Hi all, I hope you enjoyed the Anipal Land short stories the past couple of weeks. Mommy had fun getting back into those, and was happy to share some more adventures with you. She also updated our pages on this website, so take a minute to look around if you haven't lately. The main changes were on Chloe and Ollie's memorial pages, and the final "Other Feathered Friends" page. She added pictures and obituaries, and a few more details about the birds who have blessed our lives. 

Now, mommy’s settling into a writing break. Her job is in it’s busiest season of the year right now, so she’s giving herself a break from writing and promotion to adjust to the higher workload, busier days, and achy wrist tendons that tend to accompany this not-so-wonderful time of the year. She says it happens in every job.  They all have busy times.Bubbles and I are here to comfort them when the days are long, stressful, and busy. It’s our job and pleasure to help our humans feel better and to make them happy. Our work starts when they get home from work, and we take it seriously. We want our human parronts happy, and we are their sunshine. Happy parronts, happy home!

In closing, I want to give you a heads up on an upcoming event. Mommy decided to have a Twitter memorial service for Chloe on May 20. That’s Chloe’s “Gotcha Day,” and she thought it would be appropriate to honor and celebrate Chloe then, since we’ll be thinking about and remembering her anyway. We know it’s late – Chloe died in December – but mommy feels like she’s finally at a place where she can do this and properly honor Chloe’s life and memory. No time has been set yet, but planning is in progress. It will probably be in the mid to late afternoon to accommodate various time zones.

That’s all today. I hope you have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend.

Luv,

Zack

Birds just want to have fun! This week, I'd like to give you three more Anipal Land stories, this time with Zack in the spotlight. Enjoy!

Hey Zack, Nice Shot

Cheech the evil cat drug his crushed body out of the road.

“Get away vultures!” he hissed. “Now I’m really going get Zack and Bubbles. They thought they bested me? Never! I’m a cat! I have nine lives!”

A shadow passed over Cheech, rumbling loudly. He looked up with a squashed eye, seeing a metal hull with the word
BOOM etched on it. “Is that a sun conure and blue Quaker in a spaceship?”

Phew! Phew! Phew!

BOOM!

Zack laughed from his commander’s chair on the BOOM. “Ship, how many lives does Cheech have left?”

“I read no lives remaining, Commander Zack.”

Bubbles chuckled from the Captain’s chair. “I guess we aren’t the only ones who shot at that demon cat.”

“BOOM, give me an accounting of Cheech’s spent lives," Zack said. 

The ship beamed a light on Cheech, scanning him.

“Commander Zack, I read two gunshot wounds, three poison injestations, consumption of two rabid squirrels, an automobile accident, and an aviation incident.”

“Aviation incident,” Bubbles laughed. “I  like the way you put that. Vaporize him, BOOM.”

“Yes, Captain Bubbles.”

A the beam incinerated Cheech into steam. A beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky, glittering in the sunlight.

 “Look at that rainbow, Zack!” Bubbles said.

“It’s so pretty! It reminds me of Chloe.”

“Justice for Chloe!” Bubbles said.

“Justice for Chloe!” Zack said. “Now let’s fly through Sonic for some tater tots.”

“Course set,” ship said. Their hearts lightened with joy as they zoomed through the shimmering light to another day of fun
and mischief.

Zack’s Big Date

“Oh, I’m such a handsome fellow!” Zack sang as he straightened his bow tie and top hat in the mirror. “Wings trimmed in green, and my back is yellow! I’m sweet and handsome and oh, so mellow. Oh, I am a handsome fellow!”

“Zack, are you going to serenade the toilet all day?” Bubbles asked.

“I’m done,” his face feathers fluffed at his adorable reflection. He threw open the door to find Bubbles in a blue evening gown and pearl necklace. “What’s that?”

“I have a date, too!”

“With whom?”

“With you!”

“What?” Zack asked. “I scheduled this through Hotchicks dot com.”

“With Sapphire Sweetie?”

“Yes.”

“That’s me!” she said cheerfully.

“Oh dear,” he said. “Well, you do look nice. Come on. Maybe we can convince people that we’re prom birds and crash a dance somewhere.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Bubbles said, tucking her small clutch bag under her wing as they headed to the BOOM for a night of fun and mischief.

Chef Zack

“Ok, it says to crush up the decongestant pill and add it to the blender with the salt water, probiotics blend, cough syrup, honey, and chili pepper,” Rocky said from the computer.

“I sure am glad smell isn’t our best sense,” Kato said, “because this stinks. How are you going to get your mommy to take this blend for her sinus infection?”

“Here’s her water mug,” Zack said. “She washed it this morning, but she’ll forget and go in the fridge for it. Let’s put the blend in there. She won’t smell it. Her nose is so stopped up that she couldn’t smell Uranus right now.”

“I won’t ask if you’re speaking of the planet, or metaphorically,” Rocky said.

“It’s best not to,” Kato said.

“One more ingredient!” Bubbles rushed in the kitchen with a small sack. She emptied a few pebbles into the blend.

“What’s that, love?” Kato asked.

“Asteroids,” Bubbles said. “I swung the BOOM through the Asteroid Belt. I thought the radioactive isotopes would destabilize the bacteria and break down the mucus in her throat.”

“Humans sure are nasty,” Rocky said. “It makes you glad to be a bird.” He hopped to the blender. “That’s everything. Are we ready to go?”

“Ready!” Zack said, pressing the blend button. The blender shook with the concoction swirling about.

“That looks like puke,” Bubbles said. “It’s a good thing this mug is steel. Come on, let’s pour it in.”

The birds stacked up to carefully pour the foul mixture into mommy’s mug. They pushed it in the refrigerator and scurried under the loveseat just as mommy walked in the door.

“Ugh! I feel terrible!” she opened the refrigerator. “Oh good, I thought I washed this, but it’s here and full. Boy do I need some water!” She upended the mug, taking a huge gulp.

“Here we go,” Zack whispered.

Mommy made a face as the concoction slid down her throat. Her cheeks puffed out as she ran to the sink and spewed out the last few ounces of the concoction.

“Did she get enough of it?” Kato whispered against her loud retching.

“She drank most of it,” Rocky said.

Daddy walked in from work, rushing to mommy hovering over the sink. “What happened?”

“This water tastes like puke!”

“It’s green!” he said. “Did you put water flavoring in it?”

“I don’t think so. I felt so bad when I put everything up before work that I can’t remember.”

Zack and Bubbles ran across the floor to their cages as the parronts talked, silently closing the doors and pushing the hidden door lock button inside their cages.

“How do you feel?”

She wiped her face with a paper towel. “That tasted so awful that I forgot about being sick. I actually feel much better.”

Daddy looked at mommy. “You must be getting better. It looks like your head is glowing.”

“Really?” mommy asked. “I feel a bit flushed. Maybe this stuff is purging from my system.”

 “Good!” daddy said. “We better get the apple ready to hand feed the birds. Guys, are you ready for supper?”

Zack and Bubbles beeped out affirmatives.

“Mission accomplished,” Kato said, foot bumping Rocky under the loveseat as Bubbles stealthily hit the small BOOM remote attached to her perch to beam them home.

​THE END.
 
 

Hi all, mommy here. I promised that I'd work on Anipal Land short stories several months ago, but that fell to the wayside between Chloe's death and finishing The Earthside Trilogy. But I didn't forget you! Today, I'd like to offer you 5 short stories in Anipal Land. Do you ever wonder what your birds do while you're out of the house? Perhaps this is the answer!

I do hope you'll grant me some venting in the first story (Bubbs the Executioner), as it is kind of a tribute to Chloe. Chloe was such a huge part of Anipal Land that I felt that her loss needed to be addressed, and this gave me somewhat of an outlet to vent. Rest assured that the rest of the stories are back to our normal, silly style. I hope you enjoy them, and that you'll let me know which story is your favorite on Twitter!

Without further ado, let's take another break to Anipal Land! 

Bubbs the Executioner

Cheech the evil cat pranced through the woods, full of himself.

“Oh yummy birds, oh yummy birds! How tasty is your sweet meat!” he sang. “Wow, Chloe sure was tasty last December. I believe she has a brother and look, that house is where he lives! Perhaps I’ll catch him unawares, too. His parronts should be out and not shooting at me in the middle of the day.” He pranced across the street.

HONK HONK!

Cheech stopped in the middle of the road and looked up. “Is that a blue quaker driving an 18 wheeler?”

A black Trans-Am zoomed around the truck.

BOOM!!

The 18 wheeler thumped over Cheech. “East bound and down, 18 wheels and rolling,” Bubbles sang, “We just bashed a bad ‘ol crunchy cat.”

“Golden boy calling Blue Beauty,” the CB crackled with Zack’s cheerful voice. “The turkey vultures said thanks for lunch.”

“It worked perfectly!” Bubbles said. “Justice for Chloe! Now let’s get these vehicles back to the diner before those guys finish lunch!”

“Justice for Chloe!” Zack said. “Beep beep!”

Bubbs is the Bomb

“Hey Barnum, do you see a strange object out of your window?” Bailey asked.

Barnum looked out of her window. “What is that? It looks like two birds in a spaceship.”

The front of the spaceship opened, splattering green poo all over the window.

Morty gasped from the commanders chair of the BOOM as the canister exploded. “Bubbs! I thought you said it was filled
with hot air.”

“Yea, I backed that thing up,” Bubbs said from the Captain’s chair. “Ship, target next window.”

“Yes, Captain Bubbles,” the mechanical ship voice said.

“She’s crazy,” Morty mumbled as he activated the air freshener and sanitation modules.

Bubbs the Secretary

Bubbles tapped the earpiece in her fluffy ear hole. “Good afternoon, how can I not help you today?”

“Your website is stupid!”

“Our website has or lacks no intelligence,” Bubbs said. “It just is, and does what you tell it to do. What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

“Then that’s the problem. It can’t operate itself yet.”

“Yet?”

“I’m working on that. Soon, it will be more self aware than you are.”

“Now listen, miss! Your head is too big for your shoulders!”

“My head is perfectly proportioned to my plush, blue body.”

“Blue body? Am I talking to a freak alien or something?”

“I’m a mutant!” she said cheerfully. “How else may I insult you today?”

“Let me tell you something about yourself that you don’t know –“ the line went dead. Bubbs looked up to find Zack feasting on the connection cord. “Zack, what are you doing?”

“Wires and cords make great snacks, especially when that conversation was going nowhere.”

Bubbs returned to building SkyNet. Somebody had to do it. Its not like humans were smart enough to do things themselves anymore.

Bubbs the Hacker

“Are you sure this will work?” Jinx asked. “I don’t want Mad Hacker to hack us.”

“It’ll work,” Bubbs said, tapping at the keyboard. “Mad Hacker has been hacking the system at intervals of every 24 hours. It’s nearly time, and then we’ll have a special surprise for him to send back to his comrades this time!”

“Are you sure this will deter him?” Zack asked.

“Would you like it if you were a communist hacker looking for data to sell on the dark web or to politicians?”

“No,” the boys said together.

“Here he comes,” she tapped in the rerouting code. “Get ready for a surprise!”

The 24 hour gospel and praise Internet station activated.

“He’s trying to back out!” Zack said.

“Launching the budgie bot counter virus,” Jinx said, tapping the keyboard at his work station.

“Success! It locked his system!” Bubbs activated a clone of Mad Hacker’s screen, showing the gospel choir dancing and praising at top volume on the screen. “Jinx, it worked. Your virus attached to all of his systems and rerouted to this web channel. All he’ll be able to see is a gospel choir every time he tries to hack again!” She cheered. “Sell that, Mad Hacker!”

“Hallelujah,” Jinx said, foot bumping Zack.  

Bubbles the Wise

“Hey Bubbs, the garage door just went up. Daddy’s home.”

The happy hut shook. Zack stared at her cage across the room. “Where are you? Is that your fanny sticking out?”

“It’s the secret to a great day,” Bubbles said. “Always put your best butt forward.”

“I thought it was your best face forward.”

“Did you see any indication of people using their heads lately? You can hear it on the jabbering the parronts leave on the radio for us to listen to all day!”

“That’s a good point,” Zack scratched his head. “Do you think the parronts need to find something better than the radio to keep us entertained while they’re at work? They think we play with these cage toys and sleep. They have no idea what we
did today.”

“No, we do just fine,” Bubbles turned around, her pretty face feathers fluffed in joy. “And we always make it back here just in time!”

​THE END.
 
 
 

​Zack and I went for our annual checkup on Monday. The good news is that we both got a clean bill of health. The vet said we look great, and are super healthy. He was also very sympathetic over Chloe’s loss. It turns out that he lost his daughter’s parakeet to a cat attack. “That’s traumatic,” he said. “It’s a hard thing.” His kindness helped mommy a lot (along with support from family, friends, and you guys!).
 
The bad news is that place was a hall or horrors! I see why nobody likes going there. It was full of dogs and cats. One guy came in with something that looked like a walking rug. He said it was a dog, but mommy and I thought it was a creature out of a video game or D&D. At least it wasn’t a hell hound. One woman kept staring at me. I bobbed my head at her for a while before I decided this whole charade was shameful and quit. And they were behind schedule because they had to put 6 anipals to sleep that morning. It turns out that it wasn’t a very happy Easter for a lot of people. We were in that nightmare circus for 2 hours!
 
At least it’s over, and we’re healthy. That’s great news. He also trimmed our wings and toenails, so we’re looking as good as we feel. Wonderful news! Now back to chasing Zack with the kissies!
 
That’s all today. I hope you’re doing well. Take care. Have a Happy Friday tomorrow and a wonderful weekend.
 
Luv,
 
Bubbles