Smoking safely around your birds?

[Beilana]

Awe!!! Thats so cute! The bottle top coming off and beer pouring into a glass must have been cool to hear.

 

[bogo1]

Yeah... he often ended the sound with:" There ya go! "

 

[antoinette]

Poor Jazz, to go through being sickly, becoming healthy, then back to sickly again, only this time he never recovered. I wonder, if Jazz had the ability to speak, imagine what he would say to his parront, about the living conditions he had to endear for so many years.
Barbara, you can hold you head up high, you did what you could for him, which is more then what the owner actually ever did.

 

[bogo1]

Thanks Ant...
Oddly I never grieved for Jazz until I posted to this thread. Partly that is because you teach yourself to hold some distance from the animals you Foster (9 dogs, 2 cats, 3 birds and a house trained bunny) since we became part of the program that provides pet support for active duty personnel. And also it was because I had assumed Jazz was okay and when I heard through the grapevine that the grey parrot at the bar had died my overarching reaction was fury rather than grief.

But Jazz's sad story illustrates the problem of victims of the smoking addiction ...first or secondhand ...the ignorance and complacent acceptance that it isn't 'good" for you but it isn't that bad, not really. Jazz's servicemen owner seemed a nice guy...seemed to love his bird. Even the uncle seemed to genuinely miss Jazz...seemed to see Jazz as more than a conversation starter in his bar. And Jazz was a happy well adjusted fellow despite his potty mouth. Jazz died of ignorance not malice. Cautionary tale.

 

[wildheart]

Thanks for sharing that story Barbara. I am sure it will make a lot of people think, whether they will act upon it - is sadly the true test.

 

[ladymorraine]

Yeah smoking sucks, and those electric cigs just don't work. I am 27 and have been smoking since I was 11. Yeah I know horrible. I hate smoking. But I hate withdrawls even more. I gooutside to smoke and washmy hands before handling Saki, Biscut, or JuJu. We don't smoke around our kids. Or our animals.

 

[bogo1]

It is hard ...very hard...when you start something so young to be able to break the habit later. I respect you for going the extra step to protect all you love from the risks. At our hospital we are really on a push to help people quit using everything from nicotine patches to hypnosis. But it is very difficult because of the double addiction, physical and psychological. Support groups are huge help apparently ...if you ever want to try again to quit I imagine we could put together a pretty powerful support group for you on an "off topic " thread.

 

[SharonC]

You know, that's a really good idea...We could all choose a quit date, and use each other for support!

I've quit many times. I can beat the physical addiction...but the psychological addiction is what keeps me smoking.

 

[bogo1]

It's a thought Sharon. It might be worth considering. There are on line support groups specifically for smoking cessation ...overeating (sign me up)...gambling addiction etc. but inserting such a thread into a nitch of a forum we all use routinely might help keep us on track.

 

[Zoe]

Thank you for posting this... My quit date was day before yesterday. I didn't want to smoke around Jasper or my dogs and cat, so was going outside, but I want to quit altogether. So far so good, although the cravings are rather wicked at times!

 

[bogo1]

Wow Zoe that is huge. Let us know if we can help but let me just say "YOU GO GIRL!"

 

[lisamarie973]

Just my take on it from a smokers prospective, if your to lazy to go outside and smoke, you shouldn't have birds in your home, or any pet for that matter, heck while we're at it lets just include any living thing's, the electronic cigarette is fairly new on the market, I wouldn't chance it, I'd say take it outside and do your thing, it's pretty much the ONLY way to be sure

We NEVER smoke in the house, however, most of our birds are outside on our lanai, which we have a "temporary screening" until we can afford to screen it in properly, the area there is about 12 X 20 and we let the birds out for free fly time. We DO smoke in that area right now, but we generally sit on the other side of the birds and use fans to blow the smoke outwards away from them. We're still not feeling really GREAT about even that, we've decided to change our smoking area to outside of their area for their health and safety. Smoking inside of your house has so many many bad things about it, it's hard to even start listing them.

 

[bogo1]

Wise Lisamarie...but still frustrating for you I imagine.

Thinking of you Zoe and want you to know we're behind you.

 

[lisamarie973]

Oh, not too frustrating at all, Barbara. Thanks though =) Sometimes you just don't consider something fully, until the lightbulb kinda just goes on, ya know. It's really not a hassle, we go out side anyways and we have a HUGE pool deck just beyond the covered lanai. I would not forgive myself if MY smoking habit affected my sweet little babies.

 

[bogo1]

Ooo the deck sounds lovely. And I was forgetting that you live in one of the best places ...weather wise in the world.

 

[wildheart]