Pal had a birthday!
He's TWELVE!!
And he's pretty darn excited about the whole thing.
I just love that kid!
Which you may not deduce from this picture-
-which shows that we have forgotten to buy candles for his cake.
Actually there wasn't a cake either.
Or wrapping paper.
And most years we have to look up the date.
Because for the life of us, we can't remember from year to year if he was born on the 20th or the 21st.
I blame it on Gail (a friend) and Stonewall Jackson.
But that's a loooong story.
And besides that, by my estimations, this birthday makes me a parent of 107 years and 3 months!
My memory was bound to get a bit leaky in that time.
Agreed?
I made up for it.
I took Pal to the pet store for a bird.
We ended up with two - male and female.
On the way home we were trying to name them.
Calder and I thought we should find a famous couple in history as their namesakes.
We started with Moses and Zipporah,
-because we didn't want the numerous progeny of Adam and Eve.
We made our way through:
Cleopatra and Caesar
Cleopatra and Marc Antony
Romeo and Juliet
Beatrice and Benedick
John and Abigail
Sacagawea and Charbonneau
-and all points in between.
Nothing.
Suddenly I had it!
"PAL! - what about Church and Clemmy???" (Winston and Clementine Churchill)
It was perfect!
Calder agreed wholeheartedly.
Paladin was less than convinced.
We decided if anything could change his mind,
it was the Legend of the Ravens at The Tower of London;
a good story, combined with the hero of England himself, and birds!
No matter from which direction you looked,
it was a perfect fit and the unquestionable answer to the new birds' names.
I began to recite:
"Once upon a time, a long, long time ago there was an ancient British King named King Bran. (The Welsh word for Raven is Bran and Ravens were his especial pet.) The ancient king was a good king, and wanted to always protect his beloved homeland and people. King Bran made a request right before he was killed in battle, that his head be taken back, and buried facing France, as a talisman against invasion on Gwynfryn (the 'White Mount') where The Tower of London now stands. To this day ravens are kept and watched over as indispensable occupants of the Tower of London. Legend has it that should the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the White Tower will crumble and a great disaster shall befall England.
Since that time, not wishing to tempt fate, at least seven ravens have always been kept in the courtyard of the Tower of London. They clip their wings to keep them close. However, one time, during the blitz bombing of London in WWII, a heavy toll of casualties befell the raven population. The Congress of Ravens was frighteningly reduced to one lone bird. Reportedly, Churchill secretly had a new shipment of ravens brought into the Tower by night, thereby foregoing any panic by the superstitious, as well as elevating the sagging spirits of the war weary populace who went to check on them the next morning."
I love that story almost as much as I love Pal!
After retelling it, Calder and I looked at each other with great satisfaction.
We were sure that our story had sufficiently manipulated Pal to our preference.
And it did.
For exactly one day.
Sadly, Bert's genes are just. too. strong.
We're back to "Tweet" and "Leo."
...we did our best.
