The budgies bring her out.
Sharon Fleming, 55, makes a regular beeline from her room in the Prince Edward Home in Charlottetown to the cage sitting atop a small wooden table in a common area of the long-term care centre.
She is drawn to the birds.
She has been since first relocating to the modern facility, which opened more than two years ago to replace the well-worn, budgie-free building that was Fleming’s home for about nine years.
She calls the green female budgie Kiwi, after the fruit, and the male purplish blue budgie Perry, which is short for Periwinkle.
Another budgie met its untimely end in the spring after the cage accidentally opened and the bird flew into a window at the nursing home.
Fleming had been calling that bird Skyler, borrowing the moniker of her much loved late pet cockatiel.
The cockatiel was named after a character in the popular American comic strip “Shoe,” which is about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds.
Skyler the cockatiel was a cherished companion that would regularly sit on Fleming’s shoulder and make a game of tugging at a shiny needle while the woman sewed by hand.
“When she died it was really hard on you and you end up crying,’’ she said of Sklyer’s passing after six years as a special pet.
Fleming, who has multiple sclerosis and makes her way to the birdcage in her wheel chair, took no time becoming buddies with the budgies at Prince Edward Home.
She spends a good three hours each day peering in on the birds, mimicking the high-pitched chirps, and pushing special treats of Romaine lettuce and small slices of apple through the cage’s metal bars.
“I gravitated to the budgies,’’ she said.
“They occupy a lot of my time.’’
Lately, Fleming has become preoccupied with waiting for new feathery arrivals to Prince Edward Home.
Three eggs laid by Kiwi are constantly fussed over by mom in the tight confines of a tiny wooden birdhouse within the cage.
Fleming has been keeping a keen eye on the cage for the addition of baby budgies whose due dates she estimates are near Christmas Day.
She has been busy picking out seasonally appropriate names for the baby birds, such as Noel and Joy.
On Tuesday, the first of the baby budgies broke free from its egged enclosure.
“Everybody is really excited and they’ve been trying to peak in,’’ she says.
“I’m excited...it’s fun.’’
The budgies bring her out.
Sharon Fleming, 55, makes a regular beeline from her room in the Prince Edward Home in Charlottetown to the cage sitting atop a small wooden table in a common area of the long-term care centre.
She is drawn to the birds.
She has been since first relocating to the modern facility, which opened more than two years ago to replace the well-worn, budgie-free building that was Fleming’s home for about nine years.
She calls the green female budgie Kiwi, after the fruit, and the male purplish blue budgie Perry, which is short for Periwinkle.
Another budgie met its untimely end in the spring after the cage accidentally opened and the bird flew into a window at the nursing home.
Fleming had been calling that bird Skyler, borrowing the moniker of her much loved late pet cockatiel.
The cockatiel was named after a character in the popular American comic strip “Shoe,” which is about a motley crew of newspapermen, all of whom are birds.
Skyler the cockatiel was a cherished companion that would regularly sit on Fleming’s shoulder and make a game of tugging at a shiny needle while the woman sewed by hand.
“When she died it was really hard on you and you end up crying,’’ she said of Sklyer’s passing after six years as a special pet.
Fleming, who has multiple sclerosis and makes her way to the birdcage in her wheel chair, took no time becoming buddies with the budgies at Prince Edward Home.
She spends a good three hours each day peering in on the birds, mimicking the high-pitched chirps, and pushing special treats of Romaine lettuce and small slices of apple through the cage’s metal bars.
“I gravitated to the budgies,’’ she said.
“They occupy a lot of my time.’’
Lately, Fleming has become preoccupied with waiting for new feathery arrivals to Prince Edward Home.
Three eggs laid by Kiwi are constantly fussed over by mom in the tight confines of a tiny wooden birdhouse within the cage.
Fleming has been keeping a keen eye on the cage for the addition of baby budgies whose due dates she estimates are near Christmas Day.
She has been busy picking out seasonally appropriate names for the baby birds, such as Noel and Joy.
On Tuesday, the first of the baby budgies broke free from its egged enclosure.
“Everybody is really excited and they’ve been trying to peak in,’’ she says.
“I’m excited...it’s fun.’’