[ Read also: 13 kid-friendly Seattle restaurants with outdoor dining ]

Downtown Seattle: There’s plenty to see in the city. Here are some ideas for walking routes. Parking and crowds will probably be busy with the warm T THEweather and sunshine but if you want to dine out after walking through Pike Place Market, Old Stove Brewing is a sweet, sweet spot for sitting. And below the market (accessible via a new stairway at the end of Union St  – across from the Seattle Art Museum – and the south end of Pike Place Market.  The stairs go all the way down to the waterfront. The Seattle waterfront is a more interesting walk than ever now that construction is underway and Ivar’s Fish Bar as well as Anthony’s Fish Bar are two great places to grab fish and chips while sitting outside and enjoying the sights and sounds of Shilshole Bay.

Alki, West Seattle: Families will enjoy this very popular spot great for play and people-watching. Food and drink options are many. Just a few that come to mind: Pegasus Pizza, Spud Fish ‘N’ Chips . (Don’t forget: The West Seattle bridge is now open so you can cruise on over easily).

Burien: If you’re an urban-hiking type, start anywhere on Southwest 152nd Street and explore the streets of Burien. Also nearby: Seahurst Park (on the beach, plenty of room to roam, Eagle Landing Park (forested with a trail to the beach). Recommended eats and drinks nearby: Elliott Bay Brewhouse, Burien Fish House, and Bok a Bok fried chicken.

(Photo by Julie Hanson)

Des Moines Marina: Kids will love seeing the boats and wildlife in this working marina or playing in the adjacent Des Moines Beach Park (note: paid parking for both marina and park), which also connects to the Des Moines Creek Trail. Rest up afterward at Quarterdeck, a converted shipping container where drinks, snacks and some heartier fare are served (kid- and dog-friendly). Enjoy deckside views of the boats, the water and Vashon Island.

Kent: Looking for covered or outdoor seating?  Kent Station has done a great job updating their website and giving it lots of choices for kid-friendly outdoor dining. Stroll through the neighborhood or nearby downtown Kent, or go a bit further afield where you can find access points to the Interurban or Green River trails. Also not far from Kent Station: Airways Brewing Bistro & Beer Garden, with outdoor seating.

Renton: Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park is a great place to walk along Lake Washington. (In fact, the public docks let you feel like you’re walking in or on Lake Washington!) Ivar’s and Kidd Valley are open and there are places to eat right outside or elsewhere in the park.

Kenmore and Mount Vernon: 192 Brewing Co.: You can bike right up to this large outdoor dining spot and brewery that’s just off the Burke-Gilman Trail in Kenmore. It’s got a kids’ menu with a cheeseburger, a quesadilla and more, and a grownup menu with bratwurst, a barbecue pork sandwich, nachos and other classic brewpub grub. (Cider, too.) And if you’re near Mount Vernon, check out the second beer garden location there, too.

Beacon Hill: Perihelion is good for kids and dogs, with covered outdoor seating, heaters and fire pits. It’s serving up blue cheese truffle burgers, blackened salmon sandwiches and pot pies, among other options, as well as creative beers. (How about a pink guava basil saison or a Martian red IPA?)

Northeast Seattle: Walking in the ravine in Ravenna Park? Then Ravenna Brewing is your stop. It’s an outdoor, covered (but not enveloped) area where you can take along your baby and your dog and even older kids, who can get food from the featured truck of the day. The truck lineup includes Kiss my Grits, Paraiso Filipino Fusion and Oskar’s Pizza. Adult perks: Hazy IPAs and ciders.

Green Lake: After walking (or rolling) around Green Lake, you can grab a meal at Bongos Cafe, a casual, quirky stand in the sand. This outdoor Caribbean food stand with patio dining is a favorite for parents with (and without) kids. Standouts include all the spicy sandwiches, Cuban black beans and jerk chicken. Kids’ meals available too.

Ballard: If you’re wandering or biking in Ballard, you can take a break at family-friendly Stoup Brewing. The big patio, always a great place to visit on a sunny day to grab a beer with a baby and a dog hosts a wide variety of food trucks, check the website for the Featured trucks schedule.

Magnolia: Discovery Park is an enormous gem of park to walk and play. The former military installation has history, wildlife, miles of trails — and beach access on Puget Sound  Dirty Couch Brewing is a fun spot to sit and relax afterward.

This story was first published on Jan. 21, 2021. Updated April 2023.

The lawn at Quarterdeck. (Photo by Julie Hanson)

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Nevertheless, she opened Oh Hello Again in December and is helping people in Seattle rethink how they shop for books. 

Although Ferguson has a great love of children’s books (she has a postgraduate certificate in children’s literature and founded the now closed Dickens Children’s Books & Publishing Lab in Vancouver, Wash.), the cozy space she opened on Capitol Hill caters to all ages. It operates on the idea of people engaging in bibliotherapy, using reading (and fiction, in particular) to understand themselves better, to process and work through different issues or concerns that they are experiencing, in part by putting themselves in the place of the characters. 

“It’s important, too, for kids who are just learning how to deal with their emotions and figure out life,” Ferguson says. To support this practice, she arranges books by subject matter, which means you’ll find plenty of children’s and young adult books next to reading material catering more to adults.

If the books share the same category, they share a shelf. This also helps customers, whether they have children or not, come across books they might not otherwise have been exposed to in a different place – and certainly not online. “It’s really a store to browse in, which I think bookstores need to be now to find things you weren’t [necessarily] looking for. It’s about the experience,” says Ferguson.

When you wander over to the section “For Expressing Feelings,” you might find Laura Esquivel’s “Like Water for Chocolate” and Jeffrey Eugenides’ “Middlesex” near picture books like Madalena Moniz’s “Today I Feel …” and Toni Yuly’s “Ollie Feels Fine.” If you’re exploring the topic “For Vacations and Wanderlust,” Margaret Wise Brown’s picture book classic “The Runaway Bunny” and Jeanne Birdsall’s kids’ novel “The Penderwicks” are right near Jean Rhys’ classic response to Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” “Wide Sargasso Sea.” And in the section for “Antiracism/Anti-Xenophobia,” Mildred D. Taylor’s classic Newbery Medal-winning young adult novel “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” is shelved with Peniel E. Joseph’s “The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.,” Ibram X. Kendi’s board book “Antiracist Baby” and Innosanto Nagara’s best-selling children’s book “A is for Activist.”

Though her husband helps behind the scenes with operating the website, Ferguson’s Seattle bookstore is essentially a one-woman show: She built and painted the space herself, orders all the books and is the sole employee. She conducts a lot of research before ordering and categorizing – reading blogs, review sites and more. The store is ever-evolving, as more books come in and categories sometimes shift based on customer interest and feedback. Oh Hello Again also carries other products like calendars, candles and tote bags. A bonus: it welcomes dogs.

When asked about the bookstore’s name, Ferguson says, “I came up with the name based on the online store I started … I picked Oh Hello Again because when you see these classic or familiar books, it feels like you are meeting an old friend who you haven’t seen in a long time. It works for the new shop too, because we carry a lot of familiar titles, but with the lens of bibliotherapy, you are seeing them in a new light.”

Once the pandemic is under control, Oh Hello Again would like to do author readings and book signings, and perhaps children’s story time and a book club for patrons. In the meantime, customers can join a subscription service in which they receive two to four handpicked books per month based on a theme and preferred age range. This has also allowed people who live out of state, or who otherwise can’t visit the Seattle bookstore in person, to be a part of the magic. 

Considering all we’re facing in the world, bibliotherapy is arguably needed now more than ever.

Oh Hello Again, 324 15th Ave. E. #101; ohhelloagain.com

This story was originally published on March 2, 2021.

More from the latest issue of Seattle’s Child

Family Pet Contest finalist: Two young Sounders fans find the rescue dog of their dreams online

Family Pet Contest winner: An Everett mother and son raise two caiques while fostering other birds in need

And more books coverage in Seattle’s Child

The post Oh Hello Again: Uncovering power of words at a quirky new Capitol Hill bookstore appeared first on Seattle's Child.

One night, she simply died in her sleep. When we found her, we grieved not only her death, but the end of an era that it represented. She was never one for displays of affection or sentimentality, so we lay her to rest as we thought she would have wanted: in a plastic bag in the garbage bin.

Della was the last survivor from our third and final flock of chickens. By then, my older kids had grown up and moved away, and I had long grown tired of feeding and watering them and mucking out their coop. Secretly, I’d been looking forward to her joining her flockmates in poultry paradise, but when she finally passed, I was unexpectedly moved. 

A few weeks later, one fine autumn morning, I went out to the coop with a hammer and crowbar and dismantled it, thinking all the while about the three generations of our feathered friends who had called it their home. I remembered Buffy, the buff Orpington, who was as close to a golden retriever as a chicken could ever be, and Evita the Ameraucana with her outlandish, turquoise-blue eggs. I remembered the cross-beaked chick whom we hand-fed grain mush on our pinky fingers, but weren’t able to keep alive. And then there was Nicky the gender-fluid Australorp, whose frequent attempts at morning crowing sounded like a small dog choking on a bone.  

Della was a pure white Delaware – handsome enough, but not fancy like the Barred Rock or the Silver Laced Wyandotte who had shared the coop with her. She was an average layer who was somewhere in the unassuming middle of the pecking order. Then one day, a neighborhood beagle broke into the run and took a huge chunk out of her leg. I was sure she was done for, but at the kids’ urging, I made a show of trying to save her. We separated her from the flock and kept her in a cardboard box on the enclosed porch, where she wouldn’t have to compete for food. In truth, though, she didn’t want to eat. She barely moved. A couple of days later, I pulled apart her blood-caked feathers to look at the wound and it was crawling with maggots. I told the kids to prepare for the worst.

Della, however, had other plans. Soon she started eating again. The maggots cleaned out the dead tissue as thoroughly as any surgeon would, and her wound healed up nicely. Eventually, she was flapping and limping around the box with amazing vigor, intent on escape. It was time to reunite her with the flock.

It’s tricky business reintroducing a hen into a coop, especially one with a bum leg. The pecking order can be fiercely and mercilessly enforced, and any weakness is quickly exploited. When I put Della back into the run with her sisters, I held my breath and waited for the onslaught. To my surprise, no one bothered her. As a matter of fact, within a few days, she had clearly established herself at the top of the pecking order. She’d limp over to the feeder with a strange lunging, hopping gait, and the others gave her a wide berth. I imagined her clucking at them under her breath.

“Go ahead – try me. I rumbled with a freaking beagle. You think I’m afraid of you?”

When we first got chickens, it was mostly for the eggs. Truthfully, there’s not that much to recommend them as pets. They poop all over everything, they smell up the yard, and they destroy your vegetable garden. The only one I would ever describe as affectionate was Buffy, and that’s grading her on a very forgiving curve. Still, when you see a creature like Della grow up from a little fluff ball in your hand, to a gangly teenaged pullet, to a full-grown, egg-laying, beagle-battling hen, you can’t help but get attached.

The day I lifted Della’s body out of the coop, I was surprised how light she was. Under all those feathers, she was smaller than your average roasting chicken. But back in the day, she punched above her weight, and then some. 

That was a chicken with heart – and I don’t mean just giblets.

Jeff Lee still loves chickens, especially roasted with garlic and rosemary, in Seattle.

More Dad Next Door

How to boost girls’ self-confidence by really listening to them

A pox on all our houses

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“Cone Cat”
by Sarah Howden; illustrated by Carmen Mok
Jeremy, a young cat, wakes up at the vet one morning with a cone around his neck, and he has no idea how it got there. Life with the cone presents all sorts of difficulties for Jeremy’s once carefree, mischief-making life, and he soon realizes he’s unable to live his life as he once knew it. As Jeremy is coming to terms with his new, joyless life, he suddenly makes an exciting and delicious discovery about the cone’s hidden uses. Maybe there are more! This is a silly romp about a cat who must suffer the indignities of a cone.

“This Old Dog”
by Martha Brockenbrough; illustrated by Gabriel Alborozo
A sweet story about a furry family member feeling out of step with the rest of his humans, especially since a girl was born. He’d prefer to linger over the smells and sights along the way on walks, as opposed to being rushed along. He yearns for a friend to share the simple things in life, but despairs that this will ever happen. Ah, but then it turns out he’s in perfect step with the family’s newest little walker!

“Truman”
by Jean Reidy; illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Truman, a small turtle, lives with his Sarah, and life is pretty close to perfect. That is until one day, when Sarah gives Truman a special kiss and tells him to be brave. Then she is off, on her way somewhere on the number 11 bus. Truman waits and waits for what he feels is a long time, then decides he needs to go out on his own and find Sarah. Told with humor and clever vocabulary and counting, Truman is a heartwarming story of bravery, love and persistence.

“My Cat Looks Like My Dad” 
by Thao Lam
An illustrated story of similarities between the narrator’s dad and the family cat, using detailed paper collage techniques to convey them. Children will have a great time finding the things the dad and cat have in common. This book is quite a lot of fun!

Enjoy these books about pets.

Winner and finalists of the 2021 Family Pet Contest

The post Books about pets that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside appeared first on Seattle's Child.

But dog trainers know there are ways you can have a good time with your pet and try something new too. Dog trainer Tegan Moore practices parkour with her dogs now that they’re at home together – a lot. 

“For parkour, you don’t need anything except a harness that you can use to help support the dog as they’re doing obstacles, so if you have a dog and you have a harness, you can do parkour,” says Moore. 

Outside, that can mean climbing over or under park benches, or even making a quick bounce off a wall. Inside, that can mean walking on a small bench, onto a chair, and then shimmying under a bench. 

“Dog parkour is a way to use the everyday world to engage your dog in jumping, climbing, crawling, turning, balancing, and thinking hard about what their bodies are doing. It’s not just jumping on and off things – it’s creating a shared game for you and your dog as a team, out of nothing but the environment around you,” says Moore’s website, temeritydogs.com. 

Moore points out that doing agility training with dogs – something she recalls begging her mom to let her do as a kid – is a serious enterprise, with standards for equipment and techniques. On the other hand, parkour is fun and accessible and something that can easily be improvised at home.

“You can still create little obstacle courses, even if you’re on very strict lockdown,” says Moore.  “This is kind of how we passed time during the first month of lockdown. We just did parkour in the house.

“It does involve jumping on furniture, but in my case that’s not a problem,” she says, laughing.

It’s also a great way to get younger family members involved. 

“I’ve seen a lot of kids really succeed in doing parkour with dogs,” says Moore.  

As we spoke on a video call, she had her dog Reckless run a demo of some simple at-home parkour moves, such as squeezing under a broomstick over cones, onto a step stool and ultimately standing on a chair to await a treat.

“They need more stimulation and good ways to help them understand what is OK and what isn’t. Just having having that good rapport with your dog, where they really trust you, that you know what’s going on and you know how to explain to them what you want,” says Moore, who explains that she rewards her dogs for trying or even just considering a move, and doesn’t push dogs to do anything that seems scary to them. 

It’s also just fun, she notes. She recommends that pet owners looking for more parkour information visit the website of the International Dog Parkour Association, dogparkour.org.

Sarah Owen, an instructor at Ahimsa Dog Training in Ballard (ahimsadogtraining.com) teaches a course on puppy tricks. (The school also has offered courses that teach agility with a casual approach.)  

Tricks classes are an easy way to have dogs training at the facility but maintain distance from other dogs and their people, without having to share agility equipment or other surfaces. The course Owen teaches is not parkour or agility, as she notes, but it does offer an opportunity to bond with your dog and challenge their minds by doing moves like spins, crawling through tunnels, learning play bows and rolling over.  

“I think the nicest thing about teaching tricks or agility is that it really focuses on building your relationship with your dog and improving your communication with your dog,” says Owen, “so rather than a focus on ‘You must do this thing because I told you to,’ it’s ‘Let’s do this fun thing together.’ ” 

Owen notes that a toddler’s play tunnel can double as a casual puppy or dog tunnel. 

The tricks are a way for dogs to get valuable mental, as well as physical, exercise. Ahimsa even offers an opportunity for dogs to earn an American Kennel Club trick dog title. 

Most tricks don’t require special equipment and can be done casually at home by interested families. AKC’s trick checklists are available online, says Owen, at akc.org/sports/trick-dog. (There are instructional videos, too.) 

If your dog needs something to do these days, there’s no barrier to learning tricks on your own. 

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The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) lists more than a thousand plants that are toxic to pets. Each one causes symptoms ranging from gastrointestinal upset to vomiting, organ damage and sometimes death, depending on the amount consumed. With many flowers and plants blooming now, it’s an important time to review the contents of your yard and plan your garden for pet-friendly foliage. It’s also a great time to take an inventory of any harmful plants that have made it into your landscaping. Choose to replant them in sections of your yard that are out of your fur babies’ reach or make the decision to remove those plants.

Sarah Bean White, a Renton resident, was surprised to find Montaigne, her 2-year-old golden retriever, vomiting after he spent some time outside in the yard. White had seen him chewing on her sago palm outside, but didn’t think much of it until she researched it online. “When I found out that it was [poisonous], I called the vet,” says White. “He told us to bring Montaigne in immediately. By the time we reached the vet he was lethargic, whimpering and still vomiting. The vet said he had a 50% chance of surviving.” 

Montaigne was one of the lucky ones and went on to live a healthy life, but White says, “I think people make the mistake of thinking that it’s only puppies, but even adult dogs will get into this stuff. My advice for new pet owners is to familiarize themselves with all the poisonous things.” 

And that doesn’t end at chocolate, garlic, grapes and raisins.  

Some of the most common plant culprits in Pacific Northwest pet poisonings are native or easily grown flowers and plants like rhododendron, foxglove, milkweed, hostas, azaleas, ivy and lilies. If your pet eats one of those plants, it will likely result in an emergency visit to https://www.woodbourneanimalclinic.com your local veterinary hospital. Treatments include the use of activated charcoal to induce vomiting, IV treatments and antibiotics.

Many other common springtime bulbs and plants like daffodil, hyacinth, crocus, elderberry, lupine and morning glory are used in traditional landscapes around businesses and storefronts. When taking walks around the neighborhood, at parks or hiking on trails, it’s helpful to be aware of the greenery in the area. Take note if your pet is digging near gardens and redirect it to another location. Plants from bulbs are often highly poisonous, and the bulb is usually the plant’s most dangerous part.

Some very popular indoor plants can also be a danger to pets. Keep those plants out of reach, on high shelves. Train your pet to avoid digging up plants and taste-testing vegetation. If you suspect an animal has consumed a poisonous plant, contact your veterinarian immediately, or head to your local animal hospital for emergency care. 

For more information on toxic and nontoxic plants, visit aspca.org 

More pet news

Family Pet Contest finalist: Two young Sounders fans find the rescue dog of their dreams online

Check out this family’s DIY ‘catio’: A semi-outdoor space is perfect for pets (and kids, too)

The post Make sure you know your plants appeared first on Seattle's Child.

1. Choose your space. Do container gardening, get a plot of land in a community garden or just start digging up your own backyard. Prep your area. Get little hands dirty and dig away!
2. Choose your seeds and starts. Plant bunches of strawberry starts or peas, carrot, arugula, cucumber or tomato seeds. Search for varieties that can be picked through late spring and summer.
3. Kids can help by planting seeds in your garden, or gently loosen the roots of small veggie starts, then place them in a pot.
4. Cover roots and seeds with soil. Water away!
5. Teach your child about pollination and the importance of the sun and water. Plant flowers that are attractive to bees and other pollinators and watch your garden grow! 

Don’t have a green thumb? Succulents are kid-friendly plants that easily grow and seed themselves in containers and garden beds. 

More gardening tips

Container gardening with kids: Cultivate your little one’s green thumb with these tips and tricks for gardening beyond the classroom’s seed-in-cup lessons.

The post 5 easy steps: Teach your kid to garden appeared first on Seattle's Child.

Honorable mentions: We are grateful to every family who took the time to email us their great photos of life with their furry, scaly and feathered friends! We regret that we can’t use all of the stories and pictures we received.

We’d like to add two families for honorable mentions. Thanks to everyone who participated in the second Seattle’s Child Family Pet Contest. Please keep us up to date on your family’s animal adventures!

The cat (above)!

Cleo is a calico exotic shorthair who joined her family, including 8-year-old twins Tate and Lucy Naismith, in July on Mercer Island. She loves playing with a crumpled Post-it note, and is already a Seahawks fan.

(Photos courtesy of Krissi Beeksma)

The lizard … and four other pets!

This house in northwest Seattle’s Broadview neighborhood is an exciting place for pets and people. Kids Indie and Miles Morse have a lot to do other than online learning, since they have a dog (Gouda), a cat (Orangey), two chickens (Peep and Chippy) and one bearded dragon (Spike) on the premises.

Winner and finalists of this year’s Seattle’s Child Family Pet Contest

Family Pet Contest winner: An Everett mother and son raise two caiques while fostering other birds in need

A perfect puppy match: Two young Sounders fans find the rescue dog of their dreams online.

Cuddling through COVID: Two little dogs help these little kids get through long pandemic days.

The post Family Pet Contest honorable mentions appeared first on Seattle's Child.

She looked around and realized she didn’t have eyes on her youngest, 23-month-old Lilyani, so she started to search.

She eventually found her inside the storage room, in a position that in recent months had become all too familiar – cuddling with their one-and-a-half-year-old dog, Daisy. In this case, they were scrunched together in a small plastic container on top of a collection of Rice Krispies Treats.

“I think they’re kind of like two peas in a pod. That’s what it seems like,” says Christie. “They seem to have some sort of connection.”

The family adopted Daisy, along with her sister, Rosie – both Chihuahua, pug and miniature pinscher mixes – back in October 2019.

Christie said her husband had long wanted to bring a dog into the family, but she wasn’t convinced it was a good plan. Growing up, her experience with pets only extended as far as owning a goldfish, and now that she had children of her own, the furthest the couple had delved into the pet arena was having a pair of hermit crabs.

But then she heard that her sister-in-law’s dog was pregnant, so the family decided now was the time. Christie said they opted to adopt two dogs because she didn’t want them to be lonely.

It seems they couldn’t have made the decision at a better time.

Less than six months later, the COVID-19 pandemic had hit. As a result, the family has had to remain largely homebound, with Zia, 7, and Amon, 5, learning remotely since March. 

In the midst of all of this upheaval, Christie says, the dogs have provided a nice, consistent outlet for the children. 

“I was so happy that we got the dogs because it’s just an extra, you know, playmate for the kids when they’re tired of each other,” she says. “And dogs, as most people know, don’t offend you as much as maybe your sibling might. So it’s always a positive experience.”

Amon explains that he likes to give belly rubs to both dogs, while Pax, 4, says he enjoys playing fetch with them “because they like sticks.”

The dogs have very distinct personalities, according to Zia. While Rosie is “cuddly,” she says, Daisy is “playful, not much of a stay-in-one-place dog unless it’s her crate.”

As the oldest, Zia helps take care of the dogs by letting them out in the morning, feeding them, and even bathing them and cutting their nails. When she goes upstairs for virtual second grade, she brings Rosie along, holding the little dog in her lap as she listens to her teacher. 

Christie said the dog seems to make Zia feel more confident and secure, especially when she’s sharing during class.

“I think she feels kind of proud, too,” says Christie. “You can tell she has this pride that she has this thing that she’s taking care of. And it’s, like, sort of her thing. And she’s doing a good job.”

Asked how the dogs make her feel, Zia pauses for a half-second, then beams as she says a single word: “Happy!”

Editor’s note: Congratulations to the winner, finalists and honorable mentions of our second Family Pet Contest! We put out a call for family pet photos and stories early in 2021, and are delighted to see such a lively mix of canines, felines, lizards and birds out there among our readers! 

More pet news

Family Pet Contest finalist: Two young Sounders fans find the rescue dog of their dreams online

Family Pet Contest winner: An Everett mother and son raise two caiques while fostering other birds in need

The post Family Pet Contest finalist: Cuddling through COVID appeared first on Seattle's Child.

Her son Dimitri, who just turned 3 in January, knows how to be gentle with the birds and is used to the noise that parrots can make. His mother was raised with pet birds as a child and now the Everett resident is active in rescue, helping foster parrots through her connections with two rescue organizations in Oregon.

Dimitri is photographed here with his pets Trombold and Lada, who are caiques, members of a small, highly vocal parrot species found in nature in South America’s Amazon Basin.

These caiques, about a year and a half old, were hand-fed as babies, raised by Idris with very early exposure to Dimitri.

“They can fly, but they don’t want to fly because they’d rather be with us,” she says. Caiques are known for their fun, clownish behavior, and they love human attention.

“Trombold and Lada are the only ones [we have] that we hand-raised, because I want something that I can handle myself.”

The caiques are gentle because they were hand-raised, says Idris. “They’ve been with us ever since they were babies.”

Because the birds spent their babyhood with her and her son, “they’re really close with Dimitri,” she says.

When she was a child, her family raised falcons, outside with gloves, and she has learned it’s important to know bird body language.

Unfortunately, a lot of people have had to give up pet birds during the coronavirus pandemic.

Idris is a fan of a two-month waiting period for anyone committing to adopting the pets, to avoid impulsive bird-buying decisions. “People want birds for Christmas and now they’re rehoming them,” says Idris. “That’s the biggest problem right now.”

Some of the increased need for rescue this past year is also due to the steep cost of pet bird care, says Idris.

“A lot of people rehome their birds because they cannot keep them because of the upkeep of the money, from COVID actually, so usually they’ve had birds for a long time and they can’t keep them anymore, because it’s too expensive,” she says.

Even though people are drawn to parrots big and small because of the potential of having a bird who talks, Idris warns that’s not a good or well-thought-out reason to get a parrot, especially since they don’t all speak, and because the talking species can have a tendency to be more aggressive.

“I would say don’t get a bird if you just want them to talk,” she says. “I would not get a bird that talks, because usually those birds are the ones that are problematic” for owners.

The type of parrot she does recommend for families are conures, since they’re less apt to become attached to just one person than are other parrots.

“They’re family birds,” she says.

The caiques are fed a diet that’s “a lot of vegetables, grains, fruit, melons” and they’re now big enough that Dimtri doesn’t have to help hand-feed them.

But in a funny turn, Dimitri might have his eyes on a pet that’s not avian at all.

When asked what his favorite animal was, what was his enthusiastic reply?

“Hamster!”

More pet news

Family Pet Contest finalist: Two young Sounders fans find the rescue dog of their dreams online

Check out this family’s DIY ‘catio’: A semi-outdoor space is perfect for pets (and kids, too)

The post Family Pet Contest winner: Wings of love appeared first on Seattle's Child.