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"Eh..."Buddy" is a dog's name; so is "MacKenzie" (Westie or Scotty). But I've always thought of "Toby" as a parakeet's name."

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@@@@ Somehow, I just can't imagine the legendary Sherlock Holmes making use of a canine sleuth named "Buddy", as he did with Toby in "The Sign of Four". Just picturing Mr. Holmes calling "Buddy! Here, Buddy!" makes me cringe. "MacKenzie", maybe.

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"My token non-Celtic French grandmother's parakeet, to be exact. A presumed male until the day it laid a small greenish egg."

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@@@@ Are you sure that was an egg? I mean, it could've been a huge, greenish kidney stone that bird passed. I'll bet his temperament improved after that, too.

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"Then that formidable lady redubbed it "Debby", but unwilling to part with her first name choice, always referred to it as "Toby-Debby"...in a very thick Norman accent. Weird."

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@@@@ Having just passed a massive kidney stone and now being subjected to the indignity of being called "Toby-Debby", I'm surprised that poor bird didn't take up budgie-jumping to relieve his stress.

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I've seen crazed parakeets do that, you know. With their beaks, they manage to tie bits of string to their tiny feet and to their perches. Then they leap off their perches and, with wings held tightly against their tiny bodies, plummet headfirst to the floor. Budgie-jumping is a growing phenomenon observed of late among parakeet owners. I think there have even been a few fatalities associated with it, but one doesn't hear of those really. Is Toby-Debby still alive? Ask you aunt if she found him one morning, stone-cold dead and flattened on the floor like a budgie-latke, with some broken string mysteriously tied to his tiny feet. I wouldn't be surprised, coz parakeets are all crazy with that budgie-jumping thing of theirs.

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-- Nanaea