Rio De Janeiro, 1955.

Hi, I'm Verde, a green and yellow budgie. For the past four years, I've been on the run from a big, shaggy, black dog named Axle. Four years! I'm tired of it. That's a long time running from a dog like him. And that's only one of my troubles. I can't find the right food, or good shelter. I shouldn't have left Australia.

It all started in the summer of 1951. I had always dreamed of moving to South America. So, one day, at the harbor in Sydney, Australia, I snuck onto a cargo ship that was headed to Rio de Janeiro and found the food compartment to live in for the rest of the trip. I was in heaven-mangos, pineapples, grapes-it was a paradise in a fruit basket. A month later, the ship clunked into the dock. I was here, in America!

The day I met axle I was picking the biggest, most juicy grapes I had ever seen, when axle tried to kill me! He thought he owned the grape vines just because he claimed them! Well, I was not letting him get away with that. So that night I snuck out, stole every single one and threw them down the river-he destroyed my nest the next morning. And that's how the hatred started.

It had been going on for four years when, one day, I was just minding my own business-picking at Axle's ear-and he went nuts! He lashed out at me like I had eaten his lunch, which I had the day before, and ripped out five of my flight feathers! Five! I can't fly without those!

After that, I couldn't fly for a week, so I had to climb all the way back up to my nest-forty feet up in the Jabuticaba tree! It took me an hour, and by then it was dark. Once I reached the top, I collapsed in my nest and didn't wake up until noon the next day.

 After a week, my feathers grew back. I was flying around looking for food and saw a man below, wearing a straw hat. I was tired of flying, so I landed on his shoulder.

"Crap!" I said, panicked. The man was made of honey. I got stuck real bad. I desperately flapped my wings, but it was no use. I couldn't get out. Just then, I heard snickering, and Axle came out of the bushes. I tried even harder to get out and flapped ten times harder. 

"You should have known there wouldn't be people this far into the jungle," he said. My head was spinning. I couldn't die. I was too young!

"Go ahead, eat me, but please make it painless," I whimpered dramatically and hid my grin as he opened his mouth wide to gobble me whole.

As he closed his mouth around me, I bit his tongue and flew away-safe to fly the treetops whenever I pleased.

 The next day, I was flying over the treetops looking for food, when I saw a big, red mango; it was the most beautiful one I had seen since I came to the jungle. I had to eat it! I landed on the branch and went to take a bite when I saw it-a vine connected to the branch.

 I heard a snap, and the branch fell. I flapped my wings and barely caught air before it plummeted to the ground. At that moment, I knew Axle was still trying to kill me. I flew as fast as possible back to my nest for the night, but couldn't sleep, knowing the next day could be my last.

 In the morning, I got up and decided to stay high in the trees. If you haven't noticed yet; I value my life dearly, and would do anything to keep it, so I decided to move to the Amazon where Axle couldn't find me.

It was a long and treacherous flight. I had to fly through rain, wind, and other, bigger birds. A toucan angrily squawked at me when I bumped into him and flew in the other direction. I arrived after a week of flying, and I was so exhausted I was about to fall out of the sky. I found a good tree to sleep in and crashed until the next afternoon. My wings were so sore.

I was dozing in my nest when I heard barking. I froze. Could it be him? I peeked down from the tree and saw him. Even from the tree, I could smell his stench.

            Axle had found me. I stood there, stunned. That could not be right. I had come all this way so he wouldn't bother me. What now? Peru? No, I can't fly that much farther. I have to face him.

 My thoughts were interrupted by Axle yipping. He'd been bitten by an emerald tree boa. He needed help. He couldn't die like this.

As I approached him, a growl rumbled in his chest. But I knew the boa bite would subdue him, so I continued walking. I bit off a geranium leaf and chewed it so the medicine inside could get to the infection. I placed it on the bite as he sneered and growled again. But he slowly lowered his head to the ground. The geranium was working, and the pain was going away!

For the next week, I nested in a nearby tree and change his geranium leaves once a day. After that, Axle kinda liked me, as he said. His bite healed and just left a small scar on his leg.

A month later, we were helping each other get food and shelter.  He'd sniff out the good grapes, and I'd retrieve the fruit that was high up in the trees. We were better off as friends than foes.