Life In A Gilded Cage

When I was a child we had a canary. His name was Ruffles. My memories of Ruffles are sad ones. I would sit for hours watching this beautiful bird in a cage singing his heart out and at the end of the day Mom would through a sheet over him to keep him quiet. What a sad sad existence! I wanted so much to release Ruffles from his cage but Mom warned me not to because he could not exist in our cold Canadian climate without us. She was right.

When Ruffles passed on, (maybe from boredom) I wasn't really sad. I felt relief for this dear little soul because he was finally free and we never ever again got a pet that needed to live in a cage.