Lightning

We were in Kusadasi and Tolga's middle brother, Gokhan, decided he wanted a bird too. This is very typical of the family - on emotional whims they buy something sweet and totally unnecessary. Gokhan especially is being extreme - he works from 7 am often until 10 pm, six days a week. He's only been at his job a few months and has already lost 15 pounds. And, he still doesn't get his full salary on time - a typical occurrence in Turkey. But, he had this bayram holiday off, and in his own celebration - bought a canary.

Baba named the canary Ceylan, which means "deer". Tolga and I call him Lightning in honor of all of Abigail's toys and pets. (She named everything Jewel and Lightning).

Our parakeet has been in Kusdasi all summer. I don't know if Gokhan got the canary because we would be taking our parakeet back to Ankara and he wanted a bird in Kusadasi, or because he wanted Jewel (the parakeet) to have a friend. Either way, we started putting their cages side by side. Jewel was very curious poking his head at the cage of the canary. The canary, a less social bird, wasn't impressed. As the week progressed, we found when we separated Jewel's cage from Lightening, he tweeted very loudly - seemingly calling for the other bird.

As we were packing out bags to leave and preparing to take Jewel, the moment Tolga walked out with the cage we could here it chirping loudly for its friend. None of the family could bare to separate the two, so when I came downstairs with my bag I found Tolga had put Jewel in Lightning's cage. Jewel was chasing Lightening around the cage seeming trying to play.

Now we're back in Ankara with two birds.