Good-bye Camel

Camel came to me a tiny little thing at the age of 6 weeks. Danny gave him to me for Mother's Day in 1994. He would sit on Danny's shoulder and liked to peek in Danny's mouth. Patrick was scared of him. He would sit on Patrick's shoulder and Patrick would start to cry. He was named Camel because we had a Camel shotglass we used to feed him out of until we got him a huge "mansion to live in." He hated getting baths...he would fly all around and bite you until you bled when you gave him one. He was smart, too. When the kids used to ride the bus in FL, there were 6 buses that stopped at the busstop. Camel knew which one was theirs. He also knew when someone was walking up the driveway and start racing back and forth chirping at the top of his lungs. Danny taught him to wolf whistle too and he loved listening to music...he'd dance up and down when a song came on he liked. He learned the tone of the phone and he'd do it and we'd answer the phone. When we moved to GA, we kept him in the house because at the time we had nowhere he could sit. When we moved to Tiger we had a nice porch and all during winter, when it was nice, I would take him out for the day and sit him on top of "his mansion" and bring him back in at night. When the temps hit a reasonable level for him we put him back in "his mansion" and he stayed there day and night talking with the other birds. When it rained hard, I would bring him in and he would go nuts because he wasn't out there. On the little rains he would stay out there and play in the rain. I buried him today with a stick one of the boys made and his friend "Budgie" a little plastic parakeet that he knew how to turn on and off. He'd sit for hours talking to Budgie. I'm going to miss you Camel. The whole family will. You were loved very much.

CAMEL DOWDAL

4/94-9/1/08