Parry the parakeet

Yes, I know most of you are thinking how a pet got into our house. I am the one that is anti-pet for just about every animal, but Carter has been wanting a pet for a while. Matt and I thought this would be a good time since Carter has been stressed about his new hearing aides that he has been trying out. We thought pet therapy would help him, since animals seem to make him happy.

According to his recent hearing test his hearing is continuing to decrease from last year. Although, others and we do not notice any hearing problems the test still shows he has moderate to severe high frequency hearing loss now in both ears. Last year it was just his left now it is both ears. Carter has been to several doctors, had a sedated MRI and several hearing exams and he seems to puzzle everybody. So, we are trialing hearing aides to see if Carter notices anything different. The poor kid was so nervous to look different.

So now you can see how I would do anything to make him feel happy so... We have been visiting pet stores quite frequently looking at all the pet options and I just couldn't bring myself to have an animal in the house. I like to look at them at the stores and then walk away, but the kids and Matt are the exact opposite they want to bring everything home with them. On a funny note, Matt has been missing a few times in the pet store and we can now always him with cats.

So, I had a softened heart and said yes to a bird. This was the best option because it is low maintenance, not that messy, small and can be kept in a cage when not being played with.

Carter named the bird Parry the parakeet and he is very docile, quiet and likes to hang out with Carter. The bird just watches Carter with what ever he is doing. Matt is confident that he is going to get the bird to talk because we learned that parakeets have the largest vocabulary than any other bird.

Carter is happy that he finally got his wish to have a pet.

Now for an update on the hearing aide trial: Carter doesn't notice anything different he is just annoyed that his and other voices sounds like their talking in microphones. He says they are itchy inside his ears and can only handle them in his ears for a few hours. Not sure if this is the result we were looking for, but he has them for a month and we will see how he performs with a hearing exam in a few weeks. Carter is doing very well and keeping his spirits up during this trial.