Meet Daffy, Pet Peacock

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Daffy is a 2 year old male peacock, which makes him a fully-fledged adult, now. He got his name by being an endearingly goofy, curious kinda guy! Once upon a time, there were 3 — Daffy the peacock and 2 peahens, Rose and Kooko. But, Rose got sick and is no longer with us. Also, there was Josephina, the sweetest, most patient chicken you could hope to meet, and surrogate mama to Daffy. (She got eaten by a fox, or hawk, we’re not sure).

But, let me back up, briefly. This scrappy crew came into our lives when a friend of the family, and great animal lover (I call him Zorba the Greek, even though he's Cuban, or Father Nature) saw them running around, he says, and rescued them. After few months in his petting-zoo-of-a-home, he gifted them to us :)

Or, so the story goes... Initially, we were told he had just a couple of baby peacocks, to join us on our summer drive up from Florida to Washington, DC. Then he mentioned, almost as an afterthought, that there was a 3rd peahen and, oh yeah, a small chicken, who was raising the young peacock as one of her own.

How could we say No? So, my wife (@dianarpo) & I swung by his place, in Miami, picked up the feathered few and drove up with them, honking in their wooden crate, for 16 hours or so—stopping only to spend the night at a friend’s place along the way. The 4 birds stayed in the laundry room, much to the delight of our friend’s young kid, and the chagrin of her older folks.

In Maryland, we were careful about introducing the birds to the house cat, Pinico, who’s really a wild cat that likes to hang around the house and acts more like a dog, anyway. Initially, top-dog- Pinico honored her instincts, by crouching menacingly nearby the bird cage or ominously trying to creep in, when I entered to feed them. But, mercifully, she never pounced. And, now that the birds are larger than she is, and roam freely around the neighborhood, Pinico will see them eating out of her food bowl and, magnanimously, look the other away, or roll on her back to play 🙀

So there, now, you’ve met members of the extended family. As times goes by, I might introduce more :) Some parting pictures:

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