Well, imagine our surprise when after a few days, the old budgie returned. It appeared on the neighbor’s cherry tree, she called my dad and he picked up the poor exhausted, starved and frightened bird without any resistance. So after that, we had two! Also, as we never thought they’d be smart enough to learn to speak, we just cooed at them in baby-talk and pet names. Well, they DID learn to speak, and of course they spoke what they heard most often. Let me tell you, there’s nothing more charming than two fluffy budgies cooing at each other.