a friend at that point? Test of friendship I guess. 

I think the only way I will feel comfortable enough to place a bird with this woman would be to see where it will live. I don’t feel that’s an unreasonable request. She should be able to show me what he will be housed in, what she has for supplies before she gets him, what room he will be in. He will need to get out and she does have a cat. That is a huge concern for me. Kathy said the cat is nothing to worry about because he is so laid back. She didn’t seem to understand, no matter how I said it, that the most laid back cat in the world would go nuts over a bird fluttering around, looking all yummy. If I see everything, or lack thereof and decide not to give her the bird, it may cost a friendship, but it would save a life so it’s worth it.