Sweetie.  What a lovely name for such a lovely little friend!

Sweetie is all that ... and so much more.  She is a singer extraordinaire, incredibly intelligent, and very beautiful:  a soft grey color with white coloration and twin red cheek patches on her sweet little face, and beady black eyes that miss very little.  Sweetie is also the glue that holds me together:  if it were not for her, I don't know what I would do!

I first acquired Sweetie ten years ago when I had first been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.  I was extremely depressed because I had to give up my job as a bank teller: I couldn't stand on my feet all day without being in excruciating pain, and it was getting harder for me to do things with my hands and fingers.

Enter my friend, Rosie.  She knew I was feeling bad, so she suggested a bird for a pet.  She said it would keep me company.  She brought over a tiny little chick (just what do you call a baby cockatiel or a bird of the parrot species??  A parrot-let??  LOL), and it was love at first sight.  Somehow the little bird knew I needed her, and I knew that she needed me.

Now it is ten years later, and Sweetie continues to bring me much joy with her beautiful birdsong and crazy antics that have me laughing all the day long.  Besides singing, Sweetie loves to sit on my shoulder and "read" the newspapers or magazines with me, watch me type on the computer, and sing to me as I go about my business.  She is a wonderful companion to a disabled middle-aged lady who lives by herself.

Sweetie loves to eat fruits of all kinds: orange slices, apple slices, pieces of banana/peach/pineapple/pomegranite.   She also adores nuts and lettuce.

Whenever I am in the hospital having surgery (or flare ups of my RA and fibromyalgia), Rosie watches Sweetie for me.  Sweetie is almost as much her bird as she is mine.  I am just grateful that I have her, especially since my health took bad.  She is the best medicine, better than any doctor can ever prescribe for me!