Percy the Parrot and other Pet Subjects

By P.D. Cain

‘Percy the Parrot – and other Pet Subjects’ is a collection of humorous accounts and recollections with various creatures that have passed through the author ‘Captain’ Peter Cain’s life, ranging from mice to elephants.
From the early age of just eighteen months old when he ‘left home’ to the present day, he shares with you his many memorable experiences. The book also contains pictures and illustrations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.D. Cain
• Release date: May 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476408736

P.D. Cain

I spent all my childhood years living in a small village called Buxworth which is situated in the hills of the Peak District in North Derbyshire. Known as 'Captain Peter' I now live on the Algarve, Portugal. The nickname comes from my regular 'Seawatch' feature on Sunday mornings on Kiss Fm Portugal. Also did the daily news and weather for them for 3 or 4 years. I am author of a number of books - Interactive Traveller series, including 'Tour all Clubs in the English Football Leagues'. There are also other fictional and non-fictional books. I enjoy creating and writing whatever comes to mind. Most of the ideas come to me whilst I am fast asleep and I write them down as soon as I awake, before they disappear into the ether. Then develop the stories from there. Also create my own covers and videos. Love it, even if they aren't exactly George Lucas quality. Check out my web page:- http://www.captainpeter.net

Book preview

Percy the Parrot

and other pet subjects

Illustrated

& written

by

P.D. Cain

Copyright © 2015 P.D. Cain

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Published at Smashwords

ISBN: 9781476408736

If you would like to know more about the author of this book, go to:-

www.captainpeter.net

Discover other titles by Captain Peter:-

Other Books

Percy the Parrot 2 – the bird's perspective

A Sign of the Rhymes

A-Z of Animal Poems

A-Z of Animal Poems 2

Contents

Introduction

Pre-Percy

Peter Likes to Travel

Mickey Taking

Watch the Birdie

Pigging Out

Biting the Hand that Feeds You

Fishy Tales

Saddled!!

Unlucky Black Cat

Mouse Trap

The Mutts Nuts

A Pig with the Ladies

On Safari

Encounters of the Bird Kind

Percy the Parrot

Purchasing of a Parrot

The Escapologist

Early Morning Calls

Cup of Tea Percy?

Bad Bird Behaviour

Jealous Love

Percy’s Programme

Control Freak

Bird Bath Time

Getting into a Flap

Percy and the Pussy Cat

Holiday Help

A Visit to the Vet

Rat Faced!

Portuguese Man-of-War

Introduction

Whether in the bar, the restaurant or with friends, I was regularly being asked to tell my stories about Percy, the African Gray parrot that I once had the pleasure to own.

I was only too pleased to divulge my many humorous recollections of this intelligent little bird who was not only very clever but also devious, mischievous and sometimes destructive. To me he was always a loveable rogue.

He was not viewed that way by everyone!

One or two of my friends were particularly fascinated with my stories about Percy and frequently asked me to repeat his many amusing antics whenever they were with a fresh group of friends.

One in particular suggested that I should write a book about Percy which I have decided to do.

As I began to write, I found myself remembering other creatures, great and small, which I had encountered. More often than not, these memories are amusing now, although at the time may not have been so comical.

The results being that there are many different accounts and experiences which I have been fortunate to have and are included in this book. These range from my encounters with budgerigars and other birds, to mice and elephants. There are some fishy tales as well!

The events are mainly as I remember them. Obviously the things that happened in my very early childhood were told to me by family although I do have snapshots of some of the incidents in my memory bank that go back to when I was as young as twelve to fifteen months old.

For example, in the first chapter, ‘Peter likes to Travel’, my father refers to this incident as

The time the police were chasing after our Peter.

This makes me sound like I was a criminal on the run, bearing in mind that I was only eighteen months old at the time. However, even at that age, I do remember the odd snippet.

I was brought up in a small village called Buxworth, which is situated in the North of Derbyshire and is part of the Peak District in England.

In this book there are numerous mentions to this little place that time has forgotten and the areas surrounding it.

No-one seems to have ever heard of Buxworth unless living within a three or four miles radius.

For reference purposes, here is a little history:-

*Buxworth began life named ‘Buggesworth’ in 1222 - meaning ‘Bugge’s enclosure’. Bugge was the name of the Nottinghamshire family who, after making their early fortune in the woollen industry, moved to the Peak District to try their luck at lead mining.

The Peak Forest Canal came to Bugsworth in 1798, and was in continuous operation until 1928. Limestone was brought to Bugsworth Basin from Dove Holes via a tramway, part of which is now a well-used bridleway alongside the beautiful Black Brook. Local lime kilns, coal mines and grit stone quarries made the Basin the ‘biggest inland port in the Kingdom’. The tonnage of limestone products handled was 100,000 tons per year - in addition to the boatloads of grit stone setts, flags and building stone; it was not unusual for 300 narrow boats a month to sail to and from the Bugsworth Basin. In 1930 the village of Bugsworth became Buxworth following a campaign by the local vicar and schoolmaster who didn't like the connotations of the Bugs- part of the place name.

Pre-Percy

Before buying Percy, I had many encounters with various creatures from a very early age. Here is what happened:-

Peter Likes to Travel

I was just eighteen months old when I decided to leave home with our dog Trixie, a cross between a Labrador and a fair old mix of everything else. She was very placid and liked to look after me, even if I did regularly pull her around and poke her in the eyes a few times in an investigative curious sort of way that only an eighteen month old child would do.

I was not a good looking baby; I had one eye that was severely crossed, a bit like Ben Turpin who appeared in the silent movie films during the nineteen twenties. My hair was blonde but going darker. Mum attempted to trim it occasionally but she was not very good with the scissors, resulting in a chopped, cropped mess of hair sitting on my fat chubby face.

I was seven years old when I had an operation to straighten the ‘squint’ in my eye.

In general I wore blue dungarees or large blue elasticized shorts. I think it was the only type of clothing I had that securely held those old fashioned terry towelling nappies around my bottom. They made me look like a smaller version of a Ken Dodd Diddy Man or one of the Oompa-Loompa's from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! Fortunately it was in the mid nineteen fifties and every other kid my age was dressed like me.

Picture: Peter with his 'squint'