polly want a cracker?

I’m feeling rather like an unwilling zookeeper at the moment. It is my own doing, of course, as I had a choice . . . but I laid aside my known allergies as well as my aversion to driving commutes for the sake of the job. Sometimes, though, in the midst of misery, I cannot help but laugh. I am sniffling and coughing my way through my job as caretaker of a house containing 2 large dogs, 1 small dog, a loquacious parrot and, thankfully, a sweet cat. The cat is my lifeline: so much so that I let her sleep curled up next to me last night, even though I generally do not like to sleep with animals. I declined the room filled with dogs, mind you :-)
I doubt I will accept this assignment again, but it is affording me some interesting educational tidbits: who knew that it takes a parrot approximately 3 hours to chew his way, consistently, through one small bowl of food? The positive aspect of his dinnertime [besides affording a photo op] is that while he is crunching away he cannot be calling, in quick succession, the names of the 4 children of the household :-) But no, I am in no way tempted to get such a menagerie of my own: I will bide out the week, infusing tea tree oil into the air in a probably vain attempt to counteract the pet dander, and I will happily return to my own peaceful home when the assignment is done!